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The Beacon Fall 2020
Head Lines
Leadership in Crisis
By Jamie Williamson Head of The Windward School
O
n September 9, 2019, I began my first year at The uncertainty can manifest into less-than-productive conversations Windward School, fully committed to Windward’s and sharing of incomplete information, and invisible armies mission and energized by the challenges I knew lay ahead. emerge. These are the times when it is critical to stay on course, At the time, I was unaware that the transition would be defined and we at Windward were led by our vision of a world where every by its unprecedented and unforeseen challenges, both for me child with a language-based learning disability is empowered to personally and for us as a community. The start of the 2020-2021 achieve unlimited success. In practical terms, that meant crafting school year finds us stretching into our eighth month of navigating a reopening model that provided our students not only with new the COVID-19 health crisis, and its full health measures to keep them safe but also impact and lasting effects are becoming with robust academic supports, tools, and increasingly evident. Now more than ever, Now more than ever, social and emotional resources to help them it is paramount to look to our compass for thrive. It also meant stretching ourselves to it is paramount to clear direction: to the Windward mission grow within this moment. “[Right now,] we and its values, to finding opportunity in a once-in-a-lifetime chance to courselook to our compass have adversity, and to grounding ourselves in correct, to take what we have experienced and our commitment to our children. learned and create a vision for education that for clear direction: The National Academy of Sciences, is more inclusive, responsive, and purposeful to the Windward Engineering, and Medicine recently shared than it has ever been” (Edutopia, 2020). a news release emphasizing the importance Winston Churchill famously said, mission and its of reopening K-12 schools for in-person “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” I’ve instruction. It noted, “In grades K-3, children been considering those words seriously these values, to finding are still developing the skills to regulate their past several months as we reframe what opportunity in own behavior, emotions, and attention…. our educational environment looks like Schools should prioritize reopening for grades in a post-COVID-19 world. When we adversity, and to K-5 and for students with special needs who transitioned to remote learning last spring, would be best served by in-person instruction” grounding ourselves it was immediately clear how important (National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, fully integrated technology would be to the in our commitment and Medicine, 2020). For Windward, we program, both in the near and long term. knew that there would be dual priorities for Realizing on day three that our content to our children. reopening: both to expand the instructional management system would not be sufficient spaces available so that we could offer for our new needs, we pivoted, secure in the in-person instruction for all students and to ensure that students knowledge that we didn’t need more time with a broken system. In who opted into remote learning (either part- or full-time) received the short term, this switch presented additional challenges; however, the same quality and breadth of instruction as their in-person in the long term it has presented an amazing opportunity to think counterparts. Any changes made to facilities, protocols, and health about how technology can fit it into the framework of Windward. and safety measures had to remain guided by the core elements— A large part of the success of the remote learning program can comprehensive, multi-sensory, and language-rich direct be attributed to the adaptability of our families and their willingness instruction—that provide the backbone of our instructional model. to trust the leadership team with the major changes required. Our In times of crisis, people’s anxieties about widespread families’ confidence in Windward during this health crisis
