School Reopening Plans Last week we shared information with you that schools in San Francisco would be allowed to reopen if the county remained in the red tier for at least 14 days. While that is technically true, the reopening process is much more complicated than first thought. A meeting last Friday, between Catholic school principals and the San Francisco Department of Health, brought further clarity to the process. The new protocols require that each individual school apply for reopening and submit a lengthy "Return to School Plan", similar to the one submitted in July. Once the plan is submitted, it will go through a desk audit. If approved, a team from the health department will conduct an onsite visit. Only schools scoring 98% or above will be allowed to open.
The SFDPH strongly recommends that we stagger the reopening, beginning with grades TK-2, followed a few weeks later by grades 3-6. There is no process in place yet for getting 7 and 8 graders back on campus but that will be on the next part of the plan. The reopening plan will have provisions to accommodate these students who don't feel comfortable returning to school, even when permission is granted to reopen. The process will take several weeks to complete so we will definitely not be asking to reopen for any students before October 5th, 2020. If we are given permission to reopen, we will ask you again to decide on whether to have your child return to school or continue with distance learning. Under discussion again, in light of current recommendations, are the number of days per week we will be open and the length of the school day. Some schools are opting to begin with a shorter day, eg. 8am-1pm in order to eliminate the necessity for eating lunch on campus. To that end, we are asking you to complete another short survey to gauge your thoughts at this time. Much has changed since the last survey in early August. While we know that not all students will return to campus when we first reopen, we believe that it is important for our families that we move forward with a reopening plan. To put an effective plan in place, I first need to have support from you, our parent community. I appreciate your input and the short turnaround time given to complete this survey. Please complete this survey by Monday, September 14, 2020. | 
