We are happy to announce that Gregory the Great Academy will open for the academic year of 2020-21 with our normal schedule and educational programs at our Elmhurst campus.
Dear Faculty, Students, and Parents,
On the day of the 9/11 attacks, the founding headmaster of our school told the boys that the most important thing to do when confronted with a destabilizing situation is to maintain the course of one’s vocation. I believe we have done just that in the current crisis, not allowing the COVID-19 outbreak to distract our school from its calling. It has been a good though somewhat grueling trial, testing the strength of our community in rising to the occasion. With difficult decisions, last-minute adjustments, and students showing the quality of their character, we have, with the grace of God, undertaken the challenge well. Thank you to all for staying the course.
With sympathy to those who have suffered hardship or loss due to the virus or the reactions it spurred, we are grateful that our immediate community has remained untouched by tragedy, and we offer our continuing prayers to the men and women guiding and supporting our country through the tumult. We are also grateful that the outbreak did not prove as widespread as once feared, though it resulted in a less-than-ideal close to our academic year. It has been hard, especially for our seniors (though we hope to offer them a fitting send-off in the near future).
As the year comes to a close, however, we look to the fall.
I am happy to announce that Gregory the Great Academy will open for the academic year of 2020-21 with our normal schedule and educational programs at our Elmhurst campus. Our students, teachers, and parents have all made very clear their desire and readiness to return to our usual operations and, as the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania plans to reopen schools in September, we will do just that. We will begin classes on September 7 come what may, even if that will entail, at some interval during the year, whatever adjustments to our everyday proceedings that reason and prudence may dictate.
We are committed to the safety of our students and to those whom Christian charity requires a duty of concern. We are blessed to have a remote, self-contained, yet expansive campus, a small student body, and the ability to remain true to our mission while practicing certain measures of caution—such as eliminating travel, quarantine rooms, and sanitizing protocols. Whatever changes are deemed necessary to prevent infection, we are confident we can implement them and remain safe in our school and secure in our mission to provide young men with an education that will help them face a society growing more and more prone to secular incongruities.
Our enrollment numbers for next year are strong, with a large freshman class in the wings and a waiting-list forming. Support from parents and benefactors has surged in the past weeks, and, taking advantage of the closure, several campus developments are underway. We have also made good progress in making contingency plans and we are forming a board of medical professionals to advise us and inform any precautionary health measures we decide to adopt along the way. We will be ready for action in the fall and are looking forward to resuming our vital work with you and your sons.
As we make plans for the upcoming academic year and a return to our normal operations on campus, let us together renew our confidence in God, Whose Providence has ever upheld our school and given us every reason not to be afraid. The education and formation we provide is centered on that holy relationship that brings light and clarity into the dark confusion of the world. It is a guide to the fulfillment of human life and human freedom. Our work goes on because it is needed. See you all in September.
In Christ,
Luke Culley
Headmaster
