This is the time of year when Tabor students, faculty and staff would be enjoying the spring weather, cheering each other on at games, engaging in senior projects, sailing and rowing on the harbor, auditioning and casting for spring one acts, celebrating the 50 days dinner with the seniors, and soaking up the beautiful sunshine along the waterfront. Instead, it is eerily quiet with staff working remotely off campus, faculty teaching in their homes, and students away from the dormitories and fields.
Unfortunately, Tabor Academy has announced the school will remain closed to students through the end of classes on May 22. Additionally, Reunion and the Orientation at Sea Program on SSV Tabor Boy for incoming students have also been canceled due to concerns surrounding COVID-19.
Julie Salit, Acting Head of School, said in a letter to parents and alumni, “Tabor students and faculty will not be returning to campus this year and will continue in our online distance learning modality through the end of the 2019-20 school year. Thus far, our distance learning has gone remarkably well. Faculty and students alike opened the third trimester with an impressive amount of energy and enthusiasm for this new kind of schooling.”
The decision to keep campus closed means there will be no Prize Day, Baccalaureate or Commencement celebrations with families at the end of May. Mrs. Salit said, “The senior class is missing out on their own once-in-a-lifetime senior spring, senior week, and Commencement weekend, and I understand this decision will be very difficult for them. We will celebrate them in some virtual way on May 29th, the originally scheduled Commencement day, as well as plan for them to reunite at some point this summer, if possible, for a ceremony on the waterfront. For the ninth, tenth, and eleventh graders, they will be sad that this year will end remotely, and will look forward to returning to the normalcy that a Tabor school year provides next fall.“
Mrs. Salit went on to report that she has made no decision regarding summer programs at this time in the hopes that Tabor will be able to offer programming later in June, July or August. She will continue monitoring the situation and share decisions as they are made.