Students and teachers had strong reactions to Head of School Julia de la Torre announcing on April 30, 2021 that Moorestown Friends School would return to fully in-person classes for the 2021-22 school year.
de la Torre’s email to the community explained, “With vaccinations on the rise and case rates projected to decline over the summer and into the fall, Moorestown Friends School plans to offer an exclusively in-person experience for the 2021-22 school year.”
During an interview with WordsWorth, de la Torre explained the CRT’s (Covid Response Team) decision: “The environment will look more promising [next year], including vaccinations. Students ages 12- 15 soon will have access to vaccinations. This will result in around half of the student population having access to a vaccine.”
“Although the CRT is hoping that with more access to the vaccines, students and faculty will get vaccinated, this isn’t something that the school can enforce.” de la Torre further explained “that if our population mimics the United States, the goal is that more people will end up being vaccinated by the beginning of next school year.”
Teachers had different reactions to the news. Upper School Physics teacher Jennifer Mosher said, “I do think that the school was considering the best interests of students when making this choice. Learning is an inherently social process, and being consistently in-person is in the best interests of the learning of most students.”
Mosher added, “I can only answer from my own perspective,” and elaborated that she is “not sure how other teachers feel about this—we don’t have much chance to interact with each other during the school day as things stand.”
Some students reacted similarly to Mosher when learning about the plans for next year. Lily Buchdahl ’22 said, “I think it’s a great decision and will help us move forward to a year filled with more normalcy.”
“I am just excited to enjoy my senior year with all of my classmates in the same building!” said Kendall Borbi ’22 about heading into her last year at MFS.
Turner Jobes ’22 reflected a similar opinion as Buchdahl and Borbi, and also noted, “It will be good for the freshmen to get to know each other better.” Jobes further explained that due to the pandemic, incoming ninth graders haven’t had the opportunity to really get to know one another.
Julianna Banfe ’23 said, “I guess it’s a good step to get back to normal soon.”
But not every student is happy about this change. Andrew Elmore ’22 expressed his fear about going back in-person: “I wish they would’ve kept the option just to keep families who chose remote comfortable.” Elmore has been an at-home student for the whole 2020-21 school year.
Ninth grader Haila Desai said, “I have mixed feelings about it. I’m glad that there will be a sense of normal; however, I think it will be very hard for students who have been virtual all year to adjust to the schedule and the added stress that being in person causes.”
