As you enjoy this holiday time away from school, we need to provide an important update about a change in on-campus teaching and learning in the coming weeks. We want to thank you for your support in diligently applying health and safety protocols during these past few weeks, so that onsite teaching and learning could resume at Nueva. Without this community-wide commitment, essentially serving as a social contract, we would not have been able to operate with such high levels of safety and wellness. 

A Change to Our Return to Campus Date ( (Now December 14)

For those who have been learning and teaching onsite, we have previously communicated that waiting five days after the Thanksgiving holiday break would be sufficient prior to taking a COVID-19 test in order to be able to return to campus on Monday, December 7. This is why we have emphasized the importance of returning from travel no later than November 28. This timing for your travel is still required. However, as you know, new guidance has recently been shared in response to heightened virus activity in our county, state, and nation. This includes a strong recommendation for people to reconsider travel plans in general, and it also requires a 14-day quarantine period after travel in addition to COVID-19 testing. Knowing that Nueva community members are indeed traveling, and acknowledging the need to accommodate the 14-day quarantine period, an additional week of remote learning (the week of December 7) is necessary to comply with the most recent update from the state and community health agencies. In other words, following the current Thanksgiving week, Nueva will operate remotely for two weeks (the weeks of November 30 and December 7), not just one as originally planned, Please note that this still requires you to return from travel no later November 28 to comply with the quarantine period. This requirement has not changed.

On-site teaching and learning will begin again on Monday, December 14, as it is very important for us to resume the Nueva Flex model as soon as we can. In fact, it is the 14-day quarantine period itself that enables us to re-open campus on December 14. We already know that the safety measures we have put in place on both campuses often exceed what is expected from community experts, and they are proving to be quite effective as we still have not encountered one positive case in our asymptomatic surveillance testing, even after more than 2,000 tests have been conducted. However, to ensure compliance with the new state guidelines announced last week and to stay committed to our community responsibility, we need to continue to be cautious. As such, we are adding this additional week of remote learning to our original plans. We trust you understand and support this decision. 

Testing and Timing 

This new schedule also provides a bit more flexibility in our testing protocol. The Nueva School will continue to provide onsite testing options at both campuses during the next two weeks. Please view this detailed testing schedule for more information.  

If you prefer to use an off-site option, testing during December 7–10 allows you to secure the necessary negative test prior to December 14. The important thing to remember is that surveillance testing and the 14-day quarantine period, a time in which we are expected to isolate ourselves as much as possible except from those in our immediate day-to-day living circle, are both required prior to returning to campus. With adherence to both of these, we are confident we can resume onsite activity as of December 14.

Looking Ahead

As always, we will closely monitor the regional and national situation and make adjustments as necessary. At this moment in time, we will follow a similar procedure in January, adding one additional remote learning week to ensure safety for all. Students, families, and employees will be expected to begin a 14-day quarantine period no later than January 3, and will need to test no later than January 13 so that a negative result can come back in time for a return to campus on January 18. If necessary, adjustments to this plan will be shared with everyone with as much advance notice as possible. We are already looking ahead to see if there are creative ways of rethinking the planned February and April breaks. 

In addition, we will continue to collaborate with San Mateo County in the coming days and weeks. If the county should move to the purple tier of the state's pandemic recovery framework, we plan to continue with onsite programming the week of December 14. We have developed our return-to-campus plans with the restrictions of the purple tier in mind, and the county still encourages schools to keep their campuses open based on scientific data and the protocols schools have in place. The additional week of remote learning in December is needed to comply with recent changes in quarantine expectations. It is not impacted by which tier the county is in. 

Thanks to Our Community

Once again, we thank you for your understanding, cooperation, and support. We know some of you will be disappointed that we now have one less week to be on campus together. At the same time, however, we hope that you can appreciate the changing nature of the virus’ implications on schools, especially knowing that our own learning community serves a large, diverse group of families throughout the entire Bay Area. Please be assured that our goal continues to be to maximize the amount of onsite learning possible for those who are choosing this option. 

Enjoy this holiday break! We look forward to restarting remotely next week.

In partnership,