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A LETTER FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL
BY ALIXE CALLEN
st. george’s school
// FA L L / W I N T E R 2 0 2 0
From the Hilltop
E
ach of us has our own 2020 story – where we were when COVID “hit,” what quarantine looked like, how we adapted to the various restrictions. While I have no desire to relive these past nine months, I am glad to record them for posterity. 2020 started on a wonderfully positive note. We experienced a record admissions season for the second year in a row. Our boys’ basketball team won its first-ever ISL championship. The Board of Trustees approved the school’s first-ever Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategic Plan. The restoration of Memorial Schoolhouse was proceeding beautifully. As we rounded the corner into March, all eyes were on spring break and the various trips we had scheduled – our Global Studies class was headed to Portugal, our sailing and lacrosse teams to Florida, and our next Geronimo crew was due to meet the boat in the Dominican Republic. About a week prior to spring break, our Dean of Teaching and Learning, Justin Cerenzia ’01, approached me and said that he’d like to start working with Director of Technology Robyn Cavanagh on a plan for remote teaching – just in case the virus impacted our ability to get kids back to the Hilltop. While I was initially skeptical, I gave him my blessing. It couldn’t hurt, I figured. And with that, I took off for a vacation with my family in Europe. We were in Prague when President Trump announced that he was suspending travel from
Europe. With help from a very kind and generous trustee, we quickly made arrangements for our family’s return, and arrived back in the States on Friday evening, March 13. On my last night in Europe, I spoke with the school’s senior leadership team and the executive committee of the board of trustees. Together, we made the very difficult decision to postpone our students’ return from spring break. I spent the plane ride home writing a letter to our community, while Associate Heads of School Mervan Osborne ’86 and Beezie Bickford managed the preparations on campus. With that decision made, our first challenge was the pivot to remote teaching. Thanks to the amazing work of Justin Cerenzia and Robyn Cavanagh, we were well-prepared (p. 9). They developed a schedule that accommodated our students’ various time zones, figured out how to support those students in need of Wi-Fi, and helped teachers hone their virtual-teaching skills. Throughout that process, they helped us all to understand that we could not replicate our liveteaching practices in a remote setting. Thanks to their leadership and the incredible expertise of our faculty, we received very positive feedback about our approach to remote learning. Initially, we assumed that we would bring our students back to the Hilltop at some point in April. We held out hope for as long as possible, but ultimately determined that a return would be impossible. Among
