Catholic schools forge on but unsure what May will bring

April 14, 2020

By Christine Bordelon
Photo courtesy of Academy of Our Lady

Note: on April 13, the Office of Catholic Schools issued the following statement in light of a report that Governor Edwards plans to issue a proclamation closing public schools for the remainder of the school year: “Superintendent of Catholic Schools Dr. RaeNell Houston is in conversations with Catholic school superintendents throughout the state to develop plans for the remainder of this school year for Catholic schools. After consultation with the superintendents and local principals she will provide a strategic plan as to how the school year will be brought to conclusion.“

Thinking initially that Louisiana schools would be closed only for a month through mid-April, the Office of Catholic Schools (OCS) of the Archdiocese of New Orleans had to shift gears and determine a new distance-learning plan once Gov. John Bel Edwards extended the mandated closures to at least April 30.

“We are building the plane as we fly it,” said Dr. RaeNell Houston, Catholic Schools superintendent. “This is unprecedented. … There is no handbook or how-to. We are using what we know about best practices, what we know about our community and our needs, and we’re doing the best we can.”

The priority, Houston said, has been for schools to implement plans “for teacher-directed and teacher-supported homework for distance-school learning.”

“We wanted our kids to remain engaged and to continue learning,” she said. “We didn’t want that to stop. We wanted to be able to support parents in carrying out this new form of learning.”

On March 13, Kacey Webb, the office’s director of instructional technology, began working on a template for school leaders to create home-learning plans to support their unique communities of students, families, teachers and faculty. Houston asked the schools to submit their plans to the OCS and begin carrying them out.

Webb has conducted online training for leaders on Google Classrooms 101 and Google Classrooms 102 and using Zoom as a tool for online learning. She also offered tips and tricks for online learning and held another training for high school curriculum coordinators and administrators on wellness.

“We are on ZOOM conferences all day, every day to meet the needs” of elementary and high schools, Houston said. Weekly conferences are scheduled for primary and secondary leaders, with other meetings scheduled as needed. The OCS team also meets “to come together, share and decide how to best support our leaders and teachers.”

Caught on quickly

Houston said high schools adapted immediately to live lessons and new content because they were using some type of online learning in their brick-and-mortar building to prepare students for college.

“Our high schools were much more ready and equipped to focus and create their distance-learning programs,” Houston said. “They were already using platforms like Google Classroom and Canvas and other educational learning platforms.

“Our elementary schools were all over (the place). We have some schools that were low-tech and others that were completely blended with one-to-one (computer) devices and were more consistent with what the high schools were doing. It even varied within school buildings with what they were doing with the lower grades and middle school,” she said.

Once schools received the mandate to remain closed through the end of April, OCS evaluated taking advantage of spring break to help teachers and administrators restructure learning.

“Every week, our leaders and teachers are reevaluating what they are doing based on guidelines from the LDOE (Louisiana Department of Education) and feedback from students, parents and teachers,” Houston said. “Everybody is doing what works for them and their community.

“We are going to be professionals at virtual and remote work when this is all done. We’re learning how to do all the things that teachers are learning so we can best support them. I think it’s going to change how we operate as an office. We were hesitant about virtual platforms prior to coronavirus, but now it’s the new norm. As we move forward in the future, we will implement of a lot of what we’re doing now when we get back.”

Will students be behind?

Even though Gov. Edwards said lost instructional days do not have to be made up, a concern is the readiness of students in the 2020-21 academic year. Some parents want the school year to last longer to keep students engaged, Houston said.

Houston is discussing this with school leaders, but she said most schools are relying on benchmarking or periodic assessments such as ACT Aspire, taken three times a year in some elementary schools, that analyze where students are, what they should know and what their deficiencies are, if any.

“We will have those data points to gauge what kids need and how to best support them.”

What about graduation?

Schools are in a holding pattern for fourth-quarter events such as graduations and first Communions.

“It all depends on what the governor will let us do as far as public gatherings in the summer,” Houston said. “We’re hoping to postpone graduation and have ceremonies in the summer, sometime before the kids go to college. … We are hoping to return to school in some way so kids can see their teachers and each other before the summer and to have some type of faith component.”

Houston said OCS is considering “all possibilities.” She referenced Dr. Anthony Fauci, an advisor to President Trump during the pandemic, saying it is unlikely schools will return this year, making it doubtful that summer camps will happen, “at least not in the way we have had them before.”

Some possibilities to continue missed fourth-quarter lessons include:

Conducting summer school in the brick-and-mortar building, maybe in July, possibly with limited numbers of students based on the guidelines. This depends on availability of students and teachers.

Encouraging schools to provide optional home-learning resources in the summer.

Returning to school earlier in the fall, teaching work that would have covered in the fourth quarter and not addressed in distance or home-learning programs – to ensure student readiness for the first semester of the 2020-21 school year.

“We are trying to remain hopeful that we will return sometime in May to wrap up our school year,” Houston said. “But, we are also being cautiously optimistic with a Plan B – that happens if we can’t go back to school. That would mean finishing the year remotely – distance learning or home-learning.”

Houston said she’s heard from parents who are financially struggling due to furloughs, losing their jobs and even catching the virus. Her office worked with the Catholic Community Foundation to create an iGiveCatholic Together COVID-19 fundraising site at https://neworleans.igivecatholic.org/, and a page on the OCS website for tuition assistance. Individual schools can direct parents to apply for these funds, she said.

Houston is impressed how principals and teachers met the challenges the coronavirus has thrust on them.

“It is nothing short of amazing that our leaders and teachers, almost overnight, converted what they were doing in a brick-and-mortar classroom to some type of teacher-supported home-learning and distance-learning situation,” Houston said.

“I see the posts on schools’ Facebook pages and social media accounts as well as parents’ pages with kids in Catholic schools. The teachers are giving 110% making sure their kids are connected and engaged and continuing to learn and grow in faith. Our teachers and our leaders have stepped up to the plate in ways I couldn’t have imagined. We are so blessed to have the dedicated educators and leaders that we have.”

Christine Bordelon can be reached at cbordelon@clarionherald.org.