News

Yearbooks and Class Photos are in!  Both are included in tuition; therefore, each student will be bringing home a Yearbook and Class Photo this week.  Questions? Email Andrea Restifo

Thank you to those parents who completed last month’s Pulse Survey, providing feedback on our diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts this year. Those of you who attended the iChange Collaborative parent discussion forums in December and March offered good insight into these events and programming ideas for next year. You were enthusiastic about joining parent book/article/video discussion groups, affinity groups (groups that share a common interest or goal), and attending more guest speaker events. An overwhelming 74% of those who took the survey felt that Springmont lives up to our Statement of Diversity and Inclusivity.  Suggestions were gathered from this survey and from attendees at the April 29 community listening circle for the 2021-22 school year.  Ideas included: intentionally reaching out to those who may not be attending parent meetings, expanding efforts to include LGBTQ families, providing better understanding of how DEI issues are discussed with children in the classrooms, and identifying white allies willing to take a diversity and inclusivity leadership role in the parent community.   

In addition to parent programming, Springmont has offered professional development for faculty and staff. Over the course of this year, we’ve bolstered our own cultural competencies, strived to understand the impact of race in education, and explored how issues of diversity, equity and inclusion impact us both as individuals and as a teaching community.  Our May 7 Teacher Workday provided an opportunity for our final professional development event for the year; facilitated by Martha and Danielle from iChange Collaborative, “Disrupting Bias and Conditioning” called on us to recognize, challenge and transform racism as we work to build an inclusive and cohesive school community.  The enthusiasm and engagement of our faculty and staff hasn’t wavered and their personal and professional growth surrounding DEI is evident. I would also like to acknowledge our DEI Committee members - Laura Cassell, Cara Friedline, Toshia Johnson, Patricia Jordan, Sianda Ruiz, and Gretchen Stamps – for the effort and leadership they have provided this year. Springmont’s commitment to diversity and inclusivity aligns with our core values and desire to be a strong community. We are pleased to know that it is robustly supported by all constituencies of our school community.

As announced in Acting Head of School Megan Hakerem's May 14 Update, we are excited to invite all members of the Springmont community to join us via Live-Stream for our 18th Commencement Ceremony on Thursday, May 27, beginning at 6:30 p.m. While 8th-year students and their families and faculty/staff may attend in-person, for health & safety reasons we must limit the number of people on campus. 

We look forward to celebrating these students and know you won’t want to miss hearing each of them speak about their Springmont experience and plans, hopes and dreams for the future. There’s no need to RSVP; just stay tuned for Live-Stream information that will be shared soon!  We expect the ceremony to take approximately an hour, concluding by 7:30 p.m.

2021 Graduates (pictured left to right): Mason Smith, Siddhu Guntur, Evan Clough, Sandro Mendes, Dana Edler, Timothy Williams, Cole Kite-Powell, and Chris Huff

As you know, Springmont makes the health & safety of our school community a top priority and for the last 14 months has taken a conservative, proactive approach to all things COVID. Thanks to everyone’s cooperation and diligence in following the school’s protocols, we have been very successful in mitigating the spread of the virus in our school community, allowing us to keep students learning on campus.

We also recognize that as local restrictions are eased and summer’s opportunities for increased socialization outside our households arrive, we cannot expect families to maintain all of our current restrictions. While we will continue to ask all community members to follow all CDC guidelines and school policies, effective May 10, Springmont is amending our air travel policy for fully vaccinated people (which does not include children), only.

Beginning today, fully vaccinated people may resume essential domestic air travel (i.e., required business trips, family emergencies, etc.) without quarantining and/or testing afterward so long as they:

• follow all CDC travel guidelines (which include wearing a mask while traveling), 
• are not exhibiting symptoms of COVD-19, AND
• are willing to show official, dated proof of vaccination (CDC COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card) either before traveling or at arrival carpool after travel concludes. (To ensure the greatest possible medical confidentiality, we will not be keeping a copy or record of these.)

Further, children of fully vaccinated people who have participated in essential domestic air travel will no longer need to quarantine and/or test following the person’s return to the household assuming the above 3 conditions have been met.

Please remember that children under the age of 16 are not yet able to be vaccinated and are therefore not eligible for air travel without testing and/or quarantining afterward. 

In addition:

• Those unable or unwilling to show official, dated proof of vaccination (CDC COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card) will be asked to quarantine and/or test, and children from that household will be asked to remain off campus until negative test results are provided.
• If a household receives a visitor(s) who travel(s) by air, proof of vaccination or negative test results for the air travelers will be required before students from the household can return to campus.
• All families with household members who have traveled by air are asked to continue to answer the Daily Health Screening app questions accurately, indicating YES for air travel for 14 days post return date. 

Following guidelines from the CDC, Springmont will continue to ask all members of our school community (including those fully vaccinated) to:

• Wear a properly fitted mask and maintain physical distancing in all indoor public settings (i.e., stores, gyms) and when visiting indoors with unvaccinated people (which includes all children) from multiple households
• Avoid large, indoor gatherings (i.e., crowded restaurants, indoor graduations/ceremonies, indoor concerts, and sporting events)
• Wear a properly fitted mask and maintain physical distancing, as much as possible, when in crowded outdoor settings and venues (i.e., outdoor graduations/ceremonies, neighborhood gatherings, outdoor concerts and sporting events, graduation ceremonies, water parks/pool areas/swim meets, outdoor amusement parks, zoos, etc.)

Please note that all other Springmont COVID policies and procedures currently remain unchanged.  This includes mask-wearing on campus and all aspects of our Community Agreement and COVID-19 Handbook not specifically altered above. 

We appreciate your continued compliance with Springmont’s COVID protocols and acknowledge that your cooperation and close adherence have made a positive impact on the health & safety of our school community this year.  We also know that while these measures controlled the spread of the virus, they came at the expense of socializing with extended family and friends; we eagerly look forward to opportunities to resume a more normal lifestyle and to renewing our Springmont community.

We recognize and appreciate the differences of opinion about how best to handle the pandemic now and into the future and kindly ask everyone to continue to practice Mutual Respect, one of Springmont’s core values. If you need clarification or have any concerns, thoughts, or questions about air travel, procedures following travel, or any Springmont COVID-19 policy or procedure, please email feedback@springmont.com. 

Guided by Music Teacher Carissa Gibson, Upper Elementary students worked hard for many months to create this spring's Upper Elementary Musicals! Each class produced a  version of Roald Dahl's Matilde The Musical JR!, both of which were shared with families on Sunday, May 9, as a special Mother's Day treat. Special thanks to Kelcy Gatson and Claire Tadeo for filming and technical support and to the Upper Elementary Teachers for their help and patience! 

This year’s Georgia River of Words Poetry & Art Contest hosted by Georgia Project WET received over 1,000 entries! In addition to promoting creativity, this annual art & poetry competition helps students learn about the watershed in which they live and the importance and value of protecting it, one of our most precious natural resources. 

Springmont is proud to have the following students as winners and finalists! Lower Elementary student Flynn MacQueen’s poem, Tiny Turtles, and Lower Elementary student Brielle Cliett’s poem, Nature’s Love, are both National Poetry Finalists! Upper Elementary student Sophie Little’s poem, Hope, and Middle School student Penn Keromytis' untitled poem are Georgia Poetry – State Winners. Upper Elementary student Celeste Beaty’s artwork, Spring Fox (pictured here), is a Georgia Art- State Winner!

We are so proud of our creative and environmentally conscious students who join Springmont’s legacy of having at least one winner for the last 12 years! Thank you to Art Teacher Theresa Dean for guiding this endeavor.