Dear Parents and Guardians,
I hope you and your family are staying healthy. Before I address the primary subject of this message, our planning for the 2020–21 school year, I want to first thank you for supporting your students and the school during our campus closure this semester. Through our commitment to a shared partnership with you, we have served our students well, ensuring deep learning and preserving community connections. We have provided our teachers with new resources and supported families facing new challenges. Together, we are a great team!
At this time, I can offer some preliminary insights into our planning for the fall. As you can imagine, we are eager to see our students back on the Circle and to welcome new members of the Classes of 2022, 2024, 2026, and 2027 into our community. We are therefore hard at work making a set of contingency plans for how best to reopen our campus safely.
Planning for the 2020–21 School Year
Even with so much uncertainty, we do know one thing for sure: school will look and feel different in the fall. We already have some early guidance from various government agencies, indicating a broad range of requirements and expectations that will inform our planning. However, we also know from experience that we will continue to see shifts in the constraints placed upon us, some in the form of legal requirements, and some in the form of recommended guidance.
I want to assure you, therefore, that just as we have done since the start of this pandemic, the Leadership Team of the school will provide stability even in these unpredictable times. In consultation with experts, and with our deep knowledge of the Castilleja community, we will engage in careful decision-making and provide frequent communication, leading with intention, compassion, and wisdom. Regardless of the circumstance, we will remain guided by our care for the physical and emotional well-being of our community, while we balance two key goals: to provide an outstanding education true to our mission, and to deepen our connections with one another. The reasons you chose Castilleja for your daughter will remain the fundamental principles that guide us going forward.
What We Can Expect
At this point, we look forward to bringing students on campus in groups beginning Monday, August 24. We will be in touch with specifics, but we know now that our Opening Day will be celebrated in new ways. Rest assured that while our treasured traditions may look different, they will continue to be memorable.
In general, we are planning for the following contingencies this fall:
- We anticipate being able to gather in groups no larger than 25–35 people for the fall semester. This will impact many aspects of our school life—classes, division events and school meetings; co-curriculars; dining; and special celebrations.
- We will need to abide by new rules for sanitation and health checks.
- We expect that testing will be readily available, and that contact tracing will be the norm.
- Santa Clara County will likely issue short-term shelter-in-place orders in the fall and winter of next year.
Planning Teams
To address the parameters we will face, we have created several committees to assess school operations and prepare recommendations for our return to campus. Among them are:
- Student Experience (day-to-day) – implementing new schedule, developing learning cohorts with numbers that satisfy health guidelines, and overseeing advisories, co-curricular activities, and community events
- Student Experience (curriculum) – overseeing experiential, global, and distance learning programming and supporting student well-being and growth
- Health, Safety, and Risk Management – steadily improving best practices for sanitation, food service, and campus access
- Parent Experience – maintaining sense of community, welcoming new families, and continuing to deepen the home-school connection to better support student well-being
- Employee Experience – maintaining sense of community, welcoming new members, and fostering professional development and opportunity
- Events for 25+ attendees – reimagining or postponing events until spring to meet public health guidelines while cultivating community and honoring beloved traditions
These committees are already hard at work identifying key questions and seeking the best solutions available to us. Throughout this closure, Castilleja employees have done incredible work maintaining the strength and integrity of our programming, and I know that will remain true as we return to campus under new guidelines. I will have much more information for you this summer, once we know more about the guidelines we'll need to follow, and our committees have finalized their recommendations.
Trust and Resilience
With a history of over 100 years of excellence behind us, reinforced recently by our successful transition to distance learning, Castilleja has worked hard to earn your enduring trust. Whether you are brand-new members of our community or a family who has been with us for several years or more, you have entrusted us to educate your daughter in a safe, engaging, joyful environment. Even before we have finalized our plans, and throughout the coming year, our community must draw upon this mutual trust, preserve our partnership, and model resilience for our students. When we take each decision in stride, we remind one another how important it is to make choices that are in the best interest of our community as a whole.
In this time of unprecedented change, it will take time to chart our best path forward, but we are determined to discover new ways to explore What's Possible for all of us at Castilleja. We will continue to communicate regularly throughout the summer, and I look forward to sharing Castilleja's plans with you as they develop.
I wish you good health.
Warmly,