Dear SMCS Parents,
I hope you are having a wonderful summer. It is hard to believe that August starts this weekend. We have been very busy getting ready for the 2021-2022 school year.
We have hired some new teachers since the end of school in May. We welcome the following new staff members:
- Lisa Durham-3rd Grade RLA & Social Studies
- Meredith Collins-5th Grade RLA
- Jacob Espinosa-6th Grade RLA
- Ilan Garza-Full Time Sub
- Melinda Garza-PK4 Assistant
- Sarah Harris - 2nd Grade
- Colleen Lewis-1st Grade assistant
- Meagan Messina-7th Grade RLA
- Jenny Rasmussen-US Art
We are currently interviewing for a 4th grade Math and Science Teacher. We will keep you posted.
We continue to monitor COVID-19 in our area. Here are some of the things you can expect for the start of school:
- Temperatures will not be taken during the morning carpool, but we will continue our hand sanitizing as students enter the building.
- Each classroom will continue to use its air purifier.
- Morning prayer will be done in the classrooms (we will revisit morning assembly in the gym in October 2021.)
- Students will continue to attend Mass by grade level. Dress shoes are required for students on their Mass day. SMCS will begin to attend Mass the week of September 6th.
- Monday: 8th & 7th Grade
- Tuesday: 6th & 5th Grade
- Wednesday: 4th & 3rd Grade
- Thursday: 2nd & 1st Grade
- Friday: Kindergarten and PK4
- Students will not use personal space dividers but will be socially distanced in classrooms.
- Water fountains will remain closed but water bottle fillers are available on each floor and in the cafeteria and outside the gym.
- Lower school students will travel to ancillary classes. All classrooms will be sanitized between classes.
- Middle school students will be able to use their lockers.
- Plexiglass dividers have been removed from the cafeteria but students will continue to sit every other seat. Two grade levels will eat in the cafeteria and one grade level will continue to eat in the Tiger Gym for social distancing purposes.
- Hand sanitizing and hand washing stations will still be utilized. All students will wash their hands before coming inside from recess.
- Both Parish Sports and Middle School Sports will resume this fall. More information is included below.
Nurse Diaz and I are thankful that we have four weeks before we return to school. This extra time gives us the opportunity to see how things go as other schools open. We will continue to monitor positivity rates in our community along with recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Local and State Authorities, as well as the Archdiocese.
Our goal continues to be keeping students at school and learning in person.
As of today, we have not made a decision about requiring masks for students. All teachers and staff will wear masks to start the school year. The mask policy for
students will be based on the positivity rate in our community and the impact of the delta variant. Please remember that students wearing or not wearing masks will have an impact on who has to quarantine if there is exposure to COVID in a classroom.
Thank you for your continued support. We will send updates and changes as they become available.
Blessings,
Dr. Kathleen Cox
