Letter from Head of School Adam Greene
Dear Members of the Episcopal Family,
As I have walked our school campus and seen the devastation that surrounds us in our city, my heart breaks for and my prayers are with all those who have suffered damage, are now displaced, or living without power. At the same time, I feel very blessed that there has been no loss of life or serious injury within our community. We are also blessed that the damage Episcopal has suffered is very minor relative to what might have been. We send a special thank you to those who monitored and cared for our campus during the height of the storm, and to our incredible maintenance and grounds team who have worked tirelessly to restore Episcopal to operational readiness.
We are all very anxious to get back to school and to our normal routines and busy and active schedules. The primary issue for us at this time is having power to operate our alarms, air conditioning units and technology. We are working as closely as possible with JEA to restore electricity to our campus. We hope to be able to open school on Thursday, however we will send an update no later than 12:00 p.m. Wednesday about our ability to do so.
As we work towards re-opening school, we want to offer a couple of opportunities for our students:
- On Wednesday afternoon from 12:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., Mike Jones will be leading a community service project for Upper School students focused on cleaning up and beautifying our campus. We hope that many in our community will come together to give back to the school that we love so dearly. Students will earn double school service hours for each hour served tomorrow. Students are asked to please bring gloves and rakes if they have them, along with a water bottle and a snack if wanted.
- Our fall athletic teams will be holding OPTIONAL practices tomorrow afternoon beginning at 3:00 p.m. This will allow our student athletes to come back together as they are able to ahead of the many athletic contests we have in the coming weeks. Please be on the lookout for communications from individual coaches.
- Fine Arts may be holding rehearsals tomorrow at at 3:00 p.m. if power is restored. Please look for communications from Fine Arts.
It has been a wonderful thing to watch so many Jacksonvillians come together to help those in need during this trying time. It has been especially heart warming to see so many of our own Episcopal community members serving others ahead of even their own needs. These young men and women, along with their families and many members of our faculty and staff, so clearly embody our school’s mission philosophy – to not only seek “ongoing and serious pursuit of excellence, but to also be a community who genuinely cares for and about each other.”
Please be safe in the coming days and weeks, Godspeed, and Go Eagles!
The Rev. Adam Greene