Choate Return to On-Campus Learning

The “reversal” to full online education was very disappointing. We are all aware of the circumstances but Choate should have done better. You already lost the class of 2020 who did not receive even a real diploma yet, never mind a graduation ceremony! Now goes Class of 2021. We, as Choate community have the resources, creativity and courage to tackle this and Choate should open the school for true in person education immediately.

I dont see the benefit in moving reopening back. The way this whole situation was handled was very disappointing.

My daughter is an incoming fourth former and she was very disappointed especially after reading these comments. She does not like the prospect of being behind other students and we believe that Choate students are responsible enough to understand the necessary precautions to keep each other safe. At least let the students who have worked so hard and committed to Choate have the opportunity to feel the sense of community and learn to the best of their ability. Their quality of education should be no worse than the students of the other seven schools.

Pleases reopen Choate campus as originally planned!

Other top boarding schools that require remote learning for a period of time for some grades, including Andover, Exeter, Concord Academy, Milton Academy, Loomis Chaffee, have announced that boarding students will pay the same tuition as day students during the period of remote learning. In Dr. Curtis's email, the difference in the tuition refund between boarding and day students ($1225) for the first 4 weeks of remote learning is far less than the pro-rated extra tuition the boarding students paid. Choate should not be the exception that require boarding students to still pay more than day students for remote learning.

Thank you for taking the time to initiate the petition. It is well-written and reflects the feelings of many Choate parents and students. I would like to bring to your attention one error in the petition. Dr. Curtis's e-mail on Aug. 20 listed Connecticut's public health conditions as one of the two primary factors that will influence Choate's decision to move forward with an October reopening. The criteria are: the state's daily COVID-19 positive test rate is lower than 10 per 100,000 residents over a 7-day rolling average and the test positivity rate is lower than 5% over a 7-day rolling average. This means an average positive test rate of less than 0.01% and an average test positivity rate of less than 5%. According to Connecticut COVID-19 Data Tracker (link in Dr. Curtis's email), 29 new cases were reported on Aug. 24, which means a daily positive test rate of 0.8 per 100,000 residents (29/CT population of 3.56 million). the 7-day rolling average for Connecticut has been well below the 10 per 100,000 since June. Per Johns Hopkins University coronavirus website, the 7-day rolling average test positivity rate for Connecticut was 0.9% on Aug.24 . This metric has been below 2% since late June.

As much as I share as a parent, the worry of the school and the risk of Covid flares is also in the back if my mind, I can’t deny the disappointment and sadness this has provoked my child and others. I listen to their devastion in hours of zoom conversations and it is heartbreaking. You had a plan and it was a good plan that included the best measures we can take. Social distance, testing, masking and tracing. You have control of your community and also the kids are supervised. On the other hand, as the parent of a Yale junior and having stayed in Connecticut for the past two weeks, I have witnessed the seriousness and systematic testing going on in their campus. The college Kids are being careful and respectful of the rules and also are fully aware of the consequences of not doing so. No Yale kid wants to go back to living at home and also fear the public shame that acting like irresponsible humans will be brought on them. The last minute news are devastating specially because there is nothing in CT indicating a massive increase of cases or flares. With proper measures this can be safely done. Respecting the rules should be a must. Waiting for flares that might never happen seems like a waste of time. Resilience and being flexible will go a long way. Also, I will ask for your reconsideration in the opening but also for a strict reinforcement of rules. Yes... I agree kids need to come to their school but our bigger community deserves humanity and respect and less entitlement. Kids need to know there would be consequences for any child not behaving safely and becoming a source of worry for the State and Community. I will support Choate but beg you to please listen to the opinions of folks around and try to find some common ground. Thanks.

Thank you for preparing this petition!

This is a tricky situation for the health and safety of everyone, so I understand the delay. However, I feel that it would be in the best interest of everyone to reopen with the previous plan. The quarantine seems to be doable, and the risk is worth taking. I hope we get even more clarity about the reasons for delaying the opening than what was said in the webinar.

Lack of leadership- very disappointing.

I don’t see much benefits to delay the school opening

Let them go back My Friend Pippa is praying

While we understand that these are unprecedented times, I feel that Choate made this decision far too late. Choate should have either committed to an online semester earlier in the year, when the risk of a second wave was already apparent, or gone forward with its re-opening plans. If Choate is not prepared to open in September, we strongly request a full pro-rated refund for boarding, extracurricular and athletic costs for every day of online classes. Online education was not why we sent our child to Choate and certainly not what we pay for in our considerable tuition. The school has a sufficient endowment to use that can carry it through any lost tuition during these tough times. Choate needs to either re-opened in September as had been planned, or offer the pro-rated refund, in order to rebuild relationships with families and show that Choate students and families are the school’s priority. Thank you, Sara Schaefer Munoz ‘92.

Go back to regular skewl my lord

There is nothing dangerous about on-campus virtual learning from dorms.

We have a strong preference for our two students to return for on-campus learning in September. We believe the plans in place can mitigate the risks. There are also real downsides to keeping students at home. If some students elect to study-from-home, that's fine as an individual choice, but the school should re-open per the prior plan.

Please, reopen!

Choate can absolutely achieve a bubble. This was extremely upsetting news. Thank you for bringing this petition to our attention.

Choate needs to live with a little risk - avoiding it altogether is abdication of leadership and capitulation to overly fearful snowflakes. There are ways to protect the small group who may be “at risk” without penalizing the overwhelming majority. Choate’s plan, frankly, was already overly restrictive to minimize risk.

I echo John Slater's comments.