Most students limited Thanksgiving and upcoming holiday celebrations to immediate family, which is recommended by district health professionals and school officials to help stop the spread of the coronavirus and keep schools open.

According to a Harbinger survey of 263 students conducted through Google Forms from Dec. 7 to Dec. 12, the majority of respondents said they celebrated Thanksgiving at home with immediate family. While 15 percent of respondents said they celebrated Thanksgiving with extended family, of that number, only two percent of respondents said they traveled to do so. This upcoming holiday break, 23 percent of respondents said they plan on gathering with extended family, while a consistent two percent plan on traveling to do so. 

As of Dec. 17, Northborough-Southborough district policy states that students and faculty who travel out of state must attend school remotely for 14 days upon return. However, the district recently adjusted the travel quarantine policies for post-winter break, depending on where students travel and the COVID testing they complete.

“[After Thanksgiving] we did get reports from parents who did what we asked them to do, to communicate with us if they were traveling and to honor our requirement that they quarantine themselves,” Principal Sean Bevan said. “I have received anecdotal reports that some families did travel and didn’t report to us, which would be unfortunate.”

School nurse Heather Allen said many families that originally planned on traveling during Thanksgiving break decided to cancel their plans due to increasing COVID-19 cases, and she believes the same will happen over the winter holidays. 

“I think that people may not end up seeing their extended family and their travel plans will probably change because of the cases going up and people not feeling comfortable going to different states or traveling during the winter break,” Allen said. 

According to the WBUR article “Is Massachusetts In A Post-Thanksgiving Coronavirus Spike? It Depends On Who You Ask,” Gov. Charlie Baker said the state’s data shows a spike in COVID-19 cases following Thanksgiving.

Bevan shared that Algonquin did not see a massive impact in classrooms or attendance after Thanksgiving although he originally thought that Thanksgiving could have had a larger impact on the school community.

“I think we live in a state and towns where families really implement strategies with great integrity to stay socially distanced, quarantine when they’re required to and wear their masks,” Bevan said. “I think that’s why our rates are lower than they are in other parts of the country and I am hopeful that those things continue to hold true over the winter holidays.”

Bevan said the impacts after the Thanksgiving holiday were those of a more personal level. Any student who has tested positively for COVID-19, been named a close contact to somebody who has the virus or traveled out of state, must be quarantined for two weeks. This results in four days of missed in-person instruction during hybrid learning.

“The administration, nurses and doctors who’ve been involved with the planning have been very thorough in making sure that the mitigation strategies have been implemented and everyone has been educated on them,” Southborough public health nurse Emily Amico said. “As of right now, people are acquiring the illness outside of school but when they’re in school, it’s not being transmitted.”

While there were many students gathering on Thanksgiving, senior Julliana Collett said her family attempted to do so safely. Her family members all took precautions during the weeks prior to Thanksgiving.

“We all were required to wear masks and we had all of the tables separated by family, six feet apart,” Collett said. “It was really nice because I haven’t seen my family in over a year.”

On the contrary, freshman Sean Desmond and his family decided to celebrate the holiday alone this November and plan to do the same over December break. Desmond said his family members live throughout the country and it wouldn’t be worth the risk.

“My parents were hesitant with rising cases because we have so many older relatives,” Desmond said. 

With the school adhering to strict COVID-19 safety guidelines and protocols, Allen said she hopes everybody is doing the same outside of school.

“I just ask that everybody continues to practice social distancing, wearing masks in public and keeping us informed if they’re traveling, become a close contact or have symptoms when we come back to school in January,” Allen said.

According to the NBC Boston article “Gov. Baker Urges Residents to Skip Holiday Gatherings, Citing Post-Thanksgiving COVID Spike,” Gov. Charlie Baker urges Massachusetts residents not to gather in groups during the upcoming holidays, due to the significant spike in COVID-19 cases since Thanksgiving.  

“My hope is that people will take [gathering] down a notch,” Amico said. “I don’t think that the holiday season will look the same to anyone, whether you gather or not. There will still be people that gather, of course, whether that’s being not educated the right way, not getting the right information or just choosing to ignore the information.”

Bevan hopes community members make safe choices this winter vacation, even if it may look very different from years past. 

“I do really believe that this is going to be a one year, unfortunate, less fun holiday, but I’d rather have one year of unfortunate, less fun holidays than run the risk of getting somebody sick,” Bevan said.