As we go into this long Spring weekend, I want to wish you all well and hope you are staying healthy and safe. The daily news of the human toll of COVID-19 makes my heart rend. At the same time, my heart is filled with gratitude for the resiliency of our students and the dedication of our teachers. Everyone is doing their best to sustain our learning community.
I am so appreciative of the incredible support from Colorado Academy families for our efforts. Every day, I receive positive feedback from a faculty member, parent, grandparent, or student. These are uplifting and propel me to want to do all that I can to guide this community through this crisis. The most resounding compliment I heard recently was from a parent who jokingly told me that our online efforts are working so effectively and are so seamless that his daughter is once again complaining about school.
Of course, we are working hard to uphold our academic standards, but we are also working hard to sustain the essence of CA’s culture and community. This means doing all that we can to enable all of our students who want to return to CA next year to be able to do so and to continue to be part of this extraordinary community.
On March 30, we put out a call for support for an Emergency Assistance Tuition Fund. I am so proud to report that 100% of our Trustees have made contributions to the fund. Numerous faculty, staff, administrators, and I have also made donations. In just two weeks, we have raised more than $250,000 for this important cause. We know that beyond our current Financial Aid allocation, which has already been promised to nearly 20% of our students for next year, there will be tremendous need on the part of current students and families who will need our support during this crisis.
We must also sustain the professional faculty of this school. There is an important reason why Colorado Academy teachers have rallied behind the transition to online learning: they want to support their students. They understand how important it is to continue to pursue our educational goals. Our community is one in which parents and faculty see each other as allies, and I truly believe our faculty have responded in ways that other school communities have not seen. Our students are the beneficiaries of all of these efforts.
I know this is a very difficult time to ask for philanthropic support, but it is also a time when gifts, no matter the size, ensure that we are taking care of our own; that our support is an expression of our wish to stand together as the CA community to sustain the school that has sustained generations of students for more than 100 years.
I wish you all a great long weekend. Please turn off those screens, get outside (even if it is cold), read a book, and enjoy your families.