Honey in My Lemonade

Setting Up The 1st Grade Classroom

My apologies for not blogging for the past couple few weeks. My time has been spent figuring out and planning how we are going to open school on August 11th. Along with my team at St. Ann, I've actually enjoyed putting this huge unpredictable puzzle together only to dismantle sections of the puzzle and start again. The way I see things, I can either be frustrated and negative by our circumstances or as Stephanie Nichols said, "make lemonade" with the lemons we've been given. My reaction to this situation is to add a little honey in my lemonade.

I know many of you are scared and filled with anxieties. I understand. I really do. I've never put in so much of my life into my work as I have since the middle of March. Life is tough, but it is still great. I have had many conversations with many parents who are super-concerned about the 2020-21 school year. Please remember that I am here to help you. I don't have all the answers, but I do have some. I will do my best to answer your questions. And, if I don't know, I'll tell you that I don't know and do my best to figure out the right answer. Unfortunately, the way things are changing, the right answer now maybe something completely different next week. Crazy stuff.

The most important people in my life besides my family are my students and staff members who are entrusted to my care. The last thing I want is for anything negative to happen to my babies from PK3 up to the most senior members of the St. Ann staff. They are all my babies and my job is to take care of each one of them. That's why we are planning and re-planning every step of re-opening. You can only imagine how many times I've played the re-opening in my head. I think everyone at St. Ann has been doing the same. Every time I think I have most things figured out, someone comes up with a questions and my honest response is: "I haven't even thought about that." Ask Jennifer Burnett. She is usually the one asking me the questions. And, know this week's in-service is all about being ready for August 11th.

Setting Up a Middle School Classroom

As for the first week of school, I'm not concerned about the academic piece of school. I don't care if any school work is done. I'm concerned about the safety piece and making sure we get things right. Drop-off, pick-up, traffic flow in the parking lot, traffic flow in the hallways, which entrances and exits will be used, masks, social distancing, teacher rotation, student rotation, sanitizers, cleaning the classrooms, lunch, lunch clean up, temperature taking, updating Covid-19 policies...

As bad as things are right now, times have been worse before and there will be worse times in the future. Life as we know it is different and difficult but life is still great. This has been one of the best summers of my life, and I'm hoping the same for this fall. I'll be sad when this summer ends. Yet, I'm excited for the new school year.

Here is list of information we all need to share.

Prayer:
Please pray for a safe school year not only for St. Ann Catholic School but for everyone everywhere. We are going to need prayers. Hope our Guardian Angels are on full alert and our prayer warriors out there are praying for us. Few things are as comforting as folks praying for us.

Safety and Good Health:
The single most important thing we can do to keep everyone safe and healthy is for us to be honest. Sounds crazy doesn't it. But, if we are honest, there is a very small chance for transmission of Covid-19 at our school. If your child doesn't feel good, keep him/her at home. If they have been exposed, keep him/her at home. A little sniffle, cough, low-grade fever, upset stomach, body ache, and/or just not feeling good, STAY HOME! In the past, any of these symptoms were often overlooked with a "you'll get over it." That can no longer happen. Now, we are jeopardizing everyone if we are not honest about these symptoms. Schools and day cares that have followed all the rules have had no problems. All it take is one person ignoring the rules and regulations to cause a lot of damage. Whether you think we are overreacting to Covid-19 or not, when it comes to the health of our children, we all need to follow the rules. Be honest!

Online students:
Mrs. Bannister will work with the nine online students in PK and 1st grade. Mrs. Thomas will work with the five online students in 2nd and 3rd grade. Mrs. Wendenon will work with the six online students in 4th and 5th grade. There are only three middle school online students, one in each middle school grade. The five middle school teachers will work with those three students instead of having one designated teacher. The next step is to work out schedules for when those students will be online with the teachers. We will work that out during in-service. These three educators are going to follow the regular classroom lesson plans, work closely with the classroom teachers, and do their best to keep the students as close as possible educationally with the students in class. We know from past experience the online students won’t get everything they normally would if they were in the regular classroom setting. One of our goals is to include/keep connected the online students with the regular classroom. Not sure what that will look like, but we have some ideas.

Mrs. Thomas will still work with the LIFE students and Mrs. Wendenon the SPARKS students.

Lunch:

For the time being, students need to bring their lunch to school. We have worked on some lunch options for the students. That's for another time. Let's get lunch in the classrooms done properly before going there. In the past, parents and grandparents have always been welcomed to join us for lunch. For now, that will not be allowed. Hope we can welcome you back soon.

Lockers:

The 5th-8th graders will use lockers. We will have to set up a rotation system for the students to go to their lockers to make sure to follow the 6 ft social distancing. We are clearing all classrooms of extra desks, tables, and bookshelves in order to provide more space for social distancing. Students having all their books, backpacks, and lunches with them kind of defeats the purpose clearing out the extra furniture. This will be easier for the 5th graders since Mrs. Metaxas already rotates the students when they go to their lockers.

Staff Trying On Their Face Shields

Masks and Face Shields:

Will we require masks/face shields? Yes. This is an important part of the whole plan and recommendations from the CDC, AAP, and local government. I think it is very important for our students to be able to see our teachers, their facial expressions, their mouths when forming words, and be able to hear their voices. It is hard to hear someone when they are speaking while wearing a face mask. We have purchased face shields for all teachers.  There are times our teachers will use face masks and other times the face shield. It depends on the situation, teachers' comfort level, and proximity to students. The band members will use face shields when in band class.

***Suggestion from one of our parents: spend this week having your child(ren) get used to wearing the face mask for more than 10-15 minutes at a time building up the time they keep the face mask on to where they can keep it on for 30-50 minutes at a time. Keeping the face mask on for long periods of time is not easy, but it is a small sacrifice to make for everyone's well-being.

Covid-19 Room:

We are converting part of the faculty workroom to a Covid-19 room. The faculty workroom is next to the school office and has access to a bathroom. We will separate that area with curtains and place beds in that area of the room. We don't want to put the students with Covid-19 symptoms in the school clinic. And, we are going to move the bed out of the clinic and move it to the Covid-19 room. If a student feels bad enough to need a bed, they probably need to be in the Covid-19 room.

Hope some of this information helps. If you have questions, please ask. Everything we are doing is a work in progress.

God bless you,

Didier Aur, Principal

St. Ann Catholic School