School-Away-From-School Update
Keeping our Comet Community healthy!
From Our Principal
Dear Parents,

The faculty and staff have been working hard this morning in planning for the distance learning that will take place in the weeks ahead. We understand that this will be a unique situation for everyone, and there is no "one size fits all" approach. If you have questions or concerns, let us know, and we will certainly be flexible. Please remember that it's important to be calm and reassuring with our kids throughout this temporary closure.

Also, please remember that this is new for all of us - parents, students and teachers - and working together as a team for our children is our primary mission.

During the day today, teachers entered lesson plans for the week in our FACTS SIS / PARENTSWEB system that you already access for grades, volunteer hours, etc.  

BEGINNING TOMORROW, please sign into the PARENTSWEB Family portal by CLICKING HERE . (You can also access it by going to our school website and clicking in the top left hand corner on PARENTSWEB.) The District Code is SB-VA and you would enter your personal login and password. From the menu on the left side of the screen, click " Students " and select " Lesson Plans ." You can then view the lesson plans for each of your students by changing the student name in the box near the top of the page. If you have any issues, please email us for assistance.

This is the work your child's teacher expects them to do for this week.

Teachers have tried to show how the work can be spread out over the course of the week, but you are welcome to adjust the plans based on your schedule at home. The teachers will provide specific instructions for collecting work. Teachers will plan regular check-in times so they have a chance for personal interaction between student and teacher and can answer questions. Please understand that some teachers may also begin employing some new distance learning technologies and applications to support your learner during this time. We appreciate your patience as our teachers get these added supports in place.

And we are here for you!

For schoolwork/lesson plan related questions, please email your child's teacher. (All teacher's emails follow the format of first initial last name@saintbenedictschool.org. Ex. Sean Cruess is scruess@saintbenedictschool.org; Michelle Cisik is mcisik@saintbenedictschool.org.)

For Renweb/Parentsweb related questions , please email Elizabeth Hanson at ehanson@saintbenedictschool.org.

For any other concerns, please email Sean Cruess, Principal at scruess@saintbenedictschool.org.

After today, the school building will be closed for the remainder of the next two weeks. That does not mean we won't be working, though.  Email is the preferred method of communication at this time, but we will also continue checking the voicemail for the school office.

The Third Quarter ends Friday, March 20, and report cards should still go out on March 27 as planned. We expect that they will be sent electronically rather than as a printed report card document.

We encourage families to stay up to date on what the Center for Disease Control and our state Department of Health are asking us to do. CLICK HERE for helpful information on keeping your family and our communities healthy. Remember that the purpose of our closure is to stop the spread of coronavirus by social distancing. This is not the time for class get-togethers, play dates, social events, or sleepovers. We must do our part to stop this disease in our local community.

As always we place our trust in Our Lord. Please see this important letter just out this afternoon from our Bishop regarding the temporary suspension of the Mass.

Families, please take the time you normally would spend at Mass on Sundays and dedic ate it to watching the Mass on TV or online. The Diocese has launched WatchtheMass.com ; a new, simplified website where you can watch daily & Sunday Masses from their studio chapel in both English and Spanish. Mass is also available at different times on the EWTN network. Please keep Sunday holy and continue to commit this time to Our Lord.

We all look forward to putting the Coronavirus in our rear view mirror as a school, and getting back to life as we know it, but until that time, please know that we are all here, working together, to navigate the days ahead for the health and well-being of our students and our families.

May God Bless You and Your Family and our Wonderful Comet Community!
Mr. Cruess

Technology Survey - Please return today!
ALL PARENTS: Please help us today by completing this quick technology survey. We are trying to get an understanding of how our families currently access the internet. This will be vital to us as we transition to distance learning for the time being. Again - please complete the following Google Form for us TODAY. Thanks for the help!!
From Our Finance Office
FACTS Payments - We recognize that sometimes you may have cash flow issues and need to move a payment.  Now you have a new option. You can log into FACTS and move your tuition payment -- you can do this up to 4 times a year and move the payment up to 2 weeks. As always you can email  ehanson@saintbenedictschool.org  at least 3 business days in advance. We hope you find this increased flexibility helpful. Please remember you can work directly with Elizabeth Hanson whenever you need help altering your payment plan.
Community is KEY
We encourage you - if you are not on Facebook - to consider connecting with us at least during this time when our families are more isolated. Our school Facebook page is public - so you do not need to be on Facebook to access it, but understand that this is an important way that we build community as a school. It's also where we post helpful information, share pictures of our students and can keep our faculty and families connected in a general way. We'll be giving opportunities for parents to share some fun pictures we can post (through our administrator) to keep the children entertained and connected with their classmates and teachers. This familiarity can be reassuring to our students during this time, and so we hope you will consider - if just for the time being - connecting with your school community on Facebook. Here's the link:
Here's a recent post from our Facebook page with helpful information about talking to your children about the coronavirus.