The Journal presents my weekly reflections on being a private, Catholic school principal during what promises to be a year filled with energy, excitement, challenges and possibilities…
Throughout these months though they have sometimes been difficult to see, fixed points have remained and diamond absolutes have endured. Perhaps as the conclusion of the school year rounds into focus, these are easier to identify.
The end of this school year (and it is coming) has felt out of reach and hidden for a very long time. The fog of the pandemic and friction of all but constant change have muddied the vision and knocked some of the usual signposts off the radar. Summer is coming and, with it, perhaps the return to some kind of normalcy, but this school year has been charged with uncertainty.
Schools have repeatedly recreated themselves to respond to the pandemic’s changing landscape, to state and local health orders, of demands to parents and students and faculty and staff becoming something new while trying to remain something familiar. While the challenges have been significant, the successes have surely been equally so.
Throughout these months though they have sometimes been difficult to see, fixed points have remained and diamond absolutes have endured. Perhaps as the conclusion of the school year rounds into focus, these are easier to identify.
In my school, our conversations have turned to final exam formats, our graduation ceremony, teaching assignments for next year, concluding meetings, professional development maps for 2021-2022 and more. We find ourselves this year as we who have been in education for some time know we find ourselves each year: straddling the end of the year while looking into the next and planning for it. Last spring, we could hardly have said this. We did not know what the next school year would present. This year, we have the fixed points ahead of us, we have compass headings to steer towards and we know our way forward.
There is significant comfort in that.
Just last week, I wrote that our positivity rate had slowed and that it had slowed considerably. Why did no one remind me of the perils of tempting fate? As much as it slowed last week, it increased this week and we had more cases in the span of 7 days than we have had in any other similar stretch. We are managing, but I will be relived when this part of our school year comes to a welcome end.