October 26, 2020
Dear Lab School Families:
Since September 21, we have been welcoming our students back to campus in small groups. Beginning with our elementary students, we will have worked our way up to a full pilot of our hybrid modality for all four divisions by next week.
It has truly been a joy to see our students in person, and we are excited about the opportunities for building greater relationships, connections, and skills during this hybrid pilot.
As we ready ourselves for this full pilot, throughout this week we will be sending you short communications on specific topics that will be helpful as we have more students and adults on campus. I know that we have shared a lot of detailed information over these last few weeks. It has been a lot to take in! My goal is to highlight a few key topics and ideas in these next several days.
Today I am writing about the importance of our Community Agreement and the obligation we have to each other as we engage in person during this hybrid pilot.
As we have navigated these many months of being apart as a community, we know that many of us have created social “pods” for ourselves and our families. These pods have provided needed social connection, both for adults and for children and teens. We recognize that families have created social opportunities with other families who share their level of risk tolerance. We recognize that many families have chosen to enroll children and teens in outside activities to provide outlets for athletic and artistic endeavors and social connection, while those have been unavailable through school. All of these choices are understandable as we seek to support our children and each other in this unprecedented time.
As we transition to a more robust period of being together on campus, it is important that we each take a moment to assess the risk mitigation we are practicing in our personal lives outside of school. In order for our community to be safe together at school, we must commit to a common set of practices in how we engage with each other outside of campus. For this reason, I am asking all of us – parents, students, teachers, staff, and administration – to review carefully our Community Agreement, and to make any necessary adjustments in our personal practices in order to meet our shared obligation to each other. We have extended the deadline for acknowledging that you have read and understood the agreement to Tuesday, October 27th at 5:00 pm.
We hope for a successful, healthy pilot of our hybrid modality during this next month. This time together on campus will allow us to test our protocols, learn how best to teach in an environment that blends the virtual with the in-person, and make adjustments so that our hybrid modality can provide the best possible educational and social-emotional experience for our students when we return after Winter Break.
All of us – together – have a role to play in making this school year successful. We are grateful to every member of this community for your commitment to our students, to our faculty, and to Lab.
With warmest regards,
