It has been a year of many firsts for Fieldston. From the first hyflex week of classes, to the first boxed lunch eaten under a tent on the field, Fieldston has demonstrated an incredible ability to accommodate the challenges of education during a global pandemic. This year was full of highs and lows, yet, Fieldston’s administration and faculty remained steadfast through it all, fulfilling their promise to offer as close to a ‘normal’ academic year as possible. At the beginning of the school year, it was expected that, in facing a pandemic, the school would have its struggles. There have been plenty of struggles. Yet, it seems useless to repeat the lows and challenges of this school year without recognizing the hard work that has gone into many of Fieldston’s successes. As challenging as it was to organize, Fieldston has maintained its effective testing and contact tracing programs since the Fall of 2020. Because of this, COVID-19 outbreaks have been kept to a minimum. When asked in January 2021, Kyle Wilkie-Glass, Chief Operating Officer and Assistant Head of School for Strategic Initiatives at Fieldston, told me that Fieldston had thankfully limited on-campus transmission of the virus. Since then, it seems that our COVID numbers have only improved, as reports of off-campus COVID transmission have become less and less frequent. This is success number one.
Success number two is that the high school has continued its fifty percent capacity throughout the year. To have this many students on campus has been a remarkable feat, especially seeing that many New York City schools have yet to welcome back any students for in-person learning. The effort that has gone into ensuring the safety and comfort of students and faculty has been nonstop. Additionally, Fieldston teachers have done an incredible job adapting to the current circumstances to teach interesting, engaging and fun courses across many academic departments. On top of several new courses offered by Fieldston, programs like City Semester and STS have continued to offer meaningful experiences for students, even in this challenging time. “The Fieldston administration did a great job of ensuring that the Fieldston community remained a community during this tough year,” says Asher Zemmel (VI).
Recalling, once again, an interview with Kyle Wilkie-Glass at the beginning of 2021, the new Associate Head of School (come July) shared with me a few of his hopes and goals for the end of this school year. First and foremost, his goal was to successfully maintain the school’s hyflex schedule through the end of the school year with few to no hiccups. As of May, this goal has been accomplished. Going further, he told me that his greatest hope for the Spring was for a “successful vaccination program” for teachers and administrators. Thanks to an increased pace in the national rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, many students, teachers, and administrators have received doses of the vaccine. This increase in vaccination numbers surpassed all of my expectations from when I spoke with Wilkie-Glass in January. Given the promising data regarding the future of COVID-19 as we head into the summer, Fieldston has committed to planning for a one-hundred percent in-person 2021-2022 school year. Thanks to the hard work of teachers, administrators, students and families, this goal does not feel out of reach for the Fieldston community. After the many successes that Fieldston has managed during such a difficult year, there appears to be nothing that should stop this goal from being fulfilled.
This school year saw a rejuvenated commitment to community engagement from all people at Fieldston. New clubs, publications, and events were initiated that have, together, fulfilled countless needs within the community. If there is anything we can agree on about this year, it’s that we witnessed a greater effort to improve Fieldston as a whole from all branches of the community. Yes, it has been a tough year. A year of sadness, loss and struggle. But for Fieldston, amidst this hardship, there too, have been many triumphs.
