Dear Canterbury Families,

As we begin our final week of the academic year, I wanted to remind you of the special events and happenings on the hilltop this week. The celebration starts tonight with Canterbury’s Underform Awards Assembly and continues tomorrow evening with the Sixth Form Assembly. Both events are at 7 PM. To find the livestream links to these and all events this week, please view our Commencement 2020 website.

The Sixth Formers have a busy week (Senior Week) including several Commencement rehearsals, starting with this afternoon’s required meeting at 3:30 PM. In addition, the seniors will have their final school meeting tomorrow morning at 10 AM where we will honor this year’s Cantuarian dedicatee. We will also confer several athletic awards during this school meeting. The seniors finish classes tomorrow afternoon and begin their Senior Seminar Series on Wednesday morning.

The Underformers have classes through the end of week and finish Friday with their own special school meeting at 2:15 PM. All students and families are invited to the Baccalaureate Mass being livestreamed on Friday night at 7 PM. Similarly, our entire community is invited to Commencement on Saturday morning at 10 AM.

As mentioned, our Commencement page has all the links you need to watch the events this week. Let me or Jake Dellorco know if you have any questions.

Go Saints!

Peter LaVigne
Assistant Head of School for Student Life

May 12, 2020 

Dear Canterbury Families,

With just ten days remaining in the spring semester, I am writing to ensure that our Canterbury families have the information you need for these final two weeks as well as to touch base once again regarding next fall.

For our Sixth Form parents, the final countdown begins!  Your children have continued to impress us with their approach to such an unexpected finish to their senior year and have been overwhelmingly generous in spirit, nostalgia and gratitude.  As they experience their last academic moments as Saints and transition into Senior Seminars and Commencement Week events, we appreciate all that you are doing to help them focus on the extraordinary accomplishment that their Canterbury graduation will be.  As a reminder, the Commencement 2020 webpage has been updated and will host the livestream links for our virtual Sixth Form Assembly (May 19), Baccalaureate Mass (May 22), and Commencement (May 23).  Finally, kudos to our AP Art Students whose Exhibition is tonight at 6:30; don’t miss it!

For our Underform parents, your children are wrapping up their academic courses in various culminating endeavors as they also begin to select their classes for the fall.  Please continue to help them finish the year on a high note by reviewing their assignments via your parent portal.  All Underformers will be expected to attend the virtual Underform Assembly on May 18 at 7:00 PM (EST) as well as the final (Zoom) School Meeting of the year on May 22 at 2:15 PM (EST).  Their Advisors and Academic Counselors are available and ready to help!

Tomorrow morning’s Parent Q&A will provide an opportunity to discuss any additional year-end topics but will largely focus on next year.  As I noted in my April 27 communication:  

As we reach clarity about 2020-21, we remain fully committed to offering a program for your children that we believe will best meet their needs come September.  From academic and college counseling programs focused intentionally on individual growth and success; to the strength and values of our community (and familiarity to returning students); to the small size, rural location, and medical infrastructure of our town and campus; Canterbury is here for you.  And we are here for you whether we open right on time (hopefully), October 1st, in a hybrid model, or remotely. Thank you for your patience and partnership.

I wish I could say that now — two weeks later — we have all the answers, but like every educational institution, we are living at the nexus of persistence and patience as we do our best to plan ahead.  As a small boarding school, Canterbury draws both comparisons to, and distinctions from, the roadmaps which colleges, K-12 day schools, and public schools will build toward 2020-21.  To that end, we are paying close attention to various reports and recommendations as we engage in conversations and tabletop sessions with peer boarding schools; we have included a sampling of resources from the state of Connecticut, the National Association of Independent Schools, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association:

• ReOpen CT: Report of the Higher Education Subcommittee*

• NAIS: Coronavirus (COVID-19) Resources for Independent Schools

• NCAA: Core Principles of Resocialization of Collegiate Sport

*Because of our residential program, boarding schools are included in the Higher Ed report, but we also await the ReOpen CT Report of the K-12 Subcommittee.

We know that both the breadth and depth of information woven throughout these reports are overwhelming and raise more questions than provide answers.  That said, our goal is to share the resources we are accessing with you in the spirit of good communication.  Please also know that we have a standing biweekly Medical Task Force meeting with members of our administrative team, Director of Health Services Colleen Cook ’02, School Physician Ken Marici ’87, and a member of our Board of Trustees who is also a current parent and practicing pediatrician.  As Canterbury’s specific plans take shape, we will keep all of our families updated in a timely and transparent manner.

To be sure, a successful return of our students to campus will rely on our continued strong partnership with all of you.  As an example: consistent across medical updates and government recommendations is the critical role that testing will play in monitoring and managing the safety of our students, faculty, and staff (both testing for COVID-19 and testing for antibodies as an avenue toward measuring our community’s level of herd immunity).  Canterbury’s Medical Team will need to work with families to achieve a consistent level of accurate testing.  Ultimately, we will have a Medical Response Action Plan to share that will address a full array of details, from those parameters surrounding our students’ safe return to those we will abide by in the case of a positive test on campus.  While I am getting ahead of myself, my intention is to further plant the seed that our collaboration with all of you will be even more essential when campus reopens.  I am truly grateful to work with the families who have chosen Canterbury.  

I hope that many of you will join us tomorrow morning (Wednesday, May 13) for our weekly Parent Q&A, which begins at 8:15 AM (EST). While I will provide some framing, the bulk of our time together will allow for questions.  If you are unable to attend, a recording of the session will be made available here.  Finally, Week 3 of Epidemiology runs this afternoon at 4:30 PM (EST)!

Thank you for everything you do to support Canterbury and our Saints.  Stay safe.

Gratefully,

Rachel E. Stone P’23, ’24
Head of School

April 27, 2020
 
Dear Canterbury Families,
 
As we pass the midway point of this unusual and unexpected spring, I am writing to once again check in with all of you.  Those of us living on our hilltop in New Milford continue to wish the extended Canterbury family good health during this time, to miss our students deeply, and to eagerly hope for clarity (medical and otherwise) that will inform our decisions regarding the 2020-21 school year.  It goes without saying that we simply cannot wait for our students to return.
 
In hopes of striking an effective communication balance, we have tried to focus each message this spring on one or two specific updates.  Today, we write to follow up on the topic of spring 2020 refunds/credits as well as questions about the 2020-21 school year.  We have appreciated your patience as our Leadership Team continues to thoroughly and thoughtfully assess the financial implications of this pandemic on the School’s operations, our employees, and our families. 
 
Credit/Refund for Portion of Tuition for the Spring Term
I must start by acknowledging the extraordinary work our Academic team, teaching faculty, and students have tackled from the very moment we made the decision to delay, and then cancel, a return to campus after spring break.  I have seen this commitment as both a colleague and parent (apparently Latin is just as challenging via distance learning as it was in person!), and I want to thank the entire Canterbury community for embracing a new model of learning.
 
As I noted in my April 14 communication, the vast majority of our costs remain fixed whether students are on campus or not; moreover, we have committed to ensuring the employment of our faculty and staff through June to reiterate that our community is our highest priority.  Along the way, Canterbury’s Board of Trustees and Administrative Team have closely monitored cost savings during this transitional time in order to determine a fair credit/refund to our families in good faith and in acknowledgment of your partnership during these unsettled times. 
 
To that end, we are able to offer a credit of up to $2,000 per boarding student and up to $500 per day student, distributed as a credit applied to your student billing account. The credit will be prorated in proportion to any amount of financial aid awarded for the year. For Sixth Form families, any credit balance in your account will be refunded in June. For Third, Fourth and Fifth Form families, this credit will carry forward in your student billing account.
 
In order to initiate the processing of your family’s credit/refund, please register here.

How Can You Support our Saints?
Many of our families have reached out to offer help in recent weeks, and we could not be more grateful for these gestures of goodwill.  In the spirit of these requests, we are sharing the option for you to consider making a tax-deductible gift of your family’s credit/refund to the Canterbury Annual Fund.  Please know that we appreciate, and are sensitive to, the varying degrees of financial impact this pandemic has created for individual families.  If, however, you are in a position to give, your generosity would provide critical support to our School and a powerful message to your children’s teachers and mentors.  Should you have any questions about the specifics of this process, please feel free to reach out to Business Manager Steve Carleton or Chief Advancement Officer Rick Henderson.

To make a gift of your credit/refund to the Annual Fund, please register here.

Looking Ahead to the 2020-21 School Year
As we focus intently on a strong finish to the spring semester - including closure for, and celebration of, our Sixth Formers - we are also planning for next fall.  To be sure, we fully intend to open the 2020-21 school year as planned and are working in close collaboration with local and state medical/public health and government officials, as well as the Connecticut Association of Independent Schools (CAIS), to build a roadmap to that safe opening. That said, the COVID-19 landscape continues to be fluid at best, and we will work in parallel to prepare for any and all versions of a “disrupted” fall.  

To that end, and in order to provide reassurance to our new and returning families, should state or federal restrictions preclude us from starting the academic year as scheduled - including via distance learning or a late start to the year - we will adjust tuition, room and board accordingly and in reflection of the degree to which our program is impacted.  Moreover, if government- issued travel or visa restrictions prevent a student from arriving on campus for the start of the school year, Canterbury will apply appropriate reductions to those same charges and provide a distance learning option until the student arrives. 

We know that some families are weighing the risks/benefits of various educational scenarios for the fall, and we appreciate the array of questions tied to those scenarios.  As we reach clarity about 2020-21, we remain fully committed to offering a program for your children that we believe will best meet their needs come September.  From academic and college counseling programs focused intentionally on individual growth and success; to the strength and values of our community (and familiarity to returning students); to the small size, rural location, and medical infrastructure of our town and campus; Canterbury is here for you.  And we are here for you whether we open right on time (hopefully), October 1st, in a hybrid model, or remotely. Thank you for your patience and partnership.

Circling back to where this letter began: we wish you good health as we collectively aim to stay steady, informed, and safe during this crisis.  I am eternally grateful to our team of colleagues, Trustees, students, parents, and alumni; thank you for your commitment to our extraordinary School, and may you continue to find Canterbury’s mission both grounding and inspiring.  We look forward to seeing you back on our hilltop in the near future!

Gratefully,

Rachel E. Stone
Head of School

Dear Canterbury Families,

We write today to update you on several decisions regarding the end of the academic year. Last week, you received a great deal of detailed information regarding the spring distance learning plan once we decided that a return to campus was not possible. So that families can make plans accordingly, today we share a few times and dates for events that will close the school year in May.
 

• The Underform Awards Assembly will be held on Monday evening, May 18.
• The Sixth Form Awards Assembly will take place the following night on May 19.
• Sixth Form Project Presentations will occur on Wednesday, May 20.
• Canterbury’s Baccalaureate Mass will be celebrated on Friday evening, May 22.
• This year’s Virtual Commencement Exercises will be Saturday morning, May 23.

We will share details regarding each event as well as the live stream links in the weeks to come. Please note that these events will be recorded to share with the graduating class and with families unable to view them live.

As mentioned previously, we will meet with our Sixth Formers later this week to continue building the balance of our end-of-year schedule. Their suggestions and feedback are paramount to our planning. With their input, we expect to continue our senior traditions as best we can, including Sixth Form Seminars. As an aside, our Advancement Office will also reach out directly to Sixth Form parents inviting them to a conversation and enlisting their thoughts regarding the closing events of their child’s Canterbury career.

Finally, we hope parents will join us for tomorrow morning’s weekly Parent Q&A with our Student Life Team, which begins at 8:15 AM. If you are unable to attend, a recording of the session will be made available here.

Respectfully,

Rachel Stone
Head of School

Sue Roberts
Associate Head of School for Academics

Peter LaVigne
Assistant Head of School for Student Life

Dear Canterbury Students, Parents & Families,

At the close of our third week of distance learning, I write to follow up the communication released earlier this week on Tuesday. In that note, we mentioned an updated distance learning schedule for the remainder of the semester that would be released at the end of this week and include built-in mini-breaks to allow students and faculty alike to pause and take a breath. The students have done a great job completing weekly surveys, and we are listening.

In addition to providing our students and faculty time to step away from online classes, Canterbury remains committed to providing our students the time and necessary attention in College Counseling, The Donovan Center for Learning, and 2020-21 leadership processes (e.g., speech preparation, interviews). We will not be holding distance learning classes on April 23rd & 24th or May 5th & 6th. During this time, students may be scheduled for individual meetings with College Counselors, The Donovan Center for Learning and/or The Office of Student Life. Veracross and our website will be updated in the days ahead to reflect these schedule changes.

Faculty will prepare the third progress report of the second semester at the end of next week, and grades and comments will be released the week of April 27th. I hope this feedback is helpful as parents partner with our faculty to support our students.

In case you missed it, please see an important letter regarding AP® exams that all students/families registered to take an AP exam should read. To view the updated COVID-19 AP® exam schedule, please click here. As many of you may have seen already, The College Board announced on Wednesday afternoon that the June 6th SAT and SAT subject test administrations are cancelled. Our College Counseling Office communicated with Fifth Formers on Wednesday and again yesterday at their form meeting. Fifth Formers continue to meet in College Workgroups, and Ms. Ferland and Ms. Mandigo will communicate changes and updates to testing as they occur. As of today, the June 13th ACT has not yet been cancelled.

Finally, I hope that many of you will join us next Wednesday, April 22nd, for our weekly Parent Q&A with our Student Life Team, which begins at 8:15 AM. If you are unable to attend, a recording of the session will be made available here.

Sincerely,

Suzanne Roberts
Associate Head of School for Academics

Dear Canterbury Students, Parents & Families,

As we begin our third week of distance learning, we write to update our plans for the spring as they continue to be altered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

If you are a parent of a Sixth Former, you may already know that we reached out to the Class of 2020 earlier today to ensure that they were first to learn of the following updates. They received this video message and will meet as a Form today at 3:15 via Zoom.

On that note, as of last Thursday (April 9th), the state of Connecticut extended its “stay-at-home” order through at least May 20. As much as we had hoped that a return to campus for our students this spring might be possible, it is critical that we embrace public health best practices as a school. Therefore, our campus remains closed to visitors, and we are unable to open dorms or the athletic center for students at this time. While we suspect no one will be surprised by our letter today, we are sorry to have to share the news that given the ways the COVID-19 pandemic is continuing to impact our world, distance learning will continue through the end of this school year and we will not be able to bring students back to the campus this spring. 

All school-sponsored events are cancelled (e.g., spring season athletics, concerts, spring musical, Broadway Trip, Canterbury Honor Society Dinner, Prom, spring carnival), or postponed (e.g., Confirmation, Sacristan Installation, Memorial Service for Deacon Frank Bice ’77, Alumni Weekend) until further notice. Some events will move to a virtual format (e.g., Fifth Form College Day, Underform Prize Assembly), and details regarding those events will be communicated once they are determined.

While we realize that this news is hard for students to hear at a time when there is plenty of difficult news to process, we hope that the clarity and certainty provided by this update are helpful. Families need to be able to plan. For the Class of 2020, we recognize that your Sixth Form spring at Canterbury has not materialized in the way anyone would have hoped, and you deserve our best efforts to honor and acknowledge your class. While we will not be holding Commencement on campus, we look forward to collaborating with the Sixth Form regarding how to finish the spring — proudly, gracefully, and in celebration! We will be communicating directly with the Sixth Form as our plans develop and will keep the broader community informed as well, including details regarding Sixth Form Prize Assembly, Sixth Form Project presentations, and traditions woven into the days leading up to Commencement. The Commencement website will be fully updated by May 1.

To be sure, Sixth Formers who remain in good standing both academically and in terms of citizenship throughout the remainder of distance learning will receive their diploma (or post-graduate certificate) and will officially graduate from Canterbury School. 

For our underform students, we know that many important questions remain, from how to manage students’ belongings at school and how to select your academic courses for 2020-21, to how end-of-year awards and leadership positions will be determined. 

• The Donovan Center for Learning will begin scheduling individual Zoom appointments in late April with underform students to begin the course selection process. 
   
• We understand that many students and families will be eager to return to campus to collect their belongings; however, we must ensure that we are planning accordingly to keep all of our community members safe and healthy. The Office of Student Life is in the process of creating a move-out protocol and calendar for students to return to campus and retrieve their personal belongings. This process will not take place prior to May and will be informed by public health, federal, and state guidelines and their recommendations regarding travel, gatherings, and social distancing. 
   
• Student Life will also be reaching out with specific information next week to those Fifth Formers who have applied for leadership positions.

We have paused after the first two weeks of distance learning to celebrate Easter and to assess/respond to the feedback from faculty observations and student surveys. An updated distance learning schedule for the remainder of the semester will be released later this week and will include built-in mini-breaks to allow students and faculty alike to pause and take a breath. We remain committed to providing grades for classes this spring, and teachers will prepare the third progress report of the second semester in late April with both grades and comments. The College Board has adjusted its schedule and AP exams will begin on Monday, May 11 and end on Friday, May 22. Please see an important letter regarding AP exams that all students/families registered to take an AP exam should read. 

Our spring semester classes will end for all students on Friday, May 22, and final report cards will be released on Veracross soon after. Sixth Form transcripts will be finalized in early June and sent directly to colleges where students have enrolled. Given the complexities of online assessment, we will not be administering traditional final exams for any students, regardless of grade level. However, faculty will ask students to complete a culminating project, assignment, or assessment at the end of the semester, to be completed by May 22.

On a different note, like all private/independent schools (from day schools through higher education), we are working to assess the institutional financial implications of COVID-19. The vast majority of our costs remain fixed whether students are on campus or not, but we are very mindful of this pandemic’s impact on our Canterbury families as well as the School and our employees; and, we are aware of questions raised concerning any possible refunds/credits toward room and board. As we navigate yet another new set of circumstances, we ask for your patience as we determine the best course of action for the School, our families, and our employees.

Finally, we hope many of you will join us for tomorrow morning’s weekly Parent Q&A with our Academic Team (The Donovan Center for Learning and College Counseling), which begins at 8:15 AM. If you are unable to attend, a recording of the session will be made available here. 

Sincerely,

Rachel Stone
Head of School

Sue Roberts
Associate Head of School for Academics

Peter LaVigne
Assistant Head of School for Student Life

Dear Canterbury Parents & Families,

It is hard to believe that our students left campus for spring break just one month ago, not to mention how the world has changed since March 7th.  As this week’s COVID-19 statistics and stories become even more sobering, I am writing to check in with all of you.

First, let me wish a Happy Easter and a reflective Holy Week to those who celebrate.  As the daughter of a minister, I was raised in a family whose Easter morning began with a sunrise service (overlooking the Hudson River) and continued on through basket and egg hunts, a brass quartet at church, and far too much food.  But most of all, Easter was a day of family, friends and joy. I wish you the same, even as many traditions will look different this year.  Likewise, for those celebrating Passover, may there be moments to rejoice with loved ones, if even from a distance.

Second and along the same vein, our academic schedule this week is modified for Good Friday, and classes will not meet on Easter Monday.  Our students’ schedules will reflect these adjustments in Veracross.  The distance learning feedback we have received to date from your children has been overwhelmingly positive, and I hope you are hearing the same.  While nothing can fully replace the face-to-face interactions within a classroom, our faculty and students remain impressively connected; when asked if “adults at Canterbury have been supportive while students transitioned to distance learning,” 100% of our students agreed, with 61% agreeing strongly.  Well done to all!

As we lean into the second week of virtual academics and begin to truly establish a new pattern of learning, I echo the sentiment shared by Peter LaVigne last Friday: now is the time to further partner with us in encouraging your children to commit to a routine that will position them for success this spring.  I know that many questions remain about the weeks ahead, and the month of May in particular, and I want you to know that we are working in earnest to be as proactive and transparent as possible.  To that end, our Department Chairs meet today to further our conversations about what the “academic finish” to the year will look like (i.e., will classes conclude with exams/assessments; when will classes end), and Sue Roberts will provide clarity by the end of next week. As a reminder, we are committed to the distance learning infrastructure through year-end, knowing that some students will be unable to return to campus even if we are able to re-open in May.

On a related note, I know our Sixth Formers and their families are eager for an update regarding graduation.  Please trust that we are not taking these decisions lightly but rather closely tracking this evolving situation in the outside chance that we can welcome students back — and our seniors in particular — at some point in May.  We still plan to communicate a final decision by April 27th at the latest.  

Finally, we hope many of you will join us for tomorrow morning’s weekly Parent Q&A with our Health & Medical Team.*

Warmly,

Rachel Stone
Head of School

* To access the Zoom link, please log in to your Veracross Parent Portal; there will be a button labelled: Weekly Parent Q&A

Dear Canterbury Parents,

We wanted to reach out to you as we complete our first week of Distance Learning. The faculty on the hilltop have been excited to see your children again, and the energy has been wonderful. Clearly the students also missed each other as evidenced by their smiles and interactions.

Now that our students have spent the week transitioning to online learning, we believe that establishing a healthy routine is the most important next step. From maintaining regular sleep habits and good hygiene, to starting the day with breakfast and time to mentally prepare, and committing to appropriate dress and a productive work space — all of this in combination will play an invaluable role in their academic experience this spring. Thank you for partnering with us to help establish and sustain your child’s routine; many of us are playing the same role as parents with our own children! In addition, please note that attendance for live classes and the advisory meetings is required; the advisory meeting is purposefully set for the first live meeting of the day and structured with key information and engaging exercises.

Thank you to the parents who attended our Zoom Q&A meeting on Wednesday morning. The next meeting is scheduled for 4/8 at 8:15 AM. Join us** to hear Colleen Cook ’02 (Director of Health Services), Dr. Ken Marici ’87 (School Physician), and Cynthia Willmen (Director of Counseling) discuss updated medical facts and useful resources for your child and you. As a note, Cynthia Willmen offers a mindfulness exercise four mornings a week at 9:30 AM for students to start their day on the right note. Your child can find details in the daily bulletin.

Finally, our Admission Office will be hosting two Virtual Revisit Days this weekend; please help us spread the word to prospective families!

Respectfully,

Peter LaVigne
Assistant Head of School for Student Life

** Please be sure to join Canterbury Zoom meetings with your first and last name so we may appropriately welcome you! Unfortunately, we will not allow entry into Canterbury meetings to Zoom profiles that we are unable to recognize.
Instructions for changing Zoom Profile Name:

Go to https://zoom.us/profile
Click on the Edit button to the right of your profile name.
Change your first and last name.
Click on the Save Changes button.

Dear Canterbury Parents,

As a follow-up to Friday’s email, I am reaching out to share a few more details regarding the Wednesday morning weekly Parent Q&A.

Our overarching goal is to provide an additional avenue by which we can stay connected to you, and you to us. Additionally, we hope that engaging in these Zoom sessions will be an opportunity to experience one slice of your children’s Distance Learning Program. Fear not, we won’t assign homework, and you are welcome to “bring” coffee to the sessions!

* These sessions will run on Wednesday mornings at 8:15 for 30-45 minutes.

* To access the Zoom link, please log in to your Veracross Parent Portal; there will be a button labelled: Weekly Parent Q&A

* We will have administrators overseeing each session with an opportunity for parents to ask questions via the Zoom Chat feature; we will certainly do our best to respond to questions/topics as they surface.

April 1: Administrative Team: Current COVID-19 updates from Rachel Stone, Colleen Cook and Sue Roberts
April 8: Health Center/Medical Team
April 15: Academics/Donovan Center for Learning/College Counseling
April 22: Student Life
April 29: Athletics

We look forward to this new experience and are grateful for your partnership in the uncharted waters of spring 2020. On that note, your children are off to an excellent start this week!

Best regards,

Rachel Stone

Dear Canterbury Families,

Greetings from our very quiet hilltop. Just as your children are missing their friends and social interactions, we are missing their presence throughout campus.  That said, we are hopeful that our collective commitment to social distancing has kept your families safe as it has those who live on our campus.  I am grateful every day for the Canterbury community; your individual expressions of support and understanding have been a source of strength and steadiness during these unprecedented times.

We are writing today with several updates as we transition fully into Canterbury’s Distance Learning Plan on Monday:

1. For those families living locally, you may be aware that CT Governor Lamont: “has determined that to promote and secure the safety and protection of children in schools related to the risks of COVID-19, all public school classes will be cancelled for all Connecticut students effective Tuesday, March 17 until at least April 20, 2020, and is encouraging private schools to follow the same schedule.” Certainly this precludes our ability to bring students back to campus on April 13th.  As we continue to follow CDC updates and track the COVID-19 statistics, we know that our odds of welcoming students back to campus this spring are low at best; that said, we will extend the delayed return until Monday, May 4th for classes (boarding students would return the evening of May 3rd) with a commitment to update families by April 27th.
    
2. Meanwhile, our faculty have met these unexpected circumstances with conviction and optimism. This week, our full faculty met as “technology team” groups and within their individual academic disciplines to continue their training for Monday’s DLP launch. Under the guidance of Sue Roberts, Kelli Darrin and Rob Roffe, our colleagues have been full steam ahead, developing online teaching and learning strategies with technological tools that offer students the best possible educational experience. We are certainly looking forward to maintaining some face-time connection with our students.
   
   As a reminder: distance learning will begin with Advisory at 10:00 am on Monday, March 30th. Students should log in to Veracross and check their Daily Schedule to find the Zoom link for live meetings. Even though our students are digitally savvy, they are not necessarily digital natives regarding academic technology. There will be a learning curve for all throughout the first week of distance learning as we transition to a new platform and way of sharing information. Please know that we will be gathering information from students about their experience on a regular basis via advisor meetings and weekly surveys.
   
   Finally, the Technology Team offered “Tech Checks” for students this past Monday and Tuesday. We were excited to “see” more than 100 of our students from around the globe signed on to Zoom! There will be one more session tomorrow (Saturday, March 28th) from 9-10AM if your child would like to hop on and work out any glitches. In addition, teachers will share a set of Netiquette guidelines with your children on Monday, and we’ve included them here for your review.
    
3. Prior to the start of virtual classes, your children will hear from their faculty advisors.  The goal of these “check-in” meetings is simply that: we want to know how our students are doing, how your local communities are managing the impact of coronavirus, and what your children need from us.  Between the Advisory Meetings built into the DLP to opportunities created outside of the “academic day,” we remain committed to being present for your children and knowing them both individually and well.
    
4. Finally, we will offer a weekly Wednesday morning (8:15-9:00) Live Q&A for parents beginning on April 1.  Director of Health Services, Colleen Cook, and I will typically run point on these conversations, though other members of the Administrative and Health teams will often be present as well.  We will share a link to a Zoom invitation early next week.

Amid relentless news updates and growing questions regarding return to “normalcy” — a word that may have been coined in reference to the 1918 Flu pandemic — we truly lean on, and stand together as, the Canterbury community.  

Gratefully,

Rachel Stone
Head of School

Dear Canterbury Families,

First and foremost we hope that everyone is staying healthy during this time. We would like to share some recent updates and clarifications we received from Clifford Allen, the agency that provides the student medical insurance purchased through the school. Our hope is that you will find that this answers your questions and leaves you feeling reassured about your students health care coverage. Below is the information received from Clifford Allen:

1. Treatment of the Coronavirus is eligible for reimbursement – There are no exclusions in your plan for pandemics/epidemics.
    
2. Screening/Testing of Coronavirus is eligible for reimbursement – even in the absence of symptoms. UnitedHealthcare has waived all member cost sharing, including copays, coinsurance and deductibles, for COVID-19 diagnostic testing provided at approved locations in accordance with CDC guidelines. It will be important that the testing follows the CDC guidelines.
    
3. The student does not need to be at school to be covered – The student’s coverage is in force until their current ending date, 8/14/2020, and covered expenses are eligible for reimbursement anywhere in the world with the exception of the student’s home country. While United Healthcare is willing to pay non-US providers, most of those providers will require the student to pay them and then have the student seek reimbursement from United Healthcare. Importantly, the check will be made payable to the student in US currency (after currency conversion has taken place). Claims can be filed directly by the family or you can contact Colleen Cook at ccook@cbury.org for assistance.
    
4. Travel/Lodging
   1. Your policy is a medical expense policy and does not include reimbursement for travel/lodging costs.
   2. Your policy does include Assistance and Evacuation Benefits. A full description is provided in your brochure. This is a service that needs to be engaged in advance of incurring any expenses. That service is designed to assist the student if they are suffering from an illness/injury and cannot secure appropriate treatment where they are located. If you believe a situation might require this assistance, you/student can reach out to the number located on the back of the ID card. Again, this service must be engaged in advance. It does not and will not “pay claims."
       
5. ID card – If you have students that are away from school and need a copy of their ID card a copy is uploaded in the Magnus Health portal and should be accessible. You can also contact Clifford Allen offices or Colleen Cook at the Canterbury Health Center at 860-210-3888 or ccook@cbury.org.
    
6. All of our students enrolled in the insurance program have a 12 month coverage plan with coverage through 8/14/2020.
    
7. If you would like to reach out to Clifford Allen directly with questions or for claims submissions, they can be reached at: 

Toll Free: 888-342-2224
Local: 843-342-3150
Fax: 843-342-3250
email: ford@cliffordallen.com
website: www.cliffordallen.com

If you have additional questions please reach out to us:

Colleen Cook 
Director of Health Services 
860-210-3888
ccook@cbury.org

Allyson McFerran Mard
Student Billing Coordinator
860-210-3803
amcferren@cbury.org

March 18, 2020

Dear Canterbury Families,

I hope this note finds you healthy and well during this extraordinary time. Following Mrs. Stone’s note yesterday, we wanted to communicate some details about the days and weeks to come. On our hilltop, the Administrative Team and the Academic Office continue to fine-tune the distance learning plan which begins on March 30. Mrs. Roberts will share specific details and information on Friday.

In the meantime, Student Life remains ready to assist with any questions or concerns as best we can. We have received some requests from families to pick up items in student dorm rooms. At this time, students do NOT need to remove all belongings from their dorm rooms. If students wish to return to campus to retrieve essential items, they must coordinate their visit through Student Life (jdellorco@cbury.org, plavigne@cbury.org) prior to arriving on campus. Please know that the distance learning plan will account for the fact  that students may not have access to textbooks. Approved visits to campus should be limited to 10 minutes and follow CDC guidelines for limiting exposure and spread of illness. Feel free to reach out to us as needed.

All campus events scheduled between now and April 13 have been canceled or postponed. We will continue to evaluate during this fluid situation and will alter plans accordingly. You will hear from Student Life, the Academic Office, and the Head of School regularly with important and updated information.

We understand you are likely hearing that some schools and colleges have already moved to distance learning for the remainder of the academic year. We will update families by April 6th regarding: 1) if we will return on April 13th, 2) if there will be an additional delay to a return to campus, or 3) if we make the decision for campus to remain closed through the end of the school year. Regardless of if/when students return to campus, distance learning will be available for the duration of the spring semester for those who need it.

We are all working together to ensure the next few weeks are as positive and valuable for your child as possible. Here is a link to information and frequently asked questions about COVID-19. We appreciate your continued cooperation with, and support of, Canterbury.

Respectfully,

Peter LaVigne
Assistant Head of School for Student Life