Outdoor classrooms? Not a problem for this California boarding school

As schools across the country grapple with whether to bring students back to classrooms this Fall, the decision at this small boarding school in Southern California was – in comparison – not so hard.

That’s because the students at Midland School in Los Olivos north of Santa Barbara already learn outdoors. With a 2800-acre campus, there’s plenty of room for social distancing and the whole school has only 85 students.

(Head of Midland School Christopher Barnes): “It’s very exciting and very daunting”

Still Christopher Barnes, the Head of School, says despite all of its advantages, there are still many challenges – even at Midland to bringing students back to campus.

"So we have to think very carefully about those times when we need to congregate, whether it's in class, using facilities, you know, food service. But we also have an opportunity to maintain physical distancing quite easily and we have the capacity to be outside and teach and engage with students and student learning in an outdoor environment, something we've been doing for decades and are very excited to continue."

Unlike many boarding schools in the U.S., which have a mix of day students and boarders, all of the students at Midland and over half of the faculty live on campus.

The school also does not have a cleaning or maintenance staff, rather students and faculty do it together including growing their own food and students light fires to make hot water for showers.

(Midland student Raymond Carr): "But I'm really looking forward to going back to Midland in person"

Raymond Carr is an incoming Midland senior. He said he’s not worried about going back to school:

“I think that going back to Midland specifically would be better than just staying here at home because of the isolation that we have there and everyone lives there. When I'm at home, my parents are going to work and my family's going in and out and so I think I'm way more exposed here than being there."

Barnes understands that his school – where full tuition is over $62,000 - is in a privileged and unique position compared to most other schools – especially public schools - that might not be able to incorporate similar safety measures to bring their own students back in for face-to-face learning.

But if coronavirus cases continue to rise in Santa Barbara county, Barnes said he is prepared to further delay the semester or hold classes online if necessary. He hopes that won’t happen.