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Dear Good Shepherd Parents,
With the Governor’s statewide lifting of all mask mandates through executive order on June 11, Diocesan Catholic Schools Office has recently informed all catholic schools that masks will not be required at school for students at the start of the new school year. However, we will continue to monitor changes in infection rates in our area which could result in revised regional or statewide mask policy mandates. Of course, any parent may choose to have their child wear a mask while on school property, both outdoors and/or indoors.
The Diocesan Catholic Schools Office mask policy also states that all unvaccinated school personnel (teacher and staff) will be required to wear a mask at school and be tested twice a month. We are very pleased to report that 100% of our faculty and staff are vaccinated as we begin the new school year.
We are hopeful that the absence of masks will continue to be the policy throughout the school year, without interruption. Our success last year was based on the understanding and cooperation from our community of families. We continue to need your patience and support as we strive to ensure the safety of our students, faculty and staff. We ask again for your support should we be required to revert to mask wearing due to either rising Covid cases, or other childhood illnesses such as RSV or general flu. For example, if flu within the community is on the rise, we know that short-term mask wearing will serve as a proactive preventative measure we can all support in order to keep students, families, faculty and staff healthy throughout the worst weeks of the flu season.
We are committed to continuing many of our most effective safe-at-school processes such as surface area and high touch-point sanitation throughout the day, multiple drop-off and dismissal locations to ease spacing and congested gathering, three-feet student spacing in classrooms as adjusted for schools in March 2021, and plentiful opportunities for hand-washing and hand-sanitation. Although morning arrival temperature checks are no longer required, we ask parents to closely monitor student health at home and continue to use considerate judgement by keeping a sick child at home. We are currently updating our Safe at School Policy to reflect these changes prior to our back-to-school orientation.
Lastly, we will no longer offer general long-term virtual learning options for the 2021-2022 school year. With medical documentation, the administration will consider both short and long-term virtual learning options on a case-by-case basis. Inquiries should be directed to the principal’s office at [email protected]. Virtual learning will continue to be used as a remote instructional learning option for unplanned school closures due to inclement weather.
As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you for your support.
In His service,
Kelly Rowe, Principal
Good Shepherd Catholic School