Dear Village School Families,

In light of the news that COVID-19 is in Bennington, I am sending this letter to inform families of what we are doing in response to the situation.

We are taking this health concern very seriously and following all of the suggestions from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Vermont Department of Health and the Vermont Agency of Education. We sent home a fact sheet on COVID-19, and noted below is a link to a webpage providing the most up-to-date information for schools across the state:

https://education.vermont.gov/news/covid-19-guidance-vermont-schools

We are adhering to all the CDC recommendations for cleaning and disinfecting our school building, as well as the guidance being provided for school closings, in the event that this step becomes necessary. One thing we cannot emphasize enough: if your student is sick, especially with a fever, please keep your student at home. As an added precaution, we will proactively send students home if they have respiratory symptoms and/or a fever.

We are aware that you may be concerned about the number of days your student may miss during this troubling time. Please know that we will extend the number of excused absences as much as we can for families and that if you feel the need to keep your student home, erring on the side of caution is most important.

Other than these changes, we will try to operate the school in as close to a normal fashion as we can.

If there are any additional updates, I will communicate out to families as soon as possible. My hope is that this will not impact the school or anyone in our extended community.

Kind regards,

Timothy J. Newbold

Head of School