Walking around Paideia’s campus, you might be reminded of the years before 2020, times when COVID-19 was not a major worry in the world. Aside from the increased availability of hand sanitizer around campus, distinguishing characteristics of Paideia’s campus during the peak of COVID-19, like social distancing, mask mandates, and randomized testing, are no longer omnipresent. But is COVID-19 still present on campus in less visible ways?

With new variants still appearing, COVID-19 continues to be a concern. Students are no longer required to report cases to the school, so an accurate number of cases so far this year is unknown; however, around 30 cases have been reported since the start of school. With students and faculty catching the virus within the first few weeks of school, COVID-19 caused many early and surprising absences. “I was shocked to contract COVID-19 in 2023, but I definitely enjoyed my Coronacation,” says Eva Jean Young ’24. 

Although COVID-19 is less prominent than in past years, individuals at Paideia still evaluated what the best course of action should be for this year. “We looked at the community numbers and issues regarding COVID-19 and consulted with a public health physician that has been part of our COVID-19 management team since 2020 to determine the policies for this year. The level of immunity is high overall, both from vaccination and from natural infection, which contributed to our decision,” says Paideia nurse, Lisa Bruner.

Since Paideia is no longer contact tracing, students do not receive an email notifying them if they were exposed to someone with COVID-19, and the distinction of someone knowing which virus they have is harder to make. “I was mad sick last week, and I might have gotten a false negative now that I think about it because I just found out a kid in my class had it, and I had no idea,” says Forrest Holcomb ’24.

“The main message is: if you are sick, please stay home so you do not get anyone else sick and so that you can recover,” concludes Bruner.