Catholic School Leaders Receive Guidance for Safe Reopening

NEW ORLEANS, La. - In a meeting with Catholic school leaders today, Catholic Schools Superintendent Dr. RaeNell Houston shared guidance for safely reopening the area’s Catholic schools.  Each school leader received a 70-plus page document outlining various scenarios, checklists, and guidelines for operations, curriculum and instruction, spiritual and emotional well-being, and staff and community considerations. The guidance issued this week from the Reopening Task Force appointed by the Office of Catholic Schools is meant to help school leaders determine what can and should be done based on the unique circumstances of each school, its facilities, resources, and community.

The report states that while it is the desire and plan of the Office of Catholic Schools for all Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of New Orleans to open as scheduled for the 2020-2021 school year and to operate in the traditional (brick and mortar) school setting, schools must also take into consideration reopening guidelines issued by their local civil parish, city, or town government if those guidelines differ from state guidelines.  Schools have been asked to plan for various scenarios that include traditional school settings, nontraditional school settings, in which learning would continue in some sort of virtual configuration, and hybrid school settings in which schools may choose to conduct a combination of both the traditional and non-traditional school settings.

Below is an outline of the extensive topics covered that each school leader and administrative team will use to develop school –specific plans for reopening safely:

Spiritual and Emotional Considerations

• Catholic Identity
• Holistic Approach of Care for Physically and Emotionally Fragile
• Creating Community

Operational Considerations for All Settings

• Preparing for the Continuum of Instruction
• Entrance and Exit Protocols for Faculty and Students
• Health Screenings and Policies
• Teaching Hand Hygiene and Respiratory Etiquette
• Teaching and Maintaining Social Distancing
• Teaching about Protective Face Coverings
• Scheduling for Social Distancing in School
• Confidentiality
• Finances
• Maintenance and Custodial Services
• Physical Spaces and Student Supplies
• Transportation
• Food Services

Instructional Considerations

• Instructional Design
• Universal Design for Learning and Differentiation
• Assessment
• Support for English Language Learners
• Universal Screening and Interventions
• Early Childhood Learning Considerations
• Considerations for Literacy Instruction
• Technology Considerations
• Administration

Staff and Community Considerations

• Sensible Human Resource Practices
• Effective Communications

The framework proposed by the Task Force is based primarily on the document Leading with Hope: A Reflective Guide for Catholic Schools in a New Reality produced by the Andrew M. Greeley Center for Catholic Education, School of Education-Loyola University Chicago (luc.edu/gcce) along with preliminary work drafted by Robert M. Tasman, Executive Director of the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops (LCCB), and guidelines published by the Centers for Disease Control in response to COVID-19. The Task Force adopted and modified the text of “Leading with Hope: A Reflective Guide for Catholic Schools in a New Reality”. Guidance was developed in conjunction with the direction of the Louisiana Department of Education and the Louisiana Department of Public Health.