August 2020
Dear LREI Families,
We are only a few weeks away from my favorite day of the year – the first day of school! Even though we won’t be together; even though I won’t be at the front doors to welcome you, I am still so eager for the year to begin, so eager to see your children, and to have them back in our classrooms, virtual and real. It did not take long for us to become used to being away from each other and while we may have been slow to warm to our virtual schoolhouse, it has become almost normal. Soon we will return to online school and then after a few short weeks we will be back together in person; in a whole new way but in person nonetheless. In both modes we will be reunited, together, doing purposeful work. A community once again.
What does community mean in a time when we are anxious about being near each other? How do you foster a community at a time when the very nature of the most mundane human interactions has fundamentally changed? What does community mean at a moment which demands that we honestly acknowledge and accept responsibility for the fact that our community is not experienced in the same way by each of its members, to say the very least? What does community mean when we recognize that many members do not trust that the community has their best interests in mind? What does it mean to grapple with these questions at a time when we need to rely on each other as keenly as we ever have?
We enter into the 2020-2021 school year with these questions, among others, swirling around. While uncertainties remain, the tie that we must trust to hold us together is LREI’s mission and our aspiration to meet its lofty goals. We must be explicit about what we are striving to achieve. As the wise head of a peer school shared in a conversation this summer, “We are moving from community as comfort to community as commitment.” This should be true for the LREI community, as well. What are the commitments we make to each other, as a community, as we address the challenges before us?
We must start by valuing each other and honoring our varied identities. In order to do this honestly, we must acknowledge that the LREI experience is not equitable. This is true across constituencies – students, families, and LREI’s faculty and staff.
- In order to create a school community in which each member feels welcome, supported, and honored, we must embark upon conscious and well-articulated efforts to address issues of bias and racism.
- We must commit to moving from being “not racist” to being an active and purposeful community of anti-racists.
- In order for our growth to be effective, we must ask that each member of the community participate in opportunities that promote both individual and collective development.
- We must take responsibility for both the intent of our words and deeds as well as for their impact. This responsibility means apologizing when the impact of our actions, no matter the intent, is injurious. We must use these moments to reflect and to learn.
- We will learn by taking advantage of the opportunities provided by the school, through individual study, and through conversation. For members of the community who identify as white, we will not rely on those who identify as people of color to be our guides and teachers.
In the diversity, equity, and inclusion plan we shared in early July, we laid out a series of goals for the year. I will be in touch as we move towards the school year in order to update you on our progress this summer, and then throughout the school year with continued updates, revisions, and additions to our goals.
Clearly, another area where we must move from comfort to commitment is in our efforts to keep each and all of us safe and healthy. In order to do so, we ask that you commit to:
- following required and recommended health guidelines regarding personal hygiene, hand-washing, physical distancing, quarantine, and mask-wearing. We ask that you comply with these guidelines when your family is participating in school events and during other times in your lives.
- participating in the school’s wellness screening each school day, whether we are in class in-person or participating in LREI@home or your child is enrolled in LREIremote. This includes taking your child’s temperature each day.
- keeping your child home whenever they do not feel well.
- having someone available to pick up your child if they become ill during the day.
- complying with “contact tracing” requests within 24 hours of receiving a request for information.
- complying with any request by your healthcare provider or local or state health authorities to quarantine or isolate.
- notifying LREI if you or your child/ren test positive for COVID-19 within 24 hours of receiving test results.
- notifying LREI within 24 hours if you or your child/ren are exposed to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.
- staying away from campus and other LREI community members if any member of your family tests positive for COVID-19, is exposed after close contact to a person who tests positive for COVID-19, is sick or has a fever, or otherwise if required to stay away from LREI’s campuses for health-related reasons, we ask that your entire household not return to campus until cleared to do so.
- complying with NY State vaccination requirements. These apply once school is in session for all enrolled students, whether we are in-person, in LREI@home, or in LREIremote.
- educating our children regarding the importance of collective action to keep each and all as safe and healthy as possible.
In addition, we cannot encourage LREI community members strongly enough to get a flu vaccine to minimize the possibility of anyone in your household contracting the flu and to minimize the severity of symptoms if someone does become ill with influenza.
As we move through this year, it is important to recognize that our attention to health and wellness and our attention to becoming anti-racists will continue to evolve. We will advance, and each advance will reveal new challenges. As we grow and learn, we will add goals and actions to this list. I look forward to our collective reflection, development, and growth.
We look forward to the day when we welcome all members of the LREI community back into the buildings; the day when I can stand at the front door greeting students and parents and my valued colleagues. I look forward to the time when our physical proximity will empower our movement towards becoming a community of shared commitment to equal comfort. For now, we will do this work while distanced from each other physically; together in spirit and action and creating an ever stronger bond to each other and to LREI’s mission.
As LREI dad Eric Klinenberg wrote in his fascinating book Palaces For The People, “People forge bonds in places that have healthy social infrastructures – not because they set out to build community, but because when people engage in sustained, recurrent interaction, particularly while doing things they enjoy, relationships inevitably grow.” The road ahead is challenging, but there is much enjoyment to be found in our shared respect and success.
I wish you and your families the very best. I hope that you are finding ways to use summer to recharge and to prepare for the demanding school year ahead.
Peace and health,
A few specific reminders:
- It is essential that all families update their profiles in LREI Connect. This information allows us to contact all with both routine and emergency communication. All families new to LREI should have received instructions from the principals on how to set up your LREI Connect account. Our automated phone call service will call whichever number you list as your “home” number for routine calls and will call all numbers provided in a true emergency.
- Thank you for making time to register your children in Magnus Health. You can access Magnus Health through LREI Connect, using the same login. If you have questions, you can contact one of our nurses, Joanne MacDonald (jmacdonald@lrei.org) or Linda Perlmutter (lperlmutter@lrei.org) at the high school, and Ava Dawson (adawson@lrei.org), our lower and middle school nurse. Please also download the Magnus App. Keep an eye out for a specific health-related email from the nurses.
- Families new to LREI – we look forward to seeing you at our parent orientation program, LREI 101. HS families on Sept. 18th at 9:00a.m., and for LS and MS families on Sept. 16th at 7:00p.m.
- I encourage you to visit www.LREI.org and LREI Connect on a regular basis. The school’s calendar, lunch menu, library catalog, athletic schedules, and information specific to your child’s grade are all easily accessible. In addition, each Thursday, we will send home a letter and a link to current announcements and updates.
- For all students, the first day of school is Wednesday, September 9.