January 17, 2023

Dear Hershey Families,

Since this weekend, Hershey Montessori School has received reports of positive cases of COVID for three staff and three children at the Concord campus and for two staff at the Huntsburg campus.

As we are experiencing the continued high rate of Covid cases in our area, and the need to have sufficient staff available to our students, we may have to close a classroom, or program level, due to staff illness. In this situation we will strive to give as much advanced notice as possible, but if illness reports arrive in the morning, we will declare the closing of the classroom no later than 7:00 am.

If a student or staff member tests positive we require the student or staff member to stay home for 5 days following the start of symptoms, or being asymptomatic, yet with a positive test result. The day of first symptom, or positive test result if asymptomatic, is “day 0.”

We are making one small change to our Covid mitigation protocol:

For elementary and adolescent levels:
– The student remains home for the following Days: 0 through 5.
– If the student is symptom-free, they may return on Day 6.
– Masking is now required for days 6-10 unless there is a negative test result.

For children in Children’s House and Young Child Community levels:
The mask requirement is not applicable to children on day 6 – 10, if they have a negative test result. Otherwise, children of these ages remain home until day 11.

Future mask requirements:
Just a reminder, that wearing masks may become necessary for all staff and students from Children’s House onward, for a period of time, if the cases in our region or programs rise significantly. Please submit to the office any physicians’ note for medical exemptions from masks. Children in YCC will not need to wear masks.

As always, I thank you for your collaboration.

Sincerely,
Paula Leigh-Doyle
Head of School
pleighdoyle@Hershey-Montessori.org
Office: 440-357-0918
www.Hershey-Montessori.org

April 8, 2022

Dear Hershey Families,

There are a few schools in Cuyahoga County reporting small clusters of new cases of COVID and today Concord just received its first reported case since January. We continue to see a decrease of new cases in Geauga and Lake Counties, but see that the rate of decrease is slowing down. As we can anticipate, based on spikes in other countries with similar demographics, it  is likely that we will see another up-tick in cases. We are preparing our contingency responses for varying conditions of COVID this quarter.

For now: There is no significant change in our approach as we continue to ask staff and students to avail of rapid tests if they experience symptoms and to report to the school office if they are testing positive or are likely to have COVID symptoms, even with a negative rapid test result. Close contacts do not have to stay home unless the contact was from a family member living in the home.

If a personal has been a possible contact and exhibits symptoms, or if they test positive, we continue to ask them to remain home for 5 days from the last date of contact. That date of contact is considered day “0” for the purpose of counting the five quarantine days. NEW: If we start to see multiple cases on campus we may require people who are returning from their current COVID quarantine to wear a mask indoors, for five more calendar days, upon return to school.

Whole class, or program groupings, will not be asked to stay home if there are more than one case in a group. It is possible that we move to requiring the effective masks for a period in certain circumstance. If there are not enough staff for a specific area due to illness, we may close that program, or campus, for a period. If the case counts spikes excessively we may move to greater precautions such as all wearing masks for a period or limiting some group activities that may create a higher risk of transmission and staff coverage.

Communication: We will continue to notify the parents of each new COVID case relevant to their child/adolescent’s specific class or social grouping. We will also notify the whole school of a specific campus case as the state dash board is no longer reporting specific school counts of COVID.

All three campus offices have a supply of free rapid tests. Please call the office to request we send a test kit home as needed for your child or adolescent.

Thank you, as always, for your collaboration.

Paula Leigh-Doyle
Head of School
pleighdoyle@Hershey-Montessori.org
Office: 440-357-0918
www.Hershey-Montessori.org

February 23, 2022

Dear Hershey Families,

We continue tracking current Covid data, including: the rate of change, percent positivity, cases per one-hundred thousand, hospital admissions, and COVID-related deaths. We are also considering that we have had zero school cases for Concord in the past three weeks, and in Huntsburg for the past six weeks, and have carefully reviewed our staff wellness data. All of this information brings us to deduce sufficient conditions to allow children, adolescents and staff to move to “mask optional” when indoors. We will begin mask-optional on Monday, February 28, 2022 for both campuses.  While we are cautiously opening up our “student community bubbles” to mask-optional, the medical scientists continue to advise use of masks in indoor crowd situations. Therefore, there will be many who will continue to choose to wear masks on campus. That decision will be honored, and warmly welcomed, throughout our community. Should health conditions become highly contagious again, we know how to pivot back to requiring masks for a period.

We attach the list of omicron symptoms in order of their frequency. Please continue to observe your child each morning to monitor for possible symptoms and continue your wonderful track record of keeping your child home if they are sick and monitoring for possible COVID infection.

GRATITUDE FOR OUR PARENT COMMUNITY:

Daily, our children experience the Montessori philosophy that the individual fulfills their unique developmental needs in context of their community’s needs. Therefore, the loving connection between all members of the community creates that feeling of safety, empathy, and connection, in which children and adolescents thrive. I am deeply grateful for our parents and extended families for the care and shared efforts to slow down the spread of COVID sufficiently, thus keeping our students and staff together on campus for the past two years. With this aim in mind, we have also experienced worry and strain and mourned the loss of many pre-pandemic Hershey Montessori experiences.

We deeply missed the in-person connection of parents meeting with us, observing, learning, and celebrating together within our campus environments. We are so grateful now to begin to restore and reconnect so that our children and adolescents feel that strong relationship of connection between family and staff encircling them. We look forward to restoring engaged conversations at the open-conversation morning coffees and evening in-person get togethers.

SAVE THE DATES:   RESTORING PARENT CONNECTIONS FOR THE FIRST WHOLE SCHOOL PARENT GATHERINGS:

Wednesday, March 9th Morning Coffee at Concord 8:45 – 9:45 am

Thursday, March 10th Morning Coffee at Huntsburg at 9:00 – 10:00 am

Evening Un-Wind date, Invitations and RSVP links to follow

HUNTSBURG CAMPUS – INVITING PARENTS TO SEE OUR ADOLESCENT COMMUNITY LIFE IN-PERSON:

We are delighted to announce, at last, that parents are welcomed onto our Huntsburg campus to offer assistance, share your talents, or spend time getting better acquainted with all that it has to offer our adolescents! Judy Kline-Venaleck will share more information about how you can come see life on campus for yourself in the March Monthly Update.

If you would like to come into the student spaces on campus, we will ask you to bring a copy of your proof of up-to-date vaccination series or a rapid test result, dated for that day. If you do not have a rapid test kit, please request that we send one home with your adolescent earlier that week. All adult observers will wear correctly fitting masks until our counties are in the “lowest level of risk”.

OTHER WAYS TO CONNECT BACK TO OUR ADOLESCENT COMMUNITY, FARM AND LAND ON THE HUNTSBURG CAMPUS:

Our Huntsburg campus is participating in two days of the 2022 Ohio Maple Madness Tour. Come see us on Saturday, March 5th and 12th between 10:00 am and 5:00 pm. Student-led tours will be offered at 11:00 am, 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm.

We look forward to continued reduction in COVID numbers that may allow us to have an end-of-year Community Picnic. Information will follow in April and May.

CONCORD CAMPUS – RETURNING TO SOME PRE-PANDEMIC PROCESSES AND RESTORING PARENT CONNECTIONS:

We are also delighted to announce, at last, that parents can come in to observe their child’s classroom in action! Your classroom guide will announce the dates that classroom observations are opening up. The earliest dates that some levels will open is March 14, 2022.  Please select available time slots by emailing or calling Leslie Steelman in the front office. lsteelman@hershey-montessori.org. As there are many specific tips and aims to make the observation experience successful for you, the child, and the class, we will be sending home some guidelines and inviting you to Zoom gatherings to talk about the why, how and what to look for, and how Dr. Montessori developed this scientific approach to observation.

If you would like to observe, we ask you to show the office staff a copy of your proof of up-to-date vaccination series or a rapid test result, dated for that day. If you do not have a rapid test kit, please request that we send one home with your child earlier that week. All adult observers will wear correctly fitting masks until our counties are in the “lowest level of risk”.

Elementary arrivals:

Elementary children can be dropped off at the beginning of the sidewalk and cars can take the first turn to exit the campus without needing to drive by the front door. Please have your elementary child fully ready so that their exiting your car is not backing up traffic behind you. Elementary children earn this independence if they are able to walk carefully past the car line down the sidewalk.

If you also have a Children’s House sibling, that sibling remains in the car until an adult can guide them from the car, under the overhang.

Late arrivals to the Concord Campus no longer need to come through the office side-door. Please come through the main entrance. Please come to the front doors, in your mask, to be buzzed in. Sign in at the office and a staff member will be sure to get your child to their classroom.

We step into this new phase of restoration and reconnection with cautious optimism. We know how to implement measures if conditions change, but for now, are grateful to proceed with consideration that we are in the endemic phase of COVID. Knowing that we continue to live mindfully, and that we are well able to adapt to periods of change, we give thanks to the health care and frontline people, and to each other for our daily efforts that carried us through these extraordinary times. We have experienced and reflected much, which seems to bring us to a shared yearning to continue to advance our strength, learning, and abilities to be “better together”.

In gratitude and service to the child and adolescent,

Paula Leigh-Doyle
Head of School
pleighdoyle@Hershey-Montessori.org
Office: 440-357-0918
www.Hershey-Montessori.org

February 11, 2022

Dear Hershey Families,

We are optimistic about the continuing decline in new COVID cases in our region and that the number of new COVID cases needing hospital admissions are also significantly declining.  We continue to consult with medical professionals and are pleased to be announcing some rolling back of our current protocols, starting Monday, February 14, 2022.  If there is a significant change of direction of COVID data, or a significant case of spread in any program or class, we may need to return to some of the earlier mitigation measures for a relevant period of time.

We will continue reviewing the data and trends weekly. Based upon the data and rates of change of the omicron variant, we hope to have more good-news updates on moving to masks-optional in a few weeks’ time.      

Reducing quarantine protocols:

1. Close contacts of a positive case outside of the home do not have to quarantine.  

We are removing the 7 and 10 day quarantine categories. Five-day quarantine will be only for contacts who have symptoms.

We are, however, asking staff and families to stay home for 5-days if the contact case was due to a family member who was living in the home for a number of days during the peak shedding period (two days prior to onset of symptoms and the first two days of symptoms present).

This reduction of close contact quarantine requirements will also allow all programs to restore full social lunch groupings.

2. Masks will be optional outside, regardless of proximity with others.

Again, significant changes of direction of COVID data could result in restoring some or all mitigation protocols for a period in the future. For now we remain optimistic that this pandemic will continue to decline and move toward an endemic status. I look forward to sharing our next steps in approximately two more weeks.

Sincerely, 

Paula Leigh-Doyle
Head of School
pleighdoyle@Hershey-Montessori.org
Office: 440-357-0918
www.Hershey-Montessori.org

January 21, 2022

Dear Hershey Parents,

I write to you today with a spirit of optimism and with a view to looking ahead to next school year. I am sure you are joining us in hopeful anticipation as we watch the COVID-omicron variant wave diminishing in our counties. I look forward to being able to announce our ability to step down some of our health protocols as soon as we believe it safe to do so.

We are now planning for the fall of 2022 and believe next year we will continue to grow and hold the possibility that we can begin to restore in-person connection with our parents and general community, as the health conditions allow. One aspect we missed the most has been having parents come in to observe in the classrooms, to watch the school plays and to witness the unique education, and your children’s growth within it. We also greatly missed meeting up with each other throughout the year, inside our special learning environments. Having felt these losses, we know how precious and joyful that restored connection will feel for parents and students alike once they begin to return.

The board of directors recently approved our operating budget for the 2022- 2023 school year which ensures we can continue to offer all the high-quality Montessori programs our children and adolescents deserve as well as offer cost of living increases to our esteemed staff, who have demonstrated such adaptability and resilience during these times.

I look forward to celebrating with you in our sheltered, outdoor, annual Gala in May and a separate drive-in theater event in early June. (See the event dates below.) We will come together as a community to celebrate your support throughout these most challenging times as well as the dedication of our program staff who gave their all to successfully keep the school open for students to learn together on campus for the past two years.

Look for an email following this letter, from Lakisha Wingard, Admissions Director, with a link to your re-enrollment contract which can be found in the To Do section of your family’s Transparent Classroom portal online. I include a link to the new Tuition Summary which reflects the customary annual increases and a link to the Financial Aid application. We are very aware of family economic circumstances that may have become more uncertain or were impacted directly due to the pandemic. We wish to expand our Financial Aid to meet any changing needs of our current families and to support families who may be applying for the first time.

Financial aid applications for the first round of awards need to be submitted by February 4, 2022 using this link: Parent Financial Statement (PFS) via School & Student Services. The application process has been redesigned to aid your decision-making and re-enrollment commitment. If the financial assistance award is insufficient for your child to return to Hershey Montessori School, you will be given a period of time within which to withdraw (in writing) from the enrollment contract without an obligation to pay the tuition and with full refund of the deposit. Please reach out to the admissions office at lwingard@hershey-montessori.org if we can assist you with the financial aid process in any way.

Please reach out to me, the program directors, or the admissions office, if you have other program-specific questions or needs so that you can return your signed Enrollment Contract which is also due by Friday, February 4, 2022 to reserve your child or children’s space.

We have learned a lot about ourselves, through both the hardships and the successes, of what we hope is soon to be a receding pandemic. We will enter into the new school year stronger for all that we learned in navigating the challenges. We look forward to returning to, and expanding anew, our commitment to the value of connection for our students and community as we return for the 2022 – 2023 school year.

In service to the child and adolescent,

Paula Leigh-Doyle
Head of School
pleighdoyle@Hershey-Montessori.org
Office: 440-357-0918
www.Hershey-Montessori.org

SAVE THE DATES
The Hershey Gala: Saturday, May 21, 2022 at Meadow Ridge Events, 17305 Mayfield Road, Windsor.
Family Night at the Drive-In: Friday June 3, 2022 at Mayfield Road Drive-In Theatre, 12100 Mayfield Road, Chardon.

A view of the heated, outdoor venue at Meadow Ridge Events.

January 2, 2022

Dear Hershey Parents,

I wish you and your loved ones a Happy New Year. Perhaps you told your children recently, that the God Janus, in Roman mythology, was the namesake for the month of January. Janus, being the god of gates and doors, was often depicted with one face looking back and another looking forward. Part of our looking back at 2021 includes great discoveries regarding our capacity for resilience but for most of us, it also includes grief and worry. Looking forward to the year ahead, I believe we can allow in that hopeful feeling, with a glimmer of light and optimism. While the omicron variant will continue to touch us all, we can navigate it with much more knowledge and capacity than we had in the beginning of last year. We can also hold hope of the possibility that this variant may be the one that eventually moves us out of a pandemic toward a more manageable endemic.

We look forward to greeting children and adolescents for their first day of classes on Wednesday, January 5, 2022.  The staff return to work on Monday, January 3^rd, which will include re-energizing together with interactive professional development (via Zoom) and planning meetings around refined protocol for the weeks ahead. We continue to gather more information from the medical specialists, with whom we regularly consult, which guides how we might best approach our response for our school community. Our aim is to make it possible for children and adolescents to be together on-campus, where they are happiest and learn optimally. We will share out with you the additional strategies and changes in protocol as they develop over the next few days but offer the initial changes in this letter.

Our current approach is to slow down the inevitable wave of transmission that is likely to affect our students, their family members, and our staff, so that we have sufficient staff to continue in-person learning. There are likely going to be times where a class or a program may need to stay home for a period, due to “close contact” cases or actual illness. The teachers will be prepared for remote learning during any extended period their class or campus must close. Staff will offer some activities for individual students, as developmentally relevant, who are home for a longer period due to COVID, but will not be offering hybrid learning.

1. Improving protection with the quality of masks:

All staff will move to wearing N95’s and approved KN95 masks, or surgical masks underneath their cloth masks. Students in Children’s House through Upper School will also need to have improved protection in the masks they wear at school.

Our preference is for adolescents and elementary children who can fit N95’s or KN95’s to also use these but putting a surgical mask under a cloth mask is also effective and may be needed if there is a delay on orders and delivery of the forementioned masks. Ultimately adolescents, and any older elementary children may prefer wearing the manufactured masks, mentioned above, but either is accepted as long as the mask fits comfortably and effectively.

Similarly, you may wish to order the KF94 / N94 masks for younger children-Children’s House through the rest of Elementary- which may be a better fit for smaller faces.

Given that you may need time to order or purchase new masks, and may not have a supply of surgical masks at home, we can offer surgical masks to students upon arrival to campus, to be put on under their cloth masks as needed, until you can access more for yourselves.

2. Decreasing un-masked exposure and maintaining optimal ventilation:

When masks are off outdoors, we will guide students towards greater distancing and masks will be worn outdoors in certain situations where distancing cannot be maintained. Plans also include reducing recess group sizes, based upon various age levels. We will return to the previous arrangements for eating lunch in smaller groups and with greater distancing where possible. Depending upon the age of the students, and the nature of weather conditions, we will also eat outdoors when possible.

3. Remember to do a rapid test to return from the winter holiday season:

Please use the free Binax test kit we sent home on the last week of school in December, no earlier than 3:00 pm the day before your child is to return to campus. We recognize the difficulty in testing multiple children on a school morning, so we think testing late on the day before school, will help. The closer you can do these tests to bedtime, the more effective we will be at catching positive cases before they come into school the next day. Negative test results will be shown to the staff member greeting students upon arrival.

We will send home two more rapid tests on the first day of school, so that you can also test your child/ren before returning to campus for day two and day three of school.

We have learned that Binax does not proctor for children under four years of age. For those children only, we will accept a photograph of the rapid test. Please write their name and the date on the test kit you are photographing. There are some parents wondering about the privacy safety of using proctored testing.  We offer the following link to the Abbott-Navica privacy statement: https://www.globalpointofcare.abbott/en/navica-privacy-policy.html

Case notifications:

As the volume of positive cases and contact tracing is likely to increase, we will notify families whose children are considered a “direct contact,” in addition to some specific classroom, residential, or bus-related cases, when relevant. We will adjust our Whole-School notification system to using the Ohio Department of Health’s schools dashboard, which will reflect the number of new cases, outside of school vacation periods, to whom we report daily. As always, we will adapt as information or needs change, we will keep our families informed.

There has been some concern in the community about the layers of safety measures Hershey has put in place, and there are different views about masks and vaccines. Our primary aim is to stay informed of the medical science and to take as many steps as possible so that our students can remain on campus. While public school districts have different approaches, Hershey stays informed about medically sound mitigation strategies through accessing mainstream medical experts and an affiliation of independent schools, many of whom implement similar approaches to health protocols on their campuses.

We have done very well with keeping students on campus, and avoiding on-campus spread, for the past fifteen months and we know that this new variant will challenge us further to maintain that experience for our children and adolescents. I remain continually inspired by the stories I hear of the sacrifices and decisions Hershey parents and staff have been making with the health of our school, and greater community, in mind. Your mindfulness helps our students continue in-person learning for as long as possible. Our compassion, collaboration and shared aims will also see us through 2022, with our students thriving and embracing a vision of a better future.

In service to the child and adolescent,

Paula Leigh-Doyle
Head of School
pleighdoyle@Hershey-Montessori.org
Office: 440-357-0918
www.Hershey-Montessori.org

December 16, 2021

Dear Hershey Parents and Campus Communities,

In anticipation of increasing spread of COVID over the next few weeks, we will be staying informed every day through the winter break on the rate of spread, how it is affecting our region, students and our staff. We ask that you email us at staff@hershey-montessori.org if your child is either a.) a contact, or b.) diagnosed with COVID during break. We will also be staying informed on new scientific information about the omicron variant.

We are hoping, and planning, to be able to return for on-campus learning in January and will tighten up some mitigation protocol measures with a view toward slowing down the effects of COVID on our campuses. Please see the attached refinements to our protocols for staff and students who are:

1. a) contacts to a positive case for vaccinated people and
   b) for those who get COVID themselves.

To return to school in January, we ask parents to administer a proctored home rapid-test kit the day before the student/s returns to campus, but no earlier than 3:00 pm the day before. We are sending home a test kit with every student on Thursday, December 16^th. Parents will need to take 10 minutes to register each child on the testing website (instructions are on the box). It takes approximately 25 minutes to complete the actual testing process for each individual, but you can step away from your computer for 15 of those minutes while the test is running. You and the on-line proctor both read the test kit and the proctor emails you a test report very quickly.  In order for students to get on school transportation, or to enter the building, parents will show staff a screen view on your phones, or a printed copy, of the email that states a dated negative test result showing the student’s name.

We will need to do this for the first three days of school in January. The remaining kits will be sent home on the first day back to school.

All students and staff returning from the holiday period must show the three negative test results over the first three days on campus, regardless of which day they return.

On-campus protocols will also be more rigorous and will include greater distancing, assigned seating and less free mixing of groups.

While none of these strategies are 100% impermeable, each step layers upon the other steps and will either slow the spread or improve the odds of people not getting COVID. Each of us will keep our commitment to the community, and our community pledge, as we navigate much personal decision-making over the holiday period.

If new data and scientific information changes over the break, it is possible we might have to start the year remotely. If this occurs, you will be notified by e-mail by January 1, 2022.

Wishing you joy, peace and precious times for connection in the many different forms that can come in your family traditions and throughout the winter break.

In service to the child and adolescent,

Paula Leigh-Doyle
Head of School
pleighdoyle@Hershey-Montessori.org
Office: 440-357-0918
www.Hershey-Montessori.org

October 25, 2021

Dear Hershey Families,

Congratulations and Gratitude for a Great Cosmic Run & Walk
I wish to thank all who could participate in the Cosmic Run on Saturday. The Hershey resilience and connection to nature was certainly reflected today in our volunteers, staff, adults, adolescents, children and infants who came out in the cool fall weather. It was a great opportunity to reconnect, encourage each other, and spend some time focusing on our personal best! It was heartwarming to see extended community members coming out to support Hershey, many of whom make our event part of their annual fall tradition. Having crossed the finish line and circling up with hot cocoa, a number of younger elementary children were heard to say, “This year I ran a mile, but next year I am running the 5K!”

COVID-19 Case Updates

I would like to update you on where we are with our COVID health conditions this fall. Three Huntsburg students tested positive for COVID earlier in the fall, and one Concord staff member received a positive PCR test result yesterday, having stayed home since last Wednesday. So far there have been no Concord Students or other staff members reporting a positive test result. I am grateful to the parents who accepted the news of contact-quarantine with understanding and support. This Delta variant is still adept at replicating itself, mostly through aerosolization, so we continue to monitor and implement the protocols in our Healthy Community Plan – Family Manual. We report new cases to relevant campus families, and you can also see Hershey’s case reports, along with every other school in the state, on the Ohio Department of Health dashboard, here.

Staff Vaccinations
With a view to doing as much as possible to improve the health conditions for all in our school, and for our extended communities, Hershey plans to have all staff fully vaccinated by November 15, 2021. Once the FDA moved from emergency use to full approval of the Pfizer vaccine, we communicated to all staff on our vaccination goal and allowed time for those who wished to further consult with their physicians and religious leaders.

As of the last week of September, unvaccinated staff were providing negative test results to the school weekly. Some staff have submitted requests for medical or religious accommodation, and we continue to process those requests. We honor that each staff member is making a personal choice and I wish to remind us all to continue to respect staff privacy regarding their choices.

There are some staff who are electing to leave Hershey for a new career path, while others wish to return once the pandemic is over. Although it is always sad to see any staff member leave our school community, I fully respect their personal choice and bid farewell with deep gratitude for their service to our children and adolescents. We greatly value the presence of children of staff members and if relevant, make it possible that they remain in their class communities during this pandemic. If there is a change in staffing for a specific classroom, I notify those parents of the changes with an introduction of the new staff member once that onboarding is finalized.
Staying informed on pandemic mitigation progress

Our COVID-19 steering team and I continue to stay informed of the medical science, any new information, and recommendations of the leading medical institutions as well as the CDC. We are so very grateful to be able to teach and learn together in person and strive to maintain the best possible conditions for this to continue throughout this phase of the pandemic. The health of your children, the Hershey staff, and our broader community is first and foremost in our minds for all decisions.

We are hearing now that the FDA EU approval for vaccinations for children ages 5 to 11 years is expected after Halloween. We honor that this is a very important personal and medical consideration for each family and, as always, we encourage you to consult your physician. We are committed to sharing information regarding the widely available locations for vaccinations for those 12 years and older and will also offer location information once the approval is released for younger children.

Seasonal indoor gatherings ahead

As you are planning for Halloween, or other seasonal indoor gatherings, I appeal to you to remember our Healthy Community Pledge when making decisions this year. If there is a positive test result impacting a non-Hershey gathering, we will assume all students at that event are “contacts” and will require COVID protocols for all who attended the event. Our protocol requires quarantine for unvaccinated people and close self-monitoring prior to a PCR Test on days three, four, or five for vaccinated people, as described in our family manual.

Staying connected
Deep gratitude to the staff who have hosted the various presentations and Zoom events in the past month. The final of the three first plane (birth to six years) parent events will be October 26th. Please RSVP via email (RSVP@hershey-montessori.org), or call 440-357-0918 so that we can send you the Zoom link. A save-the-date card will follow shortly with more parent coffees and other gatherings. The staff also looks forward to our upcoming parent-teacher conferences. Please check with your advisor or guide if you have not yet scheduled your conference.

I have had the privilege of observing and working in every program level on both campuses this year and I am inspired by the level of engagement, independence and collaboration by our children, adolescents, and staff. Most of all, I am struck by the tangible kindness and compassion that is fostered and lived out in every class and community. Pending the outcomes of pandemic mitigation by spring, we are hoping you can come observe on campus to witness this for yourself. It will certainly leave you optimistic about how your children will enter their adult world in the not-so-distant future!

In service to the child and adolescent,

Paula Leigh-Doyle
Head of School
pleighdoyle@Hershey-Montessori.org
Office: 440-357-0918
www.Hershey-Montessori.org

August 2, 2021

Dear Hershey Families,

While we will enjoy many more warm and sunny days this month, your children may be noticing the changing colors spackling our hedgerows with Queen Anne’s Lace and black-eyed Susans and that many Baltimore orioles have begun preparation for their journey south. This is the season we, too, begin our preparations for returning to our loved campuses and reconnecting with our school community.

To help you orient to the school year ahead, I would like to share our staff rosters. Life in this rapidly changing world saw us bid farewell and give gratitude to departing staff and also warm welcomes to new staff. Staff biographies will be shared with the advisees, students and families who will have new teachers and will be posted on our website shortly. I am particularly excited about the caliber of expertise and experience of our new staff, three of whom from the Huntsburg campus were in Montessori training this summer. I also wish to share context and plans for how we are preparing to reopen as the Delta variant of COVID-19 is increasing the numbers of new cases in the past week. (See attachments.)

Although the Delta variant of COVID-19 in the U.S. is showing similar patterns to that of other countries before us, including India and England, we are entering into a new year at Hershey Montessori School with many more positive conditions.

Those of you who were enrolled at Hershey last year know how well our staff collaborate and how detailed our planning is when there is a need to pivot or make adjustments to our environments, in order to maximize the amount of time that our children and adolescents could learn together in person. When we did switch to remote learning for three weeks around the winter holidays, we created intentional ways to stay connected, listen deeply to individual needs and feedback, and to give as much off-screen work-time to our learners as possible.

The new positive aspects of returning to school in a pandemic
We now know how well our children and adolescents can adapt and that, although not always in our most preferred conditions, their relationships with staff and friends, and use of our outdoor learning environments draws them in, they still find joy and they make it through. We enter this school year with a lot more information, seventeen months of worldwide data and can feel far less uncertain or in the dark.
We are in awe of the scientists who had been developing the mRNA vaccine for the prior ten years to such a degree that they had far less development to do to turn it into the COVID vaccine. While the vaccines do not make us impervious from getting ill, the symptoms are far less severe and we feel optimistic because we are unlikely to need a hospital, and vaccinated people are far less likely to die. Most importantly, scientists are finding that the viral load we may be unintentionally shedding as vaccinated people is reduced and we are less likely to make the more vulnerable, unvaccinated people ill, particularly when we are also wearing masks indoors. While Delta is much more contagious and is more likely to affect children than the earlier variants, the medical sciences know more about how to respond. (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia – “COVID-19 Outlook: A Summer Resurgence as Schools Plan for Fall”)

In addition to all of these positive realities, we are also seeing how much society is valuing the importance of children and adolescents being in school in-person, for their emotional and personal wellbeing.
The primary aim of our health organizations is to make it possible that our children can get back to school in-person and all layers of mitigating COVID are being considered through that prioritized lens. We have been meeting with medical advisors and getting the most current scientific information to guide our design for reopening to meet the social, emotional, and learning needs of our students while protecting those for whom the vaccines are not yet accessible.

Returning to school in the fall of 2021

PLAN “A”
We will have larger and more dynamic group sizes, returning adolescents to more mixed-age groupings, returning to more choice of creative expressions and projects as well as returning specials (music, Spanish and PE) to the elementary. The elementary students will be together with their whole class, not separated into separate, distanced environments although when eating lunch indoors, elementary and adolescents may be separated to maintain over 6’ distancing. While all air quality, outdoor work and hand hygiene will continue, we will set up the indoor environments for some distancing but will not be maintaining last year’s 6’ protocol throughout the work cycles. Each student and staff member will be screening at home, including taking temperatures at home and reporting daily via Transparent Classroom/Microsoft Teams. A student who is a contact will stay home for quarantine monitoring (see process below), but the entire class may not need to quarantine.

The boarding program is reopening and those students will live normally, as one family circle, after school. Hybrid teaching of students in the classroom while also simultaneously teaching others on screen from their homes is not being offered this year. Remote instruction will occur only when an entire class or campus has to pivot to remote instruction as may happen for “Plan C.”

As the primary transmission of COVID is aerosolized, all staff and students above two years of age/starting in the Children’s House level, will continue to wear masks while indoors on campus. We are fortunate that we can avail of classroom windows and exterior doors to keep fresh air flowing and we will continue to use HEPA filters and UV cleaning in airducts as relevant. As we did last year, every student has freedom to step into outdoor spaces to take a mask break. The need to wear masks indoors will be reviewed every six weeks as the data of new cases of transmission in our region declines.

As adults both in our families and staff, we renew our Community Pledge to maintain the optimal measures in our own lives and when off campus, being mindful of how much close contact we have, particularly with indoor group situations, as medical science advises, toward reducing the chance of bringing the virus to others on campus. I am certain that this community commitment to the science is a strong reason why we had NO spread of COVID on campus for the entirety of last year.

PLAN “B”
Should the number of COVID cases in our immediate area reach a level that warrants more caution, then we will make the decision to raise the level of COVID safety protocol to a higher level that will reduce some of the freedoms allowed for with Plan A, such as less mixing of student groups, revised specials, and adjustments to lunch procedures. Our goal will be to maintain in-person learning with heightened safeguards with input from our medical advisors.

PLAN “C
If the spread of COVID spikes, we may need to pivot to remote learning for a period. When we ask all students to remain home, the program staff will need two days to prepare specific remote materials and set up their physical technology spaces. Students should be able to connect immediately for a morning meeting but direct remote instruction will begin on the third day.

Please see the attached protocols for our Healthy Reopening Family Manual

We are a constantly learning school community with a three-pronged general theme for the year

From our experiences of the past seventeen months, we have learned how to live and learn with adaptations and we have come to greatly value what is most important to thrive. Our human connections, healthy relationships and engaged learning together are vital values of our school. Our Whole School theme for this year, which guides our opportunities to learn and grow will be to continue to deepen our ways of being “Better Together” and to be an inclusive community that strives for equity and belonging for every student and staff member. We will deepen our Montessori lenses with opportunities for learning, for bringing in specialists and consultants and inviting parents and families to learn ideas that support student independence and Montessori outside of school. We also commit to follow Dr. Montessori’s vision by deepening our learning and teaching in the “Science of Peace,” which includes learning science that contributes to health and wellbeing, science that helps us to steward our natural environments and science that shows us new, effective ways to learn from our past and to live together as one school community in inextricable interdependence with our global humanity. “An education capable of saving humanity is no small undertaking; it involves the spiritual development of man, the enhancement of his value as an individual, and the preparation of young people to understand the times in which they live.” – Dr. Maria Montessori | Education and Peace

We look forward to reconnecting with our parents via Zoom gatherings, outdoor meetings in person when possible, and as we communicate together intimately in collaboration and service of the developmental needs of your child and adolescent.

Please reach out to your teacher, advisor, the offices or directors as questions arise for your particular family.
While vaccinated adults and adolescents can consent to brief hugs when masked, we look forward to all kinds of heart-centered expressions of joy and respect to greet every child and adolescent as they arrive to their safe and beautiful spaces designed around their needs.

In service to the child and adolescent,

Paula Leigh-Doyle
Head of School
pleighdoyle@Hershey-Montessori.org
Office: 440-357-0918
www.Hershey-Montessori.org

May 14, 2021

Hello Hershey Families,

We heard the governor’s plans for lifting state health orders as of Wednesday, June 2, 2021. You may also have heard that the Pfizer vaccine has been EUA approved for 12- through 15 year-olds. This news helps to keep us looking forward with optimism that the science of immunology and successful rates of community immunization might be sufficient to prevent new, more virulent strains of COVID-19, taking hold. 

The school consults with medical experts regarding scientific data and related health information. Therefore we will continue to maintain all COVID protocols through the last three days of school in June unless or until our medical consultants give us other advice.

We are already planning program designs for the fall, holding to optimism by prioritizing best-case scenarios that may allow us to restore our group sizes and prepared environments to pre-pandemic practices. However, we are also prepared with contingency planning should the rate of new variants succeed ahead of community immunization.

Our children, adolescents and staff are embracing more outdoor work this season and enjoying the many other benefits of being out in nature and in fresh air. There is lightness in the atmosphere on both campuses and lots of chatter about the successful Extravaganza Drive-In Movie event held last weekend. I wish to express deep gratitude for our parents, staff, board members and sponsors who helped to restore community connection after a great degree of separation for past fourteen months. These events reflect the ingenuity, collaboration, and persistence that we observe in our Montessori students who, in turn, are observing these qualities in their parents and in the community of adults that surround them!

I will keep you informed of news or changes in health information as we move toward summer vacation.

Best regards, 
Paula Leigh-Doyle
Head of School
pleighdoyle@Hershey-Montessori.org
Office: 440-357-0918
www.Hershey-Montessori.org

April 30, 2021

To:   Parents of adolescents on the Huntsburg Campus and those who will join us in the fall.

Dear Parents,

As we are sailing toward the end of the academic year, I wish to thank you for your support and engagement with the many adaptations we made in order to offer in-person learning this year!  As many people are discovering, we, too, have learned new things that will be beneficial for our students and community even after the mitigation of the pandemic. Our staff have been designing enhancements for the fall of 2021 based upon student surveys, observations, parent feedback and academic needs and opportunities. I offer some highlights today and will be back in touch again before the end of the school year.

We are very excited about the possibility that, with enough immunization of the community, we may get ahead of the growth of new variants and slowly begin to return to some aspects of previous interactions and social group sizes in the fall. Having lived the experience this year, we know how to pivot and avail of contingency practices if pandemic conditions require. Enrollment is growing again, and we will also be welcoming new and old friends returning to the boarding program.

Our plans for the fall include a returned focus on the student experience of “community,” mixed ability and mixed age learning, meaningful opportunities for leadership, and the valorization that comes from impactful contribution. After a year of being separated during this pandemic, we are very much looking forward to a focus of “One Campus, One Community,” as one plane of development, rather than a focus on Upper School and Middle School as distinct and apart. This focus will create much more opportunity for broadening social circles and integration of younger and older students, while still ensuring intentional time and space for older adolescents to be together as a smaller group as their stage of development requires. Ninth year students will have access to increased academic content for Language Arts, Science, and Humanities as they will be integrated with the tenth years for these classes.

Eleventh and twelfth year students will have opportunities for integrated classes in Science, Humanities and Language Arts, while some seniors will continue to take CCP classes off campus. Similarly, seventh and eighth year students will be integrated for their Humanities and Occupations projects.

Aspects that remain the same as pre-pandemic design will be the opportunity for ninth year students to be in morning meetings, Creative Expression/Physical Expression, practical work and lunch with the seventh and eighth year students, as well as being together for community work and regular community council meetings. This ensures the ninth-year students have the responsibilities of modeling and leadership for our seventh and eighth level students. Once we live these experiences together, we will observe if there is need to change some meeting and lunch groupings for second semester. The older adolescents will continue to have the customary leadership opportunities while we will be offering additional classes in social organization and leadership. Plans are also underway to offer new extra-curricular opportunities on and off campus.

This year’s graduating class is particularly special for us all. Their resilience to make it through to college acceptances over the past fourteen months is a feat to be recognized and celebrated. You will read about them in upcoming communications. The light at the end of the pandemic tunnel promises great anticipation and gratitude for restoring greater social connection, leadership growth and deep academic engagement in the fall. The staff and I invite you to stop in to a Zoom Open House to talk about the plans for the fall on Tuesday, May 4^th at 6:30 pm.  (RSVP here)

The challenges of this year have certainly helped us grow, and we will cherish the things we deeply value all the more when we can all be together in person next fall. Community relationships and connection are at the heart of Hershey and I am personally filled with gratitude for the prospect of good times ahead. Meanwhile, we will connect in-person, but distanced, for our annual extravaganza at the Drive-In theater on May 7, 2021, and relax for happy hour in our own homes via Zoom on May 8, 2021.

In service to the child and adolescent,
Paula Leigh-Doyle
Head of School
pleighdoyle@Hershey-Montessori.org
Office: 440-357-0918
www.Hershey-Montessori.org

March 3, 2021

Dear Hershey Families,

A spirit of anticipation and optimism pervades our school community!

As we are feeling warmer winds and lengthening daylight, the students and staff are feeling the lightness of spirit that comes with the emergence of spring. Along with the joys of outdoor activities in the spring season will be the inevitable increase of mud-boot management and laundering rain gear. While the toddlers are learning to scrub their mud boots at school, hopefully your school-aged children can launder their own muddy outdoor gear which will inevitably come home with more frequency this season. Their daily work outside, including natural science, movement and stress release on the Concord Campus, and some very delicious maple syrup from our adolescents on the Huntsburg Campus, are priceless outcomes.

Along with this spirit of anticipation, we are feeling the optimism that comes with the successful first COVID-19 staff vaccines, so far availed of by 78% of our staff.  We extend heartfelt gratitude to the Lake and Geauga County Health department (LGCA) and The Education Service Center of the Western Reserve who coordinated this enormous task along with the host schools who became immunization clinics. The process was very well organized, efficient and aided by gracious volunteers at Berkshire and Mentor high schools.

The Huntsburg staff will have their booster shots over spring break. The Concord staff have been assigned their 2nd immunization clinic day for:

Friday, March 26th – There will be no school this day for the Concord Campus in order that all staff can be processed before 3:00 pm.

Thinking ahead about spring break?

While so many have suffered loss and illness as a result of this pandemic, there are also some positive outcomes to be found. Our interdependence and mutual trust, between staff and parents at Hershey, has been truly illuminated this year!  Our students, who sought to enroll in-person, have been the beneficiaries of our community commitment, learning in physical connection with their peers and beloved staff for all but three weeks of the academic year. To date we continue to have zero spread of COVID on campus, and this reflects fully on every adult and student adhering to our Community Pledge.

While we are all excited about the prospect of being immunized, we recognize the medical science behind continued unwavering focus on wearing masks, distancing and hand washing outside of our household / immediate pods until community immunity has reached. Our individual decisions can keep the whole school ahead of the potential spread of the new variants. If you plan to travel over spring break, I remind you to keep this focus and that if you find you are unable to maintain the Community Pledge, please keep your children at home for 10 additional days after the last day of any potential contact. This also applies if you travel outside of the United States or to other states with 15% positive testing rates (see this travel advisor map).  This COVID risk assessment app may also aid your decision making.

I am so proud of our Hershey families and staff for so successfully keeping to the Community Pledge, erring on the side of caution if there was any potential risk, and for supporting our children with optimal healthy environments. There is light at the end of the tunnel, and we will keep up our solidarity and commitment to each other knowing that population immunity is in within our grasp for next school year.

In gratitude and service to the child and adolescent,
Paula Leigh-Doyle
Head of School
pleighdoyle@Hershey-Montessori.org
Office: 440-357-0918
www.Hershey-Montessori.org

February 5, 2021

Dear Hershey Families,

We are very excited to announce that 76%  of our Hershey staff are ready to avail of the COVID-19 vaccines and a number more are likely to get them in the future. We are looking forward to being a part of the “immunized herd affect” to get our region to approximately 80% vaccination as this will allow our school to return in the fall with some of the Montessori program designs we implemented prior to the pandemic.  While we expect that there will still need to be continued mask wearing in certain situations, and other health protocols to remain active, we hope immunized community health conditions will enable us to restore aspects such as social group sizes and all in-person learning.

It is an inspiring feat of human collaboration that so many health and government agencies can collaborate to offer vaccination to school staff in Ohio. We are very grateful for this privilege! As the county health departments and local Education Service Center of Western Reserve are coordinating the roll-out for educators in our counties, we do not control how the scheduling occurs for our staff. Therefore, we cannot stagger staff schedules while maintaining programs for students on the vaccination day.

Huntsburg Campus staff will receive their first vaccination on Wednesday, February 24^th –  There will be no instruction on this day. We are focusing this day to “Care of Self” for students and staff.

Concord Campus staff will receive their first vaccination on Friday,  February 26^th –  There will be no school this day, dedicating to a “Care of Self” day for staff and students

Given that there can be unexpected glitches and needs, in undertakings of this logistical complexity, we are well prepared to be flexible if there is a need for any change in the schedule.

Approximately four weeks later, our staff will be receiving the booster vaccination. This can have some residual short-term affects for some people, which is a good sign that their bodies are recognizing and responding as needed.  Depending on the dates assigned to each campus we may be needing some combination of half-day for Concord, remote learning day for Huntsburg and/or a second “Care of Self Day” following the immunization day.  I will keep you notified of those dates as soon as they are offered to us.

Finally, I include this link to a newsletter from The New York Times that summarizes the medical and statistical data behind the vaccines as well as behind the community benefits.

In gratitude for your care and partnership resulting in no in-school spread so far.

Sincerely,
Paula Leigh-Doyle
Head of School
pleighdoyle@Hershey-Montessori.org
Office: 440-357-0918
www.Hershey-Montessori.org

December 31, 2020

Dear Hershey Families,

I hope your winter break and holiday season, though with new traditions and ways to connect, brought valuable reflection and many moments of joy for your family. The staff have certainly benefitted from a well-earned rest and will be further reenergized by gathering as a whole school for professional development that continues to focus on our goal: “being better together”. I will describe a little more about our growth goals after the first practical announcements that this letter intends to address.

After careful considerations of current conditions of the spread of COVID-19 and recent data through our membership with the Cleveland Council of Independent Schools (CCIS) on the low spread of COVID-19 in our classrooms and academic environments, we plan to reopen for in-person learning on campus for the first week back after break.

The Young Child, Children’s House and Adolescent Communities will return for full programs on Tuesday, January 5, 2021.

The elementary students will return Wednesday, January 6, 2021.

BEING A SMALLER COMMUNITY BRINGS ASSURING TRUST

We value everyone’s continued honesty and responsibility!

Please give your children ten days to quarantine and monitor for symptoms from the last day of potential exposure if you:

• mixed indoors, without distancing and masks, with other households for whom you can’t be certain that all other household members self-isolated prior to the gathering;
• traveled to other regions that are high risk on the following USA and world travel maps:
  https://coronavirus.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/covid-19/families-and-individuals/COVID-19-Travel-Advisory/COVID-19-Travel-Advisory
• https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/map-and-travel-notices.html

Just call or email our office and let us know that your child will need more time at home.

WE WILL PIVOT TO REMOTE LEARNING AS NEEDED

If the wave of the pandemic brings strong recommendations from our health agencies for schools, with distancing and mask protocols in place, to return to remote learning we are ready to do so. Some levels may need a day to set out physical packets if all learning materials are not on-line.

BETTER TOGETHER
– Educating students for independence and interdependence
within their immediate community and with humanity

This year’s whole school professional development continues to focus on social emotional development to include: emotional intelligence and communication skills, as well as social leadership capacities and skills. We will be learning from specialists with the consulting firm Sage and Maven (https://sageandmaven.com/) to ensure healthy prepared environments for personal reflection and deep dialogue about our personal contribution to growth in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB).

A number of staff will also deepen their learning around Restorative Justice with specialist, Tarek Maassarani, whose work on the science of peace on the national and international level includes the following organizations: http://www.restorativedc.org/staff-member/tarek-maassarani/ and https://communitiesintransition.com/TarekMaassarani. Our staff are deepening their understanding of how to create practices and environments that strengthen community connection and resilience so that our students will also experience and learn even more about community responsibility and leadership.

Dr. Montessori, and many other scientists, demonstrated that an education that removes the obstacles for healthy development and that allows the student’s innate energies for good to develop in accordance with their natural capacity will reveal a “new child” who is intellectually independent and emotionally drawn to contribute to moral and social conditions of their environments.

“It is this conviction that imbues us with hope that education may be the most effective instrument to attain the union of all humanity. To this end, education must channel the powerful creative energies of the child toward an ultimate spiritual independence, utilizing to its utmost (their) miraculous capacity for adaptation, according to an ideal of altruism and love.” – Montessori, M. (1949) Citizen of the Word, San Remo Lectures, Montessori-Pierson Publishing Co.

We are grateful and inspired to offer tools and environments at Hershey Montessori School that allow our students to develop their skills and capacities toward a successful adulthood and a healthier humanity.

Join us in welcoming a new year of hope and great steps toward wellbeing for all in 2021.

In service to the child and adolescent,
Paula Leigh-Doyle
Head of School
pleighdoyle@Hershey-Montessori.org
Office: 440-357-0918
www.Hershey-Montessori.org

December 5, 2020

Dear Hershey Families,
We have come to the end of our first week with Remote Learning and we are observing that staff, students and parents are adapting and settling in much more fluidly this time around. I celebrate everyone’s accomplishment for this ability to adapt to change and hope you share my feeling of reassurance that we can adapt to change and that we are capable of finding ways to meet our needs. This experience is not what we imagined our Montessori community to be doing, but thanks to effective communication, collaboration skills, trust, and a shared vision for the students, we all have the necessary skills to create new ways to meet our needs.

We will continue appreciating these capacities to respond to change as the COVID-19 wave is still rising. The current positivity rate does not yet reflect the increases we will see reported by the end of next week, which will show outcomes from less mindful activity over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Governor DeWine stated, in Thursday’s press conference, that “this is the first week since April where Ohio’s positivity for COVID-19 has increased above 15%. Ohio’s travel advisory recommends Ohioans stay home except for necessary trips for supplies, as well as consistent mask-wearing and frequent hand washing.”

Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, the Ohio Department of Health’s Chief Medical Officer, remarked “Ohio’s positivity rate of 15% should be a wake-up call. This virus spreads between people when we are near each other. For a little while, we need to stay apart. That means we have to stay home unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

For these reasons, we will extend our remote learning through the winter break. We will keep positive intent that we can return to in-person learning after break, on January 5, 2021.

As you observed yourself and your children manage this week, I hope you can keep encouraged in the knowledge that we, adults, can adapt as well as our children and that we will find new ways to thrive during remote learning. Staff will continue to observe, evaluate and refine as we go. It is the students that show us their needs and, whether virtual or in-person, one thing that does not change in Montessori is that we are passionately curious to observe the student and to individualize so they have the environment they need to grow, “self-construct,” and learn.

In service to the child and adolescent,
Paula Leigh-Doyle
Head of School
pleighdoyle@Hershey-Montessori.org
Office: 440-357-0918
www.Hershey-Montessori.org

November 27, 2020

Dear Hershey Families,

I hope you had many moments for sharing gratitude over your Thanksgiving holiday. All of us at Hershey are so thankful to have been able to provide in-person learning since the beginning of the school year.  As I mentioned in my last letter, we continue to monitor the rate of COVID-19 cases in our region.  Unfortunately, these cases continue to increase and Lake County has now moved to the “purple level” status on Wednesday.

While our school has been fortunate to have no “spreading events”, we are concerned that the current wave, combined with the outcomes of small family gatherings in our region over the Thanksgiving holidays, may cause a further spike in the contagion. Hershey’s cumulative number of students with confirmed diagnosed COVID-19 cases is at 0, (and one suspected adolescent case for a student who was not on campus during that period). We know, however, that our school staff are more vulnerable to becoming ill with this virus and that some schools are reporting student cases, primarily for children over ten years of age. You can track weekly trends for every school in Ohio on this dashboard: https://coronavirus.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/covid-19/dashboards/schools-and-children/schools/schools

However, toward supporting the continued wellbeing of our staff, and older students, and in support of the Lake County department of health’s recommendation that all schools move to remote learning, Hershey will pivot to off-campus remote learning, starting Monday, November 30, 2020 until Friday, December 11, 2020.

We will be watching the data closely, especially for twelve days after this holiday weekend, to determine by December 11^th if we can return to campus for a week before winter break. In addition, there may be a likelihood (again, depending on the spread) that we may need to stay home for ten days after the winter holidays to observe for healthy conditions to reopen January 19, 2021.

The program staff will be reaching out to you this Monday and Tuesday with specifics about the roll-out of the remote schedules and materials for working from home. The administration will have strict safety protocol for being on campus for office hours. If we are unable to answer the school phones, please e-mail the office coordinators or program directors who will call you in person, as needed.

Meanwhile we keep optimistic about achievements in science and technology and the recent news of successful vaccines emerging which will allow us to get to the other side of this pandemic. I thank you, Hershey families, for your partnership in getting our students and staff on campus so successfully to date. Our relationships as a school community will be all the stronger from this shared experience and your children will continue to benefit from observing how we collaborate as a Hershey community. As Montessori pedagogy relies on “care of self, care of others and care of the environment”, our children are even more prepared for their rapidly changing adult world as they live and grow in the reality of our vital interdependence as community.

In service to the child and adolescent,
Paula Leigh-Doyle
Head of School
pleighdoyle@Hershey-Montessori.org
Office: 440-357-0918
www.Hershey-Montessori.org

November 11, 2020

Dear Hershey Parents,

We continue to stay informed on the daily reports of the conditions of the pandemic in Ohio and in our counties. I have three items to draw your attention to today.

Watching the Numbers Rise
The Lake County Department of Health has informed us that they intend to “highly recommend that all schools move to remote learning” as soon as the county reaches the “purple level” of COVID-19 case growth. As the rate of increase in Ohio is projecting a rapid increase, we would likely have both campuses move to remote learning. I wish to share this with you so that you may better understand the implications as you see the data change over time yourselves. In the event that we do need to switch to Remote Learning only, the Concord Campus staff will need two days to set up the equipment and technology they need to begin the full Remote Learning schedule. The Huntsburg Campus will need one day to get their equipment and technology set up in their homes.

Report Any Positive Student COVID-19 Results Even in Remote Learning
If your child or adolescent tests positive for COVID-19 during a Remote Learning period, we remind you to please e-mail the school. Having accurate information helps us all to track the health conditions and make wise decisions.

Boarding Program Further Delayed
It is with a significant degree of disappointment that I am sharing with you that the boarding program will not be able to reopen for second semester due to the continued difficulties COVID-19 is bringing and due to the timeline predicted for immunization availability and mitigation of the pandemic. We all look forward to the day that the pandemic is under control and our boarding students can return to campus.

In the meantime, we will continue with our precautions in school, in partnership with you and your mindful distancing of your child from anyone outside of your household, wearing face coverings to protect each other, and washing our hands regularly.

For the times when we do need the entire school to move to learning from home, know that we have learned much more about the ways to keep meaningful and personalized connections. All the refinements we learned from the unexpected spring term are now in place to engage your child in the best remote learning experiences possible and to keep a balance of time on and off electronic screens. Remember also that we hope you will stay in touch with your teachers if you observe that your child needs us to adjust some of the programming to better meet their individual needs.

In gratitude for your partnership and wishing you wellbeing,
Paula Leigh-Doyle
Head of School
pleighdoyle@Hershey-Montessori.org
Office: 440-357-0918
www.Hershey-Montessori.org

October 21, 2020

Dear Hershey Parents,
It is wonderful to be celebrating nine weeks of in-person learning for those who can and chose to do so this fall. While our staff put extraordinary effort into keeping healthy distancing, mask wearing, hand washing and surface sanitizing, the students are wonderfully collaborative with the effort and Hershey parents are incredibly dedicated to supporting safe practices outside of school. Every day truly begins with gratitude for the abilities and choices gifted to us to learn together in these scientifically designed campus environments.

Holiday mindfulness: Our children are on campus and in-person thanks to the care that the entire community is giving to restrict contacts with other households, distancing, hand washing and mask wearing. Please think deeply during Halloween and winter holiday season whether you can remain diligent about healthy distancing and limiting close contact outside of your household. Parties, weddings, and other social gatherings are being traced behind a lot of the new cases. If you travel to another region that might increase in risk level, plan to include the possibility of a 14-day self-quarantine. You may refer to Ohio’s Travel Advisory map.

This free app from Brown University’s medical school might help you and your children assess risk levels: Hershey may need to delay reopening for 14 days after the winter break to ensure symptoms from the holiday season activities are not manifesting and driving up the case count in our area, if the direction of the case-curve is increasing significantly in our counties.

What else is going well? Hershey has been approved for initial membership to ISACS (Independent Schools of Central States). ISACS member schools share ideals in the form of a set of common standards for good practice and a professional learning community.

We are observing that students are improving connection with eye contact. Another positive outcome from wearing masks on campus is that children and adolescents have come to look each other much more directly in the eye. They can read and express emotions very well through these beautiful windows to the soul. When the day comes that we no longer need to wear masks we will hope this connection through eye contact remains.

Hershey staff are equipped for the emotional intelligence needed during this pandemic. The training on Needs-Based Communication (aka Non Violent Communication) continued through spring last semester and we see it now as a blessing that equipped us for better emotional health in staff collaboration and supporting our students during this pandemic. These tools for advanced listening, empathy and the language of emotional intelligence are being modeled through interaction with your children and adolescents. Student courses of this nature will also be offered in the near future. The elementary staff furthered this way of fostering connection through an introduction to Restorative Justice by Tarek Maassarani from Georgetown University. We offer links and resources in an appendix at the end of this letter.

Staff and student emotional wellbeing day: While many schools pushed back their fall opening date to finish preparations, our staff pushed through the summer to open school for students on the planned start date. They have maintained a positive and grateful mindset ever since our first day in person with the students, or engaging adolescent remote learners, even though many are doing more than ever before to keep up with the needs for teaching during this pandemic. Toward keeping their flame alive and this spirit of wellbeing they share, we will have No School on Tuesday, November 24, 2020.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging is also known as DEIB. Our staff and students are forming focus groups that will lead us in reflection, awareness, and action steps toward building an enduring framework throughout our school in these critical areas. We aim to learn how to listen more deeply, to feel curious about others and to facilitate compassionate dialogue. Part of this engagement will be to assess our relationship to diversity, equity and belonging in our school and in our expanded communities in alignment with Dr. Montessori’s vision of a more just and sustainable humanity.

Keeping air quality: While so many lessons and applied project-based learning continues to be outside, and the classrooms still enjoy fresh air ventilation from open windows and doors, we are preparing to welcome the cooler season. All main learning spaces on the Concord campus and in Huntsburg’s Middle School spaces are getting enhanced air cleaning technology with Ultra-Violet light cleaning systems installed within our HVAC systems. In addition, where most effective we will use HEPA filter systems. The new Upper School building has more modern high-rated filters and only uses outdoor-fresh air as opposed to recirculating air. These rooms will also be further enhanced with HEPA filter systems.

We are prepared to switch to full campus remote learning when needed. The decision when a campus needs to go fully remote is influenced by the health and presence of our staff, the health of our students, the regional conditions and guidance by our local health agencies. Currently the numbers of staff and student contagion are very low as addressed in this article from The Atlantic.

We have learned much since spring about how to further customize and engage with students and, also, how to support parents when their children are learning from home. Schedules, technology and materials are well planned out. While the last of some back-ordered equipment and custom-made materials are now ready, the Concord staff will need two days for some final technology connections and packet assembling. When the Concord campus needs to switch to remote learning, it is likely the staff will start students off with independent packets of work for the first two days prior to beginning the full schedule of internet connection. Children’s House parents will receive guidance next week on how to set up an account on Microsoft Teams to access their child’s remote learning portal.

Thank you to the walkers, runners, committee and sponsors for our third annual Cosmic Run and Walk which has completely filled for the safely distanced course at Observatory Park this Saturday, October 24th. You may register, however, as a Virtual Runner to show your support from anywhere in the world. Please see more details on our 5K page.

So many Hershey parents continue to express how grateful they are that their children and adolescents have the opportunity to return to joyful engagement on Hershey’s campuses. We share your gratitude and cherish our relationships with students, families and each other. Our resilience is deeply connected to our physically and emotionally healthy community. We are all so fortunate!

In service to the child,
Paula Leigh-Doyle
Head of School
pleighdoyle@Hershey-Montessori.org
Office: 440-357-0918
www.Hershey-Montessori.org

August 14, 2020

Dear Hershey Families,

A review of two weeks of Ohio’s state-wide mandate on wearing masks in public and current data for our counties, combined with our detailed plans for safe distancing and use of our outdoor environments, offers sufficient indicators that we can greet our day students for in-person learning on Wednesday, August 26, 2020.

We are well prepared to pivot to remote learning in the times when the health conditions are insufficient for our staff and student wellbeing which may be due to a number of variables, such as: data in our counties, reported symptoms in our school community and depletion of available staff. I thank all of our staff who have developed these contingency plans to the level of detail that reflects Hershey’s standards for academic engagement in Montessori prepared environments and highly prepared adults. This detailed preparation ensures we can change course seamlessly as new information and changing conditions arise.

The attached staff roster shows some changes in staffing or of staff roles. Families of Children’s House and Elementary students will receive their staggered arrival times by Wednesday, August 19, 2020.

We are excited to reconnect with our students and are confident that, due to our relationships together, the students will adapt with ease to adjustments such as wearing masks and physical distancing and other changes in the environment.

In service to the child,
Paula Leigh-Doyle
Head of School
pleighdoyle@Hershey-Montessori.org
Office: 440-357-0918
www.Hershey-Montessori.org

August 7, 2020

We continue to aim for in-person learning August 26th and are hopeful that by August 14th we can commit to that plan based upon current state data. I wish to share gratitude to you, our Hershey families, and to offer a few updates as promised. To those families who could attend the campus Town Hall meetings this week, I thank you for your feedback and questions which left the staff and I feeling encouraged and all the more dedicated to meeting the needs of your children in three weeks’ time.

Given the responsiveness of the citizens of Ohio for distancing, wearing masks, hand washing and minimizing contact outside of the family circle, we are hopeful that the trend will be toward leveling off of the increasing virus infection rates in Ohio https://coronavirus.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/covid-19/public-health-advisory-system. The better our communities manage these practices will determine the duration of time our children can be on campus.

I wish to remind you that travel to states that are considered “Hot spots” will require your family to self-quarantine for two weeks. https://coronavirus.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/covid-19/families-and-individuals/covid-19-travel-advisory/covid-19-travel-advisory prior to returning to school.

New considerations due to questions and feedback from our Town Hall meetings:

Huntsburg: We are exploring how remote learners might healthfully connect to purposeful work or other learning experiences on the land and farm. We will update you on those possibilities in the next two weeks.

Whole School: Due to the current time needed to be approved for, and to schedule, a COVID test and also the time required to obtain results of the test, we are removing the need for a person diagnosed with COVID-19 to return to school with a “negative test result” to:

Post-Illness Return Procedure (page 8): Students and staff who have a positive diagnosis of COVID-19 can return to school when the following criteria are met:
At least 14 days have passed from the onset of symptoms and the student is symptom free and feeling well for at least 24 hours without medication.

We are also seeking guidance to consider posting a notice to all families once a health provider has deemed a person’s symptoms sufficient to be tested for COVID-19, rather than waiting for a positive test result.

As we learn of new science and new policy from government health departments we will continue to update you and to post the updates in our manual on Transparent Classroom platform.

Other Resources:

If you are interested in accessing specific regional health data and aiding health specialists respond to COVID, there is an app that will allow citizens to track COVID symptoms from home. This app tracks early symptoms of COVID and will help scientists better understand the disease toward turning it around. Your participation takes 30 seconds per day. https://covid.joinzoe.com/us

Masks and gaiters: Links to sources for masks and gaiters will be shared next week.

Celebration!

There will be a careful health-managed honoring of our 2020 graduates on Saturday. I am happy to share on any congratulatory messages or wisdom you may wish to offer the young adults who are entering the next step of independence. It is an inspiration to see their readiness and to know that their contributions will certainly benefit their communities and environment.

In service to the child,
Paula Leigh-Doyle
Head of School
pleighdoyle@Hershey-Montessori.org
Office: 440-357-0918
www.Hershey-Montessori.org

August 3, 2020

Adjusted Tuition Credits for Remote Learning  & Parent Zoom Information Meetings

Dear Hershey Families,

We are continuing with our plans to open on-campus learning, for day students, on August 26, 2020. We will have more clarity from the Thursday reports from Governor DeWine regarding the data and conditions of the pandemic in our region. Therefore we will send you updates on August 7^th and the school’s final decision regarding opening with on-campus learning by August 14, 2020, barring any state mandates to the contrary. A calendar of phase-in dates for new children in the Children’s House will be mailed this week.

In the meantime, as you read the Family Manual for safe reopening of school, new questions may be arising for you. Please reach out to the program directors or myself.  We also invite you to campus-specific Town Hall Parent Information Meetings via Zoom:

Huntsburg Campus:    Wednesday, August 5, 2020    6:00 to 7:00 pm

Concord Campus:       Thursday, August 6, 2020         6:00 to 7:00 pm

The Zoom links will sent to you in separate emails.

As indicated in the release of our Healthy Reopening Family Manual last week, we offer you the following adjustment tuition credit for specific instances of remote learning.

If a cohort, campus, or the entire school, needs to move to remote learning for a period greater than 30 days during the academic year the subsequent tuition invoice will reflect a tuition credit per the chart below.

Huntsburg campus families, including parents of current boarding students, may elect a quarterly remote option and avail of these adjusted tuition rates. Advanced written notice to the program directors will be required for the quarterly remote option.

In service to the child,

Paula Leigh-Doyle
Head of School

Hershey Montessori School

pleighdoyle@Hershey-Montessori.org

Office:   440-357-0918

July 31, 2020

Dear Hershey Families,

After a summer of creating environment and schedule adjustments we are looking forward to reopening school with redesigned high quality programs for our students whether we are starting with on-campus learning or remote-learning. We are watching the daily changes in health conditions of NE Ohio and we are also listening carefully to the recommendations of the CDC, as well as the state and county departments of health. While it is too early to determine definitively this week, we will soon notify you of our decision regarding which format Hershey will be offering to start out the year.

I am pleased to share our Healthy Reopening Family Manual, which describes an overview of our education plans and protocol for each educational level of the school while prioritizing the health and safety of our students, staff and community. This plan is the result of the collective input from all faculty, staff, students and parents through surveys and feedback; and the collaboration of our Contingency Planning Team. This dated edition of the manual will be updated as new information becomes available.  We are very pleased to offer such thoughtfully designed programs that reflect the highest quality of Hershey’s Montessori education and culture and look forward to engaging our students in every contingency, whether on-campus or remotely, as may be determined by the pandemic.

The on-campus designs are centered around small cohorts of students, implementing all recommended health practices, while enhancing the experience by availing of as much education in our outdoor environments as possible. The aspects we learned from last spring’s unexpected launching of remote learning created the opportunity to greatly enhance our very intentional offerings should we need to implement remote learning at any time this school year. Significant purchases of new technologies will allow for greater engagement and more interactive experience for our students.  As the experience will be different for each age level, we are adjusting the remote-learning tuition levels which will be credited, by month, to the subsequent tuition payment until we return to on-campus learning.  In addition our boarding students, and other adolescents, will have a meaningful option for remaining engaged as quarterly remote learners until it is safe to return to campus.  The details of these variations in remote learning tuition levels will be shared with you by August 4, 2020.

While the challenges of uncertainty regarding the start of the year being an on-campus or remote learning model we hope you can share in our confidence in the preparedness of our staff and the thoughtful design and implementation of both possibilities.  Upon reading this manual, I invite you to reach out to the administration or program directors with your specific questions. In addition, we look forward to inviting you to Zoom gatherings over the next two weeks to continue the orientation process for all.

In service to the child,

Paula Leigh-Doyle
Head of School

Hershey Montessori School

pleighdoyle@Hershey-Montessori.org

Office:   440-357-0918

July 6, 2020

Dear Hershey Families,

I hope you enjoyed relaxing family time over this past weekend. I expect that many of you heard Ohio Governor DeWine’s July 2nd statement about reopening schools this fall.

We are pleased to see that we will be able to meet or exceed all of the governor’s health recommendations and that we can have all students fully on campus starting August 26, 2020 as long as the prevailing conditions of COVID-19 allow.

We will share our detailed re-opening plan with you later this month.

Here is a glimpse into what to expect as we welcome staff and students this fall:

• Reimagined use of space. 
• Creation of small cohorts of students in dedicated groupings to maintain safe distancing.
• Much more time learning outside in nature.
• All staff will wear masks.
• Students at a minimum of over eight years of age will wear masks in designated circumstances. (There may be times that children over three years of age could be required to wear masks as well).
• We will be designing protocols for medical or other exceptions to this standard as needed.
• Each day will start with health screening questionnaires by parents, temperature checks, hand washing upon arrival to school.
• Staggered arrival times in some cases and/or separate arrival spaces.
• Sharing of safety policies, including self-quarantining for families who travel to high-risk zones.
• Specially adapted programs for boarding students who may need to delay their start on campus.
• Refined technology and allocated staffing to ensure students who must learn remotely, due to health circumstances beyond their control, will be able to remain connected and engaged.

While school will look different, the joy of learning together in person will help us all to easily adapt to new ways of being together safely.

The detailed thoughtful planning by our staff will ensure that the process and experience of returning to school will be a smooth one for all.

Watch for upcoming communications from me, and please reach out to the administration with any questions specific to your family’s needs.

With warm anticipation of seeing our children again soon,

Paula Leigh-Doyle
Head of School

Hershey Montessori School

pleighdoyle@Hershey-Montessori.org

Office:   440-357-0918

June 16, 2020

Dear Hershey Parents,

I hope you had some opportunity to catch your breath a little while your children move into new summer rhythms. Being able to see some of your children in the Concord Campus and Huntsburg Campus graduating seniors’ parades renewed our hope and drive to prepare a safe opening of school for the fall. Our dedicated staff are working through the summer with resolve and vision to safely reconnect with our students and families again this fall.

Our aim is to be ready for students by Wednesday, August 26, 2020.
We are optimistic that we can safely be back on campus in the fall. We continue to follow the guidance of health and government agencies and await further clarity from the state regarding best practices for safe re-opening of schools. Meanwhile, we are designing for each variable as it is too early to predict the state of the COVID-19 virus. We are preparing thoughtfully designed programs that will look different based upon the ages of the students and the contingencies of health requirements. The health and safety of the community is our first priority and we know each family will have to determine the degree of risk regarding when they wish to have their children return on campus. We will work with each family as they navigate health needs for their household.

You will receive a survey by the end of this week regarding your family’s needs and preferences. Your responses will be very important to the final design of our contingency plans.

Hershey has many advantages to be ready for the fall.
Our safe re-opening designs are much easier to create because we are fortunate to have:
• Large spaces to ensure distancing as well as extended outdoor space for lots of movement, time in nature, and enough space to play games while physically distancing.
• Children do not need to travel from classroom to classroom throughout the day and thus will not need to mingle in hallways.
• Every classroom at the Concord Campus has its own handwashing sinks and children under 6 have separate bathrooms en-suite.
• Use of learning materials can be adapted to ensure they are disinfected between use and children can maintain their own pencil boxes.
• Classrooms at both campuses have much air-flow with doors and windows that open to the fresh air.
• The Huntsburg campus has enough indoor space to keep every student and staff member on campus while retaining 6’ distancing.
• External entrances: Every room has a direct door to the outside which allows us to maintain safe distancing for arrival and dismissal and provides freedom for ease of moving to another location during the day as needed.
• We have new technology to avail of better ways of keeping a child who may have to be home due to illness connected with their classroom peers.
• Our school size allows us to design and respond with agility to any changes in status of the virus.

We are thinking of every detail for the best student experience this fall.
We are collaborating with other independent schools and availing of medical expertise to ensure we implement the best practices for wellbeing into each contingency design. We are mapping a Play Book to include the following readiness plans:

1) Full return to campus: Intensive health protocols and policies are being prepared. These include taking student temperatures upon arrival, maintaining safe distances, embedding hand washing procedures and sanitizing practices. School bus safety protocols will follow best health practices and regulations. Children, or family members, who travel to a “hot spot” will self-quarantine for two weeks. This design will be prepared for immediate transition to remote learning in the event of COVID resurgence spikes.
We plan to resume our boarding program. International students can join the residential program as soon as it is safe for students to travel across borders. And until boarding students can join in person, we will offer options to engage our remote students. Thanks to the installation of improved technology, such as the Owl video conferencing cameras, students who are remote, can connect to lessons and work with groups on campus safely.

2) Blended approach: In the event that we can only have small numbers of students distanced and in the same room, we will have alternating days for cohort groups for on-campus learning while also engaging with the remote cohort. We are investing in new technology to engage remote learners with the on-site cohort during live lessons and for social collaboration as relevant by age of the group. Huntsburg will not likely need blended learning as there is enough indoor space and staff to keep distanced all day, while staggered bus runs of smaller numbers of students operate.

3) Refined approaches to remote learning: There will be many improvements to this based on what we learned from the spring quarter. The elements of Montessori education that we began to implement in the spring will be more developed. There will be more Montessori pedagogy such as choice, integrating learning and nature, creative expression, off-screen work, movement, and contribution to community. We will also incorporate more interactive collaboration according to the student age. The new technology will be very helpful for these refinements.

Expect tuition cost variances dependent upon the program and ages of the students.
July 1st is when tuition payments begin but we will work with individual families, including delaying first payments on a case by case basis.

We will share with you more details about these contingency designs the first week of July.

I will keep you posted on our contingency design process. When the implementation is fully fleshed out, we will share clear communications about the various programs in documents and parent zoom gatherings. We were very grateful for your communication and feedback during the spring remote-learning session and we will continue to keep active communication between the school, parents, and students. We strive to leave no one behind and to help individual students and families to meet their individual needs.

Please reach out to me, Lyn Ruple, Finance Director, via ehull@hershey-montessori.org or Judy Kline-Venaleck, jklinevenaleck@hershey-montessori.org with questions about the Adolescent Community.

While you and your children made it through the stressful situations that arose due to the unexpected transition to remote learning, we have exhibited resiliency and adaptability. It is our goal to implement the feedback we have learned collectively from students, parents, and staff to design very intentional and optimal solutions for the fall.

Look for our parent survey later this week and another communication in two weeks with updates on our safe return to school process.

Wishing you wellbeing for now,

Paula Leigh-Doyle

Head of School

Hershey Montessori School

pleighdoyle@Hershey-Montessori.org

Office:   440-357-0918

June 5, 2020

Dear Hershey Families,

We celebrate the resilience, adaptability and creativity of our children and adolescents upon successfully completing this semester despite the unexpected switch to remote learning. We also celebrate our staff and parents, and the wellbeing of our entire Hershey community, as we navigated together through the uncertainty and challenges that COVID-19 brought and continues to wreak. We are also celebrating our graduating seniors who have all been accepted to their colleges of choice for the fall if that was their chosen path at this time.

However, the celebrations at this time of year are in stark contrast to another reality, the great pain that we felt from the tragic killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last week and the many other instances of injustice toward people of color or cast as minorities. The outcry for the pain and inequity that comes from systematic racism is being heard across the country and around the world, and has manifested in so many people giving voice in peaceful protest demonstrations. There are many ways to take action in this movement for greater justice in our society. Hershey Montessori School seeks to join those voices and to take action toward change, equity, and justice in our own community, our region, and for all humanity. We will begin with creating the safe environment for deep self-reflection, empathetic listening, and compassion for all who strive to have their fundamental needs met.

Our staff on both campuses opened this year learning about “Non-Violent Communication” also known as “Needs-Based Communication.” Throughout the year we have continued to have study groups and to deepen these principles in practice. All Montessori students learn explicit skills in listening, turn-taking, expressing feelings and needs, and further skills for conflict resolution. This is done in very intentional and developmentally relevant ways, starting in infancy and continuing through high school. The adolescents have Socratic dialogue in seminar settings where differing perspectives and ideas are shared in a respectful and effective way. They study the human story through changing civilizations and learn to understand and advocate for the wellbeing of others and the environment in which we are inextricably dependent.

This, and many other classes, are a good start but we strive to go deeper and to learn more about understanding the universal needs of others and our responsibility as active participants in the community. We strive to learn more about deep empathetic listening and the language that helps people find common needs and common ground and to find more effective ways to live together in our interdependent world.

We will invite our parents, stakeholders, and extended community to come together in a variety of ways next year to reflect, listen, and learn about how we can hear and understand other needs and be a part of a more just and equitable society.

I hope you can join us in this movement for change, to learn together, so that our children will have an environment that better serves humanity and their work within it.

In service to the child,

Paula Leigh-Doyle

Head of School

Hershey Montessori School

pleighdoyle@Hershey-Montessori.org

Office:   440-357-0918

May 22, 2020

Dear Hershey Families,

In gratitude to you for our resilient community and a successful Gala!

I wish to thank our families, staff, students, board and community supporters for showing outstanding support to our Virtual Gala. There were many unknowns about how to undertake an event that only six weeks earlier we were planning to host at Cleveland’s Union Club. Our gala committee and staff showed courage, creativity and trust in the community that resulted in fantastic story-telling and fundraising activity. We do not yet have a final fundraising result but we know that we exceeded expectations! This demonstrates the resilient health of our community and how much the shared values of Montessori education for our children and adolescents is treasured.

If you missed the opportunities to connect, we have extended the window to for you to still contribute to “Raise the Paddle” for financial aid and scholarships until May 31st. You can enjoy some of the videos that tell our story when they are posted on our website.

Preparing for a safe return to campus for fall 2020!

We are making use of all that we have learned this spring and the feedback we have gathered from parents and students to design the highest quality program options for the fall. Our faculty and administration are meeting multiple times each week and are enjoying the creative space to seize an opportunity to grow our school in new ways. Most of all, we are keeping the need for social connection a priority regardless of the status of COVID-19. As we are designing our program scenarios for the fall, we are fortunate to have guidance from a task force of medical science and organizational experts from University Hospitals serving on a panel with heads of independent schools. Together we are crafting our ‘Play Book’ for a safe return to campus in the fall. We are so grateful for this resource to consult about our particular campuses and broad age ranges of students so that their health, safety and emotional wellbeing is at the forefront of our decisions.

What we have learned from our students and families during the past few months of remote learning, is that the value of our pedagogy is vital. This centers upon work-in-nature and purposeful activity in contribution-to-community. In our focused program planning, these principles are guaranteed to be a significant part of each student’s Montessori experience.

Due to the depth and care we are putting into these designs, we will need more time before we are ready to unveil the details. We very much look forward to continue to keeping you informed as we go.

Congratulations to our graduating class of 2020!
As you drive through neighborhoods of Lake, Geauga, and Cuyahoga Counties, you may spot a lawn sign that celebrates our graduating class of 2020. Their fullest engagement in a Montessori education has prepared them well to adapt to the most unexpected last quarter and to enter young adulthood with a strong sense of self, independence, curiosity to pursue their passions, and deep care for community.

Although the ritual ceremonies and events look very different this year, they are all the more honored and celebrated as the class that navigated unprecedented times in history and still succeeded.

Congratulations graduates!
Sylvia Gray Altman
George Ferguson
Shaun Matthew Edwards
Jorge Raul Gonzales Virto
Abriella Diane Minotti
Taylor Ashley Reigle
Maya Elaine Harwood
Amy E. Weeks

Congratulations also to the children who are having virtual ceremonies, with their families and staff, to cross over from the first plane of development into the second plane and from the second plane to the third!

In deep gratitude,

Paula Leigh-Doyle

Head of School

Hershey Montessori School

pleighdoyle@Hershey-Montessori.org

Office:   440-357-0918

April 21, 2020

Dear Hershey Families,

While we are still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been five weeks since we announced the closure of our campus facilities, as the Huntsburg Campus was beginning its two-week spring break and a week before Concord Campus’ break. Our faculty and staff certainly rose to the challenge and responded with dedicated focus to creatively offering remote learning and ways to bring more Montessori experiences into the home. Parents and students also responded with a spirit of collaboration and compassion. Parents have been incredibly gracious, responsive and encouraging to the teachers with their gratitude. Many of our families and alumni are in the front lines of service and caring for community, locally and around the globe, during this crisis. We are inspired by their selfless leadership and service in care of others. We hold a light out for them that they continue to remain healthy themselves.

Finding balance between remote learning, health and emotional wellbeing

We are keenly aware that each household is unique in its access to technology and the amount of time parents have to support their children with remote learning while also working from home themselves. We know some families are focusing on caring for someone or recovering from COVID-19 themselves. Other families are being affected by economic changes and many other uncertainties in their lives. The emotional stress is unprecedented for most of our community so I remind you to be gentle on yourselves and to consider the amount of support you can give to remote learning as being just enough within your household needs.

Your physical health and emotional wellbeing are by far the most essential priorities. Our staff have been reaching out with Zoom gatherings, one-on-one video calls, and video recorded messages as well as the on-line academic platforms. We depend on your feedback to learn what is helpful for you and for your individual children so that we can adjust our remote learning offerings as we go. We are learning much and finding affirmation in the Montessori principles that we are missing from being together on campus. One discovery we are making is that although staff rolled out a great quantity of content offerings, we all learned that many school-aged students were fatigued by sitting still for long periods and by being on computer screens for much longer than they usually would. While we will continue to offer engagement and ways to connect so that students feel there is purpose and learning in their days, we are adjusting our communications to be sure that our students can be off screen and physically moving as much as possible. The adults at home, along with the remote teachers, are also experiencing this fatigue. We all strive to stay rooted in the Montessori principles of caring for ourselves while caring for others and will continue to stay connected.

COVID-19 impact and future planning

Also responding to the effects of this pandemic, our board of directors and administrative staff have been meeting weekly to stay informed and to plan for the needs of our school and community. The governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine, has declared it unsafe for students to return to school through the rest of this academic year. We will continue to keep remote learning and connections throughout our community. Meanwhile, we are working strategically so that we are ready for our students whenever they can return to their Hershey programs in the fall of 2020. The graduating seniors are meeting with staff to plan contingencies for their graduation and prom events. So far they are deciding to wait until they can celebrate this important milestone in person. We will be sure to honor and celebrate them as soon as it is safe to do so in person together.

We realize the economic impact this is having for some of our families and we continue to build our financial aid program with a view to meeting the needs of families who strive to return to Hershey in the fall but who face economic uncertainty due to the effects of the pandemic. Our hope is that we will reconvene, as normal, in the last week of August.  If it turns out we cannot, we have started to consider other ways in which we might begin the school year, including innovative flexible learning opportunities and various adapted program options. The date for such an announcement will depend on the emerging situation.

I recognize every individual’s situation is unique, and many of you are still coming to grips with the impact this ever-evolving situation is having on you and your families. To this end, please reach out to me or Lynette Ruple, Finance Director, with specific finance-related questions and we will be happy to respond to you in a timely way. To schedule an in-person call, please e-mail Eileen Hull at ehull@hershey-montessori.org.

We will continue to keep you informed as new information emerges regarding the pandemic and Hershey’s programs as we plan for the fall.  We are learning and listening attentively to the needs of our community, and we remain committed to supporting each of our students and families through this unprecedented time.

Please continue to take care of yourself and others and to stay connected with your beloved Hershey community.

In service to the child,

Paula Leigh-Doyle

Head of School

Hershey Montessori School

pleighdoyle@Hershey-Montessori.org

Office:   440-357-0918

April 13, 2020

Dear Hershey Families,

Inspired by the courage of our staff, who are regularly recording themselves singing and presenting, I offer my first effort at speaking to you via video. While the presentation has plenty of room for refinement, the content is heartfelt.

This message is seven minutes long and I don’t expect many parents have that much time to pause, so perhaps you can listen to it while you are taking care of some Practical Life task such as washing the dishes.

Wishes of well-being to our Hershey Families,

Paula Leigh-Doyle

Head of School

Hershey Montessori School

pleighdoyle@Hershey-Montessori.org

Office:   440-357-0918

March 29, 2020

Dear Hershey Parents,

I recognize that you may well be feeling challenged by the amount of electronic communication that is coming into your home so I strive to keep this note short while keeping in place another strand of connection as a community.

You will be getting much more detailed communication from the guides this evening and tomorrow with implementation of Montessori learning in the home. The Concord staff began remote Montessori work with you and your children, the week before spring break. The Huntsburg staff will be completing training on the remote learning platforms and will be uploading the initial week’s work this Monday and Tuesday. Our adolescents will have had time to connect with their advisors and with their lead class teachers and will be beginning their first orientation work by Wednesday.

We recognize everything that is happening is “new” and that staff, students and parents will surely make mistakes as we go.  I hope you will join us in being curious to learn from the feedback that mistakes bring us. This feedback will be part of our science of learning together, which is how Montessori came to be thus far. Thanks to your communication with the staff, we can continue to individualize and meet the needs of the individual child and the family.  Most of all we will strive together for our children and adolescents to learn how adults manage during a time of great uncertainty and how communities of care rise up in new ways of service to each other.

I will keep in touch with you as we hear more information from the CDC and our health agencies. Until this all passes, we will be creative, resilient and connected in new ways.

In gratitude for our community connections,

Paula Leigh-Doyle

Head of School

Hershey Montessori School

pleighdoyle@Hershey-Montessori.org

Office:   440-357-0918

March 12, 2020

Dear Hershey Families,

I wish to update you on the current efforts to slow the progress of the COVID19 virus in Ohio. Governor DeWine has ordered all schools to close beginning no later than Monday, March 16 and remain closed until no sooner than April 6, 2020. Both of Hershey Montessori School’s campuses will be open tomorrow as we recognize the practical challenges for parents that these changes can create. We leave the decision up to your family as to whether your child comes to school tomorrow. All absences will be recorded as an excused absence. Morning care will proceed as usual tomorrow at the Concord Campus, but there will be no aftercare, and all Concord children must be picked up at the 3:20 p.m. dismissal. The Huntsburg bus will arrive as usual by 4:20 p.m. You can stop by to collect snow suits, boots or personal belongings at any time before dismissal tomorrow. There will be no school beginning Monday, March 16 through, at least, Monday, April 6, 2020. We will continue to keep you informed with any new information or changes. You also can find updates about the outbreak on the Ohio Department of Health’s website here.

We recommend that international students keep their return travel plans open due to the potential of changes in return dates based upon the rapidly changing information from our government health agencies. I remind all families that if you are in a region or country that is listed at high risk / level 3, you will be required to complete 14 days of quarantine off campus before returning. Any family who is concerned about symptoms in their household, or who has been exposed to a diagnosed case of COVID-19, should notify the school. If a student has been in contact with a diagnosed case, we will be requiring quarantine and a signed medical statement before that student can return to campus.

The staff will be working on creating remote learning content with a view to giving students engaging work and ways to create and to communicate with their teachers after spring break. For Hershey families with children under six years of age, the staff will be sending materials and activities that parents can choose to offer to their child at home. They also will be sharing activities for students to do at home that can engage them as much as possible off-screen time. Most of all, we are valuing the importance of staying connected as a community, so staff are already eagerly planning ways that we can do that with our students and our families after spring break. We will communicate these ways to connect and engage from home as the plans are completed. Although we may not be sure how the situation will develop, we will be ready for students, either on campus or remotely, by or before April 6.

As this is a time of uncertainty and change we join you in wishing to help our children feel cared for and as safe as possible. We attach an article from the National Association of School Psychologist on how to talk with your children about the virus. We also have created a page on our website with school communications and some helpful related resources. You can find that information here. While this is a very concerning time for all, I believe that our community will be resilient and will rally to be our best selves toward meeting our fundamental needs and caring for each other.

I will keep you posted on any new information and with the plans for how we will offer remote learning for our students at each stage of development.

In service to the child and our community well-being,

Paula Leigh-Doyle

Head of School

Hershey Montessori School

pleighdoyle@Hershey-Montessori.org

Office:   440-357-0918

March 11, 2020

Dear Hershey Parents,

We send this notice with a view to keep you informed about our response to the current COVID19 virus outbreak. The health and wellbeing of our children, staff and community is of utmost importance to us. There has been no report of concern for students or staff at our school. We are monitoring the facts daily and staying informed by the CDC and local government health agencies.  As this is a quickly evolving situation, we will provide updates on changes as appropriate. For now, we continue to follow the CDC recommendations and require that any student or family who travels to any of the Risk-Level 3 countries, or any subsequently declared regions in the United States, complete the 14-day self-imposed quarantine before coming on campus. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/after-travel-precautions.html

Countries that have a Level 3 Travel Health Notice (widespread, ongoing transmission) currently include:

• China (Level 3 Travel Health Notice)
• Iran (Level 3 Travel Health Notice)
• Italy (Level 3 Travel Health Notice)
• South Korea (Level 3 Travel Health Notice)

The Huntsburg and 6^th year class trips will most likely be cancelled by this outbreak also. We will continue to assess the situation regionally and globally each day and will keep you informed of any changes. In the event that there might be a need for the Huntsburg Campus to close for a future period, the staff will be prepared to offer remote learning, and students will be required to continue to be engaged in learning through new and creative ways of connecting with their teachers and each other through on-line instruction, assignments and collaboration.  If the Concord Campus remained open during a Huntsburg Campus closure, student absences due to health concerns will be excused during this period.

In the event that the Concord Campus might need to close for a future period, the staff will prepare remote learning work for elementary children. The staff will prepare materials and resources for Montessori in the home for families in Children’s House, Young Child Community, and Parent Infant programs.

In the meantime, we continue to be diligent with hygiene practices, which include hand washing, avoiding touching our faces, covering coughs and sanitizing surfaces daily. I remind you that children and staff who develop a fever may not return to campus until the child, or staff person, has been fever-free without medication for 25 hours.  In the case that children or staff with additional symptoms to the fever, such as cough or shortness of breath, the family should contact their health provider to determine if further testing might be necessary.  Please report all symptoms of the illness when you call absences into the school.

For now, we are grateful that life, learning, community engagement and joy continue on our campuses, and we strive to keep the school conditions conducive to safe and healthy learning environments. I appreciate that all Hershey parents are contributing to that shared vision.

Best regards,

Paula Leigh-Doyle

Head of School

Hershey Montessori School

pleighdoyle@Hershey-Montessori.org

Office:   440-357-0918

February 28, 2020

Dear Hershey Parents,

The health and safety of our students and staff are the top priority of Hershey Montessori School.  We have been following the facts from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) about the potential outbreak of COVID-19/Coronavirus. We strive to remain practical and seek to avoid alarming our children and young adolescents. But we also want to convey that we are alert, diligent and prepared for any potential situation that could affect our school community. Please note that there have been no documented cases of COVID- 19 in Ohio. We are following the guidance of the health department authorities in preparing for all contingencies.

We are following the protocol for personal hygiene and for observing children’s health that we have in place to prevent the spread of the flu and other contagious diseases. In the event that there is a warning from the CDC or our county health departments for extra control actions, we have developed a response plan for the care of our students on campus and for decisions regarding closing campus for day students. If it becomes necessary to close school for a period of time, the staff will share work assignments electronically, as appropriate to age and grade level, for students to complete from home.

Our preparations for the Huntsburg boarding students, should the health department require day schools to close, includes complete safety protocol, staffing, comfort and engagement for our residential community.

If your family plans to travel to regions identified as impacted by the epidemic over the spring break, we request that you follow the CDC guidelines regarding safety precautions as well as the guidelines to avoid non-essential travel to countries listed on the CDC website at https://www.cdc.gov/. Those guidelines include 14 days of self-quarantine and monitoring for symptoms. If you do travel to these regions, we request that you keep your children home from school for 14 days following travel.

We will continue to communicate with you if there is new information about the health and safety of our community, which is foremost in our mind. In the interest of the overall wellbeing of our children, we suggest limiting exposure to constant media messaging about the virus for children between the ages of infancy through 12 years. We are dedicating to ensure that our children continue to grow in an emotionally and physically safe environment.

Thank you for supporting the well-being of our community by following the safety guidelines of the CDC (https://www.cdc.gov/.) If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me or Judy Venaleck.

In service to the child,

Paula Leigh-Doyle

Head of School

Hershey Montessori School

pleighdoyle@Hershey-Montessori.org

Office:   440-357-0918