I am writing this with a full heart, knowing that the school year is coming to an end. Here at the High School, we are through Advisee Games, halfway done with AP Exams, and staring down the pike at Awards Day, Senior Tributes, exams, and of course, Graduation. May is a complicated, contradictory time; I feel pulled halfway between celebrating these important moments and shifting to begin planning and preparing for the fall.

Frankly, this whole year has been a complicated, contradictory time, to say the least. As we wind down, I am conscious of many things for which I am truly grateful in this most unusual time. I am in awe of our faculty, who have been superhuman in their ability to pivot between modes of school and to juggle ways of teaching, always with the students’ best interests at the fore. I am so proud of our students, who have made the most of everything they could and are clearly so tired and worn down from a year-plus of pandemic stress, but keep showing up (on the computer or in the classroom) and making it work. I am beyond appreciative of our amazing staff and the ways in which they keep everything running so that the teachers can teach and the students can learn. And I am very grateful for you, our parents – for the support and the partnership that has enabled us together to give these wonderful teenagers a reasonable semblance of a high school year. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for trusting us with your students and for working with us so that together, we can make the magic of a St. Francis education shine through even in the most difficult of times.