Coronavirus Update: Spring Break and Travel Advisory

Dear Faculty and Staff,

First of all, I want to thank you for your consideration and understanding on Thursday and Friday as the principals, and I visited with faculty and staff. These are extraordinary times, and most of us are facing challenges that we have never faced before. We are being called upon to live with ambiguity, uncertainty, and exceptional flexibility. How we, individually and collectively, respond to these challenging times; how we collaborate, communicate, and behave defines us as a community.

I know that many of you are waiting for a final decision regarding Spring Break, as much as I would like to provide you with that information, here is where we currently are in that process.

Spring Break Date Ambiguity

This morning, the Senior Leadership Team met to consider the myriad of information that is coming our way regarding the possible reopening of schools in HCMC, the current spread of COVID-19, travel risks, and other matters. We concluded that we need to remain flexible regarding the date of Spring Break.

I apologize if the ambiguity surrounding this decision is causing you stress or inconvenience. However, our priorities in the decision-making process include the health and wellness of our community and our commitment to our students’ academic success. To ensure that we meet two of our primary goals in this endeavor – to maximize learning and to minimize disruption, we may still need to revisit our Spring Break plans as new information becomes available.

We will communicate our decision regarding the Spring Break dates as soon as we are able to do so with certainty. If you need immediate support in dealing with this matter, for any reason, please contact your principal.

Travel Advisory

I continue to be very worried about our community traveling while COVID-19 is a threat to our world. My highest priority is the health and safety of our community: you personally, our colleagues, our students, and parents. At this time, we need to do everything we can to minimize risk.

Currently, traveling anywhere outside of Vietnam presents a risk. As you plan your schedules for the months ahead, I urge you to not only consider potential risks to yourself but also the potential risk to our entire community.

In addition, I encourage you to consider how, or if, overseas guests could compromise you or themselves. Depending on where they are traveling from, and through which airports they transitted, they could potentially be placed in quarantine upon arrival.

As the COVID-19 outbreak remains a fluid and dynamic situation, circumstances surrounding control measures may change at any time. The school may require that you quarantine yourself anytime after travel, or after guests have visited, as the risk factors change.

Below are a few resources that may be of use to you as you consider traveling:

1. Updated statistics on outbreaks around the world can be found here

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/.

2. This is a cancellation letter for you to seek reimbursement for any travel you might wish to reconsider.

3. Here you will find the SSIS Professional and Personal Travel Guidelines, previously shared with you.

Of course, the school will always work with you to assist with emergency or essential travel and leave.

This week, we will communicate similar recommendations about the travel advisory with our parent community. Once school reopens, detailed travel questionnaires will be administered to families before students are allowed back on campus.

Again, I want to thank you for your incredible flexibility during this difficult time. I am very grateful for belonging to such an understanding community.

All good wishes,

Catriona