To: Blair Parents
From: Chan Hardwick
Date: October 12, 2006

Periodically I intend to use e-mail messages--hoping and trusting that many of you use e-mail--as a way of communicating with Blair parents as a group. Those veteran parents will recall that I have used this method increasingly over the last few years, and particularly last year when so much news was occurring on campus that affected your children and the Blair community. While I do not want to write so often that my reports get lost in the inevitable clutter of daily e-mails (I do not know about you, but I probably average nearly 200 daily), an occasional e-mail from me should I hope add to your understanding of your child's life at Blair as well as help your planning. While I am not seeking a reply from you, please feel free to write, call, or communicate back if something I report stimulates you to do so.

Let me begin by saying that Monie and I hope you are making plans to attend Parents' Weekend on October 27th/28th. Some of you have commented that Parents' Weekend is a bit later this year, and I want to explain. Last year we secured an arrangement to alternate Fall Parents' Weekends with Lawrenceville School and The Hill School to avoid the SAT Saturdays that have now turned into nearly all day affairs and cannot--as we tried in the past--be managed over a Parents' Weekend. Thus, our usual early/mid-October dates have moved to the last two weekends of the year, this year being the first time for the new arrangement.

At present, after our initial two "Community Weekends" which we use to gain a flow to the new school year, every fall semester weekend has some sort of event--Admissions Open House, first Monday off, SAT's, Trustee Weekend, Parents' Weekend, the Fall Play, and of course Peddie. While all this activity makes for a busy and even exciting time of year at Blair, this past weekend's travel schedule for varsity athletes was clearly disruptive for many weekend plans.

More specifically, every two years we are obliged as part of our membership in the Mid-Atlantic Prep League, to travel to Mercersburg Academy for a day of athletic events. Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, is door-to-door about 200 miles away and at best three hours driving. (Mercersburg, in order to be a member of the MAPL, makes this trip about three times each autumn.) In retrospect, we should have informed the parent body that having our first Monday off on this weekend would be much more problematic for our varsity athletes' plans than for other students', but in fact having studied alternatives, we determined that this past weekend was really the only Monday that made sense, as all the other weekends had similar if not greater arguments against them. That said, I apologize for not alerting you beforehand that we knew that the Mercersburg trip would make the weekend a challenge. In addition, we could have emphasized that seniors needing the weekend to look at colleges could have asked for and received permission to return to campus Tuesday--and some did.

As it turned out the weekend was even more challenging than it should have been because of a mechanical problem (lights) with one of the hired coaches we used to go to Mercersburg. I want to emphasize that, after reviewing reports from the Blair faculty on the trip, we determined that there was no danger or unsafe driving situations that arose from this problem, though we were most unhappy with the company and the various decisions of their personnel. (This was not our usual provider--which had been booked solid on this weekend for a year--but a recommended replacement company. We shall not be using them again.) The only time the afflicted bus was on the highway without working lights, it was escorted by the Pennsylvania State Police to an exit so that the busses could coordinate a safe journey back to Blair--one that arrived three hours later than anticipated. Again, for that inconvenience and frustration, we are sorry.

Next year Mercersburg comes to Blair, so parents of underclass fall varsity athletes need not worry about this trip in 2007. Nevertheless, I expect that two years from now we shall face the same situation. Having now been through this once, we shall try to prepare everyone for the experience and plan accordingly.

Finally, given the alarming and tragic incidents of school violence around the nation this fall, we have understandably had some questions regarding the daily (and nightly) security of our campus. The long answer is that Blair employs twenty-four security, locks all doors at night, and encourages students to report any strangers who are in the core of campus (that is, not near our golf course, etc.) to faculty, security, or administration. Faculty and staff are expected to greet any strangers to ascertain the purpose of their presence. That said, the short answer is that, like all boarding schools I know, Blair would be considered an open campus. "Open campus" means there are no manned, gated entries--except for special events--no fences or barriers, and quite frankly no simple way to affect significant enclosure (i.e. a ten foot wall) even we had the resources to do so. I want to assure you that Blair is not complacent in this regard. We do discuss, consider, and plan for security frequently, and we are presently exploring the installation of a swipe card or code entry for at least some of our dormitories and buildings. We also have a very good working relationship with Blairstown police who regularly drive through campus. Still, we understand that in regards to campus safety, we depend upon awareness, vigilance, a willingness to communicate concerns as our first lines of defense against unwelcome visitors.

As you can tell, my e-mails are not necessarily designed to promote all the good things about the Blair community but to promote better understanding of our issues. As parents, you should have a sense of the quality of life at Blair and, while you want to know about events and activities, you would look to other sources for that information. While not all my e-mails will speak to the issues like those above, you will hear me respond to what I am hearing from you, or I shall report to you about issues at Blair that I want you to understand. In doing so, I hope to keep good lines of communication open between us, because achieving that will without question make Blair a better school. I trust you agree.

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