Town Hall: Tuesday April 28, 2020

Questions Answered by the Board

​What is Mr. Daigle's last day? – Kyle Abbott

Brian will continue teaching through the end of the school year.  His last official day at Sequitur will be June 1.  

Will we get a chance to thank him and tell him goodbye? -– Kyle Abbott

There has been some discussion of what could be done to recognize Brian and his contributions to Sequitur.  Considering the uncertainty of the circumstances, we may be limited by whatever restrictions remain in place at the end of the school year.  However, some type of formal recognition is certainly appropriate.  We would like to encourage anyone who is interested in helping to plan something to email Board@sequiturbr.com.  

Who will replace Lauren Daigle as director of admissions? – Kyle Abbott    

The board is working to reassign that role to another capable person who will also be sending out the new school directory.  The new Director of Admissions has not yet been named.  

Is there a plan for hiring a new headmaster? – Jeff Hanson

Before I answer that question, I think it’s important that I share what the board sees for Sequitur’s future at a higher level. 

First we want to make sure we focus on finishing this year strong.  We want to make sure that we, as an academy, continue to deliver great instruction.   Then, after we finish this school year, we want to regroup. 

We are very excited for next year, but we want to take it slow and we want to listen.  We’re all on the same ship – we all want to see Sequitur thrive and have a very bright future.

We also recognize that Sequitur will look different without Brian.  His shoes are very hard to fill. We very much appreciate Brian and all that he has done for this academy.  No one has done more for Sequitur than Brian has. We now need to determine what Sequitur will look like with Brian no longer in the picture. 

Before the beginning of next year, we are going to get input from faculty.  We’re going to get input from parents.  The board and transition team will be working on this over the summer.  It’s the parents, faculty, admin and the board that will work together and drive the decisions that shape Sequitur’s future. We are confident that the future is very bright.

Circling back to our question: our bylaws task the Sequitur board with determining what qualifications are sought in a new headmaster and hiring that new headmaster.

After the board made a decision to have Julie and Thomas step in to administer the headmaster role for the last weeks of this school year, we then needed to make a decision regarding next school year.  After a number of discussions and prayerful consideration, tonight we are announcing that the board has named Thomas Achord as our interim headmaster for next school year.  Thomas will begin in this role on June 2nd after the completion of this school year. Thomas will serve in this role through the end of next school year, and we are thankful to have him. We want you to know that both the board and admin team have full faith and confidence in Thomas as headmaster.

I, along with all the other board members and transition team, are also thankful that we have Julie Dreher, Kevin Lindholm and Lee Stephenson working side by side with Thomas as part of our admin team.  They love your children and this academy and work hard every day, along with the rest of our faculty, to further our mission statement.  The board is very thankful to the faculty team as well and the tremendous job they’ve done in adjusting to this year’s current challenges and educating our students.

What changes should we expect in our student's school day? –Julie Dreher

While we will miss Mr. Daigle greatly, you will see very few changes in the year to come. The Sequitur community is much more than one person; our faculty and administration will continue striving to maintain the environment of Christian formation and excellence we have always treasured.

Will Sequitur Press continue to operate? – Julie Dreher

This time of transition is an opportunity for us to prioritize and focus on the strength of our academy's core responsibilities, so we will not continue to operate Sequitur Press. Charta books will still be a part of our Grammar School curriculum, but for other books we will turn to the many wonderful sources of classical teaching material already available.

What about the Books and Materials List and summer reading? – Julie Dreher

Our Books and Materials List and Summer Reading List have always been maintained by our Grammar and Logic/Rhetoric School heads, so they will continue just as before. Those will be posted very soon.

Will we still have Parent Orientation in May? - Thomas Achord

Parent orientation will be on May 26th at 6:30pm. It will likely be over video. We will have an Open House night in August, the week before school starts, in order to make up for face-to-face interaction. At that time, parents will get to meet their teachers and more. Parent Orientation will include a greeting and overview of changes from the new headmaster, and great preparatory info from the grammar and logic/rhetoric heads. A live link with question prompts will be sent a week in advance.

When will the student handbook and calendar be updated and distributed?

Answer coming soon . . .

How can Sequitur families be helpful to our board, faculty, and administration? – Josh Crowe

The Board is looking forward to the opportunities of the new school year and a new phase in the growth of Sequitur Academy.  We welcome the support of Sequitur families through:

• Providing your feedback to the Board: Honest feedback  is valued and will be sought both from parents and faculty.  Email contacts for each Board member will be provided at the end of the meeting.  We want to know what you love about Sequitur and your suggestions for potential improvements.
• Asking the Board or Admin your questions:  The Board and Admin is the best source for information regarding transition to a new Headmaster and the COVID quarantine.   Again, email contacts for each Board member will be provided at the end of the meeting
• Keeping up to date: Reviewing information provided from the Board and Admin through email and posted to the website
• Providing grace:  The Board is enthusiastically and intently moving through a planned process to identify, recruit, and hire a Headmaster that shares our Christian and educational values.  We see this a great opportunity to advance Sequitur into the next phase of development.   There will be some bumps along the way, but be assured the Board and Admin have the interest of Sequitur and the Sequitur families in mind in all we do.
• Prayer: Praying for the Board, Admin, and Faculty.  We specifically request prayers for the following:

• Wisdom
• Discernment
• Unity

Will our relationship with Istrouma change as a result of this transition? - Kevin Lindholm

I have always been Sequitur's primary point of contact with Istrouma, and I will continue in that role. I work closely with Darrin Badon, Istrouma's operations director, and we have cultivated a great relationship over the past 5 years. Istrouma has made it very clear that they love Sequitur and plan to continue hosting us in the future.
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We would love to have our own permanent location, but for now we are focused on keeping our tuition low while ensuring Sequitur's financial stability, so until a clear path to a building plan becomes evident, we are thankful that Istrouma makes both of those things possible for us.

Will this fall be totally different at Sequitur? - Thomas Achord

More details will be presented at the Parent Orientation. Generally, as headmaster my aim is to structure the school to provide a beautiful classical education experience for students and parents. I’ve worked alongside Sequitur families for some time, where I have gained an understanding into the needs of our community. I’ve also been involved for many years in online classical education nationwide, where I have gained external experience and a larger vision of classical ed. To bring these together, I am eager to labor together with our families and faculty. I believe we have great years ahead of us.

How will we know whether classes will begin as usual in the fall? - Jeff Hanson

We are preparing to start in person classes on time and in person at our Istrouma campus. In order to determine whether we will be onsite at Sequitur in August, we’ll be taking into account 3 main factors:

• Guidelines from Governor Edwards
• East Baton Rouge School Board guidelines
• Istrouma’s guidelines

Since we simply don’t know what those guidelines will be in August, we can only state that it is our intent to return to Istrouma’s campus in August.  We will be ready to move to online classes if needed.

The next step will be to determine what in-person school will look like on Istrouma’s campus.  At this time, there are too many unknowns to provide any specifics. 

While no one can see what will happen in the fall, many schools and universities are developing guidelines.  There are a lot of very smart people working on this nationwide.  We’ll be listening and as this develops, we’ll incorporate the proper guidelines. Dr. Brad Gaspard is a part of our transition team and will advise the board from a medical perspective.  As soon as we know more about what adjustments will be in place when we return to in person schooling at Istrouma’s campus, we’ll be sure to let you know.