Keeping Our Students Safe

during COVID-19

Under the large white tent behind Souby Hall, a group of seniors sit socially distanced as they quiz each other for an upcoming biology test. In another tent just across the lawn, an Upper School music class works on sight-reading exercises while their teacher plays the keyboard. During lunch, the younger girls will gather here to eat pizza or sandwiches and chatter about their day, and after school they will giggle as they do handstands inside the tent while waiting for cross country practice to begin. The tents are one of the many measures Harpeth Hall took this school year to ensure the safety and health of our students and faculty. The 10 covered outdoor spaces — all with fun names like Spirit Bear tent and Care Bear tent — allow students to spread out while they learn. Across campus, myriad other safety systems are in place, and all of our families,

faculty, and staff have signed a Community Health Pledge, agreeing to follow the health and safety protocols to protect our community. Before the school day begins, everyone coming to campus completes a health screening questionnaire, alerting our two well-trained and caring full-time nurses to any COVID19-like symptoms they may have. If they aren’t feeling well, they stay home. At school, they visit the health clinic relocated for this year in our Athletic and Wellness Center. In our classrooms, protective plastic shields sit on faculty and student desks. Teachers open windows to let in the fresh air. Everyone on campus wears a mask. The entry points of all campus buildings have been designated as either “exit only” or “entrance only” to facilitate safe transitions. School hallways have been equipped with directional traffic pattern signage so that traffic flows in one direction only. Students and faculty clean their desks after every class with disinfecting wipes provided by the school. In the dining hall, students pick up a pre-packaged meal in a reusable container to take to one of the tents or to eat on Souby Lawn. The playground equipment is disinfected daily, and additional outdoor portable sinks and hand-sanitizer dispensers can be found throughout campus. Harpeth Hall hired additional day and evening cleaning crews to sanitize classrooms, restrooms, and common areas throughout the day and each evening. Though the safety measures may seem overwhelming — even intimidating at times — the students have shown how well they can adjust to new policies and embrace the call to care for each other. In her recent “Bears Repeating” piece, Head of School Jess Hill wrote: “Many times, we initiate changes that we fear will be disruptive for our students or community, and the girls take it in stride. They lead the way.” Indeed, behind their masks, our students are still smiling. They are asking good questions. They are thinking critically and leading confidently. And, through the choices they make to protect the wellbeing of their classmates and their teachers, they are living honorably.

“Each day of this unusual year, I am reminded of our students’ resilience, good humor, and good attitudes about all of our protocols,” Mrs. Hill wrote. “As adults, while we fretted over many new rules wondering how they could be enforced or implemented, our students led the way again. They want to do something for the common good. So much is out of their control, and when they know they can share in the responsibility of keeping us safe and in school, they earnestly do their part. “They have made sitting outside on a beautiful day while donning masks feel comfortable,” Mrs. Hill continued. “When they have a class discussion behind a plexiglass shield, it’s a piece of cake. They walk the long way to class now, easily floating downstream with the flow of foot traffic. And while we worried that eating lunch in two straight rows would feel strange, they assimilated smoothly. … Each day, we still witness the ‘ordinary magic of teaching,’ as Lisa Damour calls it.” Uncertainty still lies ahead. In a pandemic, no one can predict what will come next. But no matter the circumstance, Harpeth Hall has prepared for it. After starting the school year in a hybrid-learning model, we welcomed every student fully back to campus in mid-September. Should we need to transition again, even to our distance-learning model, we are ready. Our intrepid technology team installed cameras in every classroom for remote instruction. Teachers adeptly donned microphones and taught through Zoom, when appropriate. We provided the option for full-time distance learning to families who wanted their daughters to learn from home due to COVID-19 concerns. Our faculty continues to rise to the challenge of every new day, delivering the top-level education they always have. And our students are learning more than just what they read in their textbooks. “We may be overly worried about what our daughters are missing this year, because it is different from our experience,” Mrs. Hill wrote in her “Bears Repeating” blog. “But the girls may be absorbing bigger and more meaningful lessons than we did in school. No doubt they will carry these lessons with them into adulthood — not just until the bell rings at the end of the semester exam.”