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Dear St. Pius X Family:
The beginning of the 2020-2021 school year has brought challenges for us all--students, families, faculty, staff, America, and our global community at large. We all wrestle with difficulties in our own lives, but the COVID-19 pandemic has become a shared struggle. There is a benefit to such communal hardship though--we can support each other and allow the genuine empathy we experience to unite us, a foundational piece of our Catholic faith.
Our faculty has made great strides in providing an outstanding educational experience despite the circumstances, and the feedback from our parents supports this claim. We know that students who are a part of our In-Person Population have appreciated the added social interaction gained since increasing our numbers on September 8. But we have also been able to protect the health and well-being of all on our campus through our continued attention to proper sanitizing and physical distancing. We know that wearing masks is the very first line of defense against this virus, and our students have been wonderful at abiding by this expectation, regardless of how uncomfortable it may be at times. Though our Full-Time Virtual students may not be physically present, they are actively engaged in classes and are contributing to the vitality of St. Pius X as if they were in the desks.
Increasing the in-person education for our students has always been our ultimate goal. We have spent countless hours reevaluating, re-examining, and reassessing how to accomplish this. Yet we have been cognizant of the limitations of our facilities to implement best physical-distancing practices, the realities of substitute staffing for those faculty members particularly at risk, and the necessity to limit the spread of the virus should any community members be infected. Though there have been confirmed cases of COVID within our community, careful contact tracing has highlighted they have been spread from outside of our hallways, and it has demonstrated the success with which our plans have prevented others from contracting it.
That said, know that beginning Tuesday, October 13, we will return to full in-person learning for our entire student body, five days a week. We worked with the Archdiocesan COVID task force and the Office of Catholic Schools to make and implement this plan. This will be the first time since March that our entire community will be back on campus as a Pius family. The protocols implemented in the Archdiocesan schools have been working, as evidenced by the extremely low infection numbers of our students. Furthermore, we had already taken the steps necessary to ensure that the safest conditions in our classrooms could be maintained: we purchased additional air purifiers and plexiglass shields where applicable. We have coordinated with the Archdiocesan COVID Task Force to set up desks in the most effective manner possible and will remove extra items that prevent the greatest spacing. Masks will continue to be required at all times while on campus. Temperatures will continue to be taken before faculty and students may enter the school, and we require families to report all isolation or quarantining to [email protected].
Please reference the updated Return to School Plan for the October calendar, changes to cafeteria seating, updated Full-Time Virtual attendance policy, and a Questions page.
IN-PERSON POPULATION/FULL-TIME VIRTUAL STATUS
Please know that we understand that returning in full may require some of our families to opt for our Full-Time Virtual (FTV) path, while some students who are currently Full-Time Virtual might join the In-Person Population (IPP). If you are going to switch from one path to another, please submit this form no later than Sunday, October 18 at 8 p.m. We know this is a significant change and some families will find this decision to be one best made through experience. To that effect, we will allow all students to attend classes the week of October 13th in order to gather a sense of their comfort with their classes before making their decision about which path (In-Person or Full-Time Virtual) to select. ***You must complete the form if you want to select a different option than what you are currently enrolled in; if you do not complete the form, we will assume you are staying with your current status of In-Person or Full-Time Virtual.*** Because of the complexities of adjusting rosters, arranging classrooms, and preparing to teach for students both in and out of the class, this will be the final opportunity this semester to switch to In-Person Population learning if you have been Full-Time Virtual. Any families who decide to switch their student to Full-Time Virtual after this date will also remain Full-Time Virtual until the end of the semester. All Full-Time Virtual students will be expected to follow the regular school day schedule via Zoom or their teacher's preferred method of online engagement. If you have individual concerns, please share those in your response to the form linked.
DAILY ARRIVAL/PICK-UP TIMES
In-Person Population students must arrive before 7:30 a.m. daily in order to be screened for school admittance. Students must leave campus or be picked up by 4:00 p.m. daily. The only exceptions to the 4:00 p.m. rule are students who are using the library, which allows students to remain on campus until 4:30 p.m., or if a student is being actively supervised by a teacher or a coach.
PROTECTING OUR STUDENTS AND FACULTY
Preparations for returning to school with more students have been underway since the springtime. In fact, we have spent more than $210,000 in our attempt to ensure a safe environment on campus. We coordinated with our HVAC company to make sure our units are running effectively with new filters and sufficient fresh air exchange. For rooms without windows, additional air purifiers were purchased for extra safety. Hand sanitizing stations are readily available at every entrance to the school. During our hybrid phases, obviously only a portion of student desks has been utilized and spread out to maximize distancing between them. As we return to a full population, we will make use of other areas on campus to accommodate rooms and areas that have proven to be too tight for safe gathering. For classrooms with shared tables, we have purchased more individual student desks to replace these. We will carefully monitor the hallways during passing periods--students will still not be able to make use of their lockers during the day, and we may request that students dismiss from classes in staggered times to eliminate congestion. Students will be separated during lunch periods, utilizing the gym for our Freshmen and Sophomores, while Juniors are physically distanced in the cafeteria, and Seniors can choose between numerous locations to safely eat their lunches. More protective measures are being purchased for other distance-challenged locations. Over the summer, several generous donors provided face shields for all of our faculty and staff. We will continue to require that students wear masks and allow them to add a face shield if they want an added layer of protection in addition to their mask.
PSAT TESTING
PSAT Testing will be held on Wednesday, October 14 for grades 10 and 11 only this year. Freshmen will not be attending school on October 14. This will be a reading day or academic catch up day for the freshmen. PSAT supplies were ordered more than a month ago, when the school was operating in a hybrid schedule. There was not space for social distancing to bring in grades 9, 10 and 11 for PSAT testing at that time. We determined that grades 10 and 11 could be socially distanced throughout the school for test taking.
FINAL EXAMS
At this moment, we anticipate that all students, both In-Person Population and Full-Time Virtual, will have to be on campus for final exams in December to ensure test integrity. However, we plan to utilize our gyms as a testing place for Full-Time Virtual students to keep them safely separated from the rest of the In-Person Population. More information will come in the following weeks with regards to the schedule of final exams and their specifics.
PLAYING YOUR PART IN KEEPING OUR SCHOOL OPEN We urge our families to continue to partner with us off campus by following the health and safety guidelines that have allowed us to open safely and remain open thus far. Please, when anyone in your family is out in public, wear a mask and practice social distancing. We are doing our best to protect all the members of our school community. We ask that you do your part to mitigate the spread of this virus. We hope parents and students have noticed the extraordinary precautions we have taken in cleaning the school and providing the necessary equipment and supplies to keep your children, and our faculty and staff, healthy and safe. Please don't jeopardize the health, safety, well-being, and education of others by ignoring the advice of health and safety experts.
SANITATION OF THE FACILITIES
The school will continue to be sanitized on a daily basis utilizing disinfectants and virucides by way of our electrostatic sprayers. Student desks are being wiped down at the end of every class; restrooms are being sanitized multiple times a day; and hand sanitizer is available to students at all entrances and in every classroom.
PARKING As we welcome our entire student body back on campus, those students assigned to park in either our baseball or Shallowford parking lots will have to use those areas beginning October 13. There will no longer be parking spaces for everyone on the main campus. Over the summer, new lights were installed in the Seaver Family Sports Complex to provide better visibility as students make their way from those parking areas to campus. Also, there is now a Chamblee police officer on campus each school day from 7:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. to offer protection for our community.
CONTINUED MONITORING OF COVID SITUATION The St. Pius X faculty are dedicated to providing a superior college preparatory education for the formation of the mind, body, and spirit of each student in accordance with the teachings of the Catholic Church. As St. Paul states, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?" (1 Corinthians 6:19). We must not forget that our bodies are gifts from God and must be treated as such. With that in mind, if there is a significant change with respect to COVID-19 in our larger community, we may have to revert to a hybrid or fully virtual setting. We will follow the advice of the Superintendent of Catholic Schools and the Archdiocesan Task Force, as well as the CDC and Department of Health, when making such a determination.
Though it will have only been eight weeks since the start of school that we begin this next phase, it has been trying. It has been a deliberately cautious, gradual return to full in-person school. But we must not let our guard down. We must care for one another, for we are one in Christ. Again, St. Paul reminds us, "As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ" (1 Corinthians 12:12). Let us all prepare for this phase as one family and as faithful servants of the Lord. For indeed, Domini Sumus. We are the Lord's.
Sincerely,
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Edye Simpson, Ed.D
Principal
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St. Pius X Catholic High School
2674 Johnson Road, NE
Atlanta, GA 30345
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