Letter from the Head

In 2016, UHS unveiled a strategic design that was based on a vision for the school. One strand of the design was to remain a strategically nimble institution, engaged in learning, reflection, and growth on all levels. We knew that maintaining a posture of self-reflection and curiosity would be critical as we took deep dives into issues around student wellness, sustainability, assessment, equity and access, research-based decision-making, and curricular design.

When early stories about the coronavirus began popping up in our newsfeeds, most Americans watched from a comfortable distance and carried on with life as usual. On February 27, several senior UHS administrators boarded planes for the National Association of Independent Schools annual conference in Philadelphia. An impromptu session was held that evening, giving advice about this novel coronavirus and answering legal and operational questions about spring break and international travel. The session addressed crisis leadership and reassured school heads that “you’ve got this—this is not unlike crises we have been through before…”

School heads across the country were a mere fortnight away from closing our campuses; conferencing with the health department and medical and epidemiology experts; and partnering with our boards and legal counsel as we faced significant educational, financial, communication, and human-resources questions. In a matter of days, we adapted to the seismic shift of delivering our programs remotely while also maintaining equity, access, and security for our families.

At UHS, the combination of a strong leadership team, dedicated faculty and staff, tireless parent volunteers, and a resilient student body made for successful transitions, not only to this new mode of teaching and learning, but to a whole new way of being as a school community. Wellness and connection were central to our work as we organized clubs and affinity spaces online, sent care packages to students and teachers, and planned a virtual graduation for the Class of 2020.

The admissions team changed its policy on standardized testing and spent the summer completely reimagining the way it will recruit, admit and enroll the Class of 2025. College counseling has been keeping pace with the shifting sands of college admissions, and the development department had to redouble its efforts to meet and exceed the annual fund goal and move the San Francisco Decorator Showcase (whose proceeds go to our financial aid program) launch to fall and online.

The technology team secured up-to-date devices and internet access for all students (including our Summerbridge students who had a virtual summer), and deans delivered grocery gift cards to families in need. The Board of Trustees approved an additional $300,000 for emergency tuition assistance and retooled the 2020–21 budget for durability in the face of numerous unknowns.

Academic leadership turned on a dime, as we revised the schedule to modulate the pace of online learning in the final spring quarter, and then restructured the 2020–21 academic calendar to allow for a more effective and flexible way to pivot between virtual and in-person teaching and learning. Over the summer, our faculty offered enrichment and for-credit courses to more than 300 students (including incoming ninth graders) and took a two-week course themselves to prepare for delivering an even more effective program this fall.

Julia Russell Eells, head of school

the facts, remaining in regular communication around decisionmaking, building trust, conveying preparedness and reliance on expertise and relevant information, and responding to concerns with honesty and openness. Not only was I called on to meet that leadership challenge; I was privileged to watch leadership in action in every corner of our virtual campus.

Perhaps the most impressive was the leadership displayed when a second crisis befell us on May 25, when George Floyd was killed at the hands of the Minneapolis police. Our students, faculty, staff, and families all put that tragedy, as well as the realities of the pandemic’s impact on marginalized communities, on the front burner, as we gathered in affinity spaces to process, discussed evolving stories in the media, and held our school and ourselves accountable for redoubling our commitment—and taking action on it—to live the words of our Equity and Community Statement. Our Black Student Union leaders have called for curricular change and enhanced antiracist training, and our alumni are holding up a mirror for us to further examine the necessity for a shift in our culture.

When we built our strategic design four years ago, there was no way to predict that the commitment to be (and to practice) being nimble and self-reflective, with a focus on learning and growth, would strengthen UHS’s readiness and resilience in this unprecedented moment. The most seasoned leadership knows that during a crisis, the vision and core values of an institution are stress-tested in ways that can be affirming to the endurance of those key words and phrases. We are by no means through the crises of the pandemic and the structural racism that is endemic in our country. However, UHS students, faculty, staff, families, and trustees are committed to steering through this unique storm together, aided by the guideposts we built during fairer weather.

A LEGACY OF PERSEVERANCE

Tomicia Blunt is a UHS alumna, class of 2017, who served as student body president her senior year. She is now a senior at the University of Puget Sound. Throughout her time at UHS, she was involved in a host of enriching programs and clubs that influenced her present-day interests, namely the arts program and writing for the student newspaper, the Devil’s Advocate. Tomicia advanced through the ceramics program and completed AP Studio Art in her senior year. The arts program solidified her desire to be involved with visual arts, as she found it an amazing outlet for self-expression and cultural expression, and the Devil’s Advocate helped her to channel her passion for arts, entertainment, and culture through writing. Her love of journalism transitioned into an interest in advertising, which led her to her current desire to pursue fashion entrepreneurship post-graduation.

When the coronavirus pandemic started, it was hard to imagine that we would still be struggling to recover months after it arrived on the scene. As most of us have realized by now, the normal we previously knew is lost to us, but the opportunity to create a new normal is here. Not only have the last few months turned our personal lives upside down, but we have also watched upheaval on a national and global scale. I know I could not have made it through months of sudden change and national unrest without my support system. I’m sure it took everyone at UHS, from students to administrators, banding together to encourage and support one another during unprecedented times. Even though we still have a long journey ahead, I believe it’s important to be grateful for how far we have come. The resilience, agility, and compassion displayed by our students, faculty, staff, and families made a significant impact in the way the coronavirus pandemic was handled. Last month, I had the pleasure of Zoom meetings with Head of School Julia Eells and Dean of Teaching and Learning Byron Philhour, to learn about the ways that the school reacted and responded to the various challenges and realities brought to light by COVID19. They each provided me with insight into what UHS has been like since the pandemic began. By sharing anecdotes from their first-hand accounts, I hope to help readers visualize what it was like to lead and support UHS students, faculty, staff, and families during tumultuous times. Before the formal interview began, Julia and I were catching up, and I was explaining to her that COVID-19 had thrown a wrench into my spring plans. I was studying fashion and British culture in London until I was sent back home in anticipation of closure of the U.S. border. It was a devastating blow for me and for my peers who were abroad, because our experience was cut short. For most of my peers it was their first time out of the country, and they were finally studying their passions, which were unavailable to them at their home universities. I and some others were working at dynamic internships that taught us a lot about our future career fields. It was difficult for us all to accept that we had to abruptly leave our respective countries and all the friends we had made on our journeys, or plans we had yet to execute. Our peers back in the U.S. faced a different set of challenges. Many students left campus for spring break, and assumed they would return as they had planned, but most universities denied students the opportunity to return, due to the fast-spreading pandemic. College seniors were devastated that their final year was suddenly ripped away from them. My graduating friends were heartbroken and confused. As I shared my college woes, I began to think about the high school students who would not be able to experience prom, graduation, or other monumental high school traditions.

My brain began to pepper with questions, so I focused on the most pertinent one: “What was the campus climate like when COVID became serious?” Julia said that the overarching feeling at the time was that a COVIDrelated campus closure would be short-term. Although the UHS administration shared information about practicing good hygiene and outlined the potential impact on families, most community members did not anticipate that we would be living with the realities of COVID longer than several weeks. San Francisco was among the first cities to lock down, and UHS followed suit, becoming the first independent school in the city to close campus and launch distance learning. Even though going into lockdown was the right thing to do, worry still lingered, primarily around the question, “Will we have the collective fortitude to do what it takes to beat this virus?” Julia notes that working together, with the inherent understanding that it may require personal sacrifice, is not necessarily embedded in the American psyche. When global disaster strikes, it is easy to distance one’s individual needs and desires from the broader community’s needs, creating divisions between “me” and “them.” Both Julia and Byron noted how important it was for individuals to overcome the “distance mentality” sooner rather than later, because issues that only existed abroad were now at our community’s doorstep. The increased proximity of the coronavirus pandemic to the U.S. left many in the UHS community asking, “What happens next?”

After UHS closed the campus, it transitioned into distance learning. Students and faculty followed the same schedule, with six classes meeting three times a week over Zoom. After two weeks with this schedule, students and faculty were equally exhausted, and new challenges arose. The school’s biggest concern was ensuring that all students had the same opportunity to succeed. It became very clear that COVID-19 challenged the idea of school as “the great equalizer,” since many stress factors influence a student’s ability to complete work at home, such as a parent’s presence or absence in the home, internet access, child-care responsibilities, mental health challenges, and food and housing insecurities. Byron shared that for many UHS students these stressors either were not previously present or were amplified due to COVID, which drastically increased the need to reform the daily schedule and

March 11, 2020

UHS announces closure of entire campus, with online distance learning to begin March 16, due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

to reevaluate some assessment assumptions. As a result, UHS shifted to an interim grading system that allowed for students to focus on getting the most out of the online experience without the pressure of traditional grading practices. In addition to a new, less taxing daily schedule, assessment practices were changed, and new rubrics for success were created, to account for good-faith engagement and decrease emphasis on a high-stakes final product or exam. UHS also increased its mental health and wellness resources to accommodate these changes so that students, faculty, or staff would have adequate resources to use if they were struggling with their mental health. Julia notes that COVID allowed UHS and other independent schools to adopt practices that are equitable around project-based learning and assessment.

The next obstacle UHS faced was figuring out how they could help. students maintain meaningful connections while online. In addition to the changes in cherished traditions like prom and graduation, regular social and community gatherings, such as All-School Meeting, sports, and some clubs, could not take their usual forms, leaving students feeling an enormous sense of loss. Even within these obstacles, there were a few silver linings. Cluster meetings transitioned onto Zoom rather well, and students looked forward to weekly sessions to decompress and catch up with their peers and their mentors. The Spring Musical was a huge accomplishment, bringing the community together in a previously unimaginable way. Instead of cancelling the performance due to stay-at-home orders, the Spring Awakening cast performed over Zoom and put on an outstanding show. Students and faculty were texting each other, sharing their awe of the professional-level performances and production, as well as with the play’s resonance in today’s times. Spring Awakening is a coming of age rock musical set in late-19th-century Germany that showcases the tumultuous lives of teenagers as they grapple with adolescent sexuality. Attendance at the play was record-breaking, which shows that students, parents, alumni, and faculty and staff all looked forward to reconnecting with their community in a meaningful way. And clubs—especially affinity-based clubs—became a crucial space for maintaining relationships.

As the semester wrapped up, the news of George Floyd’s murder on May 25 shook the UHS community. Beginning in Minnesota, and quickly spreading across the country and the globe, people mobilized to protest Floyd’s unjust murder of George Floyd. Later, people mobilized in memory of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman who was fatally shot by police in her home in Louisville, Kentucky. It was hard for the UHS community to, in Byron’s words, “disappear into summer feeling raw, angry, afraid, anxious, and alone.” Faculty, staff, and students remained very much in touch throughout the summer. Teachers led affinity spaces, and summer enrichment and for-credit courses were held, keeping connection alive during these challenging months. Clubs also continued working through the summer to support students. The Black Student Union (BSU) was one of these clubs. In addition to providing peer support, the BSU wrote the administration a letter with a list of demands for institutional change, including holding UHS accountable for offering a less Eurocentric history curriculum. The letter also called for continued teacher training around connecting with students of color and supporting their UHS experiences. To address these concerns, in the 2020–2021 school year, UHS will engage in curriculum review to find ways to improve department curriculum and programs. Their next objective is to implement more focused professional development around cultural competency. Their final change is to reserve certain Wednesdays during the school year in order to hold space to discuss relevant issues in the world and to foster better interpersonal relationships within the UHS community.

Although the Class of 2020 experienced an abrupt ending to its final year at UHS, its members have also left a legacy of perseverance and leadership at UHS. As Byron states, this generation of students “understands more than anyone that the world is nonlinear and nothing goes as planned.” The Class of 2020’s resilience in persevering through loss has assured the faculty and staff who have worked closely with them that they have the courage and endurance necessary to tackle future obstacles they will face. I hope that they continually remain honest with themselves about their positionalities and their responsibilities in the world. They are stepping out on their own, with the tools to do the hard work of facing the many challenges that COVID-19 has exposed. n

March 16, 2020

The Development Team announces that the San Francisco Decorator Showcase 2020, and all gatherings associated with the event will be rescheduled.

Summerbridge notifies its families of UHS physical campus closure through April 10, moving their After-School Enrichment (ASE) classes to online virtual classes.

Admissions Outside the Box

— Nate Lundy, Director of Admissions

The high school admissions process in 2020–2021 promises to be like none before. With COVID-19 restrictions in mind, we have restructured our admissions process with a focus on accessibility, simplicity, and transparency. Although we are not able to welcome families and applicants in-person during the admissions season this year, we strive to generate an authentic experience of our facilities, classrooms, and community for them. They will experience the effectiveness of our teachers both in and out of the classrooms and will feel what it’s like to “walk the halls” in South Campus, where visual arts and language illuminate the building. They will even get to chat with our student admissions ambassadors.

I know this may not be an easy year, but we are confident that, by the end of this admissions season, all prospective students and their families will have a genuine feel for our community and the unique experiences that define student life at UHS. We will do everything in our power to assist them in navigating the admissions process.

As students and families prepare to meet the challenges of a virtual admissions cycle, we’d like to highlight some of the modifications we’ve made to our process. Our hope is to meet eighth graders where they are, while still offering an in-depth glimpse of the definitive aspects of our school community.

ACCESSIBILITY

• No SSATs: With little equity available in the testing process, we want to assure that all of our applicants have the same access to applying to independent high schools. We will not be considering test scores this year.

Open Houses: We have shifted the times and days of our Open House events to provide more equitable options for various families’ time constraints and needs. In addition to our typical Saturday and Sunday afternoon events, a Wednesday evening event will be offered with more spaces and recordings available.

Classroom Experiences: In previous years, prospective students would be allowed to visit classrooms for a limited amount of time. This presented conflicts of interest for them, as they were forced to prioritize visiting UHS over their own important middle school classes. This year, we will pre-record classes across all grades and subjects. This will give all visitors unrestricted access to classes that may not be seen during a traditional visit, allowing them to visualize what a student’s four-year experience here at UHS may look like. Viewers will have access to these recorded classes at their leisure, alleviating scheduling conflicts and freeing up time for students to be even stronger members of their current school communities.

SIMPLICITY

• Handshake: It is always nice to have a quick and casual conversation with an applicant or their family. However, this year, we will not be able to accomplish this without complicating the process. With that in mind, we will host

“office hours” that can serve as a virtual handshake. These seven-minute time slots will allow anyone interested to connect with an admissions team member. They can ask questions, talk about the day, or just say hi!

Do What You Can: This process is set up for everyone involved to get what they need. We are not keeping tabs on how many events prospective students and their families attend. We recognize that they have busy lives, and we want to see the best versions of our applicants, so we encourage students and families to only attend the events that work for them!

TRANSPARENCY

• Parent/Guardian Sessions: We typically host these intimate events on campus in the mornings or evenings, to give parents and guardians a sense of how everything happens behind the scenes at

UHS. These sessions will be recorded and available for any and all to view. (This should also go under Accessibility, but these sessions are as transparent as they come!)

Interview: In place of the one-on-one interview model, we’re implementing a group interview in which up to six applicants combine to tackle various challenges together. This is a unique opportunity for applicants to show us who they are in a group setting.

Video: We are adding the inclusion of a one-minute video of the applicant. This is the applicant’s time to show us what is important to them.

We believe that the values that fuel UHS on a daily basis come alive throughout the admissions process. This is not an easy task to accomplish virtually. However, if any school community can make it happen, UHS can!

If you have any questions about our goals or our direction, please don’t hesitate to contact Nate Lundy at nate.lundy@sfuhs.org. n

March 17, 2020

Shelter-in-place order takes effect in six California counties including Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Mateo, San Francisco, and Santa Clara.