Our campuses in Carmel and Pebble Beach total approximately 55 acres, and include a variety of buildings. All of these structures’ heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems are maintained regularly and function properly; repairs, when needed, are always made on a timely basis. 

Earlier this year, the School retained Citadel EHS, a nationally recognized environmental health and safety firm with extensive experience working with schools, to assess indoor air quality and cleaning efficacy throughout the Pebble Beach Campus, Carmel Campus, and Mission Campus (our temporary campus at the former Junipero Serra School in Carmel). Citadel’s experts’ general findings were quite positive, and all of their recommendations—mostly pertaining to minor adjustments—will be implemented prior to students’ return to campus.

Given our intent to maximize time spent outside, we will be cleaning and sanitizing relevant surfaces—benches, tables, etc.—frequently. Areas of campus will be tented in order to maximize our capacity for sheltered physical distancing.

School-owned vehicles
If and when it becomes necessary to transport students on School-owned vehicles, we will follow state- and county-mandated guidelines. Drivers will be screened for symptoms prior to boarding. Masks will be mandatory for all. Seating will be assigned to marked spaces, and windows will be kept open to the degree that weather permits. Surfaces—such as seats, handles, and the inside area of passenger windows—will be regularly disinfected in keeping with established standards. The vehicle used to transport students to medical appointments will be refitted with a plexiglass shield between the front row and passenger area.

Taxis and ride share services
For at least the first few weeks of the spring semester, boarding students will not be permitted to leave campus without permission, use taxis or ride share services (Uber, Lyft, etc.), or solicit or accept rides from day students or their parents.

Day student, family, and employee drivers
Upper division day student drivers do not require permission to transport their siblings. Family permission is required for day students to transport unrelated day student peers. Until further notice, neither day students nor their families may transport boarding students without the permission of the dean of students.

With few exceptions, visitors are temporarily prohibited from coming onto either campus. This restriction includes extended family members, neighbors, alumni, and other School guests. Though we allowed a handful of modified campus tours for prospective students and their families in the late fall, as a pilot program, all such visits are being handled on a case-by-case basis and conducted with an abundance of caution insofar as masks, physical distancing, and other measures are concerned. 

This restriction does not include third-party vendors hired by the School, parcel delivery to the School’s mail room, and contractors—all of whom are screened upon arrival, and obligated to adhere to our mandatory health hygiene policy, which is communicated to them in advance of their arrival, and posted at their access point. 

All visitors are carefully supervised so as to ensure their compliance with the mandatory health hygiene policy and to minimize their proximity to employees and students. Parents of resident students will not be permitted to take their child off campus unless there is an emergency and they have gone through the proper request process in the dean’s office. With permission, parents will be allowed to visit their child for a limited period of time outside while following proper mask and physical distancing procedures.

Since our three divisions first turned to remote instruction in mid-March, the faculty has received supplementary training in order to respond effectively and in a team-oriented way to the unique challenges that some of our students have experienced as a result of remote instruction, including feelings of isolation, loneliness, and depression. The continuing dialogue between students and their families and the School has afforded our learning community to take organized and proactive approaches to meeting students’ social and emotional needs, and provide complementary support for parents and guardians.

The School has provided an extensive array of programs and resources to support students’ and families’ mental and emotional health, within and across our three divisions, in addition to those we provide during normal times. These have included webinars for students and families with Stevenson faculty members and outside experts; access to third-party programs (such as Parenting in Place), curated on-line resources, and articles; special advisory programming for middle and upper division students; and additional individualized support for our youngest students and their families. 

This programming will continue in various forms over the remainder of the academic year, with the goal of continuing to provide students and their families with specific tools, and reminding them that they are not alone. Such practical training experienced as a shared community process is intended to help families and teachers remain united and effective in attending to students’ social and emotional needs.

In general, gatherings among groups of students, employees, and families—including Assembly, class meetings, group advisory sessions, in-service faculty training, coffees, receptions, etc.—will be held virtually.

On December 1, 2020, the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) announced that schools may not permit athletics practices or competitions until January 1, 2021 at the earliest. 

We hope to be able to continue to provide our outdoor physical conditioning program—conducted in small, stable cohorts under careful supervision at the Jeff and Beth Young Athletics Fields and in the Pirate Pool—unless state or county guidance requires that program to be temporarily suspended.

Should it not be possible or advisable to provide interscholastic athletics upon our return to campus instruction, we will provide a range of sport-specific options for training and competition to ensure our middle school, club, junior varsity, and varsity student-athletes are still able to develop their skills, compete, and have fun.