Letter from the School Committee to the R. H. Conwell Staff

Dear RH Conwell Staff,

We want to extend our special thanks and recognition for the lengths you’ve gone to educate Conwell’s students this spring.  The spring of 2020 has challenged you in ways none of us ever could have imagined, and certainly never would have chosen.  COVID-19 interrupted you and your students midstride and required you all to develop remote learning strategies and curriculum on the fly, while trying to care for your own and your families’ well-being.  No one would ever choose to teach preschoolers and elementary school students online.  They need the structure and the contact and the presence of their teachers and peers to thrive.  You all worked hard to create routine and rhythms in your classrooms so that by March you could be in a real “flow” with your students.  We are so sorry that this was disrupted for you.

And yet, you all rose to the challenge in ways we also never could have imagined.  You learned new platforms, you created new lessons, you learned and tinkered and adjusted to figure out how to most effectively deliver those lessons to your students.  You reached out to students who were struggling.  You talked overwhelmed parents down.  You invited kids to keep engaging in their school relationships with you and their classmates in Zoom chats, Zoom lessons, Google classroom comments, shared photos, and news.  You celebrated student birthdays and new puppies, and new baby siblings online.  You exclaimed over new chicks and building projects.  You read aloud.  You sang songs.  You developed learning projects that integrated grade level standards in a way kids could carry out at home and you invited them to share and display their hard work.  You encouraged them to pursue their own interests: fishing, coding, cats.  You kept up your own enthusiasm for their learning, despite not being able to share in it in the same rewarding ways you are used to in the classroom.  You said farewell to students who will not be returning to your classroom, or who are moving on to new schools.  You applauded their accomplishments. 

We applaud you.  And we applaud you again.  Thank you so much.

We sincerely hope you will be able to return to most of your routines and in-person classroom relationships in August.  We will do everything we can as your school committee to support that.

Please enjoy your summer.  We look forward to seeing you in August.

With gratitude,
Worthington School Committee Members
Amanda Brooks-Clemeno
Alison Todd
Pam Thompson
Cai Walkowiak

Susan Warner