Dear School Parents,
We remain busy in the school office, intently focused on reopening and eager to welcome students back to campus this fall. As promised, I write with additional updates and information regarding our return to school:
1 — The Archdiocese of Chicago has directed parish schools to welcome all students to campus for full days, assuming the continued confidence of state and local health officials. With this in mind, we are pleased to confirm an in-person learning experience for all Preschool through 8th Grade students.
While a hybrid model is not supported at this time by the Archdiocese, SJS and SFX have developed multiple scenarios this summer should this guidance evolve at a later point in the school year.
2 — Earlier this week, the SFX office
shared this communication with SFX Early Childhood families
, advising that all 2 Year Old, 3 Year Old and Jr Kindergarten classes will shift to the St. Joseph campus this fall. This move provides us all with tremendous flexibility as we plan in thoughtful ways about safe social distancing, traffic patterns, and wellness measures designed to keep our entire Preschool-8 community safe. SFX Kindergarten families have also been given the option to migrate to the St. Joseph campus (with Kindergarten homerooms located on both campuses), and 2 Year Old families may take advantage of the more robust program options that SJS offers.
3 — At this time, only the SFX Preschool and Jr K programs migrate to the St. Joseph’s School campus. However, we are poised to be both creative and responsive regarding incremental moves should they be warranted to ensure safety and wellness.
4 — As provided by the Archdiocese, cohorts will be organized by homeroom, with a cap of 23 per K-8 classroom at St. Francis.
Preschool classes are typically smaller, between 12-20.
Consideration is being given to the establishment of grade-wide cohorts in the Middle School grades to support the diversity and differentiation inherent to 5th-8th grade schedules.
5 — We remain on target for an August 26th reopening. Our return to school depends on our ability to safeguard the health and safety of our students and faculty. We thank you for your vigilance with masks and social distancing and we appreciate the positive tone you set in your household regarding these safety practices as we approach the start of the academic year.
We have created a
FAQs page
regarding the school campuses reopening this fall. This page can be found on our website under the Parent Resources tab. I encourage you to refer to these FAQs periodically as we continue to include new resources and information as they become available, and as new questions emerge. You can also find links there to the
Archdiocese of Chicago reopening plan
and
Parent FAQs
which contain guidance and detail regarding fall reopening.
Thank you to those who have shared helpful feedback and posed thoughtful questions to
reopening@sfx-school.org
. We continue to share answers and insights as emails arrive and remain grateful for your candor and expressions of support!
Many thanks,
