DELAYED SCHOOL OPENING

 

 

To all our St. John School Families:

I am writing to inform you that despite our best efforts, we will need to delay the start of school by one week.  The campus and, in particular the main school building that houses our 1st through 8th grades, is not quite ready to properly support our staff and students.  Just this morning, we finally have electricity connected to the main school building.  This critical step now allows us to work towards the final steps of opening, but coming a full week after it was expected under the latest projections, we will not be able to have school ready to open on August 11, 2021.

 

In consultation with Fr. Linh, and with guidance from the Catholic Schools Office, the following changes to the opening schedule are as follows:

 

The first day of school will now be August 18, 2021. This will be for the entire school, Preschool through 8th  This later start date will not impact the last day of school as there were extra days in the calendar and extra instruction time worked into the schedule in case a delay to opening was needed.  It is now needed.  A revised calendar will be provided to you.

 

Orientation will be delayed one week and will now be held on August 15, 2021 from 12:30 – 3:00.  A full schedule will be sent to you at the end of this week, but orientation will consist of opening comments and general instructions for the school year, attending a few stations where you pick up important documents in your orientation folders, receive your volunteer instructions and opportunities, pick up your raffle tickets, and hear about other programs at St. John School, and finally visiting your students’ teachers where you will receive classroom expectations and can drop off your students supplies.

 

The orientation day scheduled for this Sunday, August 8, 2021 will now be re-purposed as a moving day. As I hope that most of you had blocked out this time to attend orientation, I am personally requesting that you come help us move items into the new school building.  A sign-up notification will follow later this week once it is established that Sunday can be a move in date.  Otherwise, the notifications will include move in dates for next week.

 

While I realize that this decision will not be popular with many of you, I want you to know that as the administrator of this school, the blame for the delays rests solely with me.  I aggressively pursued the assigned August 11 opening date and pushed the members of the staff, the teachers, and the volunteers to make this date happen.  In the end, we will miss the mark by one week, and for this I apologize for any imposition on your families, your work schedules, your childcare schedules, and your summer.

I want to assure you that your teachers have been diligently planning without even being able to step into their classrooms yet.  They will be attending up to three professional development days in the coming week in preparation for the opening of school.  They are just as anxious to get into their rooms and get school started as you are to send your children back to school.  Please practice patience and pray for our continued success as we open our school year at our new dear home, Cardome.  There will be other challenges, but together and with God’s abundant blessings, we will not just persevere, but thrive.

 

Peace to you all,

 

Mr. Mayer

President and Principal

St. John School