Blueprints for a New School Year

HB faculty have begun an ambitious week of in-service, preparing for a school year filled with distinguished academics and new health and safety protocols. We are excited to empower students to put their knowledge in action and create new and reimagined ways to celebrate our community. 

Smart Restart

We will continue to update our Smart Restart plans and partner with University Hospitals, the Cleveland Clinic, local pediatricians, and the Cuyahoga County Board of Health. Remote learning for K-12 students is our “home base” and we are ready to pivot there should we decide or be advised to do so. 

Our mission of educating not for school, but for life continues to be an inspiring call to action. Thus, we have optimized our campus. Of course, we have made significant improvements and investments in our space in order to be COVID-19 ready and safe. This has included: 

• installing protective equipment and gear throughout the building

• expanding areas for outdoor use (thank you to the HBPA for the grant toward new furniture)

• purchasing high-tech equipment for cleaning

• expanding air conditioning and MERV 13 filters throughout campus

• making available all sorts of new technology (OWL and document cameras, wifi hotspots, additional iPads and more)

• increasing remote access and expanding internet speed

• purchasing new temperature-taking devices

• and more. 

All classrooms and student spaces are rearranged and we’ve created cohort models that are developmentally appropriate for each division.
 

Building the Future

The construction projects we’ve been planning over the course of the last two years are now well underway. Our Classic Building project began in spring as planned. It is a 15-month project that involves renovating and updating one wing of the building at a time. Construction has started with the north wing — the main front hallway area, spanning from the Ahuja Auditorium to the dance studio. This area is offline through November while construction proceeds.

We’ve taken care to minimize disruptions to the student experience during construction and have created new foot traffic routes for navigating the building. When the north wing comes back online, we will relocate the classrooms in our east wing to this newly renovated space on campus. This phasing of creating new spaces and relocating others will continue until the entire project wraps up sometime next fall. 

In the spirit of minimizing disruption to our students and teachers, school administrators and others have moved from the Classic Building into different areas of campus. For example, my office has temporarily moved to the Upper School Learning Commons, the Business office has moved to the basement, and the Advancement team has moved to space in the first floor of the Jewett-Brown Academic Center. Temporarily, the Admission office is operating out of Prime, and our Communications department is working from home.

Practically speaking, renovation in the Classic Building allows us to reimagine existing classroom environments with: 

• more natural light

• support for the social and emotional well-being of the students through the creation of living room gathering and study areas and 

• address critical infrastructure issues, including the installation of new HVAC systems. 

Importantly, our plans employ HB’s historically modern aesthetic, and we are taking care to retain the classic architectural features and details and honor the character that defines the HB experience as we make the space more appropriate for the needs of today’s students. The new HVAC system also will address some of the climate control challenges that exist in other areas of our campus facilities.

Renovations 

From a philosophical standpoint, research demonstrates that creativity and engagement are spurred by open, vibrant, cross-functional spaces designed to elicit collaboration and teamwork, but HB’s classrooms were not originally built with any of those considerations in mind.

The flexibility of space is critical when it comes to expanding educational opportunities and in allowing us to think forward about collaborative classroom opportunities for students in all divisions. We are eager to incorporate new common gathering and multipurpose areas that reflect HB’s fundamental value of sisterhood, for the benefit of students of all ages.

In addition, this summer we have upgraded and expanded the Primary School parking lot to help make the area more accommodating and accessible to our youngest students and their families, especially with new drop-off and pick-up protocols.

A new maintenance building with office space for our buildings and grounds caretakers and Plant Operations team members is being constructed as well. 

I am so pleased that we have had a group of HB students involved as interns, learning about our construction, and documenting the progress.

Supporting members of the HB community 

This year we have a few speakers lined up, including Rachel Simmons (back by popular demand), and Dr. Keelan Quinn, both of whom will hold webinars and address subjects such as wellness and balance, executive functioning in a COVID world, and pandemic parenting. We anticipate that some girls and families may need additional support during this re-entry and our division directors, counseling staff, and diversity, equity and inclusion team are all here to support you.