April 14, 2020
Wy’East Mountain Academy Introduces The Mobile Semester, Commencing May 11, 2020
Responding to the needs of current and potential students around the world, The Wy’East Mobile Semester connects middle and high school students with a structured yet flexible learning platform along with the best coaches and mentors in the actions sport community to create structure and focus while away from the traditional school environment.
Empower your student-athlete by teaching him or her to use this unique time in history wisely and to their advantage.
Students are enrolled in our accredited-NCAA approved middle and high school curriculum which enables them to get ahead or catch up on their academics while teaming up with our like-minded academic advisors and coaches who understand the unique aspirations of skateboarders, skiers, and snowboarders. Once restrictions are lifted and it is deemed safe to once again travel and congregate, students will have the option to stay mobile or return to campus.
No matter where in the world your student lives, their academic and action sports journey will be accomplished with a supportive team of professionals dedicated to help your student meet their goals.
Click here to learn more.
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March 20, 2020
All students are home or in transit to home as of today. Remote academic and athletic plans will be communicated to students and families throughout the day so students can remain physically and academically fit throughout this interim period.
Summer term is still planned to commence May 11, as per existing academic calendar. Should the term need to be delayed due to further COVID-19 developments, we will communicate further.
In the meantime, please make the most of these moments to spend time with loved ones while retaining some form of structure that includes:
fitness,
academics,
arts & intellectual exploration
remote community service, and
plain old fun!
Should families need further resources during this time, please connect with us monday - friday, 9am-5pm pacific.
- All the best from the Wy’East Mountain Academy family.
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March 18, 2020
Dear Parents,
For those of you who could make the group phone call today, thank you very much. It was great to hear your voices and be able to discuss with you in real-time the current situation and help plan the next steps for your student.
Today has been a bittersweet for the Wy’East Mountain Academy family as we are sad to see our students leave early, but are confident in knowing that we were very deliberative in arriving at a plan that has the best interest of our students, staff, and the school in mind. You all have been an integral part of how smoothly this expedited departure has been, so we thank you again. I am grateful for Luke's attention to detail!
Logistics
As you all know by now, most students will be driving or flying home tomorrow with one or two individual exceptions that will have a 24-hour departure delay, but we will work closely with those families to make sure their child is safe and enjoying their time as much as practicable. Students have been asked to pack their bags and take the essentials home while leaving the remaining items on their bed and for ease of labeling and storage. We will invite everyone back as soon as possible.
Academics
Jaime and Asher will be connecting with each of you individually with the academic plan through the end of the semester as we expect all students to continue with schoolwork through the end of the semester. The current academic support plan is as follows:
Daily reminder mass text to students: work on each course for 1 hour
Daily progress will be marked on the attendance sheet
Schedule weekly phone conference with each individual student/parent
Jaime will monitor grades via Edgenuity / MEWA platform
Email teachers/students as needed
If a student is more than 5% behind or less than 70% they will have daily phone calls
Report Cards will be made within a week of students completing courses.
Final transcripts will be furnished after students have completed their coursework, and all fees are paid.
Graduation date: TBD. Ann will reach out to all senior families in the next couple of weeks with plan ideas.
Athletics
Wynn Berns and our coaching staff will continue to coach and provide remote coaching until students return or the end of the semester. Coaches will be sending out individual athletic plans for the remainder of the year on Friday. These plans will include home workouts, review and debrief of individual athletic plans, creating season edits, “judging” prior events, video review, and more. We are planning to make the best of the situation and to get your athlete ready for this summer and the future. Just because the campus is closed does not mean we are done working!
Communication
Though your child will be at home for the next several weeks, we will still provide a weekly school communication to highlight student life and communicate updates regarding timing for student returns. Please send me Ann an email or text when you have your student home. That will set her mind at ease as well. We thank you and will work hard to ensure a safe and uneventful return home for your student. As the British evoked during the second world war, let us all “Stay calm, and carry on,” for if we do, we shall overcome.
Very truly yours,
Ann Scott & Kevin English
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MARCH 17, 2020
Dear Parents,
Today we learned that one of our staff members had casual contact, outside of our campus, with a person seven days ago who, this morning, was confirmed by a doctor to have COVID-19. This person was NOT tested, but the doctor is categorizing it as “doctor confirmed.” Two days following our staff member’s interaction, the patient noticed first signs of an impending illness, and this morning (5 days following first symptoms) the doctor confirmed “suspicion.” Though this staff member is not exhibiting any signs of illness, we asked that this staff member not come to campus today.
Perspective.
It is quite easy to allow the “what if’s” and the actions taken by institutions “in an abundance of caution” to cause panic and anxiety. I’ve heard some people say “everyone will ultimately get it,” but the data do not support such assertions. And while the transmission of COVID-19 is still not fully understood, and we take it’s spread very seriously, it’s important to look at China, which is now on the backside of the curve with diminishing case numbers. In China, only 0.006% of the population have, or are suspected to have, COVID-19 (1.386 billion people with approximately 82,000 cases). That is one in 17,000 people. In the United States we are on the front side of the curve with a continued increase in cases, though only 0.0001% of our population have tested positive or are doctor confirmed COVID-19 cases (click for source).
Compare to car crashes, which killed 38,000 people in the US last year for a fatality rate in the US of 0.01%, which is 116 times the current rate of people even testing positive for COVID-19 let alone dying from it (click for source). We could keep doing comparisons but the point is made that the chance of any one person, especially a young healthy person, getting COVID-19 is very low.
Weighing Risk
Our students and families have always had the option as to having your child stay with us during the COVID-19 outbreak or to go home; now our staff will have that same option. Despite the slim odds of someone in our school testing positive for COVID-19, there is still real risk and there are certain societal and emotional realities. So out of concern for the wellbeing of our staff, we asked them to consider if they feel safe moving forward under the current operational plan. They will have the night to think, and we will have the cumulative responses in the morning.
Next Steps
Tomorrow morning, students will have breakfast and go to class as per the current schedule and by midday, we will see if we have the willing staff to continue providing students with an incredible, albeit, altered student life.
Contingency Planning
We all need to plan for things to become more restricted or get worse. So while we continue to work with our staff and Oregon DHS to refine our contingency plans, we ask that you think about where your child will go should our school need to shutter for any reason, whether COVID-19 outbreak in our population or by government mandate. Please consider national lock downs and shuttering of airports. You are not alone in this so please contact us if you need assistance in planning or execution.
Parent Conference Call
Yesterday’s call was highly productive so we will have another parent conference call tomorrow at 3pm to update you on the situation, provide another listening session, and provide a forum for you all to compare notes and speak with each other as a group.
Meeting call-in information
Date & Time: March 18 @3pm pacific
Google Hangout ID: meet.google.com/jer-zzse-gxy
Call-in #: (US)+1 208-856-8312
PIN: 690 676 775#
We continue to thank you for you care, concern, and support of this school and look forward to speaking with you at 3pm tomorrow.
Very Truly,
Ann Scott & Kevin English
March 16, 2020
7pm - Parent email communication:
Dear Parents,
For those who were able to make the conference call today, we thank you for your time, ideas, expression of concerns and support. Following the meeting, it was brought to our attention that there was a lapse in our travel ban policy. We erroneously stated that an out of state student could immediately return to campus.
As of today, we are correcting our response and clarifying the policy:
From March 16 onward, any student who is currently off-campus, or who leaves campus, may not return without passing a 14-day period off-campus without exhibiting any signs of illness.
We received additional individual communications from staff and parents indicating that the above policy requires further refinement, so we ask that you please sit tight with this tonight so we can work with our constituents to provide an updated, better policy. We appreciate your cooperation while we maneuver through the considerations of each mode of transportation, each bringing their own set of challenges.
Listed below is the daily schedule for our students so you know what your student is doing on a regular day.
Schedule Recap
7:30 am – 8:00 am: Breakfast Jaime takes STUDENT attendance (Cafeteria)
9:00 am - 1:00 pm: Class
1:00 pm -1:30 pm Lunch
1:30 pm - 1:45 pm: ALL STAFF DAILY HUDDLE (Cafeteria)
2:00 pm - 6:00 pm: Athletics & Activities
6:00 pm – 6:30 pm: Dinner
6:30 pm – 10:00 pm: Fun with Life Coaches
10:00 pm: Curfew-In cabins
11:00 pm: Lights Out
Thank you for your continued support as we work through this interesting time. Look for an additional update tomorrow evening.
Sincerely,
Ann Scott and Kevin English
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3pm - Parent conference call to discuss our school’s policies related to COVID-19 and to conduct a listening session.
12:30 pm - Student update and listening session, led by Ann Scott, Headmaster.
8am - Staff update and listening session, led by Kevin English, President.
March 13, 2020
Dear Families and Staff,
This letter is being sent to update on our developing procedures during the coronavirus outbreak.
As parents, I know you want reassurance your student is in the safest and healthiest place. We want the same. We researched what other boarding schools are doing and have also referred to the CDC for procedures and decided to keep the academy open, continue training, and continue with classes. With that said, due to the fluid and ever-changing nature of the situation, this of course could change if the state decides to close private schools. The school closures for Oregon refer to public schools only.
What We Are Doing
Wy’East Mountain Academy will remain open as we believe our school is an ideal place to be during this outbreak. Our our students are active in the outdoors, breathing fresh air, and being exposed to UV rays, which tend to kill virus. Further, we are able to control our environment as our staff lives on or in close proximity to our campus so the introduction of outside viruses is very limited. Given that, our operations on campus will be as normal as can be, except for changing several of our behaviors:
postponing outside groups to campus,
avoiding student travel to crowded areas,
making sure to practice proper hygiene,
keeping personal distance of 3-6 feet when possible,
sanitizing vans, cabins, and the classroom, as well as
individually plating breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
We will also have additional activities on campus for our students, and will be surveying students to gauge student interests and make sure the next couple weeks are not just safe but fun and productive.
Options
If you would like to have your son or daughter come home, we can arrange that. The beauty of our academy is that our students access their curriculum online so they can stay on top of their studies with continued support from our teaching staff. If your son or daughter is presently at home and you want to keep them home for some time, that is absolutely your choice, and we will support that. If you would like to have your student return to campus you must follow the procedure below for re-entry.
Return to Campus Policy
To minimize the risk of outside virus to the Wy’East community, students must:
Have clean bill of health by not exhibiting any cold or flu like symptoms, or fever, and
Not have been exposed to anyone known to have COVID-19.
For those who have traveled internationally, the following restrictions apply:
CDC Level 2 or 3 international location may not return to campus until student exhibits no signs of COVID-19 after a 14 day self-quarantine.
CDC Level 1 locations will be required to self-observe for 14 days before returning to campus.
For current CDC warning levels and definitions, click here
It is important to understand that this means that any person returning to the United States under these restrictions will not be allowed back onto campus until their 14-day quarantine/observation is completed.
INFORMATION & RESOURCES
Oregon Health Authority
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The World Health Organization
Talking to teens about COVID-19
If You Have Questions
I will be monitoring this closely with our student life coaches through the weekend and will continue to communicate regularly with the most current information available, but feel free to call us (503-622-8931) or email me if you have additional questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Ann Scott, Headmaster
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March 8, 2020
Dear Families and Staff,
This letter is being sent to address the novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) you most likely have read about or seen discussed on the news or social media. This is a respiratory virus and was identified in December 2019 in Hubei, China.
We want you to know we are concerned about the Coronavirus and want to put your family at rest knowing we are working with our local health agencies, physicians, and DHS for appropriate guidelines and protocols should anyone contract the virus.
It is important for the community to know that while the CDC ,(Centers for Disease Control), considers this to be a serious public health concern, based on current information, the immediate health risk to the general American public is still considered low at this time.
Wy’East Mountain Academy does not have any suspected cases of this virus, or the flu. We hope to keep it this way by practicing daily preventative care and staying vigilant to those practices. Those include wiping down surfaces in student cabins, café, vehicles, classroom, and offices/buildings as well as reminding students by speaking to them and by placing posters around campus to often wash hands, cover faces when sneezing, and not touch their faces. Wy’East Mountain Academy will continue to provide student coursework in the event of an exposure and will defer to the Oregon Health Authority for appropriate guidance.
There are individuals being monitored in Oregon with the virus. But we are lucky our students are young and healthy, and the risk to them and our staff is low. You can see the most current information on the Oregon Health Authority website: https://www.oregon.gov/oha/PH/DISEASESCONDITIONS/DISEASESAZ/Pages/emerging-respiratory-infections.aspx
You can also keep yourself up to date by following the guidelines on the CDC website: https://www.cdc.gov/.
Recognizing the dynamic nature of the virus, we are working to identify those areas affected with the virus in the US and abroad which may cause us to restrict travel to those locations. We will update parents and students as this information becomes available and if student travel is altered.
Feel free to email or call the academy if you have additional questions or concerns @503-622-8931 and info@wyeastacademy.com.
Sincerely,
Ann Scott, Headmaster
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Please read the following information for how to protect yourself against communicable diseases.
Hygiene etiquette involves practices that prevent the spread of illness and disease. A critical time to practice good hygiene etiquette is when you are sick, especially when coughing or sneezing. Serious respiratory illnesses like influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), whooping cough, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and coronaviruses are spread by:
Coughing or sneezing
Unclean hands
To help stop the spread of germs:
Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze.
Put your used tissue in a wastebasket.
If you don’t have a tissue, cough or sneeze into your upper sleeve, not your hands.
Remember to wash your hands after coughing or sneezing:
Wash with soap and water, or
Keeping hands clean through improved hand hygiene is one of the most important steps we can take to avoid getting sick and spreading germs to others. Many diseases and conditions are spread by not washing hands with soap and clean, running water. If clean, running water is not accessible, as is common in many parts of the world, use soap and available water. If soap and water are unavailable, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol to clean hands.
Effective Hand Washing (http://www.cdc.gov/Features/HandWashing) Use plenty of soap and water. Wash hands by vigorously scrubbing the wrists, tops of hands, between fingers, under and around rings, palms and fingernails for 20 seconds. Rinse well.
Dry. Turn off the faucet with a paper towel so clean hands stay clean.
It is important to wash hands:
Before, during and after preparing food; before eating;
Before and after caring for someone who is sick;
Before and after treating a cut or wound;
After using the bathroom or assisting another person in the bathroom;
After changing a diaper;
After handling animals or animal waste;
When hands are dirty;
After touching garbage;
After recess or gym; and
After blowing nose, coughing, or sneezing. (Yes! Even if you use a tissue!)
Respiratory Droplet Infection can occur when the germ from an infected person’s nose or throat comes into contact with the mucous membranes (the eyes, nose or mouth) of another person by coughing, sneezing or spitting. Such transfers occur only at distances of less than 6 feet.
Prevention
Cover mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing.
Use tissues when coughing and sneezing. Do not reuse handkerchiefs or tissues.
Discard tissues promptly in an appropriate waste container. Wash hands after discarding tissue.
Do not spit on the sidewalks, ground, or road
If tissues are not available, cough or sneeze into one’s sleeve, not into one’s hands.
Stay up-to-date on vaccinations (flu, pertussis, meningococcal) Examples Common cold, influenza (flu), whooping cough (pertussis), meningococcal disease
Communicable Disease Control Measures – Guidelines
Students will head to the doctor for diagnosis if on campus, and need to stay home and not return to the academy if they exhibit:
Fever greater than 100.5°F; o Stay at home until fever is below 100.5° for 24 hours WITHOUT use of fever- reducing medications (Advil® [ibuprofen], Tylenol® [acetaminophen], aspirin)
Vomiting (at least one episode that is unexplained); Stay at home until vomiting has stopped for 24 hours
Stiff neck or headache with fever;
Any rash with or without fever;
Unusual behavior change, such as irritability, lethargy, or somnolence;
Jaundice (yellow color of skin or eyes);
Diarrhea (3 watery or loose stools in one day with or without fever OR sudden onset of loose stools); o Stay home until diarrhea has stopped for 24 hours
Skin lesions that are “weepy” (fluid or pus-filled);
Colored drainage from eyes;
Brown/green drainage from nose with fever of greater than 100.5 F;
Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath; serious, sustained cough;
Symptoms or complaints that prevent the student from participating in his/her usual school activities, such as persistent cough, with or without presence of fever; or
A need for care that is greater than school staff can safely provide.
