By TOM TRACY
Catholic News Service
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - U.S. Catholic schools are tweaking their reopening plans for a worrisome fall term by consulting parents and training staff for face-to- face instruction in many cas- es but with distance-learning programs in place as well. With only a month left of summer vacation and with enrollment season unfolding in the atmosphere of uncer- tainty, parochial and oth- er private Catholic schools around the country are roll- ing out a variety of teach- ing approaches for the new school year. Given the mixed results of last spring's rapid pivot to online education, a prefer- ence has been emerging for in-person instruction or for a hybrid blend of both vir- tual learning with partially reopened campuses. "What I know about chil- dren and how they form rela- tionships with adults, I don't think there is much doubt that it would be better in person," said Kathy Mears, interim director of the Na- tional Catholic Educational Association. "I also have no doubt that there are some really creative teachers out there who are going to fig- ure out how to build those (online) relationships as best they can." Both in person and virtual learning methods are set to be implemented in various forms as school communities decide on strategies that are certain to vary from region to region and are subject to mid-course change as the pandemic expands, impact- ing some communities more than others. Archdiocese of Louisville Catholic grade schools plan to open with in-person in- struction. Catholic high schools in the archdiocese are still formulating plans that include online and in- person instruction. Mears told Catholic News Service recently the NCEA has begun collecting schools' reopening plans and safety protocols designed to deal with the COVID-19 pan- demic. There are more than 6,000 Catholic schools in the U.S., and many of those best practices plans will be shared among Catholic school su- perintendents and principals nationwide through confer- ence calls as the school year progresses. Last year, students had the benefit of at least start- ing the school year in person and getting to know each other and the faculty face to face over a period of months before a national lockdown in March. It may prove a less than ideal situation wher- ever students are asked to start the next fall term online if forming trusting teacher- student relationships suffers. "I am sure it will be more difficult the younger the stu- dents are," Mears said. "I know some Catholic school teachers have already been meeting their students via Zoom one on one before school has even started so that the kids will kind of know their teachers the first time they come together as a group online." In addition, Catholic schools around the coun- try that have posted their reopening plans online or shared them as news releas- es indicate several common modifications and safety pro- tocols and a few novel ideas as well. Many schools are plan- ning to reopen with an option for both in-person classes on campus and virtual learn- ing for families not ready to return their child to campus. Across the board, schools have made an array of cam- pus modifications to enhance social distancing, student traffic flow, mask wearing, safe drop-off and pickup pro- cedures, temperature checks and enhanced air circulation, sanitation measures and pro- fessional cleaning services. Schools are keeping children in age-related co- horts that will study and play together but not mingle outside their cohort to limit the spread of a potential in- fection, reducing the need to quarantine an entire stu- dent body in the event of an outbreak. Parents and volunteers will be restricted from being on campus for the foreseeable future. Some schools are offer- ing one-time financial incen- tives for students transfer- ring in from non-Catholic schools. Mears said she can't think of any school principals who took vacation this summer as they worked nonstop to ready their school for all contingen- cies. And some estimates say at least 100 Catholic schools will not reopen this fall due to the economic hardships imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the related economic strain. Meanwhile, working par- ents stuck at home have been under stress both from work- ing remotely while simulta- neously tutoring children for the last six months. Many are desperate to get their kids back into the classroom while others are more re- luctant. "The United States has never been more dependent on their teachers than they are right now and my hat is off to them because they are willing and trying to do what is best for their students," Mears said. The Archdiocese of Chi- cago, credited with creating a well-crafted and thorough re- opening plan for some 70,000 Catholic schools students, is encouraging in-person in- struction at its schools. But for families who aren't ready for that, the archdio- cese has consolidated virtual learning into a centralized virtual academy platform to relieve schools of the burden of running both formats si- multaneously. "We believe it might be very difficult for classroom teachers to deliver both forms of instruction simultaneously and do it well," Jim Rigg, the archdiocese's superintendent of Catholic schools, told CNS. "We are telling our teach- ers to put their time and attention into the face-to- face instruction component" whereas a new centralized archdiocesan virtual acad- emy will serve families with long-term virtual teaching. Parents who opt for virtu- al learning would still pay tu- ition and affiliate with their local Catholic school, with ongoing communication and coordination between that local school and the archdi- ocesan virtual academy. Rigg said every Catholic school has its own unique his- tory and culture and reopen- ing with in-person instruction enables campus individuality to flourish with schools find- ing the right blend of solu- tions for returning to school safely while incorporating the current scientific and medical guidance on COVID-19. The Chicago schools are now finalizing their individ- ual reopening plans and will submit those to the archdioc- esan school office for review by Aug. 10; meanwhile they are training staff and faculty on the reopening measures. "We feel face-to-face in- struction is vital to Catho- lic education and something is lost when you lose those daily interactions between students and teachers," Rigg said. "Most of our families still want that to happen." North of San Francisco, the principal of St. Vincent de Paul High School in Peta- luma has announced a hybrid reopening plan starting Aug. 11 and featuring an initial phase of two days of in-per- son instruction Monday and Tuesday. It will be followed by three days of at-home, virtual learning for its 200 high school students. By Sept. 15, the school will assess the situation and con- sider moving to four days of face-to-face instruction, giv- ing the students a chance to acclimate to the novelties and restrictions of a post- pandemic campus. "We felt this hybrid model will give students and teach- ers as well time to get accli- mated to things like teaching behind a plastic screen and students wearing face masks - it's a different educational experience," Patrick Daly, St. Vincent de Paul's principal, told CNS. Daly represented Cath- olic schools at a "National Dialogue on Safely Reopen- ing America's Schools" with President Donald Trump July 7 at the White House. Trump has been advocat- ing for schools to reopen with face-to-face teaching and to revive a devastated U.S. economy. Daly told the president that decisions about school reopenings should never be political but rather based on safety precautions and what is best for the youth. He also said he hopes to avoid full-time distance learning, which he said isn't healthy for young people nor their parents nor teachers, whom he said end up working three and four times harder. "You can get some one- on-one learning through Zoom but not everything," Daly said. "We also have to worry about (student) mental health." The NCEA's Mears sim- ply asks parents to keep an open mind about both online learning and in-person faith based instruction as schools go forward.
2 WWW.THERECORDNEWSPAPER.ORG NATION THE RECORD JULY 23, 2020
CNS Photo Courtesy Patrick W. Daly via Tom Tracy
Patrick W. Daly, principal of St. Vincent de Paul High School in Petaluma, Calif., is seen in Washington July 7. He repre- sented Catholic schools at a "National Dialogue on Safely Reopening America's Schools" with President Donald Trump at the White House.
U.S. Catholic schools plan reopening
In-person and virtual classrooms will be used in the nation's 6,000-plus Catholic schools
By JOHN MULDERIG
Catholic News Service
NEW YORK - Despite a tragically brief and illness-plagued career, Catholic author Flannery O'Connor, who died in 1964 aged just 39, is recognized as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century, excel- ling especially in her short stories. Her remarkable life is both recounted and celebrated in the admiring documentary "Flannery" (Long Distance Productions). Filmmakers Elizabeth Coffman and Jesuit Father Mark Bosco marshal home movies, archival television footage and interviews with O'Connor's friends and relatives to evoke her fiercely held faith and wickedly clever imagination. Scholars and fellow scribes, in- cluding Mary Gordon and Alice Walker, put in an appearance. Actress Mary Steenburgen voices O'Connor. "Flannery" may lack the tang of its sub- ject's Southern Gothic novels and tales, meditations on grace recognized and insight achieved by sometimes outlandish characters amid frequently bizarre circumstances. But viewers unfamiliar with her work will be motivated to explore it. Established fans, for their part, will ap- preciate the chance to pay an extended visit to Andalusia, the picturesque farm near Mill- edgeville, Georgia, to which lupus - the dis- ease that eventually caused her early death - long confined O'Connor. The simple house- hold seems haunted, in a strangely pleasant way, by her departed spirit. O'Connor did not write for children, and this profile of her is unsuitable for them as well. Its analysis of one of her tales involving a serial killer and another in which a her- maphrodite plays a central role, for example, suggests a mature audience. Many parents of older teens, on the other hand, may consider "Flannery" appropriate for them. All the more so since this literary biography is not only educational but spiritu- ally enriching as well. O'Connor was a dauntless champion of faith who, in her writing, subtly strove to communicate with unbelievers. A daily com- municant, she also read a chapter of the Bible and a section of St. Thomas Aquinas' "Summa Theologica" each day. By all indications, O'Connor patiently ac- cepted the hardships resulting from her mal- ady. Even as her end approached, moreover, she worked on in the hospital to complete her last collection of stories. Her example of religiously inspired courage is well-deserving of the tribute paid to it in this thoroughly enjoyable movie.
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The Most Reverend Joseph E. Kurtz, D.D. and the clergy, religious, and lay faithful of the Archdiocese of Louisville extend prayerful gratitude and congratulations to the Franciscan priests from India who have served Holy Family Parish, Bellarmine University, and our youth and young adult ministries since 2010. Congratulations on a decade of Indian Franciscan presence in the Archdiocese of Louisville. Ad multos annos!
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Movie Review: 'Flannery'
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