The Superintendent of Catholic schools for the Sioux City Diocese, Patty Lansink, has announced a unified approach for all 23 of their centers on their return to classes this fall. She says each school has plans for on-site and online instruction, if it is needed, and a hybrid model that can be utilized. “Since COVID is essentially everywhere, we went with the same general guidelines for all schools in our diocese,” Lansink says. “Many educators had hoped for some general guidelines from the state, but since they received none, they had more work to do on our own—in collaboration with local health professionals and school teams—to determine best safety practices for our staff and students,” Lansink adds. President of the Kuemper Catholic School System, John Steffes, says they will be following those guidelines, but are requiring face coverings, particularly during arrival and dismissal, passing periods and other times when social distancing is not possible.
Steffes says they will also be keeping students in specific groups.
An important part of that will be strict seating charts, however, those will not just be for those kids in elementary and middle school.
Kuemper classes resume on Tuesday, Aug. 25, and Steffes says their Return to Learn plan is based on three models. They will start with face-to-face instruction. If they have to shut down again, as they did in March, they will move to remote learning. Their hybrid model is geared toward a combination of in-person and remote learning if there is a threshold determined by Public Health. They hope it will remain in-person, but are ready to pivot if necessary. Steffes adds that a few families have expressed concerns about an at-risk child or other family member. Kuemper is able to accommodate those requests for remote learning. Steffes says we all know it will be a challenging year as we navigate through this historic time.
Parents and guardians are encouraged to begin phasing in school-year habits now, and not just with bedtime adjustments, but to include hand washing and face mask wearing practice. Families will be receiving communications from their children’s teachers soon, but the current plan is already on the website and those with questions can call the school office. Those details are included below.
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Kuemper website: https://www.kuemper.org/
For more information call the Central Office: 792-3313
