From the Desk of the Head of School- July 7, 2020

7/7/2020

Dear Harding Academy Community,

I hope you all enjoyed the Fourth of July holiday. It is always a milestone in the summer for us educators as we contemplate the six weeks we have left of summer until school opens. As you might expect, this year’s milestone has taken on a sheen of urgency as we work hard to prepare the school to open on August 20. I imagine the respite of summer may be starting to wear away for some of you and the reality and details around our reopening plans are things you would like to know more about. This communication lays out what you can expect to hear about and when over these next five weeks.

First, you no doubt heard Nashville has moved into a modified Phase 2 in terms of the Mayor’s plan for reopening. The “modified” bit is a key piece of verbiage in this case. Right now, this current status will not impact our plans to reopen on time on August 20. The order explicitly allows for summer camps to continue with proper health and safety protocols, and we have launched our summer programs this week. This is a key benchmark for us, as it gives us an opportunity to beta test many of the procedures and protocols we are considering for the start of the school year.

With that being said, we continue to prepare in a context of an ever-shifting landscape as it relates to COVID-19 in Nashville and so almost everything you read over these next weeks may change depending on where we stand. Always, our top priority is the health and safety of our families and faculty and staff. We will let that be our North star as we work to mitigate, as best we can, the risk of opening school amidst the pandemic.

The work our team has taken on this summer is focused across five categories: The Calendar, Operations, Health & Safety, Wellness, and Teaching & Learning. Over the course of the next five weeks you can expect that I will drill down as far as I am able into each of those categories to provide you all with as much of a road map as possible. Starting this Friday, July 10 the schedule will be as follows:

July 10, 2020 - Chapter 1: The Calendar

Start of school orientation
Back to School Night
Field Trips
Major events through Thanksgiving

July 17, 2020 - Chapter 2: Operations

Arrival & Pick Up Procedures
Facility Updates
Pursuit, Early Care, & LSW
Extracurricular & Afterschool Programs

July 24, 2020 - Chapter 3: Health & Safety

Screening App & Procedures
Sickness Protocols - at school, at home, returning requirements
Communication Expectations when there is a COVID-19 case
Handbook Update
Medical Staffing and Facility

July 31, 2020 - Chapter 4: Wellness

Student Support
Family Support/Insight Series
Leadership Development
Connection Points - Houses, Buddies, Assemblies
Social Emotional Learning and Diversity, Equity, & Inclusivity

August 7, 2020 - Chapter 5: Teaching & Learning

Learning Management Systems & Platform
Schedules & Staffing
Program Updates
OWL Meeting Pro
Fall Assessment Expectations

Each week may bring updates from a previous chapter or a preview of a chapter to come, but we hope this chunks the material up in a way that is digestible. We will also post these to an updated Coronavirus page of our website, and provide a cheat sheet slide deck with the highlights that will be updated each week with a new chapter.

Finally, I want to once again encourage any of our families who are unsure about their financial status to reach out to us at tefa@hardingacademy.org so we can work to support you through this school year. We want to keep our community together.

Enjoy the rest of your summer and we will see you soon.

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