COVID-19 Campus Mitigation Strategies
2021-2022 School Year
Updated January 6, 2022
Updated January 6, 2022
At Keystone, we are committed to providing the best possible educational experience for students. In our ongoing efforts to keep students, families, faculty, and staff safe and in light of recent local, regional and national trends, we have created new COVID-19 protocols for the 2021-2022 school year.
We have developed these protocols in consultation with the most recent guidance from the CDC, recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics, San Antonio Metro Health, the Keystone Medical Advisory Committee, and the Keystone Safety Committee.
Our protocols maintain a commitment to these guiding principles:
The ultimate criterion for Keystone’s decision-making will be the physical, social, and emotional safety of students, families, faculty, and staff.
Keystone will design programs, schedules, and facilities to meet the developmental level of students in each division while balancing the demands of the entire school.
Keystone will maintain constant and clear communication with all constituencies regarding the school’s response to COVID-19.
Below is a summary of new procedures for the 2021-2022 school year when students return to campus. These procedures may change with new public health conditions and guidance.
We will require students to return to campus for classes this year. We are emphasizing in-person instruction and not offering concurrent learning or distance learning. Any exceptions to this must be approved by the respective Division Head.
We have revised our protocols with the Omicron variant. Please check our full guidelines here. In summary:
If you test positive:
If you have been exposed:
Parents: Because we’re still trying to minimize the number of people on campus, we ask that parents not come on campus without making prior arrangements with the front office.
Sports and Theatre: For now, we will limit attendance for events in the gym such as volleyball and basketball, and for theatrical performances in the Jary Auditorium.
Keystone will require masks indoors for all individuals on campus — vaccinated and unvaccinated. This reflects the most recent public health guidance, the transmissibility of the Omicron variant, and our youngest students and some others not being eligible for vaccines yet.
People are not required to wear masks outdoors.
Weather permitting, we will continue to hold lunch outside. During lunch, students will be allowed to remove their masks. We will strongly encourage students to maintain 3-foot distancing as much as possible when they are outside.
The first line of defense comes from our students and families. We ask that students and parents check themselves for COVID-like symptoms: fever, chills, sore throat, headache, cough, runny nose/congestion, nausea/vomiting, diarrhea, or loss of taste or smell. If you have any of these symptoms, please stay home.
Feel free to use this online tool to check symptoms at home:
Parents and students who perform symptom checks at home help keep our entire community safe.
We strongly encourage everyone who is eligible to receive the vaccine, but we are not requiring vaccinations for students or faculty/staff. The vast majority of our faculty/staff is vaccinated.
We are asking all students, faculty, and staff to submit copies of their vaccination card to Nurse Penny Moyer (pmoyer@keystoneschool.org) or Nurse Monica Gutierrez (mgutierrez@keystoneschool.org).
Morning: Parents are to drop off their children at either the Little School entrance or the gates on Craig for the main campus.
Afternoon: This year, we are offering aftercare at the Little School for its students and on the Main Campus for Lower and Middle School students. Whether parents arrive before or after 4pm, students will wait on campus and we will call them when their parent or guardian arrives to pick them up.
Due to the transmissibility of the Omicron variant, we are currently notifying families daily about new exposures, along with cases. “Exposures” are is defined as spending 15 minutes consecutively or over a 24-hour period, within 6 feet of someone who has tested positive for COVID.
At this time, we are not requiring quarantine for families who travel.
However, we strongly encourage you to have your children receive a PCR test upon your return to San Antonio, particularly if you’re flying, if you will be in locations with a high infection rate, or at large gatherings.
We are making this request even more strongly if your family is traveling outside the continental United States for the holiday weekend.
Please let us know if your children test positive for COVID.
In order to best safeguard the health of our community, we are asking families who are traveling to please let us know:
Please send this information to Nurse Monica Gutierrez (mgutierrez@keystoneschool.org) or Nurse Penny Moyer (pmoyer@keystoneschool.org). It will remain confidential.