Thoughts from Mr. Lecky and Mr. Szymendera
The situation presented by COVID-19 is a very strange and challenging one, especially in an academic environment. The roles for Headmaster Mason Lecky and Upper School Head Tony Szymendera call for a new type of leadership and navigation during this challenging time. Both described this crisis the most challenging of their careers.
By Jay Munson '23
Mr. Lecky said that while St. Christopher’s finds itself in the same boat as every other independent or public school, there's no play book or script, but has found our relationships with other schools has been helpful, particularly in collaborating on how to manage distance learning effectively.
The inability to be together as a community poses challenges. The No. 1 problem that needed to be faced was that no one had ever really done it. Only a handful of the faculty had prioritized online learning prior to the pandemic, so getting the rest of the faculty to master teaching online was “something totally transformational… There’s nothing like a crisis to force you to do something different than you otherwise would do,” Mr. Lecky said. With one of St. Christopher’s many values being relationships, this time is especially challenging when “we’re not sitting in chapel, we’re not having lunch together.”
Some of the unsung heroes that have helped sustain the ability to teach and learn in this crisis are the technology team and academic technologists — Ms. Pohanka and Mr. Cuevas in Upper School, Mr. Zollinhofer in Middle School, and Ms. Warren and Ms. Richards in Lower School. Behind the scenes, another technology team makes sure that the school’s networks, firewalls and databases are smooth.
“We didn't have much time to prepare, but we went from in-person to virtual in a week,” Mr. Lecky said. “There’d been a few minor glitches, but by and large, the technology has just worked, and our technology leaders have really played a pivotal role. There’s no way we could have done this without that amazing group of leaders and educators that we had on staff and had training and experience in this.”
The pandemic affects our whole community, but this situation is particularly difficult for seniors, who have not gotten a proper ending to their St. Christopher’s careers. “We love those guys,” Mr. Lecky said. “We’re just so proud of them. They’re an amazing class.” Mr. Lecky will always remember them for their spirit, their enthusiasm and their excellence and said that we shouldn’t lose sight of the phenomenal year we were having academically, artistically, athletically and socially. “So much of the quality of a school year is determined by your senior class and their leadership, and they’ve done everything that I think that we could have asked for them to do,” Mr. Lecky said.
Although it is unsure whether we will be able to return to the campus in the fall, Mr. Lecky is cautiously optimistic that our campuses will be allowed to open in the fall, but we expect restrictions, particularly on mass gatherings. “We need to be ready in November or December, if the virus spikes, to come back to this mode,” Mr. Lecky said. “There’s going to be a lot of what we’re calling toggling; just toggling back and forth different modes of operation.”
There’s no doubt that the pandemic will leave lasting effects, even when life is back to normal. “I have really bad news for students and probably teachers all around the world, or at least any place that gets snow,” said Mr. Lecky. “Snow days are not really going to be snow days anymore because we’ve proved that we can run school remotely. We know what it’s like to work synchronously and asynchronously.”
Faculty and administration admire Mr. Lecky’s leadership and style of operating the school amidst the pandemic. Head of the Upper School Tony Szymendera said that he has done a great job prioritizing issues and communicating to parents, faculty and administration thoughtfully. “Most importantly, he has remained positive and optimistic, while also being realistic about the circumstances, which helps inspire everyone to do the best job that they can,” he said.
Dr. Ann Vanichkachorn said, “He has worked tirelessly through a most difficult situation when we didn’t have much time to figure out how to best serve all of our students and families.” Director of Marketing Mrs. Sharon Dion described Mr. Lecky as “thoughtful, deliberate, and fact-based, so he has stayed very calm and kept everyone else calm as a result.”
The situation we are facing is difficult, making positivity and strength as a community all the more important. Mr. Lecky advises: “The best we could do is just be supportive of one another and show grace and compassion. … It feels like we’re kind of stuck in this rut right now, but hopefully this will be in the rearview mirror sooner than later.”
By Rohan Simon '22
Given the stressful place STC administration has found itself during this pandemic, Upper School Head Tony Szymendera remained surprisingly positive during an interview, calling himself privileged to lead such a resilient and flexible community, noting the work ethic of everyone to provide the best distance learning experience possible.
To Mr. Szymendera, trying out new ways to connect has been the “only way you [can] learn and get better” as a leader. This pandemic has forced teachers to do just that with students — examples being the recent wellness day where students cooked with Mrs. Torrence or worked out with Mr. Gitomer through zoom. He talked about the crucial behind-the-scenes work Dr. Smith and Mrs. Wray accomplished reviewing teacher assignments, and Mr. Green and the house deans’ efforts to engage students in different ways. Mr. Szymendera and teachers alike will gauge the effectiveness of these efforts at the end of the year and potentially come back to them when need be.
Mr. Szymendera, even with support and help from the faculty, acknowledged the troubles and kinks he himself worked through alone, as he considered the amount of policy he had to rewrite on a weekly basis, while reflecting on past disruptions such as the DC sniper and 9/11. Highlighting the uncertainty of those disturbing times, Mr. Szymendera asserted that if we could plan for and get through those, we can get through this.
Still, he acknowledged the stress that makes this situation different: “We’re reinventing school, that’s the hardest thing. You don’t know when it’s going to end, and you don’t know how to plan.”
True leaders don’t just manage; they also use present experience to plan for the future, in inventive ways. Mr. Szymendera did not disappoint, as he thought about future mitigation strategies. He broached the idea of changing the calendar so that school might start a bit earlier or end a bit later, so more breaks could be implemented. This would provide more cushion for lost school time in crisis. For example, if the flu breaks out or coronavirus has a resurgence, school administrators could use free time built into the schedule to have everyone stay home to decrease transmission.
Although some may be disappointed at this start to the new decade, Mr. Szymendera appreciates the time all of us now have to spend with our families. “When you spend time together, it makes it easier to have important or difficult conversations… it’s a lot harder when you’re running around and you don’t feel connected… when you’re around someone, those barriers get lowered, you’re used to interacting, you just have a conversation…, all [of a] sudden the conversation has been meaningful. This is providing the time for those sort of things to happen.”