Catholic schools hope to reopen on campus in August

By Christine Bordelon
Clarion Herald

What Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of New Orleans look like when they reopen in August will depend on the status of the coronavirus and state and local regulations set to protect students and faculty on each school campus. 

In a two-hour meeting held June 26, the Office of Catholic Schools (OCS) unveiled a 72-page framework from which the 75 Catholic elementary and high schools educating more than 33,000 students in the Archdiocese of New Orleans will use to reopen individual campuses this fall.

Plans in place 

“We created this very broad framework for reopening,” said Dr. RaeNell Houston, superintendent of Catholic schools for the Archdiocese of New Orleans. In preparation for the meeting, school leaders were sent the document to read and digest and asked to submit questions in advance. 

“Everybody seems to be on the same page,” Houston said.

The document has been in the works since the end of the school year in late April and early May, Houston said. Catholic school superintendents statewide established task forces of local elementary and high school principals and directors who worked to create “a more-specific-and-meaty version of that guidance” in their dioceses with the help of Robert Tasman, executive director of the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops (LCCB). In the Archdiocese of New Orleans, a 13-member task force was created, she said. 

All state dioceses based their end document on “Leading with Hope: A Reflective Guide for Catholic Schools in a New Reality,” a document produced by the Andrew M. Greeley Center for Catholic Education, School of Education-Loyola University Chicago (​luc.edu/gcce), and with guidelines published by the national Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Department of Health and Department of Education in response to COVID-19. 

The document addressed four major areas: operational (operations, transportation, finance); instructional (academics and curriculum, standardized technology); spiritual and emotional (Catholic identity, holistic support, creating and maintaining community); staff and community. OCS has been in consultation with Ochsner, Ascension DePaul (formerly Daughters of Charity) and LCMC Children’s Hospital, and each has presented protocols during weekly calls with principals. Some schools have also independently consulted these medical professionals.

Three options were given for restarting instruction, depending on the reopening phase: a traditional school setting in the brick-and-mortar school, a hybrid setting combining traditional and non-traditional settings (if social distancing regulations require reduced students in a classroom due to six-foot-apart rule); and non-traditional setting as was practiced when the crisis hit in the fourth quarter of the 2019-20 academic year.  

“Our hope and our prayer is that we will be allowed to do so (open in brick-and-mortar buildings),” Houston said. “Right now, everybody is a little anxious,” which she considers a good thing that will encourage following protocols more vigilantly.

Protocols established

Houston said when schools return to in-school instruction, certain protocols and standards will be followed based on the state, parish and city “phase” guidelines to minimize virus spread and crowding situations. Phase I is 10 students together in a classroom; Phase II is 25; Phase III is 50. 

The standards include a process of daily health checks such as temperature checks at the beginning of the school day for faculty, staff and students; staggering entry times to minimize numbers of students accessing buildings at once; requiring masks or face coverings for faculty, staff and students in third grade and above (with accommodations made for health conditions and special needs); staggering desks 6 feet apart, if possible; keeping class groups static (with the possibility of eating lunch in classrooms, extending lunch times); frequent hand-washing and sanitizing of surfaces such as desks, door knobs, tables and other shared spaces (using CDC guidelines); establishing an isolation area for those who show symptoms or test positive for the virus during school and then consulting a regional health director from the Louisiana Department of Health to determine if quarantine is necessary for those who came into close contact with the affected student; minimizing hallway usage; possibly modifying P.E. and other classes where kids are in close physical contact; and possibly celebrating multiple school Masses or participating live-streamed in the classroom to maintain social distancing. 

Houston said every school is establishing an individual plan based on its community’s needs, population, facilities, resources and with feedback from their stakeholders. Every school’s plan will look different, she said, but all school plans will be reviewed by the Office of Catholic Schools.

Money to help families

Knowing that many parents were furloughed and laid off due to business closures during the coronavirus, the Office of Catholic Schools quickly stepped in to financially assist families. The Office of Catholic Schools created a COVID-19 assistance fund through the Catholic Community Foundation, Dr. Houston said. In June alone, $175,000 was awarded to families to finish school loan payments for the 2019-20 school year, she said.

Even though those funds were quickly exhausted, Houston said fundraising continues to help financially affected families to continue their child’s Catholic education for the 2020-21 school year. The Champions of Education funds (awarded to families needing financial assistance on a regular basis, not COVID-19 related) will be awarded in July.

“We are hoping we have generous donors” who will make contributions, she said. 

Houston expressed gratitude for flexibility and resilience of faculty and staff during the pandemic.    

“They worked so hard during the COVID-19 crisis to continue to educate and form the hearts and minds of our students and engage our school communities in ministry,” she said. “Overnight, they shifted their learning, pivoting from brick-and-mortar instruction to a form of social-distance learning, which was not an easy feat. But, they did it with enthusiasm and professionalism.”

Teachers are eager and ready to get back into the classroom.

“Several school leaders have expressed how much they missed the kids and being a part of their school community,” Houston said. “Even though it will be different and we will have to operate differently, everyone is excited to get back to school and their new normal.”

Christine Bordelon can be reached at [email protected].