The 2020-21 School Year Has Begun!

One week down with 37 more weeks to go for the 2020-21 school year. This week was just week-one of what could possibly be the toughest school year we will ever face in our lifetime. Yes, this week was not a full-week being that it was a four-day school week with a half-day thrown in the mix, and PK and Kinder had staggered schedules the first week.

The first week had many distractions, like the grass cutting crew deciding that the first day of school would be the best day to cut the grass. AT&T had issues with the internet on the first day back, which continued for the whole first week. This made it especially difficult for our online educators working with the online students. The internet connection kept dropping, but everyone stayed persistent and it all worked out.

Morning drop-off worked perfectly! A special shout-out to May Young and George Dhuy for volunteering for the third year in a row to help the students at morning drop-off. The afternoon pick-up had a hitch in its giddy-up, but Sara Westrich and Angela de Jong came up with solutions and quickly communicated the solutions with everyone. By Thursday and Friday, the afternoon pick-up was over by 3:06 pm, and will only get better quickly.

The temperature checks have worked well with all the specials teachers stepping up to lend a hand to help the regular classroom teachers with getting the students ready for the day. All temperatures are recorded and those records are sent to the office so that we can keep a complete temperature log of all the students for the year. All staff members have their temperatures taken and recorded daily as well.

The students are doing a great job wearing face masks and face shields. Thank you parents for working with your child(ren) on wearing the masks. Your work has made a big positive difference. We have learned that students who wear glasses are having problems with their glasses fogging up when wearing the face masks. When they wear the face shields, they have no problem with their glasses fogging up.

We had no idea how this week would go, but as I said before, we have been planning this week since March 16th. This week went better than we planned for. Then again, we planned for the worst. If you plan for the worst and the worst doesn't happen, then that's a good thing.

Since this was the week we have been working towards since the middle of March. We are happy how week-one turned out. With all that we have had to overcome, this past week was a success.  The students came back to school after five months of being gone from this building.  This week has been as close to normal as life has been for all of us since March 16th.

Thank you to Christy Matlock, James Newell, and Lori Morgan for designing and building the plexiglass shields used in the PK classroom. Blake Matlock participated in the build as well. Christy and James also build the partitions in the Covid-19 room. Cannot believe that schools now have Covid rooms. Crazy. Gotta do what you gotta do to follow the guidelines.

Annmarie Ghio built partitions in her 3rd grade classroom as well to keep the students safe. Karen Otts is building partitions for E-Care. Lots of creativity and hard work going into keeping the students as safe as possible.

The middle school lockers have been moved/separated to help with social distancing. When middle schoolers have to change classrooms, we are utilizing outdoor entrances as much as possible for two reasons. The first is to help with social distancing by not having the students in the hallways and the second is for a mask break. If they are outside and practicing social distancing, they can remove their masks. Took lots of practice to figure out the movement from classroom to classroom. Think we have it figured out now.

The State Department of Education has provided us with five more thermometers and roughly 6,000 disposal masks. If a student or staff member needs an extra mask, we have plenty. The masks have been distributed to all the classrooms.

We have made good use of the washer and dryer donated to the school. We are constantly washing the towels we use for cleaning the classrooms. That worked out well and helps hold down the cost of cleaning supplies.

The hallways from one end of campus to the other have a dot on every sixth floor tile (floor tiles are 12 inches long) on both sides of the hallway for the students to stand on. There is never any doubt about how far six feet is. If you are not on a dot, then you are too close to the next person and there is a good chance I will be yelling at you. Sorry, that won't be a time for me to be Mr. Nice Guy. And, that's when positive motivation and reinforcement go out the window. Safety first, your feelings second.

For all the spending related to Covid-19, we have added an expense line to the budget for Covid-19. Wish we had a Covid-19 revenue line to go with that expense line. Unfortunately, there is no Covid-19 revenue. All schools and businesses everywhere are experiencing the same thing. 

Now, we focus on week two. We cannot get complacent. We have to stay vigilant. When I say we, I mean all staff, students, and parents. We also need to stay home if we are not feeling well. We cannot jeopardize anyone's health by not being honest with how we feel. All it takes is for one person to not follow protocol to cause harm to themselves and others. An outbreak of Covid-19 can happen. If we follow protocol and health guidelines, chances are an outbreak won't happen.

Please follow all health guidelines, stay safe, and keep the school in your prayers.

God bless you,

Didier Aur, Principal

St. Ann Catholic School