July 6, 2020
Dear Parents of St. Anthony of Padua Catholic School,
Greetings! I pray your families are well and making the most of this unusual summer. As we look ahead to the 2020-2021 academic year, our school administration and staff, as well as the parish leadership team, have been working since March to plan how to best serve our families and teachers in the next year as we continue to plan in this time of much uncertainty.
I want to state again that we plan to follow the school calendar published in the spring and start our new school year in our building on August 12th. The only circumstance under which I would foresee this not being able to happen is if Governor Abbott prohibits schools from opening. However, even if this occurred, the first day would remain August 12th. St. Anthony of Padua Catholic School will only move to distance learning if we are mandated to do so.
As I mentioned in my letter on June 19th, we are not required to follow Conroe ISD. Because Conroe ISD has 65,000+ students and we only have 450 students, we are able to focus on how best to serve our Dolphins and we feel strongly that our students are best served when in classrooms with their teachers. Knowing this, we plan on instruction five days a week on our campus. At this time, guidelines are fluid as recommendations change depending on the current situation and climate.
In this letter, I want to share plans we are already putting into place with the safety and health of our students, families, faculty and staff as our top priority. While we will continue to work on planning as the opening of our year is still six weeks away, we want to share what we know at this point.
Daily Student Needs and Protocols
Daily Screener and Consequent Steps
Remote Learning
While our plan is to return to our campus, we have also planned carefully for an improved remote learning plan if we find ourselves having to pivot to this method of education. We are so proud that we were able to continue with our lesson plans last year and meet our objectives even in distance learning. We did, however, hear your concerns and made some improvements if this method of instruction is required. This upcoming year, to streamline instruction, all PK3 – 8th grade students will be using Google Classroom. Google Meet has been greatly improved allowing chrome book cameras to be used during live classes and much easier submission of all assignments. Attendance will also be taken through Google Classroom which will eliminate the need for learning logs. Additionally, auxiliary classes will be streamlined to minimize stress and confusion with our families.
In conclusion, I hope that this letter shows you the careful thought and deliberate effort that our campus and the entire Archdiocese have been putting in to opening our schools safely. I ask that you keep your families safe and follow all guidelines so that we all remain healthy. Please be patient as we continue to develop plans and make updates as necessary. On behalf of the administration and faculty, we are greatly looking forward to welcoming your students in our classrooms on August 12th. Next year’s theme is “Believe”. As I have mentioned before, please have faith in our school and our administration as we work to prepare for this upcoming year. We know that all is in God’s hands, we must surrender to Him, and we trust in His plan for each of us. Please pray for the safety of our families and staff, for the wisdom for the best decisions to be made and for the health of our entire community and world.
St. Anthony of Padua, Pray for Us.
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Patron Saint of Catholic School, Pray for Us.
Only by His Grace,
Veronica D. Tucker
Principal