Dear Parents
Just an update on the many things that are SFdS. We continue to be very fortunate that we have had little disruptions to our on-campus learning during COVID. We are missing our Christmas celebrations in the classrooms and the time we spend together as a community at this joyous time of year. But I feel we are safe and incorporate best practices into our school day. You as parents have continued to follow our guidelines and those of the CDC. It has made a difference for our school community.
Father Ray and I have had many discussions reviewing where we are and what we can offer to our students for learning options, on campus vs virtual learning. We are monitoring what local districts are doing for other students in Walworth County. We know that the face to face on campus learning is the most effective way to teach our students. We also recognize that parents are making choices on how they will spend the Christmas break. So, we want to keep you informed and commit to having our
students return on January 4th to on campus learning, not a week of virtual learning. Families that have traveled, may have been exposed to or had close contact with someone who is positive with COVID should choose to self-quarantine before returning to school. If you believe you have had close contact, exposure, symptoms or a positive COVID test in your household, your absences are recorded as an excused absence. You must notify the office, not the homeroom teacher and we will adjust your attendance to an excused COVID absence in Option C. We do expect students to keep up with their assignments while in quarantine. We have faith that families will make the best decision for their child/children and for our school community to keep students that may experience the following home and quarantined:
a. Student shows any COVID symptoms
b. Family member in the household shows symptoms
c. Have had close contact with person who has tested positive
d. Have been exposed to a person who has tested positive
If you are in self-quarantine with one of the above situations, your child should quarantine within the guidelines of CDC and Walworth County Department of Health, see attached flyer. These students will be sent work through the Google classroom and invited to some limited classroom activities during their quarantine.
We also looked at the local districts changes to their calendar for the Christmas break. The local Lake Geneva Schools are taking December 21st and 22nd as additional vacation days. We have decided to just take 23rd as a vacation day and still have school on December 21st and on the 22nd, an 11:30 dismissal.
This will give us the opportunity to celebrate Mass and The Birth of Christ as a community. Our Mass schedule will be grades 1-5 at 8:45 and Middle School at 9:45 on December 22nd. This alignment with LG Schools’ calendar assists us in bus and lunch services. We will take the opportunity to do a deep cleaning in our school and we will continue to follow the criteria we set forth at the beginning of the year.
I hope you all have your calendars marked for 12/22 at 7 when we will host our virtual Christmas Concert with some of our students. I am also excited to invite you to attend the Live Nativity with our SFdS Parish Community on 12/19th at 6 PM. and 12/20 at 4:15 & 5:15.
Wishing you and your families a very Merry Christmas full of peace, joy, and love.
Terry Maus
Principal
Saint Francis de Sales Parish School