Message from the Head of School

Dear Walker’s Community,

As I sit at my desk in 2022, I marvel that at this time last year and the year before, and the year before that, our worlds were about to metamorphose so radically, and we simply had no inkling. This is a special issue of the Sundial, an issue that is a retrospective of the last almost three years, representing the challenges confronted by everyone around the globe, but especially the impact on education and students. During this time, we focused our energies on managing the crises, ensuring the welfare of our students and adult community, both in terms of physical and mental well-being, and returning full-time to in-person teaching, which we have done for the last two years, albeit with various mitigation strategies coming into play at various times.

Three years ago, I worried about the logistics for our VITA students assisting families in lessadvantaged areas of Hartford with their tax returns, about our Valentine’s Day celebration, and what the winter semiformal might look like while balancing my travel to meet with alums and parents across the globe. Two years ago, I was fussing about whether and how we would manage in-person learning after our emergency distanced learning spring. Last year, we, like other schools, imagined that the crisis was behind us, not knowing that we would face a new variant of COVID-19 midyear, and return to some of the same necessary practices we had relinquished just months before. Perhaps it is just as well that Heads of Schools never know what lies ahead!

In the last two and a half years, we have faced many challenges: grappling with a turn-on-a-dime shifting to emergency remote learning via technology for all our students (kudos to our faculty!) How many person-hours have been spent coping with the flood of researching guidelines, planning, and preparation for school to re-open in person each year! That first year we reconstructed our campus with mountains of plexiglass barriers erected in our dining halls, one-way hallways, tent classrooms mushrooming on our lawns overnight, regular COVID-19 testing and quarantines, mandatory masks, and sixfoot distancing becoming de rigueur on campus.

Our societal challenge in the soul-searching wake of the nationwide protests around systemic racism across almost all marginalized groups, and in particular Black people, is critical. In this issue of the Sundial, you’ll read about how we as a school have dealt with many of these national issues on a school-wide level as students, faculty, administrators, and alumnae. You will also read how Walker’s has thoughtfully and deliberately moved forward with issues of equity and justice. Every institution, especially schools, has had to cope with the political and social fracturing evident in the last two presidential elections and the subsequent assault on our nation’s capitol on January 6. We have borne witness to both the first female BIPOC Vice-President of the United States, Kamala Harris, and the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Roe v. Wade after fifty years. These have been history-making times. Two years ago, our teachers taught an extra section each to help reduce class numbers, sacrificing part of their summers by enrolling in a course on how to design online courses, and then simultaneously teaching in-person and remote — both synchronously and asynchronously — heroes every one! Our staff members have stepped up equally, assuming greater responsibility, spending countless

Has there ever been a extra hours, and demonstrating that at Walker’s, every adult is an educator.period filled with so much You will read about our challenge and change in COVID-19 policies and mitigation peacetime in our country? strategies and the fact that in the first

I doubt it. And yet we year of COVID-19, we had not a single case of on-campus transmission at persevered on, and now in Walker’s while school was in session and this, our 111th year, Walker’s is that the total number of cases numbered moving forward. less than a dozen that year. This is truly noteworthy. Even in the second year, we fared far better than most peer schools, something I attribute to several factors. We did it as a result of building a culture of shared trust and responsibility (a special shout-out to all our families of students who curtailed their activities in order to support the Walker’s ‘bubble’), assiduous planning by our school COVID-19 Task Force with the guidance provided by our Trustee COVID-19 Task Force, and a healthy measure of luck! Last year we received the largest gift in the School’s history from one of our alumnae, $25,000,000, and concluded a Campus Master Plan as part of our three-year Strategic Plan. Our work continues apace as we aspire to new heights. Our strategic plan has led to the completion of over 75% of the 300-plus initiatives drafted to help us realize our strategic goals. The Campus Master Plan will provide the physical foundation and ambience for Walker’s in the next few decades, both in terms of material needs and the ethos for our Walker’s Capabilities Approach Program that you’ll read about in this issue of the Sundial. Has there ever been a period filled with so much challenge and change in peacetime in our country? I doubt it. And yet we persevered on, and now in this, our 111th year, Walker’s is

moving forward. Today, our own community continues to focus on the silver lining — in the new ways we are able to engage with our own students, parents, and alumnae — who continue to forge ahead to better the world. The ability to host intergenerational events with both students and alums across the globe is truly a gift. We all have gained so much at this moment in time of being tested by circumstances beyond our control.

What have I learned as Head of School? Gratitude, patience, pragmatism, and the power of a sense of humor. Eric has been by my side throughout and is steadfast in his support, love of me, and our School. I have had the privilege to work with a remarkable group of administrators and Head’s Council members, as well as the finest board chair, Kit O’Brien Rohn ’82, and group of Trustees I could imagine. I have never been more excited about all that is to come than I am right now with the momentum of all that we’ve been building — this is the moment of lift!

Meera Viswanathan Head of School