A Note to North Cross Families

Our administration, staff, and Board have been focused on what we can do at North Cross School to ensure the best possible school year. With the opening of school only weeks away, I am reaching out to you, recognizing your essential role as our partners in ensuring our shared commitment to fully reopen and remain open for the entire school year. Despite our School’s best efforts, our success depends considerably on your, and your children’s, willingness to follow guidelines laid out by our public health professionals.

We view the next several weeks as critical. Virginia’s numbers have remained relatively low compared with other southern states. You may also have heard that COVID-19 has entered our area because individuals, in their desire to return to “normal”, have been exposed and place others at risk. We are a community and a family, and we must be on guard to open safely and remain open.

Most immediately, I hope you will consider your travel plans this summer, particularly those plans that take place just before school begins. Obviously, travel to regions with high rates of COVID infection and questionable activities like crowded water parks are not good ideas. Any activity that places you and your children in circumstances where you are not in control of their potential contacts is of concern.  

I am the parent of two twenty-somethings, so I realize how difficult it is to control the actions of older children, but as school approaches, I hope that there will be a willingness on the part of our students to tighten up social interactions. Tighten up your circle of contacts, stay outdoors, wear your masks, and if you have to travel, choose to travel by automobile and isolate your family as much as possible. If you do feel that you have engaged in risky behavior, consider holding your children out of school until it is appropriate for them to return. 

It is my goal to complete the school year without interruption, and we are doing our utmost to make this happen. I am confident we can achieve this goal if we remember that our chance of success is greatly improved when our entire community works together. Remember, your efforts not only keep your children safe, but they also help keep their friends safe, and perhaps more significant given the nature of the virus, keep our faculty and staff safe.

I do not see an end to coronavirus restrictions in the near future, so we will have to work to maintain our patience, remain thoughtful in our actions, and take our joy when we can find it.  Our school community has always risen to challenges.  With your support, together we can make our upcoming school year as normal and as exciting as possible.  

Please enjoy your summers and come back to school in September safely!