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Bullis SchoolK-12 Private Co-Ed College Preparatory Day School

Head of School Briefing: August 23, 2021

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Head of School Briefing: August 23, 2021

Dear Bullis Community,

Bullis Head of School Christian Sullivan

I wish the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would coordinate their announcements with my letter writing schedule! The year hasn’t even started, and there is already a surfeit of communications from my office. I will try to spread them out a little more as the year progresses.

The FDA today announced full approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for individuals aged 16 years of age and older. The vaccine is still available on an emergency approval basis for those aged 12-15 years of age.

On August 11, I wrote that once a vaccine was fully authorized by the FDA, Bullis would require all eligible individuals (faculty and students) to be vaccinated, unless granted a legitimate religious or health exemption as allowed for in state and federal law. As such, all faculty and students aged 16 years and older will be required to have received at least their first vaccination shot by September 17, 2021. My original letter announced that there would be a two-week period after the FDA’s full approval, by the end of which vaccinations should have been received. However, since we are running our own COVID vaccination clinic on September 17, that seems like a sensible deadline. We will also be offering the flu vaccine at both the September 17 and October 8 vaccination clinics. Anyone wanting both the COVID and flu vaccine needs to register for both shots. Currently, the September 17 flu vaccine times are full. We are working with Safeway to see if we can add additional staff/appointment slots that day. We will release links for October 8 COVID second shot and flu vaccines at a later time.

We require families of eligible students to upload their vaccination cards through Magnus. The best and easiest way to access your Magnus account is through the Parent Portal. Once you have accessed Magnus through the portal, you can upload your student’s vaccination card and complete all other health information, including the Wellness Pledge that all families are required to sign. Please be aware that the emergency contact information preloaded in the “Vital Health Record” section of Magnus is feeding directly from the Parent Portal; if you need to make revisions, do so on the portal, and those changes will then be reflected in Magnus. You can also access and update the necessary health forms and information through the Magnus app.

Honestly, I had expected the FDA to approve the vaccine for those individuals 12 years of age and older. That now seems some time away. And I can only imagine that full approval for those individuals 5 years of age and older is months away, and perhaps will not happen this school year. We shall see. What is certain is that new COVID-19 infections in Montgomery County continue to rise. The new infections per 100,000 per day stands at 13.12, and seemingly on an upward trajectory. The last time it was this high was February 17.

For the sake of all our students, I refuse to countenance further school disruption. In order to have “normal” school and keep everyone safe, our protocols must be strict, and we need members of our community to be vaccinated as soon as they are eligible. As we are testing weekly, we will hopefully discover asymptomatic cases and limit the possibility of transmission in school. Of course, those who are symptomatic or are feeling unwell must stay away from campus!

I am so confident in this community’s ability to pull together to ensure safety and a great year for our kids. As ever, thank you so much for your support.

Best,

christian sullivan signature

Christian G. Sullivan
Head of School