One year ago, Stratford Academy, along with the rest of the world, announced that we were going to dismiss school 10 days prior to spring break in order to have a few weeks to “flatten the curve” of the increasing number of COVID-19 diagnoses that were impacting many areas of the world. We naively thought that this 20-day period would elapse and life would be back to normal. It wasn’t long before statewide mandates had all of us sheltering in place while we learned and worked remotely through the end of the school year.

Today, most of us probably think that if we never hear or use the words “unprecedented, pivot, virtual, or social distance” again, we would be content. Regardless of our individual claims as intra and extraverts, humankind thrives among closeness and interactions with each other. While there are many aspects of the pandemic that we dislike and have a strong distaste for, there really are some pretty valuable takeaways for all of us.

Episode 1 of Carline Conversations features Stratford Academy Head of School Logan Bowlds discussing with the school's three division heads some of the key lessons we have learned over the last year. Also featured are these Stratford administrators: Theresa Ferrari (Head of Upper School), Jennifer Sweat (Head of Middle School), and Dr. Kelly Causey (Head of Preschool/Lower School).