On July 23, the Saint Mary's Hall community was introduced to new Head of School Len Miller for the first time in a community-wide virtual Town Hall. Mr. Miller took the opportunity to bring the parent and student community up to speed on the School's reopening plans, ONE|SMH: The 2020-2021 School Year. The plan was released mid-July to the community. Mr. Miller was joined by Board of Trustee Chair Curtis Vaughan, Vice Chair Rick Reyna, SMH Director of Wellness Dr. Sandra Lopez-Morales, and Dr. Cherise Rohr-Allegrini, a public health specialist and epidemiologist guiding the work of the School's Re-opening Task Force.
Throughout the conversation, Mr. Miller highlighted the process the School has undergone June and July (leading into August), to assess our readiness and plan for the fall. He discussed key areas like the design of a health matrix, a "student journey" walk-through, and the constant feedback from health professionals around the city that helped inform the reopening plans. The Town Hall was also an opportunity for parents to ask questions and hear more about the process and planning for the coming weeks. Parents were invited to submit questions before the meeting, which were addressed during the Town Hall.
Mr. Miller emphasized key components of the plan and gave a broad overview of the various issues under review. As noted in the presentation, school will resume with a staggered start on August 17. Students will begin in the ONE|SMH Virtual (Red) learning model and will continue through Labor Day. As the school nears the August 17 date, it will continue to continually assess the situation with focus given to the state of health in the city and the School plans to begin the ONE|SMH Hybrid (Yellow) learning model the week of Tuesday, September 8. In the hybrid model, students and parents will have flexibility to learn on campus or at home. The School will continue to engage in conversation with parents through a series of Zoom meetings in the coming weeks.
"Despite the challenges, we have plans in place to rise to that challenge," said Mr. Miller. "The idea behind our ONE|SMH plan focuses on flexibility and being able to pivot in a world that seems to be unpredictable but stays true to our values and our mission."
On July 27, Mr. Miller was featured in a Rivard Report article covering the opening of some of San Antonio's private schools for the 2020-2021 school year. Read the article.
To learn more about ONE|SMH, please visit: www.smhall.org/ONE-SMH.
View the Town Halls on our Livestream channel: