Unlike public schools, St. John opts for full-time classes

Unlike their contemporaries in the public school system, students at St. John XXIII Catholic School in Port Washington will attend classes in person five days a week when the school year begins on Wednesday, Aug. 26.

But like the Port Washington-Saukville School District, St. John XXIII will also offer families the option of attending classes online as school systems struggle with how to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

One key difference between the public and parochial schools is size, Pastoral Coordinator Bill Henkle said.

“We benefit by being relatively small,” Henkle said. “It’s still a tall order, but we think we can do this.”

The largest class at the school, which last year had 165 students enrolled, is 19, Henkle said.

“Our classrooms are big enough we can socially distance kids,” he said.

And, like every other school opening plan announced recently, it is subject to change.

“This plan will be fluid throughout the school year,” Principal Kristi Klein said Tuesday. “We want to open, but we want to open safely.”

Parents, she said, also want the school to open full time. A recent survey showed that 80% of parents want their children back in school five days a week, she said.

The school’s reopening plan, which was compiled by a team made up of representatives of the staff, parish, parents and other stakeholders, was shared with parents last week. This week, the school and its reopening team are holding meetings with families to discuss it.

“We want to hear what people are thinking,” Klein said.

The plan draws on guidance from the archdiocese, Washington Ozaukee Public Health Department, Centers for Disease Control and other agencies, she said.

One of the hot topics is sure to be masks, Klein said. The plan does not call for students to wear masks, she said, but the team is leaning toward requiring this.

The school is taking extra steps to ensure the safety of students and staff members during the coronavirus pandemic.

Sanitation will be emphasized and students will have their temperatures taken before they enter the school each day, Klein said.

There will be five separate entry and exit points in the school so the entire population doesn’t share one, Henkle said. 

“We’re really going to try hard not to have them (students) cross paths,” he said. “Students and their teachers are going to have an awful lot of time together.”

Art, music and Spanish will be taught in homerooms, with the teachers coming to students rather than the opposite, he said.

Students will eat in their classrooms or outside and physical education classes will be held outdoors as much as possible.

“If push comes to shove, you could do some exercises in the classrooms,” Henkle said.

Teachers will also be encouraged to hold lessons outside as much as possible, Klein said.

Recesses will be staggered so students from different classes don’t mingle, Henkle said.

“We have this nice large campus that lets us do this,” he said.

Plexiglass screens have been installed in classrooms so when students need to work closely they can still be separated, Henkle said, adding masks will be encouraged during one-on-one interactions between students and teachers. 

  There won’t be any large school assemblies or special events such as grandparents day, concerts or open houses, he said, and the weekly all-school Mass will likely be attended by half the school population while the other will have it live-streamed to them.

Like other schools, St. John XXIII is emphasizing a sanitation plan. There will be sanitizing stations at every classroom door, Klein said, and scheduled handwashing times.

The school has invested in a large sanitation sprayer that “allows you to disinfect a room rather quickly,” Henkle said, and this will be used in classrooms daily.

A smaller unit will be used throughout the day on high-touch areas, Klein added.

The school will follow the health department’s guidelines if a student or teacher is diagnosed with Covid-19, Klein said, quarantining them as necessary.

She and the school’s “specials” teachers will be able to step in if a teacher were to be diagnosed, Klein said, and they have substitute teachers willing to take over if needed.

Online instruction will be provided for those who are ill and families who choose that option.

“We’re prepared to either do virtual instruction for anyone who is quarantined or to move to virtual instruction if there were to be an outbreak,” Klein said.

Classes will be live-streamed with students required to check in at specific times and strict due dates set for assignments, and  lessons may also be provided via Zoom, she said. The school learned from its online classes in spring and has refined those plans and purchased more online resources to augment online learning.

“We’ll provide synchronous and asynchronous instruction,” Klein said.

One key question is how to get students to school.  

Parents will be urged to transport their children to school, Klein said, especially on Wednesdays when the public schools will be closed. Parents may be told they have no choice but to find alternative transportation that day.

A committee may be formed to help set up carpools, she said.

In the parent surveys, Klein said, “very few parents — a handful — said they would be using busing, at least initially. I don’t picture busing being a problem for us.”

Like every other school reopening plan,, St. John XXIII’s is flexible with options to react if the coronavirus numbers increase or decrease significantly.

“I suspect if we get through September and don’t have any significant instances of infection, we might say, ‘Let’s go back to a more traditional school day,’” Henkle said.

But if the number trend the opposite directions, Klein said, they will also be prepared.

“It’s quite the challenge,” she said. “We’re just really paying attention to what the experts are telling us.”