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5 Macon private school heads meet to discuss back-to-school plans

First Presbyterian Day School, Stratford Academy, Tattnall Square Academy, Mount de Sales and Windsor worked together on back-to-school plans during COVID-19

MACON, Ga. — Normally summer is a popular time for recruitment and getting private school enrollment numbers up, but during COVID-19, the focus shifted on back-to-school plans. 

Macon private school leaders figured five brains working together are better than one alone.

"Those photos almost go viral from all of our families who are usually ragging each other about scores of football games or our school is bigger than yours and sorta thing. Each one of our communities are talking to each other saying, 'Man this is really appreciated that you guys are all working together on this'," Stratford Academy's Head of School Logan Bowlds said.

He met with First Presbyterian Day's Head of School John Patterson, Windsor Academy Headmaster Jimmy Watts and Tattnall Square Academy Head of School John Hankinson to share ideas on their back to school plans.

"This about safety, right, and safety of our students and community comes before any competition that there might be amongst our private schools," Patterson said.

"Public schools get a lot of guidance from the state. Independent schools have our independence and it's an opportunity for us to be independent, but also kind of share ideas about how we're going to approach the school year to keep our kids and our faculty safe," Watts said.

"We've tried to maintain a sense of continuity and consistency as in terms of expectations, so it's really just been an informal session of what do you think about this what do you think about that and just kind of using our collective knowledge to best serve our students," Hankinson said.

"What requirements will you have for masks, sanitation practices? At what point will we look at going distance learning? What are we offering as far as distance learning?," Watts said.

"For the most part, I would say our plans are about 90-95% similar," Bowlds said.

Patterson, who's starting his first year as FPD's head of school, is glad that they could put differences aside and help each other.

"I'm new to Macon, and so I'm really proud that these men can come together and talk about what's best for our community, because that's not done in all communities," Patterson said.

They kept their plans pretty similar. There are a few differences in what grades levels are required to wear masks and whether remote learning students can participate in extracurricular activities.

Mount de Sales also took part, but we couldn't reach them for comment.

They are planning to do another in-person meeting before school starts in the next couple of weeks.

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