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Message from the Head of School
A MESSAGE FROM JOHN R. PACKARD JR. HEAD OF SCHOOL
Emerging with Possibility
As the spring and our final stretch of this distinct 2020–2021 school year hits full stride, we are finding more and more to be excited about every day. While April in North Andover can sometimes feel more like winter than spring, we have enjoyed better-than-usual weather and have taken advantage of all 270 acres we have at our disposal. In stark contrast to our empty campus last year at this time, we have had scores of students engaged in and out of classrooms, in activities they are passionate about and with friends who mean the world to them. Our campus is more full and alive than it has been at any point since the pandemic began, and we continue to move closer to being with one another here at 1160 Great Pond Road in ways that have been beyond reach since last March. We are steadily emerging from all the cumbersome restrictions that have been with us for more than one year now, and it feels good to be looking ahead to possibilities we are eager to explore.
I shared my view with prospective students and families through their decision-making process that there will perhaps never be a better year to be at Brooks School than the 2021–2022 school year. We will shake free from COVID-19’s grip and explode out of this pandemic as grateful as we have ever been to be here and living without the restrictions that have been in our way. We will have opportunity to apply the wisdom and experience we have picked up over the past year-plus and do much more than simply return to what we were forced to leave behind. I do not know that there has been a time in any of our 94 school years with more reason to feel profoundly confident in our ability to confront obstacles and find ways forward.
In this year, we have taught and learned differently in person, on screens and while doing both at the same time. We have operated with constantly evolving schedules. We have engaged in new and broader efforts aimed at growing our cultural competency and fostering full belonging and inclusion for all members of our community. We reimagined afternoon programs in ways that brought an incredible breadth of opportunity to students. Our collective facility with technologies that have kept us connected while physically apart has grown exponentially — even I have learned how to live-stream an event! And, we have managed to stay remarkably healthy in the midst of a once-in-a-century pandemic.
We have also learned a great deal from what we have lost and missed. We cannot re-create games against other schools that were never played, or plays and concerts that were never performed, or services in Ashburn Chapel that would have brought all of us to our feet. There is no substitute for being shoulder to shoulder as a school in all of the settings that reveal the talent, courage and passion in our midst. It is exciting to know we will feel and appreciate these experiences more than ever as they return to our lives. They make us whole.
My hope is that a new and continually evolving normal will take hold on our campus as we move through the spring and summer and into a new school year. The past 15 months have provided a laboratory of sorts for trying new approaches and understanding more fully what we do not want to live without. If we are to properly honor the spirit and grit our students, faculty and staff brought to this very challenging year of learning anew and doing without, we must leverage what we have learned as we emerge from the pandemic’s shadow in pursuit of new possibilities and an even better Brooks. We will do just that, and what exciting work it will be.
