Dear Students and Parents,
Welcome (back) to Fenwick! Despite the many challenges that face all of us these days, we are very excited to get the school year underway!
Yesterday, we welcomed 274 members of the class of 2024 to campus, and they encountered many of the new changes that all students, faculty, staff and parents will face as they come to Fenwick: new pick up and drop off procedures, health questions, hand sanitizer and a thermal imaging thermometer in the atrium entrance, face masks, six feet of social distance, one-way hallways, no more than 50 in any one area, and so on. Of course, there is a learning curve for all of us, but the freshmen did great. We are very optimistic that things will continue to go well next week when all students return to campus.
Much of that optimism is based on faith in our families to maintain safe practices away from Fenwick too. Part of the educational philosophy of Fenwick has always been that we are in partnership with parents and families to provide the best possible education for our students. This has never been more true than now, during this pandemic, when our ability to have students, faculty and staff present in school is contingent upon maintaining the health and safety of the entire Fenwick community. This can only be accomplished with your help.
As many of you have undoubtedly heard, several colleges and universities which have taken enormous steps (not to mention expense) to test students and to create learning environments following all health recommendations, are experiencing outbreaks of Covid-19. The infected students are not catching the virus in school. They are catching it in social environments.
We expect and want Fenwick students to socialize with their friends - it’s one of the reasons we chose to have as much in-class instruction as possible - but we ask our families, away from school, to please be diligent and follow all health protocols: wear masks, social distance, wash hands, avoid contact with anyone who may have been exposed to the coronavirus.
We are all in this together. The surest way to avoid an outbreak at Fenwick, so we can have as much in-class instruction as possible, is to take this virus seriously and to follow all of the health protocols to effectively combat it. We can do this together.
Thank you for entrusting your students to us, and thank you for helping us to maintain a safe environment for everyone. God bless you.
Let’s have a great ‘20-‘21 school year!
