06.05.20: Friday Update

From: Julie Smith, Head of School
Subject: Friday update; Graduation; Summer School and beyond

Dear Stanbridge Parents and Guardians,

It is official—we have reached the end of the 2019–2020 school year. While these past few weeks and months have been challenging for all of us in countless ways, the end-of-year celebrations over the past few days have been powerful reminders of the positives that every member of the Stanbridge community has contributed to get us to where we are today. It goes without saying that not being able to celebrate in person is disappointing, but I want to thank all of our teachers, faculty, staff, and parents for coming together this past week to honor each and every student at Stanbridge. Being able to maintain this sense of community has been crucial throughout our campus closure, and I know I speak for many others to say that it was both an emotional and energizing end to this school year seeing our students' reactions during their classroom awards presentations, hearing the heartfelt words from their teachers during each graduation ceremony, and especially listening to our seniors give their commencement speeches this morning. There are many individuals to thank for coordinating these events, but collectively we did it, and I hope you share my gratitude, appreciation, and pride in that fact.

​There will be more detailed updates to come next week, as our staff works through a few more in-service days finalizing report cards, closing-out administrative business for this year, and yes, beginning to plan for the fall. I will have more admin notes to share with you on Monday, but a few key items to follow-up with now before a well-deserved weekend of celebration begins:

• Huge thanks to all of our students, teachers, and staff involved in this week's graduation ceremonies. Elementary held a special Zoom session on Wednesday afternoon to honor our younger students, and recognize our Upper El graduates who will be "stepping-up" to Middle School next year. Yesterday morning, our Middle School division celebrated this year's Eighth-Grade Graduates with a livestream ceremony similar to this morning's online ceremony for our Senior Class of 2020. Both videos were produced by Envision Pro AV, a Bay Area company that specializes in events like this. The website for each ceremony is linked on the Parent Portal, and the sites and graduation ceremony videos will remain online throughout the summer.

• The school year may be over, but Summer School launches in less than two weeks. As Linda noted during Wednesday's morning check-in, most classes will remain on the schedule, but a few are still short of the minimum enrollment. To help our teachers prepare their summer schedules, we will be making final decisions on courses early next week. The course guide, enrollment form, and current rosters for classes are on the Parent Portal; please email Linda Bargas by Sunday night if you have any interest in enrolling your child for Summer School but have not yet done so.

• The last days of school are typically when students clear out their desks and lockers, recover any belongings from Lost & Found, and retrieve any of their personal possessions that may have been accidentally abandoned on campus. As we did not expect to remain off campus for the remainder of the school year, students did not get that opportunity. If your child has belongings on campus that you would like to retrieve over the summer, please contact Ward Quincey in the Business Office and he will either schedule a pickup time for you to come to campus, or coordinate a dropoff with you.

• There are still many unknowns as to what a return to campus might/will look like in the fall, though as that picture becomes clearer over the summer, I promise to keep everyone updated. In the meantime, we look forward to hearing your input on this subject and getting feedback on your ideas, questions, and concerns. We are in the process of putting together a survey for all returning families to gather this information; look for that to go out via email sometime next week.

• Finally, as many of you know, Matt Poynter will be departing Stanbridge at the end of the month. We highlighted Matt's long history at Stanbridge in a previous email, and look forward to honoring him during our staff workdays next week. Nonetheless, one of our staff members has a most unique connection to Matt and Stanbridge, and I wanted to give him this forum to share something he wrote. Ben Grigsby has the distinction of not only being one of Matt's co-workers—he was also one of Matt's students during Matt's early days as an elementary teacher here at school. Ben asked to share this with both Matt and the Stanbridge community, and it is the perfect way to end a week of year-end celebrations:

• Matt, I want to take a moment to thank you for all you've done.
  
  For Stanbridge, you were one of its all-time greatest Elementary teachers. You supported your students while pushing them to go outside of their comfort zones and grow, helping countless kids to become more confident and successful individuals down the road. The impact you've made in those lives will never be forgotten.
  
  Then you came back as our Principal, and continued to foster growth, but not only in the student body but in the faculty as well. Middle School and Elementary have gone through some drastic changes over these past four years, and have come out stronger than ever thanks to you and Julie's leadership.
  
  For the former student who had the privilege of working with you when you returned, you made me a better educator, co-worker, and allowed my confidence to grow even more.
  
  From the struggles on our first experiential (which I actually look back on quite fondly) to the successes of our new Elementary division, I will treasure the time I got to learn from and work with you.
  
  I know this isn't "goodbye forever" or anything, but I wanted to make sure you knew about the profound effect you had on Stanbridge, and hopefully instill you with a fraction of the confidence you've given so many others as you take the next step in your career.
  
  Thank you for everything,
  Benjamin Caval Grigsby

To all of our students, staff, and families—and especially our Class of 2020 graduates—thank you and congratulations for getting through this year. You did it. We did it. Bulldogs one and all, it's amazing what we accomplished. Stay Strong, always.