April 3, 2020

Dear Students and Families,
I sincerely hope that you are well and managing the many nuisances of a dramatically changed world. I thought that I had seen it all in my 35 years as an educator – not so! Despite the complete disruption, the social distancing, the persistent fear, the economic hardship, and the sudden emergence of life and death priorities; I have found many lessons and opportunities for growth both personally and professionally; adjusting my own priorities for health and relationships.

I am incredibly hopeful that we will return to school on May 4, 2020 but believe that we need to plan for the possibility that we may not return to school this year. We have so much to do, so many events to plan and so many people to see and reconnect with! I am optimistically envisioning how the Class of 2020 will shine a bright light on this historic school year as we share in their senior activities with them this spring!

In order to make the swift and dramatic shift from a traditional classroom setting to remote learning, educators have spent the last several weeks preparing lessons and learning digital tools that will align with supporting students’ academic and emotional needs. We have also worked with our colleagues in Massachusetts high schools to develop appropriate and equitable grading for a school year like no other in recent history. It is important for us to balance the academic integrity of a high school transcript with the myriad of obstacles that students, families, and schools are experiencing currently. Given such a sudden closure of school two weeks before the close of third term, we also want to give students opportunities to make up missed work and improve the term 3 grade as it stood on March 12^{, 2020}. With that in mind, and if we do not return to the school setting this year, we have concluded that the best way to assess and accommodate high school students will be: please click here for complete April 3, 2020 update letter from Principal Sullivan