I think you make excellent points @DroidsLookingFor. Particularly about the communication piece. I think back to the decisions we all faced before signing the dotted line (and sending a check), and it would have been helpful to have had all the information. (Full disclosure, it would probably not have changed our decision and perhaps those of many others, but it would have kept people from feeling blindsided. That’s a crappy feeling.)
And also in full disclosure, we decided Andover isn’t the right fit for our family for a variety of reasons – only some driven by Covid issues – so as I sit here and type, I no longer have a dog in the fight. (happy to talk more about this post M-10.) Which maybe gives me perspective, but also: freedom from having to live in these consequences.
But in any case, always in your corner, even if we may not always agree on every detail.
Wow. @Calliemomofgirls - that’s a big, gut-wrenching decision. I am always impressed by how you approach complex issues, and know that a lot must have gone into it an it was made as fairly and compassionately as possible.
Is your daughter doing ok now that the decision is made?
I’m so sorry that you’ve moved on from PA but I can’t begin to understand the myriad experiences had across the community other than to know that the impact for all has been hard and deep. Best wishes to you and yours wherever the journey(s) take you. I’m glad that the CC community endures regardless.
Your comment about being/feeling blindsided got me to thinking about this. Imagine for a moment that we were +/- 4 or 5 months further along in the vaccination process than we are now. So, call it 175,000,000 have been vaccinated including for sure all faculty. And by that point we’re probably something like 30 million confirmed cases with the actual case count likely being 2 - 4x this amount as many epidemiologists posit about covid. So, call it somewhere in the 70-80% of the population has either been vaccinated or had covid. i.e. herd immunity, with full immunity not far behind. But what if at that time, because they’d been granted the choice for the full academic year, faculty still chose not to come back to campus for the Spring, simply because they’d been granted that contractual right? It sure would outrage me.
I think what I’m feeling is a less extreme version of that. No, we don’t have herd immunity. But what we do have is a depth of experience and science informed by months of study done intensively by all manner of scientist and physicians around the world. And it all points to what is and is not safe, by and large.
I don’t want to hijack the thread with a tangent. My only purpose was to disclose fully that we are not directly impacted anymore – stakeholder status does shape perspective. So I just want to be open about that. I’ll share more later (as in later in the year), but know that all is non-dramatic and good over here so meanwhile – carry on with the conversation my friends!
@DroidsLookingFor That was exactly how I understood you. Also: I am still coming for Thanksgiving and we will bring along a random weird uncle who will surely drink just enough champagne to make the dinner table conversation lively.
Andover does not actually have an active debate about the science of COVID contagion, or lives at risk from the spread of COVID - if there was such a debate, then NO Seniors would be allowed on campus, and it would be 100% remote learning.
What Andover has is both a Labor Relations problem, and a Communications problem.
People here have described in depth the unintended consequences from last year’s ill thought out labor agreement between the Board and Faculty.
And now PA faces a Communications problem - a Board afraid to admit to families it made a Labor Relations mistake, and concerned about the backlash from admitting such a mistake.
“They” do need to honor the commitment…both the administration and the teachers. I believe this was a social contract between the parties. The administration provided needed reassurance to teachers during a time of uncertainty and fear. NOW, the teachers need to honor the social contract, acknowledge that our understanding has changed, and voluntarily return to the classroom. That is the opportunity that teachers are missing. They are currently losing the support of many/most parents and they will soon lose the support of the students.
Good luck to all of you. Some of the faculty at our local private and public schools were a bit wary of returning to the classroom, but with good precautions taken, the year has proceeded smoothly since Labor Day. There just has not been the catastrophe so many fear with school reopening. Of course there are covid cases, but that is true in places where schools remained closed, too. Our doctors reported no uptick in hospitalizations due to open schools.
An interesting thread, for sure! And it sounds like communication has been an issue.
I’ve had a number of conversations recently about “community norms” around covid. These differ dramatically and what’s fascinating is how people adapt to these. In one place, indoor dining at 50% is “safe” while in another, it’s outdoor only. Some require everyone to don not only masks but gloves to enter the supermarket while others have difficulty with mask enforcement. It does seem that teachers in residential settings come up with their own rules, fears, norms, and expectations. Anyone else, including the students served by those faculty, are likely to have different norms. While lots of folks are defending how their schools have adapted, few are actually truly happy. It’s one thing to appreciate what has been done and quite another to be thrilled with it.
While I appreciate the “respect the science” approach, I also feel like the “we are inventing the car while driving it at 60 mph” analogy makes this so hard. We have so much to learn about who gets severe cases, who is left with residual issues, etc., that it is really hard to understand just how much in harm’s way we might be asking people to stand. I have a friend who came off a ventilator having suffered a stroke and whose life today bears little resemblance to what it did a year ago. I have household members who seemed to suffer little more than a severe head cold type flu. I have a colleague who lost both parents. Who knows what’s going to happen? Based on the life I live, I would be willing to teach in a classroom. But I am around people every day who have found a way to come to work safely and whom I trust to keep me safe.
This sounds dreadful for everyone. It’s lousy to pay for an experience you’re not getting. It’s lousy to work to deliver an experience nobody’s happy with. Hoping for a speedier resolution than we’re getting.
Andover has more than a labor relations problem and a communications problem. It has a CEO problem. It hired an unqualified person unsuited to the role of HOS for one of the foremost boarding schools in the world. While his published background shows Dr. K. to be a highly accomplished and well-connected physician/administrator, previous to his Andover appointment he had no experience I can see as an executive at a boarding school, let alone one like Andover. No experience dealing with high schoolers, none with parents of bright high schoolers, either. In the absence of crisis, he might have turned out to be a decent caretaker of the school for a few years. But in a crisis like where we have found ourselves, where communication, energy, empathy, judgement and experience are essential? Never a chance he would be successful.
Observations of an Andover parent:
Last summer when the plan was rolled out for the fall it was done so weeks late and happened at the same time deposits for the upcoming year were due. At NO point during this discussion did the administration state that faculty were given the choice to not return to the classroom all year. This lack of disclosure, in retrospect, bothers a lot of parents today.
Andover has failed at remote education. Education at Andover has historically been 4 class sessions per week per class. This year it has been 2 class sessions per week per class. Teachers have told students to supplement with videos from khan academy. There is no reason why remote classes can’t be held 4 times per week. When pressed the administration has suggested students have zoom fatigue. Ok fine, but if that’s the case why are they being told by their teachers to supplement class with khan academy videos. The students spend as much time on a weekly basis in meetings with their “advisors” as in an academic class.
The day student excuse for being remote is a just that - an excuse. Faculty have spouses who work outside the home, faculty have children who attend the local schools, faculty go out in the town of Andover. A large portion of the necessary staff (dining services) live outside the Andover bubble. Yet none of this has ever been acknowledged as an issue - only day students have been identified as a “risk factor”.
The HOS is at best distant. There has not been one single occasion where he has taken live questions from parents since his arrival. This is in stark contrast with the HOS at virtually every other private school. We have heard from the head of trustees as often as we have heard from the HOS.
Some faculty are rightfully concerned about their health. Some would be happy to be back in the classroom. Some are enjoying remote life doing their classes from beachfront locations. None have a clue what the plan is for the spring either.
The isolation is hard for the students. One of the downsides of going to boarding school is you lose touch with a lot of the “home” relationships. So when you are forced to be at home for over a year you end up with a lot of kids confined to their homes. That is not the experience of kids going to their local high school whether in person or remote.
I read this to DC who agrees wholeheartedly. As an observer, the education seems more like “guided, self-directed learning” for some classes more than others. Furthermore, some teachers have been much LESS accessible and responsive during remote learning, conference periods have been limited, and availability for assistance through study centers (ie, the writing center) has been minimal.
I have zero skin in the game but communication with parents is always essential even during normal times. During pandemic? It’s absolutely paramount to communicate often, clearly, and honestly.
FWIW, I’m sorry OP.
@familyrock and @Letsbereal2021 my two kids wholeheartedly concur with this sentiment.
As I told my spouse, if we’d wanted to go to online school we would’ve enrolled in Stanford OHS.
The plan for Spring was just announced. Certainly as written it presents as if we’ve been heard, at least in part. However, the proof will be in the pudding when the time comes. I’m hopeful, and would like to be optimistic.
I think the most galling thing is that there are schools, IN MA, similar to PA that are doing a much better job with Covid schooling. Groton, while not involving parents in any decisions (are there really boarding schools that do this??) has done an outstanding job of mitigating risk and keeping the kids in school.
I have been watching colleges as well - their covid response will absolutely inform my advice to my son about where to apply. Some colleges have done a good job, some, like PA, have done a bad job. That means something to me. An institution’s decision making during a crisis is a very important component of our family’s decision about where to spend our education dollars from now on.
@one1ofeach We have been watching this for both colleges (for DS) and for BS (for DD). It is VERY telling how leadership reacts in a crisis. True leadership succeeds, weak leadership fails. This has been a very eye-opening experience for us, also.
@DroidsLookingFor I hear you on Stanford Online school, which is about half the price. (Not that this is 100% about the money, but it’s not nothing.)
Remember that line from Airplane? “Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue.”
One thing I’ll say in fairness to PA is that it looks like they picked the wrong year to introduce a new HoS (he started over the summer, after the board had already granted the choice to the faculty for the entire year).
By which I mean simply that it was among the very most extraordinarily challenging set of circumstances you could draw up for “the new guy” to walk into. Which is not to say that there isn’t/wasn’t much to take issue with - as I do/did - based on how all of this was handled and communicated or not. Just trying to be fair wrt that one aspect.
Agreed @DroidsLookingFor I have actually been surprised at how much influence the board has in every day stuff. I know several parents who have gotten involved and were shocked at how much the board was dictating vs the HOS. I know of a few other day schools that friends attend where there is a similar situation. One person on the board decides something and gets the rest of the members to agree and then the school is out of luck. Or I should say the parents and kids are out of luck.
I wonder how much that’s temporary at PA since they went a full year with an interim HoS?