Nurse Kelly Papianou announced a new ongoing testing policy as part of Friends Select School’s COVID-19 screening and mitigation plan in an email sent home to families on Wednesday afternoon.

Following re-entry testing, Friends Select will continue to partner with Anywhere Testing and Phi Life Sciences Laboratories to test 20% of faculty and staff, 20% of students in grades 7-12, and 10% of students in grades Pre-K through 6th each week. Students will be selected for testing on a rotating basis. This test has 99% sensitivity and specificity rates. 

So far, the school has administered 475 COVID-19 swab tests to students without receiving a positive test; two adults in the community were found to be positive for the virus. 

The weekly testing program is also designed to allow students currently in iSelectLearning to to get tested 4-6 days prior to re-entering hybrid learning. All testing will take place in the health room. 

An end date has not been given for this sentinel testing plan. “As the local percent positivity rates continue to decrease, adults with COVID-19 vaccinations increase, and our immediate community positivity rate remains minimal, we hope we can eventually remove testing from our plans,” said Kelly.