Faculty and Staff,
Next week I will be announcing that Trinity will continue with distance learning for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year, which will officially end on Friday, May 22.
Although not surprising, it will still be difficult for our community to hear and process, and you need to be ready next week for your students and their families to grieve the loss of not being on campus for the rest of the school year.
Like most other schools in Atlanta and throughout Georgia, Trinity will not be extending the school year into June. There are too many variables, complications, and uncertainties to even considering this.
I deeply appreciate how much time and effort our faculty have put into distance learning--Early Learners through sixth grade, specials, Extended Programs, learning support.
As distance learning will continue until the end of the year, it is essential that we continue to provide meaningful and engaging experiences and assignments (both synchronous and asynchronous) for our students. It’s vital that parents see that while distance learning is imperfect compared to their child being at Trinity and taught by you in person, it still has tremendous value and their children have been and will continue to learn and progress academically during the final weeks of the school year.
Adding to this value proposition, teachers will complete their regular end-of-year student evaluations/assessments through progress reports, parent/teacher conferences, and, for 4th-6th, numerical grades. The timing and specifics of each will be a little different (which Rhonda and Sarah will share respectively with EED and UED faculty), but again, it’s crucial that we document that our students are learning in real and meaningful ways; grades and checklist ratings validate that learning. Please also note that faculty will not have ‘writing days’ this spring.
I also appreciate your work and effort in doing your best to provide important, traditional grade-level events into your distance learning plans like Colonial Day, Wagon Train, Chick Masters, etc. This includes the Sixth Grade team working with their students and parents on traditional milestone events; we are in the process of scheduling an ‘in person, actual’ graduation ceremony (but not Moving Up Ceremony for 1st-5th grades) sometime this summer for sixth graders and their families.
As a reminder, Trinity will continue to pay employees their salaries.
While Summer Programs currently remain on schedule to begin on Monday, June 1, we will obviously need to reassess in mid-May. If we do need to cancel Summer Programs, parents will receive a 100% refund—and counselors/teachers will not be paid for the summer sessions they were going to teach.
The 2020-21 school year is scheduled to begin on time, with faculty/staff Preplanning beginning on Tuesday, August 4, and Visitation Day on Wednesday, August 12.
As I’m sure all of you know, many variables and moving pieces remain as we move into the final weeks of the 2019-20 school year and plan for the 2020-21 school year.
Key for us—and other private schools—is enrollment. Many of our families’ personal finances have been adversely impacted by COVID-19 and the Board is working on strategies to help both new and returning families with next year’s tuition. The Board and Leadership Team are working on possible scenarios, but we know the essence of Trinity is our faculty/staff and our students and their families. We are all making personal sacrifices to support the greater good, and we may need to prepare to sacrifice more.
Like all of you, I have become accustomed to and productive with virtual meetings over the past weeks, but we all miss in-person connection. We all want to be able to go to a ball game, have a drink at a bar, go out to dinner with family and friends, socialize at a neighborhood barbecue, go to a movie theater, browse at retail stores, get a haircut, and countless other routine daily activities outside of our homes. I’m hoping when we get back to our regular lives, we never forget how isolated we’ve felt sheltering-in-place and never take for granted these simple but essential pleasures in life!
And finally, here are two jokes—one for Passover and the other for Easter:
What’s the difference between matzah and cardboard?
Cardboard doesn’t leave crumbs on the rug!
How many Easter eggs can you put in an empty basket?
One—after that, the basket’s not empty anymore!
Enjoy the long holiday weekend!
I can’t wait to see all of you again sometime soon at Trinity!
Joe
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