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The school day had barely begun when a teacher’s spouse called Father “Smokey” Oats:

“Something’s happening in New York! Turn the TV on!”

It was early into Trinity’s second year. The school was still operating out of “learning cottages” and could only pick up one TV channel.

Oats, Trinity’s founding head of school, was watching the aftermath of the first plane attack on the World Trade Center when the second plane struck.

At the same time, the Rev. Dr. Stuart Hoke was on his way to New York’s Trinity Church Wall Street, an Episcopal parish in the shadows of the World Trade Center, when “all hell broke loose.” 

“Someone said, ‘Stuart, run for your life!,” said Hoke, a current Trinity grandparent and visiting chaplain. At the time of the attacks, Hoke was serving as executive assistant to the rector of Trinity Church.

Recognizing the historic importance of the morning, Oats gathered students to watch the breaking news coverage. When the morning intensified with the attack on the Pentagon, students became worried about parents who traveled between the banking centers of Charlotte and New York or relatives who worked in Washington, D.C.

It wasn’t long before parents arrived at Trinity to take their children home. A Kindergartener walking out with her mom stopped and asked Oats, “Where was God?”

Trinity, like most of the country, came to a halt for several days to gather its breath. As a school whose Episcopal identity calls its community to action, Trinity looked for ways to help. But how? Should they collect money? Hold a canned food drive?

Visual Arts Director Jen Rankey-Zona, a founding Trinity faculty member, needed to put her hands to work to process the tragedy.

“I needed to create something,” she said, “and ‘Smokey’ said, ‘I think we all need to make something.”

Three days after the attacks, Trinity students and families gathered on the field and outdoor court—where the main school building now stands—to paint messages of hope, love, and support on large canvas banners. The “day of healing” took place in partnership with the Arts & Science Council.

More than 20 banners were created and shipped to New York City. Trinity’s banners were among the first to be delivered to St. Paul’s Chapel near Ground Zero. The church became an around-the-clock rest center for first responders. Banners and cards poured in from around the world and were placed inside the chapel and the fencing surrounding the building, which sustained only minor damage from the attacks.

“The banners were unbelievable,” said Hoke, who worked in the St. Paul’s center for the nine months it was in operation. “It was the motivation to keep on going.”

As police, fire, and other personnel would enter or leave the chapel, they passed under a Trinity banner of student and parent handprints and the word HOPE. “Putting those hands in the paint and then touching the banner, they're touching Ground Zero,” said Rankey-Zona. That banner is still in place at St. Paul’s in a permanent memorial to the attacks.

Reflecting on Trinity’s response to the tragedy, Oats said, “Trinity Episcopal School has always done what it can do to make things better and to make a difference.”

Added Rankey-Zona: “It was a beautiful moment of a group of people who had no idea what to do and so they came together and used their voice for love.

“It was a very Trinity thing to do.”

This article appeared in the spring 2026 issue of The Voice

Darting out of their English class, 8th Grade students were eager to read a book to the smallest members of the Trinity community.

But these weren’t their Kindergarten Science Buddies. Instead, it was a tank of tilapia fish occupying an aquaponics system in the corner of the Dickson Upper Commons.

“The fish came to the front (of the tank) because they thought they were getting food,” said Middle School Science Teacher Aprillé Morris-Butler.

The 15 tilapia and the tank they’ve inhabited since October have provided hands-on lessons for 7th and 8th Grade science units. Students are responsible for monitoring the tank’s water quality and feeding the fish, while seeing the oxygen, nitrogen, and water cycles in action.

The waste from the fish goes through a filter and then to the plant bed. It converts into ammonia and nitrates that help grow heads of lettuce that are harvested and delivered to the Dickson Dining Hall. The plant bed, meanwhile, filters the water and returns it to the tank for the process to begin all over.

The first lettuce seeds were planted a few weeks after the tilapia arrived. By early December, the first batch of romaine and mixed greens was served in the dining hall salad bar. As of April, approximately 280 heads of lettuce had been harvested.

“I like how involved we get to be,” said 8th Grade student Brooklyn Stanczak, from maintaining the water quality to cutting and packaging the lettuce.

The tilapia will be harvested before the end of the school year and used in a special meal for Middle School. A new delivery of fish will stock the aquaponics tank next school year.

Beyond the science lessons, the system also teaches food sustainability, said Brittany MacDonald, chef manager with Trinity’s dining hall provider FLIK Independent School Dining (FISD).

Growing lettuce on campus reduces overall food costs and cuts the school’s weekly lettuce delivery by 50 percent. Recirculating the system’s water reduces the need for new water, and farming fish on land lessens the strain on the food supply from the ocean.

“The most exciting thing is that students get to learn where their food comes from, and the work involved in producing it, which you don’t really think about at their age,” MacDonald said.

Watching the process, from seedling to salad bar, “is a tangible result that they take pride in,” she said.

FISD’s parent company Compass Group North America provided a two-year, $23,000 grant for the aquaponics system in partnership with Charlotte-based non-profit 100 Gardens. It was FISD’s first school aquaponics partnership in the Charlotte area.

Trinity’s aquaponics system was the 34th garden to be installed by 100 Gardens, which was co-founded in 2012 by Ron Morgan, the grandparent of former Trinity students Phoebe, Wes TES ‘16, and Sophie TES ‘18 Bolyard.

100 Gardens co-founder Sam Fleming said Trinity’s aquaponics project had been 10 years in the making, but lacked the funding to move forward. “We’ve been wanting to do this project with (Trinity) for a long time,” he said.

As it happens, Compass operates food service at the Innovation Barn, where 100 Gardens is headquartered.

“They (Compass) heard about us trying to partner with Trinity and stepped in,” Fleming said. All three partners - Trinity, Compass, and 100 Gardens - share the same mission of “creating smarter, healthier, and more compassionate students,” he said.

The student-managed nature of the system also aligns with Trinity’s and 100 Gardens’ philosophies of hands-on learning. “We want students running this,” Fleming said.

Compass also partners with Trinity in composting food waste from the dining hall as part of an initiative to cut food waste across Compass programs by 50% by the year 2030. MacDonald said Trinity composts 150-200 pounds of food waste per week.

Philip Nash, vice president of operations at FLIK, hopes the sustainability programs create life-long habits for students. “It empowers them to think more critically about their role in building a more sustainable future,” he said.

There are elements of the aquaponics system that students can use beyond science class, Fleming said. “I’m convinced that we could teach any subject to aquaponics in some way or another,” he said. “It really is a holistic tool for education.”

Take history, for example. While it is new to Trinity, aquaponics has been in use for thousands of years. The Aztecs and ancient Chinese are credited with pioneering the type of symbiotic farming used in aquaponics.

The breeding of tilapia dates back even further – more than 4,000 years ago – to ancient Egypt, where the fish was seen as a symbol of regeneration and fertility. Over time, tilapia evolved to adapt to a range of water conditions, while their waste contains an ideal amount of ammonia for growing plants.

“They’re very hard to kill (and) they multiply very easily,” Morris-Butler said.

Next school year - the final year of Compass’ grant - Morris-Butler hopes to expand the aquaponics system to other curricula, such as social studies.

“I hope that it teaches our students that there are people in the world that don’t have access to clean water (or) soil to grow things,” she said. “I hope that it teaches them to be more compassionate and aware of things outside of their bubble.”

Not only has the system been a learning tool, it has become a meeting spot for students and staculty members. Like their 8th Grade counterparts, Lower School students often park in front of the tank’s window to read to the tilapia or to write in their noticing journals. Teachers work nearby with the trickling water as a peaceful soundtrack.

“I think it’s been beneficial across the whole school,” Morris-Butler said.

Adds Fleming: “My hope is that at the end of the 2 years, it’s so valuable that there’s no choice but to keep it going.”

This article appeared in the spring 2026 issue of The Voice

Two letters of the alphabet carry a heavy load of curiosity, worry, optimism, and caution: A and I.

Artificial intelligence remains a dominant topic in education and broader society, and the range of perspectives is reflected in the makeup of Trinity’s AI task force.

Comprising academic leadership, digital learning catalysts, classroom teachers and others who are curious about artificial intelligence, the task force is collaboratively shaping AI use at Trinity.

On one end is Nikki Dunn, Middle School Digital Learning Catalyst and a self-described “very fond user of AI.”

“I find it very beneficial to teachers,” she says, “because we’re able to create tools that make our jobs more efficient.”

On the more skeptical side is Middle School and Musical Chaplain Matt Moorman.

“I’m less willing to place my trust in something that can think for itself (but) you can’t see where it keeps its brains,” Moorman says, quoting George Weasley in the “Harry Potter” series.

Mer Leeson, Dunn’s digital learning catalyst colleague in Lower School, sits somewhere between the two.

“You don’t have to be one or the other,” Leeson says. “I think they’re all healthy.”

Launched in January 2025, the group of 13 staculty members set out to build a framework for students’ AI use, train and build up teachers’ AI fluency, and choose the platform where students will utilize AI.

The task force gathered input this school year at staculty workshops, led professional development for staculty on a variety of AI-related subjects, and fielded parents’ AI questions.

As the AI policy discussions continue, the task force checked off one task in the summer of 2025 by selecting MagicSchool as Trinity’s AI platform and running a pilot program allowing teachers in all grades to use it as they see fit.

Stephanie Griffin, Assistant Head of School for Academics and leader of the task force, says the group is moving at a different pace than other schools, some that swiftly took a hard stance against AI and some that implemented AI before figuring out a policy.

“Our work is on par – or even ahead of – some of our peers,” Griffin said. “Our pace allows us to make sure AI is aligned with our mission, and allows us to be nimble and follow the emerging research.”

A Hunger for Learning

The speed of AI's evolution — and how quickly it is becoming a required skill — presents a unique challenge for Trinity as it balances integrating technology in students' lives with preserving their childhood in its K-8 environment.

In a parent coffee discussion on AI, Griffin pointed to a World Economic Forum forecast of 92 million jobs being displaced by AI, and 170 million new jobs being created due to AI. The agency also said teacher preparedness was the most crucial element in students’ AI literacy.

“All signs are pointing to students needing to understand how AI works and understanding how it might be incorporated, setting them up to succeed in high school, in college, and beyond,” Griffin said. “This is work that we are really hungry about.”

Feeding that need for teacher knowledge has been the task force’s focus this school year as it led group sessions and one-on-one coaching on using tools in MagicSchool and Google’s Gemini. Students in select grades have utilized MagicSchool on a limited basis this school year as part of a pilot program, with the intention of implementing an AI framework in the 2026-27 school year.

Magic in the Classroom

Developed in 2023 by a former school principal, MagicSchool is used by more than 10,000 schools across the country and offers educators a range of classroom tools, from designing lessons that can be adjusted to meet an individual students’ learning needs.

Task force member and 5th Grade teacher Matt Piscitelli said it’s a misconception of AI that it’s a way for students to bypass critical thinking and learning.

“It isn’t about doing less,” he said, “it’s about enriching the experience of being a student and a teacher.

One MagicSchool tool that Piscitelli finds to be invaluable is the ability to create a chatbot that can answer students’ questions, allowing him to digitally assist multiple students at once with information and responses he built into the program.

While the interaction is digital, Piscitelli said because he is the creator and curator of the bot’s content, the chatbot experience for students mirrors how he would engage with students in person.

“It doesn’t just give answers,” he said, “it asks the right questions, pushing students to think harder.”

After their chatbot interaction, students in Piscitelli’s class get up from their desks and connect with a partner to share what they learned. Rather than turning students into reciters of facts, Piscitelli said the chatbot experience sets them up to better articulate ideas because of the back-and-forth engagement.

“Swimming Against the Current”

Being a skeptic of AI doesn’t mean you can’t find a use for it.

Matt Moorman has used MagicSchool to, for instance, adjust a reading for a particular grade level.

“It actually doesn’t save time because I do have to look over the changes it makes to be sure the theology and religious meanings are accurate, so it creates more work for me – but it is a helpful tool,” he said.

But for Moorman, AI’s efficiencies don’t outweigh his concerns of it disrupting human-to-human connections God created.

As a chaplain, Moorman feels a responsibility to bring that theological grounding to the task force discussions, even if he concedes that he “may be swimming against the current.”

Whatever form the AI policy takes, Moorman said it should center the human over the computer.

““Being human is not easy, and AI will never understand how to live in a world of complexity,” he said. “We are humans, so how can we use these tools in a way that can help us remember that?”

Griffin said bringing all perspectives into the discussions sharpens Trinity’s readiness for AI by forcing the task force to think through the many ethical and philosophical considerations about its use in schools. The group, she said, has leaned into the mantra that wisdom comes from collective navigation.

The Work Ahead

While the approach remains a work in progress, the initial pilot programs will help reveal areas for improvement as MagicSchool continues to be used next school year. A 6th Grade technology class will be added to Middle School as digital learning catalysts teach students how to use AI to create code and build, not just how to input questions and prompts.

The task force, meanwhile, has drawn up non-negotiables for the school’s AI policy, including student safety – protecting identity and data while using approved AI platforms – and aligning AI use with Trinity’s educational philosophy of critical and creative thinking, its approach to teaching, and the Honor Code.

“If we continue to invest our energy into helping students take what they know and connect it to the world around them,” Griffin said, “that will help our students, and it will help our institution thrive in this quickly changing landscape.”