Principal’s Vantage Point: A Joyful Moment for Us All
Dear Parker Community,
 
This Moment
Today marks a significant moment in the life and history of our entire school.
 
Today, for the first time in more than a year, our Upper School students who choose to are returning to campus for a full, five-day school week, which our JK-8 community has been fortunate to do all year. Although Upper School students have attended school in-person part-time since February, now is the first time since the start of the pandemic that our Upper School students have had the opportunity to attend in-person classes full time.
 
In addition, today, for the first time this year, JK-5 students and their teachers, who had previously been divided into two small pods of 8-10 students are now able to finish the school year reunited in one room with their grade head teacher as a complete section of 18-20 classmates. And, today, as well, our Middle School students and teachers will return to their own homeroom classrooms for the first time this year.
 
All of this is good news for our school community, as we and our city move in a more positive direction with care, hope, perspective, compassion and gratitude for what we have.
 
The sometimes-conflicting emotions of joy, fear, caution and relief that may be alive in each of us are real and will take time to process. All feelings about this new phase are valid, and we see and value all of our students and families, whether learning on campus or remotely in the final two months of this school year. Together, we will find our way to adjust, step-by-step, as we re-integrate as an in-person school community.
 
And, at the same time, this is also a moment we should dignify by pausing to recognize with respect the losses suffered by each person, by our school as a whole, and for our society, given all that has been experienced over this past year by the toll of COVID-19, the exhausting forces of pandemic protocols and by the relentless trauma of ongoing racial hatred.
 
Moving Forward with Gratitude
Parker will continue to take well-informed steps forward as we strive to bring our community together in the best and safest ways that we can over the next two months, especially as we plan ahead for such affirming moments as our traditional end-of-year celebrations.
 
For all of the work to prepare for this moment, we all owe gratitude to many people:
  • Our maintenance staff has moved desks and other classroom furniture in every room in the entire school.
  • Our health and safety operations team continues to manage all of the saliva screening, a vital part of our on-campus safety mitigations.
  • Parents/guardians, students and teachers have all had to be flexible to accommodate changing schedules and health protocols.
  • Teachers and assistant teachers have moved teaching materials and furniture, switched classrooms and reorganized curricula.
  • Staff and administrators from across the school, along with the Medical Subcommittee and other parent volunteers, have helped think through and coordinate logistics and timing of events, including health protocols, athletic events, school traditions and school lunch.
I am so thankful to you all for your support of the school as we move together into this next phase of life and learning at Parker.
 
We know that the pandemic is not over. All of us --even for those who are fully vaccinated--must continue to follow Parker’s health and safety protocols and affirm our social contract with one another, both on and off campus.
 
With great appreciation and confidence that Parker will continue to move forward in support of one another, the school and the greater community,
 
Dan
 
Daniel B. Frank, Ph.D.
Principal
Francis W. Parker School  |  330 West Webster Avenue  |  Chicago, IL 60614 |  773.797.5101  |