|
September 28, 2020
Dear NDB Parents and Guardians,
I’m writing with an important update regarding next steps for the reopening of the NDB campus. As many of you may be aware, San Mateo County moved from the Purple Tier to the Red Tier on Tuesday (9/22), following California’s blueprint for reducing COVID-19. We are therefore pleased to announce that we are one step closer to returning to in-person activities. However, reopening the NDB campus will be a gradual process, which I would like to take a moment to outline for you here, so that you have a clear understanding of the steps that it involves.
Although San Mateo County is now in the Red Tier, the State of California requires that it remain in the Red Tier for 14 consecutive days before students can return to campus. In the hope that this goal will be achieved, the San Mateo County Office of Education recently announced that it is developing a process that schools will be required to implement in order to reopen. However, SMCOE has yet to provide the details of this process, and will be working in the upcoming weeks with San Mateo County Health to define it. After SMCOE develops its process for schools to reopen, and shares this information, schools will then need to submit their plans for implementing the SMCOE process for a return to campus. Each school’s plan will then be reviewed by SMCOE in consultation with SMC Health before a school can reopen.
We expect that this whole process - from the County developing its requirements, to their publication, to a school adjusting its existing reopening plans to meet the process specifications, and then the review of the school’s revised reopening plan by both the SMCOE and San Mateo County of Health - will take several weeks and possibly longer. Given the fact that we have yet to receive the process by which the County will allow us to reopen, as well as the steps for the County Office of Education and County Health reviews, we expect that this timeframe will push us close to the holidays.
Given that 1-2 weeks of training in the NDB Hybrid Model will then also still need to be implemented for students and faculty, in order to ensure a smooth transition, we believe that trying to start this training right before the holidays would create further disruption - and have significantly adverse effects on student learning and grades. This disruption would be especially detrimental to those seniors who are currently applying to college, as fall grades are the last grades that colleges will see during the admission process.
Therefore, in order to minimize the disruption to student learning in the critical final weeks of the first semester - pending San Mateo County’s ability to consistently stay in the Red Tier - NDB will remain online for classroom instruction through the end of the semester. Student training in the Hybrid Model on campus will begin in January at the start of the second semester. Any student who prefers to remain in 100% online learning for the second semester will also be allowed to do so.
We will share NDB’s revised safety and health protocols and policies with you in advance of the students’ return to the school building. We will also be offering Parent Information sessions, where we will review the plan and provide opportunities for Q & A. Throughout this process, we will remain in consultation with the County, the Archdiocese, our faculty and staff - as well as you, our families - as we continue to plan wisely for the safe return to the NDB Hybrid Model on campus in the second semester.
Thank you for your support as we make this journey together.
In Notre Dame,
| 
