Los Encinos
School
Annual Report 2020-2021
"Many Voices, Many Stories"
From the Desk of
Ilene Reinfeld
HEAD OF SCHOOL
We’ve officially embarked on a ‘new normal,’ yet I haven’t lost sight of the ‘old normal’ and how we can blend the best of both as we continue to move forward.
The 2020-2021 school year began with a continuation of our At-Home Learning program with our eyes set on receiving a waiver to allow small cohorts of kids to step back onto campus. Thanks to the work of our faculty – with a special nod to Jonathan Beckmann for overseeing an almost complete overhaul of our campus and classrooms – we not only met the level of safety protocols required by the County, we exceeded them. It was a relief and a proud moment when we were told we would be granted a waiver in the very first group of recipient schools!
In order to prepare the students for the transformed campus and new safety procedures, we made two videos (posted below) to help facilitate a smooth transition for all.
As the year progressed, we adapted many of our long-standing traditions so they could be enjoyed as a community, such as the Virginia Reel, the Halloween costume parade, the Winter Show, the 6th grade’s graduation, and even the Art Show. The one constant throughout was the engaged learning and growth that happened in the classrooms despite the challenges of distancing and masking.
While I didn’t welcome the pandemic to continue, in many ways it offered us a new perspective and one that wasn’t all negative. For example, the cases of colds and flus seemed to drop dramatically with the hand-washing and other safety measures we all followed; for community-wide events, we saw grandparents and special friends in the Zoom audience who would have never been able to make it to the campus in the past (and even if they had, Parish Hall certainly wouldn’t have been large enough to accommodate them); and even though my dear friend and longtime assistant (and LES alumni parent), Michele Topolsky, decided to move to New York (see the going-away video below), she will maintain her position for at least another year as she is able to work remotely, for which I am ever so grateful.
Ilene stepped in as a 2nd grade teacher for one of the small-group pods as the school year began.
The one element I refuse to accept as a new normal is “social distancing.” We had to somehow get used to the fact that we couldn’t congregate across grade levels or even between pods with friends and classmates. Yet, even there I can see a silver lining. The separation, hopefully over soon, helps us to appreciate the culture we’ve built at Los Encinos School. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, they say, and I believe when we return to the days of freely interacting with each other we will have learned a great lesson, and that is to never take this wonderfully close-knit community for granted.
Finally, if I had to choose one of the Virtues & Values that I saw implemented more frequently than all the others, it would have to be Resilience. The students, teachers, and staff – not to mention the parents and caregivers – showed tremendous resolve in making it to the finish line. The teachers, in particular, were asked to navigate tremendous uncharted territory while continuing their professional development to hone skills in math instruction, reading and writing proficiency techniques, technology integration, and blending DEIJ modeling across the curricula.
As a community of givers, we broke a new record, with 100% participation in the LES Fund for the 8th year in a row! Thank you to everyone who continues to go above and beyond in support of our wonderful little school.
We are definitely a community of ‘many voices,’ yet when we join together, it’s a beautiful harmony.
