A look at spring 2021
Dear TGS Families:
With the first night of Hanukkah being celebrated last evening and the Christmas holiday just two weeks away, I write to you with an overwhelming sense of gratitude for our teachers, for our students, for our Board of Trustees, and for our extended Gregory School family. As challenging as this semester has been, your work, support and patience have carried us through, and I thank you.
Thank you for completing our recent survey regarding second semester. We have heard from all but 37 families. The breakdown is similar to the fall, with a slightly higher percentage of families requesting remote learning for the 3rd quarter (23.7%) than in the first semester. If we’ve not heard from you by Monday, December 14th, we will count your child as remote for the 3rd quarter and, as has been true, any request for transitioning from remote to in-person learning will need to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
Given what we know at this point, and taking into consideration the projected increase in virus cases in the next few weeks, we will continue with 100% remote learning through Tuesday, January 19th (the day after the Martin Luther King holiday). Our plan is to bring everyone who has requested in-person learning back to campus on January 19th. As always, this plan is contingent on public health recommendations based on virus transmission rates in Pima County. Once we resume in-person learning, we will continue with the same schedule used during the second quarter (i.e., everyone on campus Monday and Tuesday, home on Wednesday, and back on campus Thursday and Friday).
We have learned a great deal during the past several months, and I want to share how those lessons are informing plans for the second half of the year. The hybrid learning model we have been using allows us to accommodate all of our remote and in-person students, but it is incredibly challenging and taxing for our teachers. Therefore, the remote learner experience may differ from the first semester in that a single classroom webcam will be used more frequently than the individual one-to-one Zoom video. This provides faculty with the opportunity to expand their pedagogical repertoire and not be so tied to the computer throughout the class period. Additionally, we’ve adjusted the school calendar slightly to provide teachers with more time for parent-teacher Zoom conferences.
The school calendar for the 3rd quarter will be as follows:
| Date | |
|---|---|
January 5 | Second Semester Begins 100% Remote |
January 18 | Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday - No Classes |
January 19 | Hybrid Classes Resume if in compliance with Pima County Health Department recommendations |
February 22 | Day 3 - All Students Remote |
February 23 | Parent Teacher Conferences via Zoom 7:30 am to 5:30pm - No Classes |
February 24 | Parent Teacher Conferences via Zoom 8am to 6pm - No Classes |
February 25 - 26 | Rodeo Break - No Classes |
March 29 - 31 | Spring Break - No Classes |
April 1-2 | Spring Break - No Classes |
Please reach out to us if you have any questions. Know that we will continue to evaluate the circumstances leading to our decisions and commit to keeping you informed on a regular basis.
In the meantime, may finals next week go well for all of our students, and very best wishes for a safe, joyful and healthy holiday season to you all.
Warm regards,
Julie A. Sherrill, Ph.D.
Head of School
"The Gregory School is a place that is transforming learning and transforming students' lives. Gregory students lead institutions; they found movements; they invent technology; they run cities. Students leave TGS with a sense of agency; they believe they can change the world for the better and it is our aim to ensure we give them the knowledge, skills, experiences and confidence to do so."