Parents,
Given the spikes in the number of COVID-19 cases back in July 2020, the Administration was skeptical that we could begin the 2020-2021 school year on time and with students on campus. The staff worked hard and the teachers prepared. It is now months later and we are doing relatively well.
We are relieved that only two students and one staff member have tested positive thus far. Unfortunately, we have had many members of the larger Antonian family -- especially current parents -- diagnosed with the disease. It is a blessing that most cases have been mild, but again unfortunately, we do have a current parent whose case is severe and still has not recovered after several weeks. We ask you to say special prayers for this parent and all who have been affected by COVID-19.
With some time under our belt managing our in-school protocols for keeping students, faculty, and staff safe, a few weeks ago, the Administration began to look at our next steps in potentially bringing students back to campus more frequently than two days a week. At that time, the positivity rate in the San Antonio area had dipped just below the "magic number" of 5% and hospitals were doing well to manage their patient loads. With that, we pushed a survey to our parents to determine how many would like four-day attendance for their children, how many would prefer to stay at two-day attendance, and how many would opt for remote learning. Even with a second request for responses to our survey, the data is not as complete as we'd like, but is as follows:
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Participation Method
|
Number of Students
|
% of Student Body
|
|
Four-day
|
246
|
33.8%
|
|
Two-day
|
223
|
30.6%
|
|
Remote
|
107
|
14.7%
|
|
No response
|
152
|
20.9%
|
Among those who have advocated for their students to return more frequently, the notion that students from large public schools have returned to their campuses is often cited. However, it is important to note that, because of the TEA mandate, public school officials, who sought waivers to postpone the start of school and the return to their campuses, no longer had a choice, as all their options to postpone further had expired. Wishing to make the most informed decision on our part -- as is our prerogative as a private school -- we have taken the opportunity to monitor a number of COVID-19 dashboards, including a TEA dashboard that tracks the number of COVID-19 cases among Texas public school students and faculty on a weekly basis. We also monitor the City of San Antonio website, which specifically includes a dashboard related to school risk level at the following address: City of San Antonio School Risk Level.
The good news is that the TEA data, while showing a clear upward path in the number of cases from August 2nd through October 25th, has actually shown stabilization in numbers in the last week or so. The bad news is that in San Antonio, we have seen the moving average number of cases go up recently. The City of San Antonio School Risk Level remains at "moderate," which calls for the following practices:
In-person instruction, if offered, prioritizes special needs students, at-risk students, and students who lack access to resources. Instruction should take place under guidance from the CDC for substantial, controlled community transmission. Fixed cohorts of 6 or fewer students per classroom are recommended in the Yellow zone. Building occupancy and room occupancy should be contingent on adequate ventilation and ability to create 6-foot distancing, and neither building nor room occupancy should exceed 25%. Reasonable accommodation must be made for qualified staff as required by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Under our current operations, Antonian potentially has well more than 25% occupancy in our classrooms at any given time. Again, we are doing relatively well.
We recognize that, for most students, in-person instruction is the best format. It is a vital aspect of our lives in a Catholic school to develop warm and nurturing relationships with our students. This effort is particularly challenging when conducted in front of computer screens. We have given approval for nearly two dozen students who are significantly struggling with content mastery and/or who have a diagnosed learning difference to attend four days a week. For all of our students, we work hard to balance the need for social interaction with the risks of the disease, not only for our students, but for our faculty, staff, and the family members the students go home to every day.
To manage capacity constraints in classrooms, taking into account the individual schedules of 720+ students, we have been using an algorithm developed by one of our staff members. When we input the recent survey data into this classroom capacity algorithm, we find that there are many classes throughout the day in which we can continue to maintain appropriate physical distance between students. However, there are also many classes throughout the day in which the occupancy would exceed the approximately 50% threshold under which we have been operating. In some cases, the data show that allowing the students who wish to return four days a week would put the occupancy of some classes at the usual pre-COVID-19 classroom capacity of 26 to 27 students. Although masks would still always be required, bringing students back to campus more than two days a week would mean there would be no empty desks as spacers between students. There is no feasible plan to add partitioning (e.g., Plexiglas barriers) between students, either. If a student were to test positive for COVID-19, the need for other students to quarantine because they were seated near the sick student in his/her classes would likely increase.
In addition to classroom considerations, we must take into account our common spaces, most significantly, the cafeteria, an area in which students must necessarily remove their masks for a period of time. Our schedule combines two grade levels in our cafeteria for each of two lunch periods - freshmen and sophomores in 5th period lunch and juniors and seniors in 6th period lunch. We have thus far managed well with up to 50% capacity in our cafeteria on any given day. Bringing more students on campus means adjusting our lunch protocols, while still keeping the capacity of our cafeteria at 50% or less. We have developed a preliminary plan for accomplishing this, but will continue to refine it.
With all this information, we now announce that it is our plan to bring students back to campus more frequently beginning on January 5, 2021 when we return from the Christmas holidays. We will continue to monitor case loads and take guidance from local health and government authorities, in the event that the number of cases surges.
As mentioned in our message that was communicated with the survey, there will be some changes to our current operating procedures in terms of attendance when this occurs.
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If a student chooses four day attendance, he/she must be present for the four days, no longer having the option to "flex" in and out on any given day of the week.
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If a student chooses two day attendance, he/she must be present for the assigned two days according to his or her existing hybrid group color, no longer having the option to "flex" in and out on the in-person attendance days.
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The exception to items 1 and 2 would, of course, be when a student feels ill. It cannot be stressed enough that if a student feels any of the symptoms of COVID-19, he/she should stay home, both from class and from any extracurricular activities. The ability to connect to classes remotely will still exist, so if an ill student feels well enough to attend remotely, but stays home to avoid spreading an illness, he or she is expected to do so. If a student does stay home because he/she is feeling ill, it is expected that the student will bring a note from a parent or a doctor's note upon returning to campus.
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If a student is ill on the day that a test is administered, the student will generally NOT have the option of taking the test remotely; instead, the student will need to make-up the test in-person with the respective teacher when the student returns to campus according to existing policy for make-up work.
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If a student chooses remote attendance, he/she will be locked into this for a period of nine weeks (the end of the 3rd quarter). There will no longer be an option for a remote student to "flex" in and out on any given day of the week.
In order to make this plan possible, we continue to need the cooperation of ALL Antonian families. It is very easy to grow complacent in our practices. We have heard of recent parties celebrating Homecoming, even though we didn't have a dance. We know that there will be gatherings of families and friends at Thanksgiving and Christmas. All of this leads to the possibility of spread of COVID-19. Please stay diligent in how you and your family members minimize exposure to this still very unpredictable disease.
Another need to make this plan possible is to obtain from parents an updated attendance selection (four day, two day, or remote) for EVERY student. It is very likely that the information shared in this correspondence may affect the decision a parent has previously made when completing the survey. If that is the case or if you have not already entered a selection for your child(ren), you may use the following link to enter your selection: Spring 2021 Semester Attendance Selection. Entries are time stamped. For any student with multiple entries, we will use the most current entry as the final selection. An email message will be sent to families prior to the start of the spring semester to confirm the selection we have on record.
We wish to offer our most sincere gratitude for the warm support received from members of the Antonian family as we continue to navigate this pandemic. Please know that we hold the health and safety of our students, faculty, and staff in highest regard and work every day to preserve that to the fullest extent possible. Please keep all of us in your prayers as we keep you in ours.
