April 3, 2020
Dear Parents,
At the end of our first full week of online classes, I believe that they have gone as well as we could have hoped. I would like to thank you for your incredible support and patience as we have transitioned into a global online school.
We have seen an extraordinary transformation over the last two weeks. Incredibly, 370 classes are now online with only a handful of courses cancelled. Teachers have added new sections on the pandemic to their courses to help students understand the current moment and are using them to help explain concepts like exponential growth. Eric LaForest and Marley Matlack are developing a not-for-credit optional course on the pandemic that will include alumni and parent guest speakers. We will provide more information on that shortly.
In the throes of these circumstances, one young man wrote this to me:
Distance learning is something new to all of us, and now that I've experienced a week of distance learning, I have some positive feedback. I appreciate all the faculty who devote their time and try their best to teach us. I know that the teachers had to make changes to the syllabus or teaching approach, but so far it's been amazing. It certainly is weird to see all your classmates via a screen at first, but gradually we felt more connected, just like in a normal classroom or on campus.
I have heard from students, faculty, and parents about the positive learning and interactions that are happening. A reason that all has gone as well as it has is the willingness of the faculty and students to experiment and adapt to find the most effective means of communicating. We did have our first incident of "zoombombing," a phenomenon about which you may have heard and that is occurring nationally. You may read about it here. Fortunately, the teacher handled it professionally, and we have introduced some new security measures. We may need to do still more.
On a rebate or credit for next year, we have heard from a number of you with a variety of suggestions. Thank you for those. We are just beginning to have a sense of the financial impact that the virus is having on the school. Certainly, the endowment is down, we are unsure where the Annual Fund will finish, the fate of our summer programs is as yet unknown, requests for financial aid are up, and uncertainty about next year exists. Moreover, while we have saved on some expenses, such as food and transportation, most of our expenses as a boarding school remain fixed.
We early on decided to continue to pay the regularly scheduled hours for employees so as not to add a financial burden to the health crisis. Our strength as a school comes from the dedication and professionalism of the people who work here, and we wanted to support them during this difficult time. That being said, we also understand that the pandemic has created financial difficulties for some of our families. Over the next week we will develop a process whereby boarding families may request a prorated partial room and board credit toward next year's tuition or, in the case of seniors, a rebate. In response to a concept that is developing to match such funds, we do ask, however, that you also consider donating that credit or rebate to the Annual Fund so as to ensure that Loomis can continue to support our employees. More information on exactly how this will work will be forthcoming.
Let me finish by once again thanking you for your support, your good humor, your patience. The next several weeks may be particularly difficult, and I hope that you remain safe and well.
Warm regards,
Sheila
The Loomis Chaffee School • 4 Batchelder Road • Windsor, CT 06095 • 860.687.6000
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