Dear Wellington Community,
With school well underway, I am grateful every day for the joy, kindness, and ambition that define this community. As Head of School, my first priority is the safety and well-being of our students and staff, and this letter serves as my annual security update.
Wednesday’s “Secure Perimeter” Event
Our prioritization of safety was evident on Wednesday as we implemented a secure perimeter protocol based on guidance from Upper Arlington police due to an event at a bank in the local area. Thankfully, the local situation on Wednesday never evolved into an actual safety threat at Wellington, and Upper Arlington police issued the ‘all-clear’ in relatively short order. As you experienced, our goal during these events is to communicate with you as quickly as we can after ensuring everyone’s safety. If you did not receive the emergency text alerts on Wednesday, please contact Director of Marketing and Communications Amanda Pierce at communications@wellington.org.
2025-2026 Security Personnel Team
As you have likely noticed, we have expanded our security team this year. Please introduce yourselves to our Wellington officers and feel free to ask them any questions.
- Officer Brandon Rees is Wellington’s full-time School Resource Officer who reports jointly to the School and the Upper Arlington police division.
- Officer E.J. Windham has been a trusted presence at Wellington for years and continues to support us as part of his rotation among local schools as Upper Arlington’s assigned School Resource Officer.
- Officer Don Stanko has also officially joined our Wellington staff and security team as a special duty officer; you will see him around campus and in the rotunda during after-school hours.
Car Line
I am pleased to share that we have seen significant reduction in wait time, as both morning and afternoon car lines are now running faster than last year (which is particularly impressive given we have more families enrolled than previous years). We are also working with the City of Upper Arlington on potential traffic flow improvements on Fishinger and Reed Roads.
Car Line Reminders & Pro Tips
With 752 students and 150 employees using one driveway, our car line is one more place where we get to live the Wellington way: thoughtful, respectful, and community-minded. Here are some helpful tips to keep the process moving smoothly:
- Students are welcome any time after 7:30 a.m. Parents who drop off before 8 a.m. fly through!
- Lower School and Middle School families: Please aim to arrive before 8:10 a.m. This gives your students time to settle into their morning routines.
- Upper School families: Please aim to arrive before 8 a.m. or between 8:10 and 8:25 a.m. In the afternoon, arriving after 3:45 p.m. makes for a very quick pick-up.
- Make sure your child is ready to quickly exit the vehicle through the passenger side door.
- Pull all the way up, stay in your car unless parked, and above all — be patient and kind.
We remain committed to continued improvements to make the line as safe and efficient as possible. Thank you to everyone for adapting to our new procedures.
Strength in Community and Joy
As we fully settle into the school-year routines, I am so proud of our students, our teachers, and our community for setting an example of what a community can be: ambitious, engaging, respectful, and full of joy.
I am particularly proud of how we handled a week that brought challenges. Local events required a secured perimeter at Wellington, our nation again saw violence on K–12 and college campuses, and we marked the 24th anniversary of September 11.
Yesterday, I joined the Upper School for a remembrance assembly where several students and a Wellington grandparent shared thoughtful reflections. I then spoke with students about my own memories from 24 years ago, when I was a senior in high school living in downtown Manhattan.
I told our students that the weeks after 9/11 brought two profound realizations. First, the power of community and second, the complexity of human emotion. I shared my recollection of winning a field hockey game just weeks after the attacks and feeling guilty about being so happy at a time when suffering was so present in my city and in the world. It was one of my first lessons in the truth that we contain multitudes: joy and sadness, hope and fear, trust and doubt, all at once. We must give ourselves permission to hold those emotions together.
On Wednesday night, I again experienced that tension. Like many of you, I watched the varsity girls’ soccer team claim a huge victory (Go, Jags!). The stands were packed. We were up 2–0, and then came the most beautiful corner kick—Dottie’s perfect header sent the ball sailing into the top corner of the net. The whole crowd erupted. The girls rang the victory bell, and the joy was overwhelming. At the very same time, many of us were glancing at our phones and reading news of violence on other campuses.
What do we do with such a confounding contradiction? I shared with our students that I want them to honor their feelings and hopefully be able to find joy. I told them it is okay to be grateful for what we have–each other. At Wellington, we aspire to a higher vision of community. We see diversity as a strength. We stand up and show up for one another. We are united by shared values—authenticity, curiosity, responsibility, ambition, and empathy. And, we must remember this: the antidotes to fear and worry are joy and community.
Thank you for all you do for Wellington, and… Go, Jags!
Eliza McLaren, Head of School