October 19, 2020
Dear Cushing Academy Community,
I hope that everyone is safe and healthy. We have passed the halfway mark for our fall semester of on-campus learning. With five weeks to go in the term, I would like to announce our preliminary Winterim schedule to plan for the next few months. As I have said, this pandemic has immersed us all in an indefinite period of uncertainty, which is, unfortunately, continuing into 2021. We hope to provide students, parents, faculty, and staff some certainty about the remainder of the calendar year.
All students will depart campus on Friday, November 20th, and will not return in 2020. The first three weeks of Winterim—November 30 through December 18—will only consist of remote learning. Instruction during those first three weeks will use online modalities only. This decision, subject to the evolving public health situation, creates an uninterrupted learning experience while maintaining engagement essential to the Cushing student experience. It also maximizes educational opportunities in the period between Thanksgiving and the end-of-year holidays. We reached this decision in consultation with our medical team members, public health experts, and school leadership. We know with relative certainty that COVID-19 will be with us for some time. The combination of this reality and the strain that flu season typically places on a residential community has led us to this arrangement.
2021 Winterim
For the two, three-week Winterim sessions in 2021 (January 4 through February 15), our goal is to prioritize in-person learning if possible. We are exploring all opportunities to have students on campus participating in classes and activities. However, we currently cannot commit to having in-person learning for this period, as the ongoing pandemic’s unpredictability makes this decision impossible. Realistically, we hope to be in-person beginning January 14, as that will allow a fourteen-day quarantine period after the holidays.
What we can say at this time is that Winterim will begin as scheduled on January 4, likely as an online experience. A final decision about potentially starting in-person as of January 14 will be made in late November in consultation with our team of experts and informed by the status of COVID-19 in Massachusetts and New England. Tuition will not change for the fall/spring semester if Winterim is online or in-person.
We will share information regarding the Winterim 2021 academic term on the Keeping Cushing Healthy webpage as it becomes available. Please continue to refer to this webpage for essential information and updates.
2021 Spring Semester
We remain committed to beginning our spring semester on March 8, 2021. Similar to the fall semester, we will open dormitories a few days before starting school to allow for entry, testing, semi-quarantine, and implementing health restrictions to maintain student safety.
I will be hosting a webinar this Thursday, October 22, at 7:00 pm Eastern Time to discuss Winterim and answer any questions you might have. We will also make the webinar available online afterward. Please join the webinar here.
Thank you for your continued flexibility, understanding, and resilience as we all continue to adapt to the changes this pandemic brings to our community. I have appreciated the many conversations that I have had with parents and employees who feel our entire community’s safety and health must continue to be our priority. I am also exceptionally proud of how our students are handling this situation and succeeding within the classroom and community. I know that remote teaching and learning and an online community are not the preferred choices for many of our students and colleagues this winter; I very much hope that we will be able to have an in-person experience as soon as possible after the holidays. Until then, we will continue to proceed thoughtfully and with caution as we navigate this period of uncertainty.
Together, we will make the remainder of our school year the best possible experience for our students.
Sincerely,
