Some private schools working to attract students have a new, pandemic-era selling point: in-person learning.
“Are you trying to make a decision about your child’s schooling? Feeling confused or frustrated by your current school’s reopening plan?” read one Front Porch Forum post last month touting Bishop Marshall School in Morrisville, Vt., which plans to reopen for in-person learning five days a week.
Like their public counterparts, Vermont’s independent schools are not taking a uniform approach to reopening in the fall. Many, including St. Johnsbury Academy and Burr and Burton Academy, are going the same route as a majority of public schools and opting for a hybrid model, with students alternating between in-person and remote learning. (Some Vermont public schools, particularly at the primary level, plan to offer full-time in-person instruction.)
But several privates, particularly smaller ones, are opening for face-to-face instruction full time. And families in Vermont — as well as elsewhere — are noticing.
“There’s certainly been an uptick in interest,” said Amy Brennan, enrollment director at the Lake Champlain Waldorf School.
The Shelburne, Vt., school is fielding calls from as far away as California from newly-remote workers thinking about decamping for Vermont, Brennan said. The preK-12 school says it has built outdoor classrooms and is capping enrollment at about 150 so it can offer in-person learning as safely as possible.
Jennifer Zaccara, the head of school at Vermont Academy, a small boarding school in Saxtons River, Vt., said the school had been receiving more attention even before the pandemic hit, and there’s been a noticeable increase in queries from families looking for a more rural setting for their children.
“Houses are turning over pretty quickly in Vermont right now,” she said.
The majority of the prep school’s 200 students live at the school and either come from out-of-state or foreign countries. Like most colleges, Vermont Academy says it will administer COVID-19 tests to all students and staff upon arrival. Students coming in from outside Vermont’s borders will be required to quarantine, per the state’s travel guidance.
In Westminster, Vt., the Compass School, a small private middle and high school with just 70 students, announced this week it will offer five days of in-person teaching as well as a fully remote option for families who request it.
Eric Rhomberg, the school’s director, said he hasn’t yet seen any big changes in enrollment patterns. But that could change.
“We have not noticed a trend yet. But we’ve been wondering, too, if that may develop,” he said.