August 4, 2021

Hello SCS Community,

I hope you had a fun, restful summer. We are looking forward to welcoming your children back to campus soon. In preparation, we wanted to send out an overview of St. Catherine of Siena's Back to School Covid-19 protocols and procedures. At this point, there will not be an Archdiocesan-wide policy; however, each school site will develop and submit its own policy. This is a fluid situation where policies and protocols can change regularly. We will continue to monitor the data and work closely with local health officials and the Louisiana Department of Health and Department of Education to make any necessary adjustments as the situation evolves. Below are St. Catherine of Siena’s Current Covid-19 Policy highlights and changes.

Mask Wearing: Mask-wearing policies are as follows:

• Regardless of vaccination status, all individuals 5 years and older must wear a mask while indoors until the governor mandate expires. Individuals under the age of 5 are not mandated to wear a mask at this time.
• Anyone ages 5 and older will be asked to wear a mask while entering and exiting the building during periods of high congregation, i.e. morning arrival and afternoon dismissal.
• As per the governor’s mandate, we will not be requiring masks outside. All outside visitors will be required to wear a mask when on campus for lunch, holiday parties, classroom crafts, etc.

Please see the attached letter regarding Covid-19 from Dr. Houston, the Superintendent of the Archdiocese of New Orleans. [Letter was emailed to school parents]

Covid-19 Exposure/Vaccines: We strongly encourage families to talk to their physician/pediatrician about getting the vaccine for students and parents who are eligible.

If any person (student/faculty member) is directly exposed to a Covid-19 positive person, but they have been vaccinated, they will not need to be quarantined. If unvaccinated, there will be a 10-day quarantine from the first day of symptoms.

When a student is either suspected or confirmed of having Covid-19, parents must immediately inform our school nurse, who will be responsible for all case management and contact tracing.

Once notified, the school nurse will ensure the proper steps are taken to have your child return to school as soon as possible.

Quarantine:

If students are in direct contact with a positive Covid-19 case (Direct contact is less than 6 feet for more than 15 minutes, regardless of vaccination status or masks) then as a general rule the class will quarantine. However, all scenarios will be handled on a case by case basis.

Virtual Learning: We will provide virtual learning for the following:

• Classes in Kindergarten through seventh grade who may need to quarantine.
• Individual students due to Covid-19 quarantine or Covid-19 illness in grades fourth through seventh.

Temperature Checks: We will no longer be required to take temperature checks at the beginning of each school day. It is important that all students and staff properly monitor their own symptoms and conduct screenings prior to attending school or work for the safety of themselves and others.

Regularly scheduled events and Academic normalities such as, middle school class switching, multi-grade-levels recess play, eating in the cafeteria, etc. will return to pre-Covid-19 practices and procedures. Please see the school calendar for dates of events/activities. At this time, the Father-Daughter Dance scheduled for August 20th will be rescheduled when the mask mandate is lifted.

Daily Cleaning: We will continue efforts toward daily cleaning and disinfecting. Please continue to encourage and practice good hand-washing multiple times a day. There will be hand sanitizer stations next to all water fountains.

Just as last year, we encourage students to bring individual water bottles to use throughout the day.

Arrival/Dismissal: We will continue to establish controlled routines for entrance, exit, and class exchanges to maximize distancing to the greatest extent possible during student transitional routines during the school day.

Please see the below for the full arrival and dismissal procedures.

https://d2y1pz2y630308.cloudfront.net/17098/documents/2021/6/Arrival_Dismissal%202021-2022.pdf

It is our priority to provide a safe educational environment. Our full-time school nurse will continue to be here to help and support our students, faculty and staff. As we stated, we will continue to monitor the situation and make changes accordingly when necessary. Changes will be made based on information from LDOE, LDOH, Archdiocese of New Orleans, and the Governor's office.

We are looking forward to a great school year. We wish that things could be completely normal. We understand that you might be disappointed with some of these protocols. However, we ask for your cooperation and support. If you are disappointed, we encourage you not to share your frustrations in front of your students, but to discuss it privately. We want the students to have a positive year and you play an important part in setting a positive tone. Thank you for your patience and support as we enter the 2021-2022 school year.

Sincerely,

Maria Ward
Principal
St. Catherine of Siena School