Navigating
the Unknown By Michele Godin
AS THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC SURGED, tens of millions of students across the United States spent the 2020-2021 academic year in a completely virtual or hybrid learning mode. The experience at The Episcopal Academy was very different, as most students spent 85% of their school year learning in-person, on campus. Providing students with an in-person experience required more than simple masking and social distancing protocols. Instead, the COVID-19 pandemic forced school leaders to rethink almost every aspect of the school year. Oftentimes, what might seem like a simple health and safety decision required intensive teamwork and significant reengineering in order to implement. From physical spaces, to the flow of a typical school day, to job roles and staffing models, to the ways in which we teach and engage our community, to our beloved traditions, and more, school leaders had to redesign everything to ensure our students could safely thrive on campus. Today, as we reflect on our success in keeping EA’s campus open, we celebrate the incredible efforts of our entire community. Our administrators, faculty, staff, parents, students, and alumni were committed to doing whatever it took to maintain in-person learning. The smiles on our students’ faces, visible even through their masks, made all of the sacrifices worth it in the end.
Join us in taking a behind-the-scenes look at how we overcame one of the most challenging moments in our school’s storied history.
6
Connections
