the advising program, among others. This scheduling system was altered due to COVID-19, but has since returned. Early in 2018, Headmaster Bruce Dennis (1949-2022) announced that he would retire at the end of the 2018–2019 school year. On October 3, 2018, Packer announced that Dr. Jennifer Weyburn had been selected to become headmaster after Dr. Dennis's retirement. Technology Many technological resources found at Packer aim to facilitate collaboration, innovation, expression, understanding and exploration. The school believes that in the hands of the faculty and students, technology could strengthen the school's learning community. Packer has a laptop program and the institution describes itself as a "laptop school where technology is woven into the curriculum at all levels." The guidelines of the program state that every student must have a laptop from fifth grade through graduation in twelfth grade. Met with much skepticism at first, Time reports the thinking behind the laptop program in detail below: The wireless Packer would be very different from the old Packer. All assignments, handouts, work sheets, what-have-you would be distributed electronically. (Thus rendering the copy machine, possibly the only device on earth less reliable than the computer, obsolete.) Students would take notes on their laptops in class, then take their laptops home and do their homework on them. To turn in an assignment, they would simply drag and drop it into the appropriate folder, where the teacher could wirelessly retrieve it. Voila: the paperless classroom. Arts Packer has visual arts, photography, media arts, dance, drama, orchestra, brass choir, chamber music, wind ensemble, chorus and a Middle and Upper School jazz band. Among Packer's facilities lies the Janet Clinton Performing Arts Center, which features instrumental and choral music classrooms, a dance studio and the Pratt Theater. This performance space supports theatrical productions throughout the year. Notable alumni and faculty Frances Julia Barnes (1846–1920) – temperance reformer Judi Barrett, 1958 – author (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs) Mary C.C. Bradford – educator and suffragist Cornelia Chase Brant – Dean of New York Medical College and Hospital for Women Mary Bunting, 1929 – president of Radcliffe College and first woman appointed to the Atomic Energy Commission Lucy Burns – suffragist Caroline Chesebro' (1825–1873) – writer Elizabeth Gaffney – editor and author (Metropolis: A Novel) Virginia Granbery – painter Ethan Hawke – attended the 7th grade – actor (Reality Bites, Dead Poets Society), writer and producer Virginia Heinlein, 1935