Dear Families,

We remain hopeful for the future and are eager to re-open school on August 25^th! Thank you for your patience as we have continued to discern and determine how to safely re-open Saint Agnes School for in-person learning. Please understand that, although we are articulating today a more thorough plan to re-open on August 25^th, there are elements of our school re-opening plan that will have to remain somewhat fluid as the ramifications of the Governor’s mask mandate and school re-opening plan are sorted out by various parties over the next three weeks.

This newsletter includes a combined re-opening document with several parts—namely, a fuller articulation of the Phases of Re-Opening, “A Day in the Life of a Student/Teacher,” and a Saint Agnes Decision Tree to help parents with day-to-day decisions regarding symptomatic children. This document is meant to provide additional information and clarify answers to some of the more frequently asked questions from the past few weeks.

We humbly ask that you remain flexible with us as we figure out the best ways to implement all that we must to get our children back into the building safely. As one of our re-opening committee members has said a couple times: “Once we open up, we really want to stay open. Staying open will require a combination of the mitigation steps we are taking—no one step is sufficient by itself!” Once school is open, we want our students to possess the gift of a Saint Agnes education in-person and without interruption or having to regress to distance learning. We ask everyone to pray for that, please.

My friends, fellow parents, faculty, and students: we have been faced with a great challenge, and we have a bold mission! I would like to offer one primary objective to every parent, student, and adult in our community: please unite together now around Saint Agnes’s mission of forming Catholic hearts and minds in Faith, Reason, and Virtue. As our Lord has said, “A house divided against itself will not stand.” (Mark 3:25) Much could be argued about the Governor’s mask mandate and the effectiveness of wearing a mask; much could be argued about the susceptibility of children to this virus; much could be argued about the extent to which the media and others are fear-mongering; and much could be argued about how the scientists got this or that right or wrong. Let us now put these arguments aside and unite our efforts for our children’s sakes! I invite you to join Saint Agnes School’s goal: open up our school safely so that we can get back to the work of assisting parents in educating their children in Faith, Reason, and Virtue.

I have no doubt that our community will show its great resolve by cooperating with our approach to re-opening. If you have additional questions, feel free to email Mr. Adkins, Mr. Hendrickson, or me. We are happy to provide you with answers to questions as we continue to work toward re-opening. In the meantime, “Pray, hope, and don’t worry. Worry is useless!” -St. Padre Pio.

Kevin Ferdinandt

Headmaster

Upper and Lower School Directors Mr. Hendrickson and Mr. Adkins will host a Facebook Live event on Thursday at 12:30 PM to address questions on safety protocols during reopening and what a school day will look like for students and teachers. If you have questions or topics you'd like addressed, please submit them via email by Thursday morning.

In lieu of our annual August social for parents, we will be releasing a "Welcome Fiesta" video. Meet key support staff, learn of the back-to-school basics, and add new salsa recipes to your collection! Tune in on Wednesday, August 19 for a meet and greet with other fun and informative elements.

Did you know?  Once you qualify for Free or Reduced priced meals it is good for the entire school year.  Many households have had changes to their income in the past few months.  You may want to review the income chart on the application to see if you now qualify. Qualification is based on the number of people living in the household and the current income.  Applications for Free / Reduced price meals are on the school website. Contact Sandy Veal 651-925-8815 for assistance

We have just crossed the $29,000 mark on our way toward reaching the $35,000 challenge proposed to us by the Dick Schulze Foundation. In order to receive a $35,000 matching grant, we must meet the challenge by August 31st. In total, we have now collected over $100,000 to help our families who have been impacted substantially by the Coronavirus. Click here to donate.