RECTORY ACADEMICS RISE TO THE COVID CHALLENGE

By Dawn Chmura, Director of Communications

The 2021-2022 Academic year was a successful year at Rectory, even during the COVID-19 pandemic. There were many positive things that happened despite, and sometimes because of, the necessary changes due to COVID. Of the many adjustments made to the academic day, perhaps the biggest was offering two schools, one in-person for students in Kindergarten through Grade 9 and the other online for grades 5-9. Academic administrators determined that providing the two-school option would work better for families, whether near or far to Rectory’s campus. (Read “Reopening Rectory Under the COVID Pandemic” in the Fall 2020 Issue of The Rectory News.)

Scheduling Academics Under COVID Restrictions “We spent a lot of time preparing for the school year, specifically with scheduling. In addition to normal planning, there were so many things we needed to consider that we never had to think about before,” Director of Academics Lisa Hart said.

Chief among the scheduling challenges was the need to create a special schedule in the middle school that supported both student cohorts and teachers who were teaching in-person and online. The schedule consisted of orange and black days with five of seven classes meeting each day (Blocks 1 & 2 or Blocks 6 & 7 met for an hour in the morning every other day, while Blocks 3, 4, & 5 met for 40 minutes each day). The online academic day ran 6:00-10:30 a.m., and the in-person school ran 8:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m, with approximately 80 percent of learning specialists and over 50 percent of middle school teachers teaching both online and in-person. The schedules were structured so online classes met for two classes before 8:00 a.m. and three classes afterward. In-person middle school students met for an e-assembly each morning at 8:00. Online students joined the e-assembly twice a week, enabling the entire middle school community time together. Online students also met for a special online assembly on Wednesdays, a community-building “Game On” assembly on Fridays, and extra enrichment time throughout the week. These additional online assemblies gave Rectory’s online students more opportunities to engage with one another and their teachers. After assembly, online students met for their final three classes, and in-person middle school students began their classes as they would in a typical year, albeit with the same black and orange day rotation as the online students. Rather than students rotating rooms, primary cohorts remained together, and teachers rotated to the students’ primary classrooms. In addition to the mid-morning break, lunchtime was extended to 90 minutes. Students would alternate between eating lunch in the dining hall, enjoying recess time, and meeting with their advisors or teachers for extra enrichment time.

“We knew that cohorting and classroom restrictions were going to be difficult for the students. We believed it was essential for them to be able to run around outside, so we built in

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Rectory worked hard, and they got us safely through a difficult year, and it showed this was a good community that I wanted to be a part of. It also showed me that there are people who never give up. That’s how I want to be, someone who doesn’t give up, someone that strong.” -Mohamed M. ’22

extra recess time in addition to the mid-morning break,” said Glenn Ames, assistant head of school and director of middle school.

The non-rotating middle school schedule enabled the elementary school related arts classes to standardize their class times. Director of Elementary Maria Carpenter said, “We loved that related arts classes in the elementary school were at a standard time of day. This allowed every classroom to have a related arts teacher come into the classroom, giving elementary school teachers collaborative time for planning.”

The alteration in the middle school schedule allowed the elementary school Individualized Instruction Program (IIP) to move to the block after school in one of the elementary classrooms. “Ms. [Willa] Gustuvson stayed to monitor the kids while learning specialists were at home Zooming in with the kids. This consistency was great,” said Mrs. Carpenter.

Adults Supporting Adults During COVID One only needs to read or listen to the news to know that there are concerns that COVID affected teaching and learning in the past 1824 months. But Rectory adults are experts at supporting students and COVID only made the School stronger in this area. Perhaps the most vital cog in the wheel is the familial support the adults in Rectory’s community always provide to one another, thus reinforcing the total strength of the entire system.

“Any plan is only as good as the people who are going to implement it and make it work every day,” said Director of Teaching and Learning Rebecca Pagitt-Mungai. “I think about what we asked people do, day in and day out, and they did it. When someone was sick or needed to be out, we had people who jumped in and subbed. Even office people came into the classrooms to cover classes. It never seemed like it was a burden to anyone; everyone just pitched in. That’s one thing I will always be grateful for.” It was indeed a team effort with members from every department—from the faculty and administrative staff to facilities and medical professionals. Everyone worked closely with one another to accomplish tasks both large and small.

Having our on-campus infirmary has never been so important. School nurses, led by Jennifer Dumais, kept the community informed and instilled a sense of well-being in everyone. Mrs. Carpenter said, “Mrs. Dumais was always there if the classroom teachers or parents had questions. I called just about every day with some medical questions, and they were so good about providing the information. THAT was a huge part of making this work.”

Maintenance and facilities increased ventilation, helped with daily cleaning, and put up plexiglass in classrooms. With the additional protection, the science classrooms and lab spaces were in near full use. “Everyone worked in unison to make this year successful. All of the steps we were taking kept us safe. Having protocols in place and then having the flexibility to increase the number of COVID tests administered had an impact on how we were able to support our students,” said Mrs. Hart.

The incredible efforts of the teachers and staff have enabled our children not only to endure but also to thrive during these unprecedented and challenging times.” -Alyssa Walker P’25 P’27

Adults Supporting Students During COVID Because the teachers were feeling safe and supported, they were then able to ensure their students felt safe and supported, whether online or in-person.

“Getting everyone aligned was important,” said Mrs. Hart. “We created a baseline in our learning management system, and expectations were very detailed. This baseline ensured that the student experience, whether in-person or online, was consistent because class pages all looked similar.”

“One thing we learned in the spring of 2020 with distance learning was to set specific expectations for online students,” said Mr. Ames. “We were very clear about needing to see faces and hear voices throughout each class. Because we set those expectations, we were able to carry that over to the online school this year. We spent a lot of time with the students who tended to want to fade away online. We took a lot of time with communication, and that’s one thing that made the online school successful.”

“We did that just as much with our in-person students because they were experiencing different things,” continued Mrs. Hart. “We surrounded our in-person students with support and were constantly checking on the students’ social/emotional well-being.”

Evening study halls for boarding students were in dorm rooms this year, rather than in small group settings typical in normal years. Some students thrived in this environment while others struggled. “We recognized that there were kids who were falling between the cracks,” said Mr. Ames. “We put an extra study hall and extra systems in place where everyone could get on board to help support these students. Each student had to fill out a goal sheet for study hall. What do you have for assignments? What do you want to accomplish? What is your plan? This is something that we will now institute across the board. Because of their struggles, students started to understand more about how they learn, and we learned more about what kind of environment and support they need.”

“In the elementary school, because the students weren’t able to work together, teachers created a lot of different workstations in their classrooms,” said Mrs. Carpenter. “So during math, for example, some students would work with the teacher, some would work with iPads, some would work on things the teachers had set up on the rug. There was a lot of flexibility and creativity in how we could present the curriculum and knowledge in different ways, and teachers really engaged the students.”

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The teachers and faculty at Rectory anticipated what the children would need while they learned in a whole new world. They knew how unsettling and difficult it would feel for the children and created not just an academic schedule, but a Rectory COMMUNITY Schedule. Ashley was supported academically, socially and emotionally. This has always been the case at Rectory, but the emphasis was placed WHERE it was needed most at a time WHEN it was needed most.” -Roberta Fahey P’17, P’19, P’23

Pictured: Roberta’s daughter, Ashley ’23

Fear of the “COVID Slide” The Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA), an American research-based not-for-profit organization that supports students and educators, indicated that students were likely to retain only 70 percent of gains in reading and less than 50 percent in math from the 20192020 academic year. These educational losses will likely be most pronounced with students in earlier grades. The compounded effects of school closures due to COVID-19 and the summer break could wreak havoc on students’ retention of learning. This is known as the COVID slide. (www. goguardian.com/blog/what-is-the-covid-slide)

“When we started in the fall, we had 60 new students,” said Mrs. Hart. “We read in some of the applications that parents were concerned about where their child was academically because they didn’t have confidence in the learning experience their child had last year. A gap was not our concern. Our concern is where our students are and where we can bring them.”

“We were constantly monitoring between regular classwork to standard scores what areas needed to be attended to,” said Mrs. Pagitt-Mungai. “We never had to discuss a COVID slide.”

“There was no gap in the elementary school,” said Mrs. Carpenter. “The kids did well academically. We couldn’t collaborate with resources, but the teachers found different ways to present their information. They had the time to present all of their curriculum and more, and they felt really good about what they did.” According to Mrs. Carpenter, COVID also improved attendance. “Attendance was great,” she said. “If they didn’t have to stay home because they were a close contact, there was rarely a student who was out sick. There weren’t a lot of appointments, so students didn’t need to leave school for dentist or doctors’ appointments. When they were in school, they were there for the entire day.”

Building Community Even More Important Rectory adults pride themselves on building genuine and lasting relationships with their students. There was concern that COVID restrictions, both in-person and online, would hinder the relationship building that naturally occurs during a typical school year. “As we

I was a part of the online school, and I thought it would only be classes, but Rectory did a lot of online activities that helped me feel like I was a part of what was

happening on campus.” -Siying “Rella” W. ’22

Rella was chosen as a dorm proctor for the 2021-2022 academic year.

went through the scheduling process, we tried to create environments to build community,” said Mrs. Hart. “Before the beginning of the fall term, we had 19 middle school faculty members who volunteered to work together on topics like community building. There was a lot of work that went into the preparation for faculty, so when they came back and had to teach both online and in-person, they were able to build that sense of an integrated community.”

Those efforts worked so well that sometimes the lines blurred between which students were in-person and which students were online. “Mrs. Hart and I used to joke that we swore we saw these kids in the buildings,” laughed Mrs. Pagitt-Mungai. “We were talking with them so much that we thought they were here on campus. We had to remind ourselves that they were online. This is such a great group of kids, and they are all coming on campus for fall 2021, which is fantastic. I feel like we know them, but we’re looking to see how their personalities unfold on campus.”

“I have a little Momma pride,” said Mrs. Hart. “I was so excited to see some of our online students who have only ever been online earn proctorships for the upcoming year. They will be proctors on a dorm because they demonstrated that they could be leaders despite not being on campus this year. It says a lot about our faculty that these students felt comfortable enough to apply to be proctors and that they were able to articulate and understand Rectory so well that they could share and understand what the expectations were. It’s going to be fun to see them in the hallways, and I think they are going to be very excited to be here on campus because they know so many people already.”

Strong relationships weren’t just built with adults. Faculty wanted to make sure that parents continued to feel involved so communications back home to families were even more critical. Mrs. Pagitt-Mungai said, “I’ve had more conversations with parents than in any prior year. For most of this year, parents couldn’t visit campus, so we found informal ways to communicate; we Zoomed with some parents while they were outside in the parking lot before picking up their kids. I want to encourage our community to continue having those conversations with parents.”

“I’ve never heard over the course of one year from so many parents about how grateful, and appreciative they were for what we were doing for their children,” said Mrs. Carpenter. “It’s interesting when you think about it because they [parents] weren’t allowed out of their cars. I’m so excited to hopefully be able to welcome parents into the buildings this year because we’ve missed them.” Mrs. Hart emphasized the open lines of communication and collaboration for everyone involved in teaching our students this year: “In a year when separation was needed, and there was so much isolation, you can see that Rectory responded with a lot of thought and collaboration. Not just between the faculty in faculty workrooms but also with parents and administration and across departments. Intentional collaboration was a huge backbone to our success.”