Dear Wooster Community,
As we conclude our third week of distance learning, I am writing with the sad news that though we are seeing some encouraging news relative to the mitigation and suppression of COVID-19 -- and I thank you all for the role that you have played by living within the Governor's guidelines -- nothing indicates that it will be safe for us to get back to "business as usual" before June 12, so we will be continuing with distance learning through the end of the school year.
Before getting into more detail about how this unfortunate circumstance will impact the rest of the year, I did want to reiterate my gratitude to our teachers, students, and parents for the truly remarkable equanimity that you have shown in the face of this upheaval to our lives. We truly are a community that "knows what to do when we don't know what to do." Good for us!
As we move into this next phase of distance learning, next week we will be announcing some changes to the daily schedule, and our methodologies, that are products of the feedback that we've gotten, our continued research, and the experience of having taught and learned from a distance for three weeks now. These changes will be designed to provide more time for teachers to proactively meet with their students, slightly reduce the length of the daily instructional blocks, pull back on the number of advisory meetings, and shorten the day in general, without losing teacher/student contact time.
We are also pushing back the dates for Parent-Student-Teacher Conferences to Wednesday, April 29 and Thursday, April 30. This will give us a little more distance learning experience to talk about, and a bit more time to refine our technological solution to scheduling (we found one).
I also want to reassure our Seniors and their families that we will be having Commencement Exercises of some kind. Because of the uncertainty all around us, we can't say exactly what it will look like, but we are going to get something special done either way - you gotta trust me on this one. Also, stay tuned for an update early next week on plans for Senior Send Off.
I could say more, but I won't, because it is Friday night and we all need a break. Enjoy the weekend in health and wellness.
All the best,
Matt Byrnes
Head of School
Wooster School Distance Learning Information Webpage