I’m writing to you this week from Boston, where I’m attending a conference on artificial intelligence (what else?). The conference, entitled “AI in K-12 Education–Navigating the Challenges,” is taking place at the International School of Boston. When I arrived this morning, despite the importance and complexity of the topics we were about to tackle, the primary head barely had a chance to nod in my direction before she had to rush off to deal with an all-too-familiar scenario: organizing coverage for absent staff. Rare (even extremely rare) are the days when the entire team is at school. It’s not meant as a critique, just a simple fact of school life everywhere. Colleagues have children who need to be looked after or taken to the doctor when they’re unwell; staff get run down, catch the flu, or whatever bug is going around; medical appointments can only be scheduled during school hours, despite every effort to arrange them outside of class time. Accidents happen, administrative obligations need to be met (the number of us who get called up for jury duty on a regular basis continues to stupefy me); then there’s professional development, field trips and overnight trips. The trickiest situations to manage are, of course, the emails that land in your inbox at 6 a.m. when a colleague realizes they have no choice but to call in sick–all part of the daily life of a school leadership team.

When I was younger, in elementary school, if our teacher couldn’t come to school, we would be split up among the other classes. I understand that’s still how things work in many schools. At The École, we do things differently, and I think it’s time to shine a spotlight on all the people who work behind the scenes every day to make sure our children are always in the best possible hands and, above all, safe. It’s a carefully orchestrated operation that goes on out of sight, albeit one we celebrate every week in our Staff Updates:  I’m always struck by the sheer number and variety of colleagues who step in to help, give up a break, or cover for someone at a moment’s notice.

So today—perhaps because I’m the one who’s away—I wanted to doff my chapeau to all the colleagues who keep the school running smoothly. First, a heartfelt thank you to Tamara, Claire, and Charlotte, who have been covering for Melissa, Ciara, and Joanna, respectively, since the beginning of the school year, bringing talent, enthusiasm, and dedication to their long-term substitute roles. Joanna, incidentally, returned from maternity leave on Wednesday—welcome back, Joanna!—which is just as well, because Charlotte will soon be heading off on maternity leave herself (when you have to find a replacement for the replacement, you know it’s going to be quite a year!). I also want to give a shout-out to Alice, our extraordinary substitute teacher who can step into any classroom, from Pre-Nursery all the way through Middle School, and excel wherever she goes. We’re also lucky to have another substitute teacher/parent join our ranks: Laure, Joseph from 6th Grade’s mom. And, of course, we have wonderful TAs and SLAs who we can confidently ask to take over a class from time to time (although that, in turn, sets off its own chain reaction, because we need to organize coverage for their regular duties—at which point, our After-School team steps in, coming to school earlier in the morning to assist.) Our STRIVE teachers and Javier in Middle School are also frequently called upon and are always ready to lend a hand. In short, it’s an enormous collective effort, coordinated by Sophie, Ben, and Emily, and driven by a shared commitment to providing the very best environment for our students.

One of today’s challenges in Boston was to imagine a world in which AI is better than humans at everything. But when it comes to looking after our students, I can’t imagine anything ever being better than adults for whom children’s well-being is their number one priority.