Town Hall SFdS Community Anne Quatrini
Prayer to the Holy Spirit Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your spirit and they shall be created and you shall renew the face of the earth. Oh God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, Grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy your consolations, Through Christ our Lord, Amen.
Here is what I said: Thank you for being here, thank you for welcoming me to St. Francis de Sales School. I’d like to begin in prayer. Thank you heavenly Father for being with us here today. Thank you for the wisdom within our community and for the opportunity to gather together via zoom. Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.’ Send forth your spirit and they shall be created and you shall renew the face of the earth. Oh God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, Grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy your consolations, Through Christ our Lord, Amen. I’ve been Meeting with teachers and staff and they all love the community. Time and time again how the community is a family and everyone cares for each other. They also tell me how supportive and engaged the parents are which is why I wanted to have this meeting. To include you and to get your feedback about what went well and what didn’t in the past few months. In addition to try to address any questions or concerns you might have about the upcoming school year. I do not officially take over as principal until July 1st so I have not been involved with the planning stages so far for the fall. I have to
applaud the teachers in getting online learning up and running and only missing one day of instruction during the covid crisis in March.That is absolutely amazing especially compared to our public school counterparts which struggled for several weeks. My daughter just graduated from Clements in FBISD and online learning was not optimal. Some of the leadership team is here with us today to help me answer any questions you may have. I am keeping in touch with the archdiocese and Feedback from pastors, principals, and parents was unanimous that we should allow site-based decisions on the calendar rather than an Archdiocesan-wide calendar. This means we are free to create our own calendar and address the needs of our own students. While TEA, Texas Education Agency is coming out with guidelines next Tuesday, June 16th, CATHOLIC SCHOOLS MUST FOLLOW GUIDANCE from TCCB ED, Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops Education Department. Understand that I believe it is the school’s obligation to provide superior educational services in the manner most appropriate under current circumstances and this may fluctuate between face-to face and online. And we have to be prepared for that. What will that look like? I am expecting cloth face coverings for teachers, temperature monitoring before anyone is permitted to enter the school, directionality in the hallways, one way only, social distancing during recess and outdoor times and cleaning. Much cleaning. Endless cleaning. I am committed to Catholic education and I am getting my feet wet and trying to plan for what is best for our school. We have to wait for TEA and TCCBED to give us the go ahead. And we must comply with local authorities.
Questions from the Community
Currently local school districts are contemplating a choice model where parents can choose either distance learning or face-to-face. When will we know for sure if either one of these will occur? The Catholic Schools Offjce has been working on three models: Face-to-face, hybrid, and online. TEA, Texas Education Agency, will roll out guidelines on Tuesday, June 16th. Catholic schools must follow Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops Education Department decisions. More answers next week.
Tentatively, SFdS students are returning to school on August 12, 2020 (per Ms. Wooten's video). However, we are concerned with the increasing rise in the Covid-19 infections and deaths in Texas, therefore; is it reasonable to expect students to return to face-to-face instructions and if not, what is the back up plan? We are most concerned with the health, safety, and education of your children. We are anticipating face-to-face in August, but there are no guarantees. We will have face-to-face and options to support at home learning. Protocols from the TCCBED will be forthcoming.
If the back up plan is distance learning again like we did the 4th nine weeks of this past academic school year, is there any relief for parents regarding tuition? We feel that if we are paying full tuition it should be face-to-face. However, if we are planning to do distance learning again then would it be fair for us to pay a full tuition price? Should there be a reduction on tuition? Tuition is set and pays 80% of faculty and stafg salaries and benefits for the full school year, the rest is made up through fundraisers. We count on parents to fulfill their tuition commitments as our expenses do not go down during online learning. Same electric bills, now we are buying PPE and cleaning supplies.
With distance learning, as parents we wind up as teachers which takes a lot of our time, our energy and adds to our workload because we are working, too. Again, would that cause tuition to be lower than what is expected for this upcoming school year, which is $10,350? Crisis mode when we implemented online learning. I have spoken to teachers and there are many lessons learned: create more streamlined approach, having a more structured day, and explicitly teaching students how to engage with the technology. As mentioned before, we do not foresee a reduction in tuition.
With the high number of inexperienced players on the girl’s sports teams (mainly volleyball and basketball), I feel that the coach plays an even more important role in the success of the team. One with experience and understanding of the game (not just of general coaching) is vital. Can you share what will be instore for the girl’s teams this upcoming year? Mr. Garza is in the process of hiring a former college athlete to work with the girls in volleyball. I have secured the services of Fred Trackwell who has experience playing basketball and coaching girls basketball team at JPll.
I wanted to know if there was a contingency plan for families who are not comfortable sending their students back from in-person classes? Possibly a hybrid model with face-to-face classroom being recorded and students at home either following along or working asynchronously.
End of Submitted Questions
Questions from attendees: What are the plans for a Dean of Students/Academic Dean? Fr. Joseph would like to phase out the Dean and have an Assistant Principal, however, I do not know exactly when that will happen. Duties will be distributed. Will we hire a school nurse? Carolyn Bellis has been attending the meetings at the CSO for nurses and as the Clinic Manager may end up needing more help. I am looking into creating a health and safety team to address concerns.
Will we be hiring more custodial stafg to do the additional cleaning? I have not looked at that yet, but I do know we will be cleaning manipulatives daily. Perhaps having a box of personal manipulatives and teaching children the life skill of cleaning may be the way to go. What is the status of the new playground equipment? I know that money was raised through Steps 4 Students, however I do not know the status yet. Will students be moving from classroom to classroom? I envision the teachers moving, not the students. How will sports look? Will we play other teams? I don’t know yet, we will have more guidance from TEA and TCCBED next week.
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