From the Head of School

One of the truly distinctive aspects of the Ellis community is that it is filled with faculty and staff who think really carefully about what we hope our students are learning, ways in which we hope they are growing, and messages we want them to hear and see from us. In any typical school year, our teachers think about this as they plan their lessons and mold their classroom cultures, our coaches think about this as they develop their practice routines, game strategies, and team spirit, and our faculty club sponsors think about it as they support our students’ emerging leadership skills. This year, of course, was anything but typical. But the remarkable news is that the Ellis community navigated this challenging and unusual year with that same commitment and thoughtfulness, focusing on what was most important for our students to experience and learn, and adjusting with incredible creativity and flexibility to the constraints and demands of conducting school during a pandemic. I could not be prouder of this work.
We spent last summer figuring out how we could operate safely with all students on campus, while still providing an option for students to access the on-campus program remotely if necessary due to COVID-related health concerns. We started the year with almost 90% of our students on campus, experienced a slight decline during the winter case surge, but ended the year with virtually every student having returned to campus for at least some of their school experience.

I’ve written often this year about the stories that we will all take away about ourselves after this year. How did we respond to the challenges we experienced? What did we learn? How did we stay connected with others? How did we grow? I have so many wonderful stories tucked away about people at Ellis, among them: all our classroom teachers who figured out how to teach students in two places simultaneously; the performing arts teachers who staged and filmed six theatrical productions so no Ellis students missed their usual opportunities to perform; the Division Heads who greeted every student with a smile each morning as part of our daily screening protocol; the Grade-level Deans who reimagined every field trip in the Middle School to still provide exceptional bonding experiences for their students; the math teachers who taught their classes in the dining hall with jury-rigged white boards in support of social distancing; the teachers who ate endless lunches outside with their students in all sorts of weather; the student leaders who found creative ways to build school spirit even when we couldn’t gather in large groups; the athletes who played every competition fully masked; the Ellis Parent Association that reimagined parent community events to keep us all connected in fun and imaginative ways; the Marketing team that launched a fabulous new campaign to give prospective families a keener sense of what Ellis students are really like; and the Facilities team that kept our spaces clean and well-ventilated.

Perhaps most importantly, the adjustments to COVID-19 protocols just became a part of the background of school, allowing amazing learning to continue. This year brought both challenges and opportunities for us to grow in our commitment and work to be a diverse, inclusive, and equitable school. Students, faculty, staff, and families were all engaged in this effort, including student and parent affinity groups, faculty professional development, Board discussions, and parent workshops. We are a richer school for this work, and are committed to keeping this as a major focus moving forward. There is so much good news as we look together toward 2021–2022. Our enrollment looks to be the highest it's been in the past three years and our annual fund achieved the highest level of parent participation on record. All of our faculty and staff are now fully vaccinated, as are the majority of our eligible students. We look forward to having all students back to learning fully on campus this fall, and to creating more amazing Ellis stories together.
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