COMMUNIT Y IN ACTION
Bishop’s parents help shape the School’s response to the pandemic. By Trisha J. Ratledge
COMMUNITY IN ACTION 4
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rom afar, the scene was likely a peaceful throwback to pre-COVID days: two friends going for a run after dropping their daughters at soccer practice. But listen in on their conversation and reality sets in quickly. “There has to be a way to get kids back in school,” Chris Freundt, Bishop’s parent (Carina ’20, Cate ’22), remembers discussing with Fred Wu, a physician with Scripps Mercy Hospital, during their June 2020 run. “That opens everything up. Parents can get back to work, the community can open up, businesses can open up. It has a huge snowball effect.” They agreed that COVID-19 testing was the key. Dr. Wu had testing resources, but he couldn’t interest the public schools. Chris, a business development executive, knew how to reach the heads of independent schools throughout the county. Within a week, they had a group of interested schools and a rough plan. At the time, California was emerging in phases from an unprecedented statewide stay-at-home order issued on March 19 by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Bishop’s had shifted to distance learning at the same time. A growing understanding of how to address COVID-19 brought a glimmer of hope. Through careful planning and proper precautions, Bishop’s might be able to reopen its campus safely in the fall, at least in some capacity. What moved this plan from possible to probable were some powerful allies.
Bishop’s parents quietly stepped up from the beginning offering expertise, resources, pathways to solutions. Their guidance in everything from securing personal protective equipment to establishing a state-of-the-art testing program helped the School to move forward with purpose—and a plan. “At every stage in the pandemic, there were parents who wanted to help us,” says Michael Beamer, Bishop’s assistant head of school for internal affairs. “They were able to do so in ways that were meaningful to our capacity to be open and have students on campus. They have helped shape my work as we’ve institutionally responded to this pandemic.”
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In the early spring of 2020, it was clear that—in the absence of vaccines— personal protective equipment (PPE) would be essential in preventing the spread of the coronavirus. But demand for PPE simply outstripped supply. Shelves and stockrooms were bare. With a vendor recommendation and a generous gift, Mike and Karen Stone (Rachel ’17, Samantha ’20, Wyatt ’26) helped equip the School at this critical point, building early confidence through masks and face shields, latex gloves and hand sanitizer. “I had the good fortune of being in a group of investors in a company called Halo,” says Mike, founder and managing member of FS Investors and chief investment officer for the TPG Rise
Funds. “Early in the pandemic, Halo recognized the need for PPE and used its substantial supplier network, while maintaining reasonable prices, to pivot to supporting the wave of need.” Next was a detailed cleaning and sanitizing audit of the campus during the summer of 2020. Mark Minasian (Lukas ’26), CEO and co-founder of KBS, brought unique skills from his facilities management company to help develop a cleaning and disinfection program that was customized for the varied facilities on campus, featured codified standards and protocols and was verifiable. The first step was to understand the current program. “From there we began supporting Brian [Williams ’81, Bishop’s director of facilities,] and his team conducting building audits, which ultimately led to writing updated facility standards for each building type, engineering detailed workflows and frequencies, and suggesting approved products, chemicals and equipment,” Mark says. Inspection and validation protocols developed for the School feature highly sophisticated ATP testing used in health care settings and other high-stakes infection control environments, such as food manufacturing. With protective equipment and a cleaning/disinfection program in place, three Bishop’s parents led the way for COVID-19 testing. Jennifer Cayer (Maddie ’22), who has spent most of her career in biotech executive management positions, has a deep
