Head of School

Greetings from the Hillside as we start our 97th year. We are thrilled to be underway, fully realizing that this year will be a year like no other.  We have welcomed 144 boys to the new school year and are now beginning “regular” school as normally and as safely as we possibly can. Admittedly, it was strange to talk to the assembled boys remotely for the first time, but it was probably just the first of many firsts we will encounter this fall. I am as confident as I can be that we will be able to live into our mission this year, though it may well be in unique and imaginative ways. 

South Kent School prepares young men to succeed in college and thrive as thoughtful and engaged citizens in a rapidly changing and intensely competitive world.

To catch you up to date on how we got to this point: 

We formed a Reopening Task Force last spring that includes administrators, Health Services professionals, trustees and staff. This group has coordinated our efforts in following federal, state and local guidelines. Before we could reopen we had to develop four plans and file them with the State of Connecticut, which we have done:

• Reopening
• Monitoring and testing
• Controlling an outbreak
• Closing, if necessary

We made a commitment to our families that we would do everything possible to have at least 160 days of residential education between September 1 and June 30. To this end we will not have a traditional Thanksgiving break but will stay in session until December 16, leaving us six months to get in the remaining 80+ days of residential education. Our calendar is not yet set after the Christmas break; we will do so when it becomes more clear how to proceed.

Before the students returned, all faculty, staff, students and their families had to self-quarantine for two weeks before August 24. Within 72 hours of August 24 everyone had to get tested. On arrival to campus, all students and the one accompanying family member were tested at the rink before they were allowed up the hill; parents had 30 minutes to unload and say goodbye in a tightly controlled schedule to reduce as much interaction as others.

Students and their families signed a “Social Distancing Compact” agreeing to abide by all the School’s protocols for safe community living, including wearing masks everywhere except in our own rooms or offices, maintaining six feet of social distancing everywhere on campus, and frequent hand washing.

We have transformed and enhanced our academic program and developed a block schedule which the students will attend in cohorts. Every boy is assigned a cohort, or learning community, of about a dozen students and will take either a STEM class or a humanities class for eight weeks at which point the cohort will switch to the other subject. We were developing these changes before the pandemic because we believe the cohorts support closer relationships and engagement, both with the other members of the learning community and with the material, and spending longer blocks of time on the same subject allows much deeper exploration of the topic as well as creating a broader sense of understanding and context.

We have established a traffic pattern in the dining hall where we eat either in “grab-and-go” fashion or sit at tables of three with plexiglass dividers. Fr. Klots holds two chapel services a day with the boys attending two of them each week by their cohort. On the second floor of the Schoolhouse we took down some walls and went from six small classrooms to three much larger ones that can accommodate a cohort while maintaining six feet of distance between everyone. Assemblies are held three days a week, remotely for now, in the first five minutes of the morning block.

We are delaying the start of outside competitions in our athletic program, and all of our day students have started the year as boarders to limit our contact with the outside world. Nobody wants to return to play more than we do; competition is embedded in our mission. We know how important going home each day is for our day families; family is who we are as a School. However, a rush to make either decision could very well jeopardize the safety of our community and the hard work we all have done to establish a safe campus, so we will wait for a few weeks. Our decisions on these topics will be made by the School’s administrators and Health Services team in consultation with our Parents Advisory Group and the Board of Trustees. 

John Dunn ’67 summarized the energy and emotion that are present on campus with his updated rendition of our shield and motto:

My very best regards to you all. Please get in touch if you have questions or concerns.

Lawrence A. Smith '73
Head of School

Books I am reading and recommend:

The Meaning of Human Existence
by two time Pulitzer Prize winning scientist and author Edward O. Wilson. 

Dr Wilson proves, scientifically and through the humanities, that while individual members of a group may well emerge and “win” within a group, groups of altruists will beat groups of individuals every time. Short, eloquent and thoughtful.

Walking With the Wind
by John Lewis

The autobiography of the recently departed civil rights leader is an insightful look into all the leaders, events, debates and ideas of the start of the modern civil rights movement.

Video updates:

Cardinal Corner Episode 1 • Welcoming Coach Jaime Russell

SKS 20-21 Hillside Update Week 1

Cardinal Corner Episode 2 • Academic Enhancements

SKS 20-21 Hillside Update Week 2