Dear Students and Families,

We are very excited to kick off our school year with Beaver students on Tuesday, September 8! I know this has been a highly anticipatory and anxious time, and I thank you for your ongoing patience and flexibility as we all navigate this shifting landscape.

We have updated our website to include our Fall 2020 Opening of School plan (you can find the direct link at the bottom of this email). This will give you more information on:

  1. What it Will Look Like: Healthy Use of Time, Space and activities;
  2. How it Will Work: Healthy Protocols and Practices. 
AN OVERVIEW
We will begin school on September 8 with an extensive onboarding and orientation program for students, which will include on campus and online components. Students will be introduced to hybrid learning in each of their classes and important safety protocols and practices to be used when they are on the Beaver campus. We will provide multiple opportunities for meaningful, in person contact with their fall teachers and their advisors.

Through participating in academic and nonacademic programming, we hope to embed within the Beaver student culture the importance of health and wellness. Once each division has been through this expanded orientation, the normal daily schedule will begin.

The website provides more detail about the consistent daily academic schedule designed for each division. Each of the schedules is developmentally appropriate and will support us in providing the best possible learning experiences for our students, regardless of the learning modality (on-campus, hybrid, online).

In the next week, you should receive more information about what days your child’s group will be on campus for the expanded onboarding program we are planning, as well as more information on their fall course schedule.

Because the onboarding program has an online component, as of September 8 your children will be engaged daily with school work (prepping for academic work to kick off by meeting with their fall teachers, and non-academic work through health and wellness and safety protocol programming). We hope all students will join us for the on-campus component of the onboarding experience, but we realize that for health reasons, that is not possible for all families. Soon, there will be an opportunity for you to communicate with Beaver about whether or not we can plan on your child’s in-person participation.  
SCHEDULES
On the website, you will see details about which days Upper School groups will be on campus when the daily academic schedule kicks off—which will be late September, after the onboarding and orientation program concludes. We are still working out some specific details about on campus days for the Middle School students as we try to reduce potential exposure while maintaining the integrity of our educational programming. More information will be sent next week to describe the groups and the on campus rotation for the Middle School.  
You'll see at the top of the webpage an introductory video from me. I encourage you to watch it as it provides context and highlights important aspects of the plan we have drafted.
BVR FACULTY & STAFF
Our teachers are actively engaged in planning and they are excited about the school year ahead. Sorting out what will be done synchronously, asynchronously, and while on campus or at home is a significant challenge, but they have been thinking about this since we began the Beaver Expanded Learning Experience last spring and are ready to meet the challenge head on with enthusiasm.

I’d like to specifically recognize our faculty and staff and thank them for their commitment to expand the very nature of school for students—every day—and even more so in these challenging circumstances. In just a few weeks, they will be ready to Launch, Test, and Refine their curricular plans for the year, sharing and collaborating with colleagues along the way so that we learn about what is working well and what can be improved.
VIRTUAL COMMUNITY MEETINGS
We have scheduled three virtual community meetings for families and students to ask questions. You'll receive links to these Zooms closer to the date of the meeting.
Parent/Guardian Zoom Meeting
Tuesday, August 25
4:30 p.m.
Parent/Guardian Zoom Meeting
Wednesday, August 26
9 a.m.
Student Zoom Meeting
Thursday, August 27
11 a.m.
And an important final note—please know that any material on the website will be updated and adapted as circumstances in school or in our larger community shift and as we experience hybrid learning together.

Thank you and I look forward to seeing you all soon.

Kim Samson
Head of School