Congratulations for reaching the end of Quarter 1 of the 2020-21 school year! In 2020, PCA has operated for almost 6 months within a COVID environment: 4th Quarter last year, and 1st Quarter this year. How much we have all learned and grown in those six months of school. Our commitment to teach at PCA, from PCA, and beyond PCA has proven key. I am proud of our students-- scholars, musicians, athletes, artists, student government and small group leaders-- for such a successful first quarter. I am in awe of our teachers and aides for rising to the dual challenges of teaching on and off site at the same time, in the middle of a highly dynamic and uncertain pandemic. And I am so incredibly thankful for the parents, grandparents, and extended family who make PCA a reality for your children.

One of our primary goals going into this school year was to learn how to keep going as a school, in spite of any disruptions. "What CAN we do?" became our mantra. By God's grace and provision, we have found good ways to keep going and have been able to interact as a school community as well. Last weekend, we safely came together outside to play and fundraise for our breast-cancer awareness Dig Pink volleyball tournament. This week, our fall athletes competed with other schools in the NHIAA play-off tournaments (a special shout-out to our Women's Soccer Team for defeating Holy Family 10-0 yesterday!) Next weekend, we will be welcoming families who are visiting our campus for our All School Open House. Scrolling through this bulletin, you will see the events that we are safely holding in the upcoming weeks. Thank you, through your vigilance and caution, which helped us remain on campus! Together these examples and more demonstrate that, guided by God's wisdom, our PCA community adapts and continues to educate, grow, learn, compete, and build community. I believe we will emerge from this historic challenge stronger and more resilient, with a living hope. God will do this in us.

Health Highlights: Let us remain vigilant both on campus and off.  With the school's first positive COVID tests this week, we emplaced enhanced health and safety protocols (step 3) while continuing both on-site and off-site live classes. By the end of the week, we had 310 students on campus and 135 students off-site. For comparison, the prior Friday, 422 were on-site and 25 off-site. The 110 increase in off-site was driven by more than 60 students being required to be off-site. The agility to shift so quickly between on and off-site is by design, especially in circumstances like last week. We strive to keep our parents in "the driver's seat" for the on-site/off-site decisions. Please note the most recent data below:

The overall health environment has changed. The following references your Back to School Guide, pages 3 and 4. If you recall, we started at Level 1 in the environment and emplaced step 2 protocols at the school. These served us well for August through early October. In October, the environment risk factors moved the overall rating to a 2, and I assess it is now at Level 3, defined as: community is seeing moderate to significant COVID-19 transmission.

In response, we increased the safety protocols of your children and our teachers. These are important, but they all begin with our collective commitment to limiting exposure outside of school as much as possible. Asymptomatic cases were a real issue for us. We appreciate your continued vigilance, especially to keep our teaching team health and safe so they can teach our kids.

Hope Highlights: Thank you so many for your prayers and encouraging words, personally and for the entire team. Your communication and engagement, to include some good, gracious feedback on what improve has helped us.

As we go through Ephesians, the passage this week was timely. Paul closes the chapter with a prayer, asking God that the people would, "according to the riches of His [Christ's] glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." Well, I don't know about you, but this verse became real to me at a level I had never known before. I was familiar with it, but not in this way. I am so thankful for God's word being living and active. I hope you are encouraged, too.

Our Varsity Cross Country Team completed its regular season with the Womens Varsity Team and Liza Corso (senior) remaining undefeated. In their last home meet of the season, the Varsity Mens Team and Varsity Womens Team each won its respective meets. Another highlight of the day was Liza's third race this season with a time of 18:31, breaking our 5K course record of 18:36; she was closely followed by Brianna Malone (sophomore).

On the men's side, the team was led by Luke O'Halloran (sophomore) and Sam Harrington (sophomore) who again finished 1-2 overall. After the race, the team recognized the seniors (pictured above) who will be graduating in June, several who have been with the team for all four years. Seniors include Liza Corso (4 years), Bethany Koshy (4 years), Lily Kjendal (4 years), Coleman Philbrick (2 years), Cameron Peirce (1 year), James Lotter (2 years), Trevor Garton (4 years), and George Cheney (1 year).

Tomorrow, our athletes travel to Manchester to compete in the Division 3 State Championships where Liza and Brianna placed 2-3 last year. Due to COVID-19 protocols, no spectators are permitted at the venue, but it will be live-streamed at www.newhampshirecrosscountry.com. Go, Eagles!

Congratulations to Lindsey Hatifeld (senior) on being named the American Volleyball Coaches Association Player of the Week for the State of NH!

Over the week of competition, Lindsey compiled 26 Kills for an average of 2.6 Kills/set, 6 Digs, and 10 Aces, earning her top honors across the state.

She is only the 3rd PCA player to earn this recognition, joining Ashley Vining (Class of 2017) and Becca Jones (Class of 2020).

Great job, Lindsey!