Good evening, Upper School families.
Like many of you, I live in a county where Governor Wolf has instituted COVID-19 mitigation efforts: social distancing, closure of non-essential businesses, restriction of non-essential travel, etc. While we typically visit my 91-year-old mother-in-law every night after dinner, we can no longer do so: Her assisted living facility now prohibits visitors. One of my daughters will do her SAT prep tutoring virtually tomorrow, and her surgery for wisdom teeth removal has been postponed indefinitely. My other daughter is lamenting the pause in her lacrosse season. In short, like you, I am trying to navigate these uncertain times at home.
And yet, as this interactive model makes patently clear, the speed and aggression with which we institute mitigation "interventions" in the U.S. will determine how few or how many Americans die from COVID-19. At Penn Charter, we endeavor to do our part to "flatten the curve" and slow the spread of the novel coronavirus to protect our community.
This weekend alone, the entire school underwent electrostatic and other deep cleaning, and the administrative team and faculty are preparing to educate and support your children in a distance learning format, should that be the safest option for the community, come the end of spring break and March 31.
To that end, as Darryl Ford mentioned last Thursday, we will be testing our distance learning technology tomorrow, Monday, March 16, at 10:00 a.m. with a 30-minute required advisory meeting. Each student will receive an invitation from their advisor to join a meeting through Google Meet, a feature available through our G Suite subscription. Please help us by ensuring that your child is prepared and ready to join their advisory via Google Meet at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow.
In addition to making sure that all students are up and running with Google Meet tomorrow, advisors will spend some time establishing a virtual rapport with the group and reviewing the following documents, which we will use after spring break if we are not able to reconvene school in person.
Meanwhile, I hope you and your kids can get outside, take up a new (or old) hobby, watch good movies, catch up on tasks at home, read some books (at the Hughes house, we have an hour of "family read" a day). I realize that social distancing, working under these conditions, and having your children home – none of these necessarily lends itself to downtime; however, I am trying to take advantage of extra time with my family. The other night we watched a completely underrated movie, Warrior, and tonight we are on to 1917, both amazing films about the love between two brothers.
Thanks for your patience and fortitude as we navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. Please tell your student that after advisory tomorrow morning they are officially on spring break – without homework, thanks to Dr. Ford. We will continue our work behind the scenes (and throughout spring break) to facilitate academic progress, foster meaningful engagement in school, and maintain relationships with students when we return on March 31.
Warmly,
Erin Hughes
Director of Upper School
P.S. If you anticipate any problems with your home internet connection or have any technology concerns, please contact our director of educational technology, Michael Moulton, at mmoulton@penncharter.com. Also, if you have Comcast as your carrier, here is an important message about Comcast increasing broad band during this crisis.