Dear Mead School K-8 Community Members,

I am truly hopeful that this email finds your family healthy, safe and feeling a sense of calm. These past several weeks have forced us to push the "pause" button on our daily routines, and reimagine a temporary "new normal." I hope you are beginning to find a routine that helps your family through this extraordinary time.

Following the directives of Governor Ned Lamont, The Mead School's K-8 program will remain closed until further notice. Beginning on March 30th, we will, as a school family, step into unknown territory with this thing called "distance learning."

At the same time, it is important for you to know that today, also in response to Governor Lamont's directives, The Mead School opened our Early Learning Center to serve our families who are considered by their employers to be "essential personnel." Every precaution is being taken to ensure the safety of the children and their teachers, so that parents can do the work demanded of them, and appreciated by all of us.

Over the past twelve days, The Mead School teachers and administrators have raced up a very steep learning curve to reimagine teaching and learning in a way that none of us has ever done before. We are very prepared to bring this new approach into your homes, from ours, but we ask for your patience as we take on this monumental challenge. We still have another week before we launch Mead's distance learning with you and your K-8 children. Our teachers are deeply engaged and committed to "getting it right." We are finding some very creative answers to questions we are still needing to ask. Flexibility, resilience, patience, collaboration, and a sense of humor have been instrumental to us in working through these pressing issues, and we ask you to lean into all of these skills, as well, as we embark on this journey together.

While we have been working hard, we have also made time to breathe and release the stresses imposed upon us by our new reality. Please remember that "self-care" is an important Mead value and a central part of the skill "To Respect" oneself. We are working together in trust and love to learn and grow during this unusual time.

The prospect of not being together in the classrooms is hard, and counterintuitive
to most of our understandings of "school". You may be feeling pressure as we embark on our remote learning adventure, and we, as educators, are very aware of how hard this might feel. We are preparing for a unique and important partnership, not only with you, as parents, but also with each other.

We are working hard to not only deliver academics and social-emotional learning,
but also, to do all that we can to keep our community connected, vibrant and alive!
This experience requires a new form of trust and love for all members of our Mead family. Together, we will find the power to overcome the current murky outlook and feelings of isolation. Please remember "It's in every one of us" to work together and care for one another.

While we cannot yet predict how long we will need to be working remotely, you can count on our overwhelming commitment to making this new mode of learning and teaching work. Each Center's approach will feel and look a bit different. In true Mead tradition, we have worked to create age-appropriate, differentiated and engaged learning that will take us through the rest of the school year, whether remotely, or in-person. Fortunately, with our school's fluency of the Altitude Learning platform, we feel ahead of the game and well-prepared to deliver our curricula.

Please rest assured that you will be hearing from your Home Center Directors in the not-too-distant future, to help you begin to anticipate our roll-out of distance learning.

We are here for you, and look forward to moving together on this ground-breaking, making history-in-the-moment experience.

My sincere and kind wishes to all of you,

Stephanie Whitney

Head of School