From the Head of School Dear Friends, In my fall letter to you, I reflected on Homecoming 2019, writing about the value of coming home. If I had only known then how true those words would ring just a few months later when our collective country was told to do just that...come home, and stay there. When we left for Spring Break, we were unsure of what the coming days and weeks would hold. In a matter of days, our 86 teachers transitioned traditional, in-person instruction to virtual. Our administrative staff shifted to home offices. On March 26, for the first time in 272 years, Wilmington Friends School went live, online, as our country grappled with the coming pandemic. And on April 24, we found out we would not be returning to school for the remainder of the year. While the classrooms were empty, the theaters and athletic fields quiet, our students showed remarkable resilience and flexibility, as did their parents, guardians, and teachers, many of whom were juggling not just their own work schedules, but now their children’s school schedules as well. We saw pets helping with school work and we held a virtual spring signing day for our future collegiate athletes. Third graders Zoomed with National Park Rangers, and there were Spirit Weeks at home. We held our informal spring concert and serenaded neighbors from our porches. Students met with playwrights and competed in a math league competition. Our baseball team raised money for the Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition and our fourth graders built Mars Rovers with instructions from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The learning was undoubtedly different, but the way that we connected and rose to the challenge was nothing short of inspiring. While some parts of virtual learning were joyous indeed, there was a deep sense of loss, particularly, and understandably, amongst our senior class. They mourned the spring of senior year they would never have, the traditions they would never experience. The prom they would never attend. The noise parade that would never occur in the WFS halls. The drama productions that would never get a final bow. The athletic contests that would never be won. Some of these traditions still happened, just in a different manner, like the noise parade that made its way through the streets of Alapocas, rather than through the halls of school. We celebrated the Class of 2020 with yard signs and Instagram posts, a Senior Day drive-through, and eventually, a commencement ceremony on Tattersall Field on July 18. We are incredibly proud of the work that has been done, including the fact that not one faculty or staff member was furloughed as a result of the pandemic. Our Plan Ahead Committee worked on several different scenarios for the 2020-2021 school year as we awaited direction from the governor of Delaware. Our biggest challenge was determining what was right for an incredibly diverse group of students––from three-year-olds to eighteen-year-olds––as well as keeping in mind that we are in the unique position of having students commute to WFS from four different states. We remain mindful of the regulations and guidelines, which seem to change daily. We are researching and formulating instructional strategies to engage students in both in-person and remote learning. We must also address the social and emotional needs of our students and faculty. As of writing this letter, our plan is to begin the year in a hybrid fashion, offering both inperson and remote learning. We do not know what is coming, but we know that school will not look like what it did when we left on March 12. Amidst a global pandemic came a global awakening unlike any I have ever seen as our country struggled with the senseless deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, among others. The conversations I have had in the past month with alumni, faculty, students, and parents about race and equality in our country and school have been difficult and absolutely necessary. It is fitting that the Quaker testimony we will focus on for the 2020-2021 school year is Equality. As you know, Quakers have a long history of speaking out against injustice, but it is now time to turn these conversations with parents, students, and alumni of color into actions. As a school, we will look at how we can address these injustices and systematic racism in our country and in our community. As Tess Beardel ’17 said in our June community Meeting for Worship, “We have to work harder to become a society that works together for each other.” With all that has happened this year as a school and as a country, we must, of course, keep our eye continually on the future. The projected sale of the Lower School building to Incyte and subsequent move to one campus continues to move forward. We continue to prepare to celebrate the 275th year of Wilmington Friends School in 2023. There is so much to look forward to. I look forward to the sound of children’s laughter once again filling our hallways. I look forward to witnessing a student’s revelation as they solve a challenging problem. I look forward to sitting among friends as we take in one of the year’s musical performances. I look forward to sitting in the stands cheering on our teams. I look forward. In Friendship,
Summer 2020 • QuakerMatters
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