Friday 1 May 2020
Dear Parents,
If you have ever kayaked an estuary, you know that getting from the river to the ocean can be confounding. Finding the channel, avoiding lagoons, fighting tides and cross currents is not the same as flat water paddling. It’s a bit like reopening a school after a corona virus pandemic.
I am enormously proud of our teachers and our students’ success in launching St Joes online. We have kept the curriculum and the community intact. I get my daily dose of inspiration from the Facebook stories of how our students have been active in celebrating the health care and essential workers, the mask making, that fire brigade parade for Dan was enheartening, the personal replications of famous paintings was pure performance art, the Addam’s Family revue, the maroon and gold day, the weekly workout routines from the wellness center—all great chin up and carry on messages.
Still, rough waters. How to navigate the world as it begins to relax the social restraints? This spring, this summer, this fall? What will be permissible? What will be the mandates on group size, physical distancing, protective wear, testing? How will we repopulate a building with the density of a high school community?
We will be rational in decision making. We will order events according to our plans and our preferences, recognizing that they are subject to factors beyond our control. We will continue to plan graduation for the weekend of July 11
th
, with the primary goal of celebrating our seniors together. The prom in masks and gowns seem less appealing, so we will be more flexible about the date to preserve the event.
We will remain a high performing Catholic college prep school. School will open in September. Summer programs will run in August. Freshman orientation planning is underway. Fall sports open on August 27. Sophomores will begin their junior year where we left off, with the spring fling. Juniors are engaged in the college search process. The Futures program may be more effective for being on Zoom.
We will continue to innovate. The Innovative Design and Engineering Applications course will run August 10-21. For current freshman interested in Calculus, we will introduce a summer course in Geometry to satisfy the pre-requisite for Algebra II.
I believe we will be an ever better school. The learning skills we have developed in this process have opened our eyes as to how accessible the world is and how creative a community we are. We are stronger for the challenge.
Stay well, stay safe, and stay strong.
Godspeed,
