Dear Friends,

For months, we at Westtown have been laboring to prepare for an on-campus opening for students in all three divisions this fall, even as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to afflict every corner of the world. We want young people to learn on this beautiful campus. We love teaching in person and being in community with our students. We believe in the educational, personal, and social-emotional rewards of living and learning together. These things are so important to us at Westtown — to me, Teachers Veda, Will, and Karyn, our faculty, staff, and administrators — that we have delved into the complexities of mitigation planning with rigor and determination.

At the same time, we have been careful to maintain a flexible mindset. There is nothing more important to us than the safety and well-being of our community. We have remained constantly attuned to developments in research, technology, medical care, and public policy. Although we would strongly prefer to be on campus, we know that if needed, our talented teachers can support students online through Westtown Distance Learning. We have remained open to the question: What approach will best serve our community?

At this juncture, I write to share the following news:

Upper School will operate in Westtown Distance Learning throughout the fall semester, August 31 - December 11, 2020.
We continue to prepare for an on-campus fall semester in Middle School and Lower School.

The decision to keep Upper School online in the fall semester was reached after exhaustive work and careful consideration of pandemic indicators as well as the unique features of this division. While this comes as a great disappointment to all of us, we believe it will be in the best interest of the Upper School community to open in Westtown Distance Learning (WDL) on August 31 and remain in WDL through the final day of the fall semester on December 11. At a later date, we will make a determination about the mode for Upper School in the spring semester, which begins on January 11, 2021. Currently, because Middle School and Lower School differ from Upper School in a number of ways, we are still planning to welcome our PreK-8th grade students to campus this fall. Please read on for details about our thinking, information for students and families by division, and what to expect in communications for the remainder of the summer.

Decision-Making Informed by Science

As I have previously shared, decision-making at Westtown throughout the pandemic has been based not only on what our school is permitted to do by law according to Pennsylvania's phased reopening plan, but also on scientific guidance. It has been deeply frustrating to see major public health authorities like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention first bypassed by the federal government and then compromised by partisan politics. In our school's determination to prioritize health and education while employing a standard of manageable risk, we have sought non-partisan, research-based guidance. We have consulted with medical authorities about risk mitigation measures, and have kept a close eye on data made available to the public describing both infection control and response efforts. At this point in the summer, we have drawn three major conclusions:

First, Westtown's mitigation planning has been exemplary. We have planned for measures endorsed by the most reliable public health authorities, bearing in mind the needs and constraints of our program and community. I'm extremely grateful to Westtown teachers and administrators for laboring mightily over policies and protocols, entirely reconfiguring our use of spaces and rethinking our schedules to allow for physical distancing, and researching the best available technology in testing and contact tracing. This work will continue. We remain optimistic that our mitigation strategies will serve Lower and Middle School students and families well this fall, and hopeful that they will be implemented in all three divisions, including Upper School, in the spring semester.

Despite Westtown's best efforts, our second conclusion is that progress in coronavirus testing has been slower than we expected. Our hope has been to implement regular, affordable, reliable, rapid-turnaround testing. But at this point, that hope remains far out of reach. Tests for schools are in short supply. Prophylactic testing is not generally covered by health insurance and remains too costly to adopt on an ongoing basis. Backlogs and technological limitations mean turnaround times that are often measured in weeks. Even pooled testing is not an available strategy at this juncture. Through a lot of research and a little luck, we have assured ourselves of the ability to test all employees as well as students of an appropriate age at the start of on-campus operations with an approximately 3-5 day turnaround. This, when combined with other strategies, will be a great asset for Lower and Middle School, but we ultimately hope for better.

Third, beyond the bounds of our campus, we have seen disheartening trends in key coronavirus indicators this summer. Starting from the 15 essential indicators identified by the global public health initiative Resolve to Save Lives, we have been monitoring data collected and made public by the Pennsylvania Department of Public Health, the Harvard Global Health Institute, Covid Act Now, and other sources. Nationwide, rates of new confirmed cases, hospitalizations, and deaths have overtaken the rates we saw in April. Pennsylvania has fared better than some parts of this country; however, even in our area, key indicators are concerning — indeed, more concerning than the same indicators in other countries where schools have successfully reopened. It is profoundly dismaying to contemplate the failures of both government leadership and individual responsibility in this country that have allowed our situation to worsen over the summer, forcing many schools online, including Westtown's largest and most complicated division.

Upper School: Fall Semester in WDL

Against these background considerations, it has become clear that our Upper School community — with its unique structures and features — should learn and grow together online this fall. While we continue to move forward with plans for an on-campus fall semester for Lower and Middle School students, a number of factors are different in our Upper division. The Upper School's wide-ranging curriculum and complex schedule, including many mixed-age classes, preclude the sort of small, contained cohort system that we will be able to implement in Middle and Lower. Implementing smaller and more contained cohorts in Upper School would mean drastically curtailing students' ability to take the courses they want and even the courses they need. The structure of our residential dormitories is such that even boarding cohorts would be larger than we feel is wise at the moment. And finally, the mix of day and boarding students that we love in Upper School presents challenges when we think about containment strategies.

Although the start of school is still five weeks away, this is the time to confirm fall semester plans in Upper School for a number of reasons. We wish to give appropriate and timely guidance to families of boarding students who might have been planning to travel to campus early this year. In addition, our Upper School teachers will now be able to turn their energy and attention to preparing and improving synchronous and asynchronous materials for Westtown Distance Learning, as well as student support systems and robust online community-building, especially for our new students.

In the fall semester, we will have limited availability in our dormitories for some Upper School students to board and engage with Westtown Distance Learning on campus, by permission of T. Veda. We will prioritize the needs of students who will have difficulty learning effectively online from their homes — for example, where internet connections are unreliable or home environments are not conducive to studying and concentrating. For those with T. Veda's permission to stay on dorm this fall for WDL, residential life will be a very restricted experience: there will be no off-campus activities, there will be strict guidelines about maintaining physical distancing and using masks on campus, and students should not expect to be able to access facilities like the Fitness Center. Later this week, T. Veda and T. Whitney will reach out to Upper School students to assess your need to stay on dorm for WDL this fall.

With regret, we advise our wonderful international students to stay at home for WDL this fall, given the uncertainties of traveling back-and-forth across countries and continents at this time. Of course, international students who feel they will be particularly challenged in engaging effectively with WDL from home should look for a communication from T. Veda and T. Whitney and let us know if you have a need to stay on dorm for WDL.

Upper School students and families, I understand the range of emotions you may be feeling right now. In some households there will be relief: I have heard from both parents and students expressing trepidation about returning to campus this fall. Others will be heartbroken at the thought of additional months online before we are together on campus again. To some of you, especially if you have been following pandemic-related news and thinking about the challenges facing schools as complex as our Upper School, this decision will bring regret but not surprise. And maybe you feel as I do: a mix of all of these emotions as well as frustration at governmental inaction and mismanagement. Please be assured, dear friends, that we at Westtown will continue to work hard on refining our mitigation strategies against the ever-changing local, national, and global backdrop, and earnestly hope for a return to on-campus living and learning in the spring semester for our Upper School.

Middle and Lower School Planning Continues

Our Middle and Lower divisions differ from our Upper division in several key respects. In addition to face coverings, physical distancing, cleaning and hygiene, an opening round of testing, and the ability to conduct contact tracing, we are able to subdivide our Lower and Middle School students into cohorts. Smaller groups of students in pre-K through 8th grade will engage in academics and co-curriculars together, and will be limited to certain zones in our buildings as well as outdoor spaces. While we will rely on students' families to maintain the strictest standards of care and caution at home and in their personal business, our day-only divisions have a simpler structure than Upper School. In addition, we are mindful of research which demonstrates that children under ten are approximately half as likely as adults to spread the coronavirus to others, a conclusion particularly relevant to Lower School. For these reasons, we will continue to develop and refine our plans for an on-campus opening for our younger students. Because of the trends described above as well as our paramount concern for the safety and well-being of all members of our community, during the weeks leading up to August 31 and beyond, we will remain flexible in our thinking and open to all possibilities in Lower and Middle School. Any change of plans for the opening of the fall semester for children in preK-8th grade will be communicated to our families by the week of August 17.

Future Communications

Whenever we are able to learn and live together on campus once more — next spring for Upper Schoolers and hopefully this fall for younger students — life at Westtown will look different for the duration of the pandemic. We have described our mitigation strategies, in broad strokes, in our Interim Reopening Plan, and many of you joined an all-school webinar on June 23 and divisional discussions just last week. Next week we will share a refined and detailed Reopening Plan, which will also cover Westtown Distance Learning. After that, parents and guardians will have the chance to ask more questions during Zoom conversations by division; please look for save-the-dates by email in the coming days. Meanwhile, as always, you are welcome to reach out to me or the division principals.

Friends, we are enduring extraordinary challenges together. It has long been apparent that 2020-21 was bound to be the most difficult school year in a lifetime. From the outset of this pandemic, I have assured you that Westtown would be the best place for young people to learn and grow during this troubled time. I remain confident in this. Whether online or on campus, we are working zealously to make the best decisions for all Westonians and to ensure their well-being. We remain as committed as ever to helping each student discover their unique gifts and develop their unique purpose.

As we move forward together, I am very grateful to be in community with our students — the future leaders of a better world — and their families. Thank you for your partnership.

Yours,