school closure: what we know now

We’re acutely aware of the difficult situation parents (and staff) are in, not knowing when, or if, the school will reopen this year. As the situation is constantly changing, we have to take this one step at a time. This is what we know now:
  • County education and health officials announced on April 8 that public schools in the county will remain closed through the end of the academic year. We'll have more when we determine what this means for our school.
  • As things stand today, our preschool will remain closed except for the children of parents working in one of 16 essential professions.
  • The elementary grades will continue with distance learning.
As the situation continues to unfold, we’ll keep you posted via eNote. We’ll summarize the latest developments here.
The Office will remain open from 8:30 a.m. till 4 p.m. most days. (Office staff won’t have more current information than we’ve disseminated by eNote.)

important dates

APRIL 13: Financial Q&A conference call. Our conference call to update the school community and answer questions related to the financial aspects of our partial school closure will begin at 3:30 p.m. Please see the eNote we sent April 13 for login instructions. (We'll summarize the session in an eNote for the benefit of those who aren’t able to join us on the call.)
APRIL 17: First weekly online parent community support group meeting. These are stressful times. Since sheltering in place has made it more difficult to give and receive the support from our community that we all value so much, we'll be hosting weekly Zoom meetings for parents interested in having a chance to talk with others about the challenges and successes they’re experiencing. These meetings will take place every Friday at 4 p.m. until further notice.
If you’re new to Zoom, please log in five or 10 minutes early, so we can answer any technical questions that might arise before the meeting starts.
Sign-ups for our summer programs. We're operating on the assumption that things will have returned to some semblance of normalcy by July, so we're proceeding with our summer program registration. Be watching eNotes for program descriptions and registration forms. We'll be sending them out soon.

compassion tree

One inspiration that emerged from our February 29 compassion symposium was a “compassion tree,” a tree we can all “stand under” together as we open our awareness to all the new possibilities the current situation presents us. This painting by art teacher and artist Lara Cannon captures the silent nature of compassion, expressed in action, so fully highlighted in Dr. Carol Weyland Conner’s welcoming address that night.
At a time when everyone is feeling so much uncertainty in so many areas of life, we want to underline our desire to help each other, and every day new, creative ideas for doing that will emerge.
The painting includes a few of the many heartfelt messages from parents and teachers that capture the unity of concern we feel for each other during this period, showing that love can eclipse fear.
We hope you’ll print the Compassion Tree and delight with your children in its many images, as we move forward together in our evolving understanding of what compassionate community really means.
The 12:10 bell just rang ... Elementary students should be pouring out of their classrooms and onto the playground, but the halls and playground are eerily empty. We miss you!
About this Website: This site is offered as a service to the families of Meher Schools students. It's a one-stop destination for information and forms and other materials our parents often request. If you're not a parent of a Meher Schools student and you came across this site while searching for information about our school, please visit our "public" site, www.MeherSchools.org.