April 19, 2020
Dear Parents and Students:
Although we remain sequestered, the faculty and staff continue to lean forward in their planning and instruction. We proceed with comfort in the knowledge that God rules over all; not a single sparrow, a single atom, or a single germ lies outside His control. The following updates are grouped for you by grades for simplicity.
Lower School:
We have begun the process of researching infrastructure, hardware, and software options for a fully integrated online lower school that would replicate, in concept, the middle and high school with age-appropriate devices and systems for our youngest learners. The capital investment we will make will improve communication and academic instruction during quarantine events, a possibility touted by our nation’s leading scientists and political pundits. When we return to campus this fall, traditional lower school instruction will NOT be replaced with electronic devices, but we will equip, expose, and train faculty (first) and students (second) in this environment to ensure we can transition to teacher led online instruction if required. More information on this topic will follow (beta testing, focus groups, etcetera), but I wanted you to know this work is underway, and our team will be proactive in bringing this program online.
Middle School:
The eighth-grade Washington D.C. trip refunds have been promised by our carrier, American Christian Tours, and we are working out the payment details now. We are making progress on the refunds for the seventh and eighth-grade trips to Kentucky and Savannah, and you can expect a final answer on those this week.
High School:
Vendors’ schedules permitting, by week’s end, seniors should have the following items delivered to their home by a faculty or staff member: graduation yard sign, senior blanket (traditionally given at the senior luncheon), yearbook, athletic banner (if applicable), Thing-a-Thon t-shirt, and any belongings that remained in a student’s locker. Students will receive their items either in a cardboard file box or in an oversized paper grocery bag, which will have each student’s name on it.
Parents and seniors, thank you to the large number of survey responses on preferences for high school graduation. The overwhelming response was for a traditional ceremony in July, which our leadership team will strongly consider as we continue our planning.
For all Grade Levels:
We are currently developing the safest and most efficient plan to have all students’ belongings inside the building (materials within lower school students’ desks/classroom and middle-high school students’ lockers plus yearbooks and Thing-a-Thon t-shirts) distributed back to students/families while collecting books, school-issued laptops, athletic uniforms, fine arts formal wear, etcetera. More details on those processes will be forthcoming from your principal.
As we proceed within the context of this new, temporary normal, may our neighbors and friends see what a difference the presence of our living Savior makes in us as we live out our faith. God’s word tells us that when we are fearful, we can turn to Him and place our concerns upon His strong shoulders, “…casting all you care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7).
With warm regards and in His service,
