Head of School Blog Post

Just over a week ago, Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School (CESJDS) moved to a mask-optional policy as we began to ease the COVID protocols that had been in place since March 2022. After two years of risk mitigation measures established to prevent infection and transmission, we are pulling back slowly and thoughtfully as we move forward, hopefully, to a post-COVID era. As students and faculty/staff are beginning to remove their masks, now is a time to reflect on where we have been, where we may be going, and how we are getting there.

When the pandemic began in the spring of 2020, schools all over the country moved quickly to keep students and faculty connected despite the significant threat and disruption that COVID presented. By the 2020 school year, the focus had shifted to being open for in-person learning as much as possible, keeping the connections of school however atypical, and preventing transmission of the virus. With the advent of highly-effective vaccines and now medications and the recent CDC guidance on mask-optional policies, schools are moving to ease the protocols we have put in place and moving forward.

As schools ease restrictions, the way we handle this process is just as important as the fact that we are finally (!) able to do so. At the start of pandemic, CESJDS’s sense of community was celebrated and also challenged as we sought ways to remain connected in a world where isolation was the norm. One way we maintained community was to comply with the communal norms of masking and physical distancing even when we were not in school. When we announced that we were beginning to ease the restrictions, we also called on our community to embrace one of our School’s core values of V’ahavta l’rei’a’kha (Love Your Neighbor) and exhibit kindness as every member of our community made a decision if they would remove their mask or not.

One thing that I noticed and that was planned throughout CESJDS is that just as teachers initiated lessons to explain the mask-optional policy to their students, the primary teaching has been about the kindness and respect to each other we want to exhibit as both students and educators decide if they will individually mask or not. As I was discussing with a group of Jewish leaders this past week, this may be the primary Torah that emerges from the transition to masks-optional policies. While in some places mask-optional will be celebrated exclusively as the easing of a personal restriction and a return to “normal,” in Jewish day schools and other settings, we should also be celebrating and respecting the choices that different community members make and extending kindness to every person as they make and live through this decision. 

I believe the need for kindness and respect around masking optional policies will continue into the coming weeks and months as more schools and communities adopt the CDC guidance. In meetings with other independent and Jewish day schools in our region, currently about 25% of schools have gone to a mask-optional approach and many others plan to move in this direction within the next month. At CESJDS, my unofficial observation is that approximately 30% of our school community is continuing to wear face coverings. I have observed students interacting as usual, some with masks and some without, with no difference in how each is treated. This kindness and the sense of community that it brings will be essential in schools throughout the country as we move forward.