St. Paul's School Concord NH

GoatMama
Mon, 16 Mar 2020 22:19:26 +0000

I decided to post today’s letter by Rector Kathy Giles in its entirety as it may be informative to more than just current families.

March 16, 2020
Dear SPS Students and Families,

I hope this email finds everyone well. Campus is still beautiful and perhaps less quiet than it was last week, as yesterday the Governor of New Hampshire mandated school closures and the child care center closed as well. The faculty kids are out and about! That’s good news in a place at which the sound of students’ and children’s voices gives us all reasons to smile.

As our understanding of the COVID-19 situation continues to develop and local, state, and federal decision-makers adjust their requirements in the face of changing conditions, I write this afternoon to let you know that because of the current public health crisis, and on the advice of public health experts, we need to move our return-to-campus date back to Monday, April 27. This date, six weeks from today, hopefully, provides public health authorities enough time to implement a national testing program that will take some of the uncertainties out of the current situation, allow us to develop more refined isolation/quarantine policies, and allow us to resume school activities on the grounds for the remainder of the school year.

To that end, yesterday, we encouraged all international families that home is the best place for students right now, particularly as some countries and cities are imposing state-monitored quarantine situations for travelers returning from the US. We are in touch with our international families and helping them plan accordingly, and we have assured these families that we will help our international students complete their academic work throughout the end of the year. Because of the issues around social distancing and public health requirements, the buildings and grounds of SPS are largely closed and will remain so until we are advised that we can welcome people back onto grounds and to our buildings and facilities.

It is important to emphasize that April 27 is our hoped-for return date; however, should we not be able to reopen campus this spring because of ongoing public health concerns, our plan would be to complete the year with online instruction and, when possible, reschedule our Sixth Form’s graduation to a date to be determined. Our Board of Trustees met last week to come to this decision and will meet again next week and in the weeks to come to monitor the situation and respond accordingly.

On Thursday, March 19, you will receive information via email regarding this upcoming academic endeavor – schedules, how to access materials, how we are proceeding with grades and credits, the logistics on online work, etc. We are at work on all of those aspects of the program, but we look forward to launching the Spring Term on Tuesday, March 24. We know that our students around the globe live in different time zones, and our schedule will take that fact into consideration with staggered meeting times and faculty office hours. Students can expect a balance of in-person class meetings, recorded tutorials, independent and small group project work, office hours, and video/phone conferencing. Most of our arts offerings can make the transition to online teaching and learning, and we will review and adjust students’ programs to make sure everyone has the credits needed to move forward and, in particular, for our Sixth Formers to graduate this spring.

We are also planning to take our Chapel and community life programs online as well, with scheduled times for advising groups, LINC meetings, student activities, and more. I hope everyone can be patient and flexible as we roll out all of these programs. Dean of Students Suzanne Ellinwood will be in steady contact with more student life information; she can be reached at sellinwood@sps.edu.

There are many questions to be answered, and we will continue to organize and communicate in the days ahead. I’m sorry to have to delay our students’ return to the SPS grounds. While I realize that some schools are already making decisions about the rest of the spring on their campuses, we believe that it is early to make that call and want to hold out some optimism for a good May here together. And we are also confident that we can adjust as necessary to help our students have a successful spring.

As I was reviewing materials last week prior to our sending out our congratulation letters and enrollment contracts to newly-admitted students, that enrollment contract list of all-encompassing circumstances – “war, civil strife, labor unrest, extreme weather conditions, pandemics, or other events” made new sense to me. Many people around the world face these terrible conditions every day; many generations have confronted such challenges and emerged stronger. We will indeed make more than a “good faith effort” to make this spring a successful, if “modified,” educational experience for each of our students. It is our great hope that as of the end of April, much of the uncertainty around the COVID-19 pandemic will be resolved; safe and reasonable ways to conduct life on our campus will be possible, and we will move forward with the rest of our spring plans on the grounds. So, caution and confidence are the order of these days as we move ahead.

Please look for the next round of information on classes, schedules, and SPSpring2020 on Thursday, March 19.

Sincerely,

Kathleen C. Giles
Rector