As many of you may be aware, Governor Holcomb released a series of guidelines addressing the coronavirus situation earlier this evening. Among these:

Limiting non-essential gatherings to fewer than 250 people.
Encouraging businesses to utilize teleworking practices (remote learning in our case).
Advising individuals 60 or above and those with underlying health conditions to limit their public exposure.

Each of these recommendations impacts face-to-face instruction at Canterbury in significant ways. For these reasons, and in an effort to keep our community healthy and contain the spread of the coronavirus, Canterbury School will be closed effective at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, March 13, and we will transition to remote learning beginning on Monday, March 16. We anticipate returning to face-to-face instruction on campus on Monday, April 6. This decision comes after much careful deliberation and conversation with our the school's Leadership Team, the School Nurse, and the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees; after regular consultation with the Allen County Department of Health; after seeing similar arrangements being announced in school districts and at colleges and universities around us; and, of course, after consideration of the implications and impact of the Governor's initiatives.

Additional details:

To be clear, the Covington Road and Smith Road campuses will be closed to all visitors and community activity during this three-week period. This includes all productions (including the Middle School Musical), rehearsals, games (on or off campus), practices, parent-teacher conferences, and scheduled meetings.
To the extent possible, we ask that you also respect the concept of social distancing in the greater community, given its intent to prevent the spread of the virus.
Beginning on Monday, March 16, we will implement remote learning, according to the general guidelines sent to you previously. Your child's Division Director will send specific parameters for your child's classes to you by the end of the day on Friday, March 13.
As stated above, our goal is to return to school on Monday, April 6. Given the evolving nature of the situation, however, we aim to be prepared if this is not possible.

We certainly understand that this decision will cause disruption in the lives of our students and families over the next several weeks. I appreciate your support as we adjust to the uncertainty that has enveloped our lives in the past several days. This decision is also disruptive to the learning opportunities our faculty have planned for their students – I am grateful for their willingness to transition to creating remote learning environments that allow for continuity in your children's educational experiences.

We are all in this together, and challenges such as this do allow us to build new skills and capacities that will ultimately benefit us as individuals and communities. Our spirit of community will guide us through the coming weeks as we work together to advance your children's education, and to support each other as needed.

Please look for an additional communication at some point before our scheduled return to school for further instructions and updates, as appropriate.

Sincerely,