We are here together at the end of January 2022, 22 1/2 months after we each became aware of a pandemic approaching. We had no idea of what it would mean, how long it would last, what it would require of us as parents, educators, responsible adults. There is no way we could have imagined how far the ripples of the original stone that was the Covid-19 virus would spread and affect us and our loved ones. Where we are now is neither a crisis nor a post-Covid calm, but rather still in the midst of figuring out the best way to navigate this extremely difficult situation.

I would like to thank our Class Parents for coming to meet today, along with our staff who have met tirelessly through it all, to discuss how to move forward. We all have the desire for our children to remain in school as well as the desire to keep them healthy and safe.

Happily, we do not have to choose one of these desires, but are working to find the most reasonable solution that recognizes both needs. It is difficult and, as Edward R. Murrow once said, in a different context, “If you are not confused, then you don’t understand the situation.” The suggestion here is that anyone who feels a sense of certainty about what the best outcome is, may be fooling him/herself and is doing so on faith rather than science. Even when the pandemic has passed into its endemic phase, looking back, we will probably never be able to say exactly what the best policy would have been.

This period in time has been so very trying on all of us and as the Manhattan borough president, Mark Levine, quoted in the NY Times, said last week: “Especially after this wave (Omicron), the level of exhaustion in New York City cannot be exaggerated, and the level of numbness is quite significant.”

Additionally, a report on NPR on the impact of Covid on young children and day care has the following introduction: “The people who take care of and educate children under 5 years old — both parents and providers — are in a special kind of hell right now. These children are too young to be vaccinated, and it’s difficult for them to wear masks consistently. Many child care directors are still following 10- or 14-day quarantines, closing entire classrooms after a single positive test, which has caused nonstop disruptions given the current record numbers of COVID-19 cases.”

At WMS, not unexpectedly, we are all experiencing the exhaustion of the impact of Covid on our community and keeping up with the shifting guidelines for dealing with it while at the same time, doing our best to introduce policies and procedures that can at least point toward a more normal existence. However, we are constrained by governmental requirements, particularly the NYC Department of Health. We have followed them faithfully as our licensing agency, and in fact, as far as testing is concerned, have exceeded the guidelines.

Our approach may be onerous but we have, at least in part due to our rigorous procedures, controlled the spread of intra-school transmission of the virus. So, as we discuss your questions and suggestions today, please know that we have continued to focus first in our decisions how to keep our children and teachers safe.