Three months ago, Proctor celebrated the Class of 2021 at a limited-capacity commencement ceremony on Farrell Field with the hopes that with the 2021-2022 school year we would be able to put the COVID-19 pandemic in our collective rearview mirror. A surge in COVID-19 cases and the constant ebb and flow of variants of the virus have forced Proctor to continue many of the policies that were in place last year, while altering other guidelines.

Proctor’s return to school and COVID-19 guidelines can be viewed at ProctorAcademy.org. They include mandatory vaccinations for all students and employees, regular surveillance testing, and periodic mask mandates during high risk times.

The Proctor community embraces the shared responsibility necessary to keep our school and local community healthy. Proctor’s goal for the 2021-2022 school year is to create the healthiest school possible by doing our best to create the healthiest environment for our students and employees (and their families) this year. 

Part of the balancing act we must embrace takes into account the tangential impacts of COVID-19 and the policies we choose to enact; the isolation, anxiety, mental health challenges, and impacts on learning that our students (and all adolescents) experienced over the past 18 months are very real. 

We must acknowledge and work to create policies that not only protect our community from COVID-19, but from other impacts of this pandemic. We need to be “whole” as a community, and in seeking that wholeness, we must do all that we can to keep our community safe within the context of operating a school.