A P A R T...
Together How Country Day responded to COVID-19 and looks ahead to mitigate risk in the upcoming school year
MARCH 2. That’s the day the school sent its first communication to parents regarding the growing global concerns about the coronavirus, which included information on travel restrictions, steps the school was already taking to mitigate risk, and these two sentences: “Given the fastchanging nature of COVID-19, please know we are looking ahead to plan for the possibility of an extended school closure. Though the likelihood of this scenario appears remote at this time, we are developing contingency plans out of an abundance of caution.” 30
PERSPECTIVES
BY MARCH 10, several additional communications had gone out to parents, the Emergency Preparedness Team was meeting daily, a COVID-19 Preparedness Web page was launched, international travel protocols were developed with Spring Break fast approaching, and in-service faculty training for remote learning readiness was underway. ON MARCH 13, we began Spring Break a day early for students so that faculty could prepare for a scenario in which teachers returned to campus after break to deliver
lessons remotely to their students for a few weeks. We didn’t know then that March 12 would be the last day we would all be together on campus. ON MARCH 25, emergency remote learning began and in the ensuing weeks, as the crisis generated waves of news and information that could be confusing and contradictory at times, Country Day faculty, staff, students, parents, and alumni rose to meet the complex challenges of COVID-19. As always, we leaned on our mission, key values, and affirmation of community to guide us during this unchartered path in our school’s history.
