Pennington thrives despite COVID-19 challenges
A
t the beginning of 2020, just as the Pennington community was returning to school from Winter Break, we began to hear about the virus that was spreading rapidly in China. By the end of January, Dr. Hawkey asked Pennington’s chief financial officer, Graeme McWhirter, to convene a special committee to study the ramifications of the virus’s spread and to prepare the School’s response. Senior School leadership began to meet almost daily, and the new Pandemic Committee met twice each week to chart the course ahead.
December 31, 2019: World Health Organization (WHO) says mysterious pneumonia sickening dozens in China. January 11, 2020: China reports first novel coronavirus death.
34
Pennington Magazine Spring/Summer 2020
A virus is unleashed and the world responds By the end of February, it became clear to the administration that, as the virus spread first to Europe and then made its first appearance in the United States, we would need to seriously consider closing the campus to help “flatten the curve” of the disease. On February 28, the School made the difficult decision to cancel
January 21: A man in his thirties from Washington state who traveled to Wuhan diagnosed with novel coronavirus, the first confirmed case in the United States January 30: WHO declares a global health emergency, just the sixth time in history.
