COVID Update from the Head of School

I thought my letter of this morning was going to be my last letter of the year, but 2020 isn’t going away quite so easily.

On Monday, we received word that two of our basketball players had tested positive for COVID-19, one on the ninth grade team and one on the boys junior varsity team. As a precaution, we offered all basketball players COVID testing on Tuesday. A significant majority came in for testing and our results returned six additional positive results, five players and a coach. The additional positives included members of all three levels of boys Upper School basketball; 9th grade, JV, and Varsity.

All positive cases have been notified and will quarantine for 14 days from the date of the positive test. We have ceased all basketball operations until in-person school begins on January 11th . Prior to our in-person return, all students and coaches will be re-tested along with the entire student body on Wednesday, January 6th .

I believe this to be the first case of on-campus spread of the disease at North Cross, and it comes at a time when local positivity rates are very high. We will continue to monitor the local situation along with the January 6th test results, and our Medical Advisory Group will determine the merits of continuing with the remainder of the basketball season.

Athletics are an important and valued part of a North Cross education. Our ability to comprehensively test our community provides us an indicator of the prevalence of disease on our campus and allows us increased opportunities to compete. However, decisions will be made with the safety of our community as our first priority.

Thank you for all you do, and please be safe over Winter Break. I look forward to seeing everyone in January.