Dear St. Norbert School Families,
We hope the beginning of this Advent season has been filled with joy, hope and optimism for all of you.
As you may be aware, COVID positive cases are increasing significantly in Chester County and throughout the state. While we have managed to keep our students in class from September through November, our school community has recently experienced multiple positive cases and a long list of exposures which have necessitated many individual quarantines, and, in the case of the 4th grade, an entire cohort quarantine. Each “case” is evaluated by the school nurses who may in turn consult with the Chester County Health Department to ensure that the appropriate protocol is applied to individual facts and circumstances. Please know that this is a rigorous process that is performed with care and a perspective to ensure that our community of students, teachers and faculty remain as safe as possible.
Our nurses continue to do exemplary work in educating SNS families and applying the often confusing and conflicting recommendations provided by the state, the county and the Archdiocese. Before and after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, we had many families inform us of their out-of-state travel and, given the new state directives, work with the nurses to confirm when their children could return to school based on testing and/or quarantine requirements. We believe the days of virtual instruction immediately following Thanksgiving break helped mitigate potential exposure in the school, thereby providing for continued in-person instruction.
Given the expectation of continued increase in positive cases in Chester County for the rest of December, holiday gatherings and family travel during the Christmas and New Year’s break, and our commitment to keeping both the children and adults in our school building safe and healthy, the decision has been made to move to 100% virtual instruction the week of January 4th. The intention of this time out of the school building is to provide for additional safeguards from COVID spread prior to the students returning for in-person instruction on Monday, January 11th and begin 2021 on strong footing.
We understand you may have questions about school policies given the continued updates from the CDC, the state, the county and the Archdiocese. With this in mind, we have scheduled a virtual Town Hall next Wednesday, December 16th at 7:00 PM. This session will provide a venue for families to ask questions about the updated recommendations and school policies and how they are being applied at SNS. To facilitate the discussion, questions you would like addressed can be submitted to Mrs. Hennessy ahead of the meeting at mkhennessy@stnorbert.org.
Thank you more than ever for your support, your commitment to your children’s education, and for helping to keep St. Norbert School strong in challenging times.
Blessings to your families,
Mrs. Mary Kay Hennessy, Principal
David Fritz, Health & Safety Committee Co-Chair
David Savage, Health & Safety Committee Co-Chair
