A superintendent I follow on Twitter recently expressed her annoyance with email subject lines that ask, “Are you planning for the upcoming school year?” Her retort: “It’s all my team and I have been doing for the last three months and will continue to do all summer.”

I get it. I won’t ask if you’ve been planning. Most certainly, school leaders started looking ahead to the fall the moment you closed your doors in mid-March. Of course, it would be helpful to know what you were planning for.

In this issue, we offer some insight into what school leaders will need to consider as they approach the enormous job of continuing to educate their students during the pandemic.

“COVID-19 was the earthquake, and the rest of the crises are tsunamis coming one after another,” Tulsa Public Schools Superintendent Deborah Gist says in Glenn Cook’s article, “Reopening Realities.”

In his article, Cook looks at several of these tsunamis, including the financial impact of the pandemic, which has devastated state budgets and will be hampering recovery efforts.

The mental health of students and staff is another tsunami, as Michelle Healy uncovers in “Caring Connections.”

What academics will look like in socially distant classrooms and with upended schedules that will include some distance learning are discussed in “Back in Class,” by Robin Flanigan.

You’ll find answers to legal considerations of reopening schools in “Reentry and the Law,” written by NSBA’s legal team and based on its upcoming legal guide on school reopening.

In this issue, we also address the crisis that has been roiling in our country for more than 400 years. Cook’s “The Time Is Now” raises questions on how the recent racial justice protests will affect schools and students.

Also, you’ll find links to recommendations, resources, and other materials throughout the magazine and in the ASBJ special section on school reopening that was mailed along with the August issue.

As always, I welcome your comments and suggestions.

Until the next issue. . .