January 27, 2014
Dear MPA families,
The school’s Administrative Team and I have been conferencing off and on all day today to assess and make sense of the weather conditions for tomorrow. We have monitored and analyzed National Weather Service reports, MnDot traffic and accident reports, and the like—over and over again. We have communicated with peers at other schools to find out what they plan to do and why. Finally, we’ve solicited feedback and suggestions from the full MPA faculty and staff about what to do in light of a weather forecast that is predicting absolutely no change tomorrow from the frigid conditions we experienced both today and earlier this month. I believe, to the utmost of our collective abilities, that we’ve done due diligence, and that we’ve looked at and considered every possibility: a later start to the school day tomorrow; staying open and simply excusing those families who cannot or choose not to bring their children in; and, of course, the elephant in the room—closing for an unprecedented fifth day this season. We’ve angsted and agonized and worked through every possible option that we believe will ensure the safety and well-being of everyone in our learning community.
As such (and I almost hesitate to type this) we’ve made the decision to remain closed tomorrow, Tuesday, January 28th, 2014. I hope you can trust me when I say that we see no other reasonable option when we are serving a community that is as far-flung and as diverse as ours. As with our prior weather-related closures, we are putting safety first, as it just doesn’t seem prudent to have school on a day that is not going to be an appreciable improvement over today’s early morning temperatures and wind chill. All day, afternoon, and evening activities scheduled for tomorrow are canceled, the building will be locked, and the security system armed.
I deeply appreciate how much the issue of lost instructional time matters to so many of you; it comes as no surprise, I’m sure, that it matters a great deal to all of us who serve on the school’s faculty and staff too. With this in mind, here is our current plan to ensure that we “win back” some of that lost time in the classroom before the end of the year (without extending later into June) and to also keep kids actively engaged and learning tomorrow as they are home for yet one more day:
- Sometime this evening (or first thing tomorrow) your child’s teacher/teachers will email either you (in the lower grades) or your child (in the middle and upper grades) to share a work plan designed to keep kids actively engaged in the learning and discovery process on this, their final (we can hope!) weather-related day off; students at the Middle and Upper School levels should also check class blogs or websites for information that teachers might post there. A number of our teachers have already been doing this on past weather days, so for many of our students this should not be a change to their routines at all
- To deal with, in an even more substantive way, the regrettable loss of instructional time we’ve now suffered, we are planning to hold school on days previously identified as faculty workshop days this winter and spring, including: Friday, February 14th; Friday, April 11th; and Monday, April 14th. Monday, February 17th will remain a day off in observance of the Presidents’ Day holiday. We appreciate that some of our families may have already made travel plans for one or both of these long weekends. All absences on these extra “make up” days will be excused if families already have made plans to travel; we just ask that you contact the administrative assistants in your children’s respective divisions should this be the case. We recognize that this is in many ways a less-than-ideal solution, but our only other real option would seem to be to extend the school year further into June which would bring with it many other complications and is something I would like to refrain from doing
As a faculty and as an administrative staff, we really have agonized over each and every cancellation that we’ve called this month, in particular this last one. The hardships and frustrations that come with these cancellations are an awful lot for our families to bear, and for that I am sincerely very sorry. Thank you, as always, for your patience and understanding.
I cannot tell you how much we all look forward to welcoming you and your children back for a full day of “regular” school on Wednesday of this week. II know most of you are right there with me! Until then, please stay safe and stay warm.
Very Sincerely Yours,
Jeff Suzik
Head of School
