Coronavirus Update #6
March 12, 2020
Dear LREI Community,
On the eve of our Spring Break I write with a few updates / reminders and some thoughts.
Update:
Exposures, tests, closings both temporary and indefinite – the landscape of challenges and responses to the coronavirus and COVID-19 continues to evolve. Over the course of the past few days many of your children have asked me whether we would return to school after Spring Break. My answer has been and remains, “I hope so but it is hard to know for sure what the state of the pandemic will be in two weeks and we have to be ready to respond, to be nimble, and to be resilient.”
We can look to colleges and universities for answers, though they have the added responsibility of housing and feeding their students. We must also contemplate our larger responsibility to join others in containing the virus, all of us staying home to slow the rate of exposure. Impossible for some and generally hard for all, though it is clearer and clearer that to the extent possible this is our individual and collective responsibility. We weighed our need to finish the term with the need to slow exposure and felt that we should end today and head into break a day early and that we must all do what we can over the next two weeks to minimize contact. I encourage you to do the same in your lives.
Where will we be in two weeks? I don’t know. You should know that we are in touch with the administrators of other schools and universities, with the NYC Department of Health, and with a variety of other members of our extended community who bring knowledge and wisdom to this discussion. The administrative team has scheduled a number of meetings over the break and I will be in touch with members of LREI’s Board of Trustees. We will do our best to make a timely decision about reopening. We are currently planning for both a scheduled return on March 30 and for learning via LREI@home for a period of time after Spring Break, as needed.
Reminders:
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Not just when school is in session – Wash your hands, stay home when sick, check in with a healthcare provider as needed.
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For families that have planned travel for Spring Break – We will be in touch near the end of the break with reminders of public health suggestions as to which areas, when visited, will require self-quarantine. Do not hesitate to be in touch if you have any questions. Clearly the impact of travel is a changing landscape.
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The above note on travel is important. New York City and surrounding communities have a growing number of cases. We will have to make decisions about school being open/closed based on both exposure outside of New York and the requirements of living healthfully in New York.
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Suspected exposure – If you suspect that a member of your family may have been exposed to the coronavirus, please alert one of the school nurses by calling the school’s main number, 212-477-5316 or by emailing them. For the lower school and middle school, Ava Dawson – adawson@lrei.org. For the high school, Linda Perlmutter – lperlmutter@lrie.org or Joanne MacDonald – jmacdonald@lrei.org. You can always email your child’s principal or me. I can be reached at pkassen@lrei.org or on my cell phone at 917-593-1787.
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Tomorrow, Friday, March 13, the divisional principals will send more specific information about LREI@home. These plans will be put into practice AFTER Spring Break IF we are closed. We are sharing them this week to allow families to have some idea of our expectations for their child’s participation in our daily LREI@home program. These missives will be posted to our LREI.org/updates page.
- As part of LREI@home we are working on ways to continue to support each other as a community – parent meetings, affinity groups, access to the psychologists, etc. We will be in touch with a plan if we close for some period of time.
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LREI@home will include Afterschool for those students who are enrolled in core Afterschool, enrichment classes, and/or instrumental lessons. The Afterschool office will be in touch with details.
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If your family will have challenges accessing LREI@home’s online program at home for technical reasons, please speak with your child’s teacher, advisor, or any trusted LREI adult. We will work with you to find a solution.
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When we return we will be in touch about which LREI events will go on as planned and which may be postponed or changed in some way. For now, we have decided to postpone April’s Art Auction. Details to follow.
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Writing this pre-Spring Break note is, for two reasons, a more “bittersweet” task than other years. In a more typical year the last day of school before Spring Break would be celebrated as Founders Day – a day dedicated to the memory of Elisabeth Irwin, the amazing founder of our school. We would spend time in buddy groups, gather for an assembly, watch the (in)famous Founders Day Play and eat ice cream to commemorate the meeting, held in an ice cream parlor, that led to the founding of the school. Elisabeth Irwin is a daily inspiration. She knew that a progressive education prepared students to learn and live in a manner that readied them, at each step, for the next phase of their education and for life; for a fulfilling life and a life that, in the words of our mission statement, brings meaningful change to the world. Miss Irwin, as she was called, was a brilliant writer and while I can read her words, I wish that I would have had the chance to meet her and to hear her ideas, her beliefs, her passions directly.
Not to get too sappy, but the second reason that this is a bittersweet Founders Day Eve is that I don’t know when we will see each other again. I know that we will be okay, that we will be safe and that we will be supportive and caring of one another. I have no doubt about the strength of our community. Yet the uncertainty of when our reunion will occur is unsettling.
I leave you with a particularly stirring thought from Miss Irwin, “Above all things, the progressive schools believe that childhood is a part of life and not just a preface to something more important, and that at every age children should have a chance to respond to the romance and adventure of the world around them.”
I hope that this break brings many chances to “respond to the romance and adventure of the world” wherever you happen to be and whenever we are reunited.
With great gratitude,
P.S. Please give your kids some Founders Day ice cream today. They’ve earned it.