JOHN BURROUGHS SCHOOL
R EPORTER WINTER 2021
Even in a Year Like This One ... Teachers and students rally in a hybrid learning model that focuses as much on connection as on content.
Senior Assembly on September 2 was livestreamed from the Quad to students in grades 7 through 11.
Spring 2020 was beyond tough. The first case of COVID-19 in Missouri was confirmed in St. Louis County on March 7. Two weeks later, the county closed all schools — a closure that was soon extended by the governor through the end of the school year. We had already begun to work on an educational plan that would ensure continuity from classroom instruction to remote (at-home) learning, focusing as much on connection as on content. Like their peers everywhere, our kids and faculty rallied around the challenges, finding new ways to do the important work and sustain their important relationships. Over the summer, the administration prepared for multiple scenarios, from a full-scale return to campus to a continuation of 100 percent remote learning. Our goal, always, was to have as many students, faculty and staff on campus as was safe. We began and ended the fall semester using a hybrid system in which virtually all faculty worked from school and students, divided into two cohorts, alternated between on-campus and at-home learning. While still a far cry from the Burroughs experience we want for our students (and faculty!), our approach to
remote learning evolved substantially between March and August. By reducing the number of people on campus to less than 60 percent and through rigorous masking, social distancing and other layers of mitigation, we have been able to be in one another’s company safely. We have had a relatively small number of COVID-19 cases on campus, and, through contact tracing, we are confident that none of those cases were contracted at school. In addition to returning to some level of traditional in-classroom learning, kids can meet with teachers, participate in sports, engage in club activities, share sound-offs at assembly and more. At Burroughs, where relationships and the chemistry between students and faculty define every aspect of the experience, this has been a huge boost. Check out the photo/sports pages that follow to see some of what we’ve been able to do … even in a year like this one. I look forward to welcoming all our students … and parents/guardians, grandparents, alums and friends … to campus each and every day. That’s the way it should be. — ANDY ABBOT T
PUBLISHED BY JOHN BURROUGHS SCHOOL FOR ALUMNI, PARENTS AND FRIENDS
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Flexibility, Resilience & Resourcefulness
4
State Titles in Cross Country & Tennis
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Leadership: Katie Plax ’85 & Jim Schiele ’47
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Alumni Weekend Goes Virtual
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Alumni Award Recipients
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Alumni News & Notes
on the cover In the hybrid learning model, students (Grover Goffstein ’26, shown on cover) alternate between on-campus and at-home learning platforms.