“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22: 36-40
As you know, last spring the COVID-19 pandemic forced the closure of all schools throughout the state and around the nation. In very short order, we were tasked with shifting from in-person learning to distance learning. Admittedly, it was a bit bumpy. I’m happy to report with a lot of hard work by many talented and dedicated people, all of our schools managed to successfully conclude the academic year.
Following the end of the school year, we surveyed teachers, parents and some students regarding their experience with distance learning. Over the course of the summer, the Diocesan Education Office has been busy “learning the lessons” from those survey results. One thing we heard overwhelmingly, from every school community in the diocese, was the clear preference for in-person learning rather than distance learning. While distance learning is a viable possibility, very few teachers, parents or students desire to see a return to a distance-learning mode for our schools.
With that in mind, I spent this summer in a seemingly endless series of Zoom meetings and conference calls involving: the US Department of Education, the Nebraska Department of Education, the Governor’s Office, the Centers for Disease Control, the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services and here in Lincoln, the Lincoln/Lancaster County Health Department. I’ve combed through piles of medical news articles, reports from public health/epidemiology experts and research results coming out of studies conducted in countries around the world. I’ve been in regular contact with the Lincoln, Norris and Waverly public schools, the other Lincoln-area private schools and the two other Nebraska Catholic School superintendents. A number of physicians and health care providers have contacted me personally to lend their expertise and share their insights. All told, it hasn’t been a typical summer for many in educational leadership positions around the nation.
Lessons Learned
1. COVID-19 is real. Those who claim it’s nothing to worry about or it’s no worse than the seasonal flu are incorrect. It’s real and we need to be concerned about it and apparently it’s not going away any time soon.
2. COVID-19 is a strange virus. Many who have it, exhibit few if any symptoms, while others who have it die or end up fighting for their life and it’s difficult to pinpoint the reasons for the difference.
3. “Experts” can be found to support almost any position related to COVID-19 one may wish to take.
4. Often, the experts don’t agree, leading to immense public confusion about who and what to believe.
5. Sadly, COVID-19 (a medical issue) has also become a political issue.
6. As a result, school administrators are caught in the middle. And no matter what we decide, some group of people will inform us we’re wrong.
7. We have to be better at operating schools in a distance-learning mode. We had almost no time to learn how to do that last spring. As a result, this summer, we’ve invested a lot of time and effort into being better prepared for distance learning, should the need arise.
What to do?
In order to answer that question, I spent the summer locked into conversations, news articles and research results. No doubt, many of you did something similar. Together with many other school administrative leaders, collectively we determined:
1. The best and most consistent medical/public health information, based on research and evidence, indicates schools can safely reopen if they subscribe to good prevention practices including:
a. Social distancing whenever possible.
b. Wearing a mask.
c. Frequent surface sanitizing and handwashing.
d. Daily self-assessment for COVID-19 symptoms.
e. Quarantine/self-isolate when symptoms appear.
f. Getting tested (with negative results) before returning to school.
2. Children and teenagers are at fairly low risk for COVID-19.
3. Little evidence has been observed (at daycare centers and pre-schools that remained open) of asymptomatic children transmitting the virus to faculty and staff.
4. Local health department guidelines and any directed health measures provide the most reliable information. Why? Because those folks have kids in our schools, too.
The CDC and Nebraska DHHS concluded that under current conditions, it is safe to reopen schools in Nebraska and elsewhere. Therefore, that’s what we’re doing. In doing so, we’re also fully committed to maintaining the safety and well-being of our students, faculty and staff.
School Reopening Plans
Utilizing the best available medical/public health advice and guidance, each school was tasked with creating a reopening plan. Some general comments on reopening plans.
- These plans were established under Christ’s command to “love your neighbor as yourself.”
- As such, I sincerely pray we can all agree no one desires to create a school environment that will harm our children or our faculty and staff. In other words, as each school assembled their individual reopening plans, every intention has been for the good of our students/faculty/staff.
- That said, our schools are scattered across southern Nebraska, involving different communities with differing levels of risk, needs and resources. The schools have labored to balance the needs of students, parents and faculty/staff. It’s a very difficult balance to find.
- There is no “one size fits all” reopening plan for schools. While there are some common elements of reopening plans, each school tailored a plan to fit their individual community.
- By necessity, these plans are flexible rather than “written in stone.” They are subject to change as conditions change.
- Schools are free to make exceptions/changes as individual conditions warrant.
- Schools have been and remain open to discussion about their plans. Time may show some conditions can be loosened (or tightened).
Parent-Student Acknowledgement Form
In order to proceed with reopening schools, we need parents to understand schools cannot promise a COVID-free environment. Schools can and will take wise precautions in an effort to minimize the transmission of the virus. However, neither we nor anyone else can eliminate it. In addition, one of the best precautions is daily self-monitoring for symptoms of the virus. Parents are always their child’s primary health care manager and advocate. As such, we must rely upon parental assistance. Each day, we need parents to monitor their child(ren) for symptoms of COVID-19. The acknowledgement form simply says you agree to do so. Parents, please sign the form and return it to your school – one per family/per school is sufficient. As always with schools, this is a partnership with parents. As such, a signed/returned form is necessary requirement for all students, assuring that our schools can rely upon this partnership with you.
The Catholic School Difference
Schools across the land are reopening this fall under a cloud of uncertainty and anxiety. No one can say what will happen with COVID-19. In that regard, Catholic schools are no different from other schools. However, the similarity ends there.
In Catholic schools, Jesus Christ is the Lord of our schools, present in every location, every day. As such, we place our full faith and trust in the Lord Almighty God rather than the Centers for Disease Control or other human institution. That doesn’t mean we can be careless. However, it does mean, having taken the necessary and recommended health precautions, in the name and under the banner of Jesus Christ, we welcome our students, faculty and staff back to our schools with great faith, love and joy.
In following the great commandment of Jesus, let us all embrace the love and joy of the Lord our God, who first loved us enough to sacrifice his only Son. And in the spirit of the second great commandment to love your neighbor as yourself, let us embrace the necessary health precautions (like social distancing, masking, daily screening) not because we have to but because we love as we are loved! We love our neighbor as Christ loved us and we want it to show. That is the Catholic School difference.
As we begin this school year in the most unusual of circumstances, may God richly bless and protect every faculty member, staff member, administrator, student, parent and family member in our Catholic Schools. In response to COVID-19, let us lift high the cross and with thanks and praise to Almighty God, embark on the journey of another school year – whatever it may bring. St. Luke the physician, pray for us! All the Angels and Saints, pray for us!
