May 12, 2020
Dear Oakwood Community,
I hope this email finds you and your family safe and well. These past few months have been difficult on our entire school community as we each deal with the unique stresses and strains put on our families by COVID-19. I cannot express to you how different campus feels without all of you here, and I look forward to the time when we can all be together again.
Some of you have asked about our plans for next year. While there is no way to predict what the fall will hold, I can assure you that Oakwood is committed to a goal of safely opening school in person for the 2020-21 school year. With that goal in mind, we must also be flexible and responsive to variables outside of our control in order to address the residual effects of COVID-19 and social distancing. As a result, we are gathering information, conducting research, and working through a multitude of scenarios so that we will be positioned as well or better than any other school in the area to safely deliver continuous in-person education as long as governmental stay-at-home orders are not in place. For example:
- We have sufficient space on campus and small enough class sizes for students to participate in a typical in-person school day even if desks are required to be 6 feet apart.
- We have the ability to enter and exit most classrooms through exterior doors in Founders Hall, Joyner Hall, and Monk Hall.
- We are exploring ways to increase utilization of outdoor spaces for classroom use.
- We have already purchased a professional electrostatic backpack sprayer to disinfect all four buildings on a regular basis.
- We have increased our janitorial budget to allow for more frequent and thorough sanitizing and disinfecting of campus.
- We have purchased numerous hand sanitizer dispensers that will be installed throughout the school as well as several portable ones for the entrances.
- Our new daily schedule minimizes classroom transitions.
- We are establishing new policies and procedures related to health, wellness, and safety.
- Faculty and staff training to prepare for various scenarios.
I am also serving on the North Carolina Association of Independent Schools (NCAIS) Reopening School Task Force, a team composed of heads of school, assistant heads, and business officers from other independent schools who are establishing policies and procedures for the upcoming school year in response to COVID-19. This group will continue to work and plan together into the summer to provide guidance to schools as they prepare for the fall in an ever-changing COVID-19 landscape.
We know that many elements of your own expectation to send your children back on campus this fall will depend on the planning and decisions being considered now, so you have my word that we will share updates as soon as we can.
In closing, please know I am aware that it must be frustrating to keep hearing "we'll share updates when they're available." I am just as frustrated to not have all the answers at this point, but I can tell you that we are working hard to come up with them for you. There are many things we cannot control, including how or when we receive information that will inform final decisions on some fronts. What we can control is our commitment to communicating to you as often and effectively as we can, when we are confident we have got enough information to make smart and timely decisions. I humbly ask for your continued patience, and I promise you that we are not taking that patience for granted. Please remain mindful of your health and well-being, and, as overused as this phrase may be, hang in there with us. Your efforts have been extraordinary throughout this situation, and I thank you for the commitment and collaboration you have illustrated at every point along the way.
Please keep taking care of each other in any way we can, and we will get through this together.
Go Eagles!
