Head of Upper School is excited about next school year

By Cam Lawrence

​Art by Ellis Rougeous

This school year has been full of adapting to unknowns and the expectation of having to quickly shift gears at a moment’s notice. We the student body anxiously await the school year where we can relax into comforting, old habits. 

Head of Upper School Lauren Rogers said, “We are going to plan for as many contingencies as possible … I do think school next year will look more normal … One of the things that brings me a lot of joy is that we’ve been able to have classes together … I think that continuum is going to continue to shift into more fellowship time as long as we are mindful of the COVID-19 piece.”

With this “Covid school year” has come many changes to how we typically go through our normal school day. Instead of carrying our books from class to class with stops at our lockers, we have been able to carry our backpacks. This might change next year.

Rogers said, “When you are walking down the hallway it is like fifty percent students and fifty percent backpack… We changed [the backpack policy] this year because we were worried about the community spaces. For next year, I would imagine that we will go back to backpacks and lockers.” 

Another change implemented in the second semester was fixing our schedules and incorporating an early dismissal on Wednesday’s schoolwide. This early dismissal for high school students was just placed during our O, which was moved at the end of the school day. 

Rogers said, “The flexibility of this year’s schedule was looking at what was happening in the summer and trying to mitigate as many parts of our community. One of the things for having O at the end of the day… is that we’ve had less time together… Being together and participating in clubs and activities is a huge part of our shared community, and so we are still working on what next year is going to look like.”

The O periods at the end of the day will continue into the next school year to allow for the early Wednesday dismissal. 

While our schedule, safety mitigations, and overall student morale has had to change a lot this school year, next school year has hope for more vaccinations, more flexibility, and simply put, normalcy. 

Rogers said, “I am looking forward to our next step, next school year, or next week even. I think we are going to be in a place with more joy than where we are.”