Tilton Families,

This is the third in a series of emails describing our plans for reopening this fall. Our first message covered housing, health screenings, schedule basics, and face coverings. Our second offered guidelines around travel, weekend events, campus amenities, and quarantine plans. We’ve taken this iterative approach in the hope of providing you with information as early as possible, but rest assured that we will organize all this content into a “COVID Playbook” for distribution later in the summer.

Detailed Academic Schedule

Included below is a more detailed snapshot of our planned weekly schedule. It features three longer classes per day, five days a week, in a rotating schedule of periods (labeled A–J) that repeats over each two-week period.

Of the ten class periods labeled A–J, a typical student will have about half as free periods, and these free periods will be used for advisory meetings, access to campus amenities like the weight room and library, extra help, club meetings, rest, and socializing. In addition, we think that free periods may provide opportunities for health and wellness programs, independent study, and deeper learning.

In the evenings we plan “Activity Blocks” as opportunities for small groups of students to engage in a variety of social and educational activities. School Meeting will be a virtual gathering (necessitated by the size of the group) each Monday evening.

Classroom Spaces

Tilton is blessed with a low student-teacher ratio, small class sizes, and abundant classroom space. As a result, our COVID-driven adjustments to classrooms are minimal:

Each teacher will have their own classroom, providing several health benefits:
- Each classroom is used by fewer students each day.
- Teachers do not circulate during passing periods.
- Teachers “own” the space, allowing them to manage classroom materials, ventilation, and disinfection procedures with a high level of attention.
- Teachers can use their classrooms for office hours, advisory activities, and extra help, providing ample space for social distancing.
Each class will be small—with about 10 students as a maximum.
Classroom furniture will be reconfigured to maximize distance between students.
Desks and other high-touch surfaces will be disinfected each morning and between class periods.

These adjustments, combined with the schedule outlined above, provide a high degree of social distancing and slows the “mixing” of the student body, helping us to maximize health on campus.

Coordination and Upcoming Decisions

As we approach final decisions about the fall, there is a great deal of coordination happening behind the scenes. We meet twice a week with the Heads of our peer schools to discuss shared standards, and there is a similar series of meetings focused on interscholastic sports. We attend bi-weekly meetings with the Department of Education, and we closely monitor announcements from Governor Sununu, the CDC, and the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services.

On campus, Tilton’s COVID planning teams meet several times per week. As each of these teams begins to make final plans, in the next few weeks you can expect further details and decisions regarding the annual calendar, move-in process, healthcare support, and athletics. In some cases, we may adjust our original plans to adopt the policies of our peer group or league partners in order to leverage opportunities for beneficial coordination.

Upcoming Zoom Calls

Over the mid-summer, we will hold several Zoom sessions with parents and students--to gather feedback and answer any questions you might have.

See the complete schedule of these events and register online >>

Thank you for the flexibility and support you’ve shown to Tilton during this lengthy planning process. As always, please reach out with questions or comments.

David Thiel
Head of School Elect