Good Evening Parents and Guardians,
As you are undoubtedly aware, the increase in community spread of COVID-19 cases continues to be on all of our minds. Today I am writing with a few points of clarification.
- We will return to in-person learning tomorrow (Monday, November 16) for those who are in-person learners.
- We have hired a COVID case data manager, Mrs. Rachel Meiner, who will be overseeing all positive and presumed positive notifications and contact tracing.
-
To report a student's positive case or exposure, please notify [email protected] or call the main office at: (708) 771-8383. You will receive a phone call from Mrs. Meiner to follow up with all pertinent details.
We continue to monitor and adapt to the implications of COVID-19 in our Trinity and surrounding communities.
We have previously published thresholds to aid in the determination of situations which would require Trinity to take an adaptive pause from delivering in-person instruction on campus.
This week, we have experienced a sharp rise in the numbers of students, faculty and staff needing to quarantine due to COVID-19 exposure or the presence of symptoms for which we screen. And while the safety of in person instruction remains high and the risk of transmission on campus is low, according to the CDC, we are closely examining the impacts of the student in-person experience given the constantly changing landscape in terms of staffing and student attendance.
The administrative team meets frequently to reassess the state of the school. We will have to remain flexible and prepared to move to full remote eLearning if needed, especially if the staffing needed to meet our safety requirements becomes unsustainable.
We are aware that the Archdiocese of Chicago has announced that their schools will move to remote learning after the scheduled Christmas vacation, but it is important to know that the Archdiocese's directives do not apply to Trinity - nor to most other Catholic High Schools. The Archdiocese oversees our adherence to Catholic teaching, not our operations. At this point, Trinity High School is planning to be open for in-person on campus instruction (and eLearning for those who have chosen that option for Block II) following Christmas vacation. Instructional time following Christmas vacation precedes Block II examinations (scheduled for January 20th and 21st) and we believe that students and teachers would both benefit from in-person time together, if it is at all possible to do so.
Trinity is committed to remaining in-person as long as we are able, and we are so proud - and grateful - for the commitment displayed by our students, families, faculty and staff who follow the protocols so that we can continue to say that there have been ZERO cases of COVID-19 transmission at Trinity.
Please continue to keep the Trinity community in your prayers, as many are personally struggling with this pandemic its many repercussions in every facet of their lives.
