Re-opening Plan 2020-2021

The 2020-2021 Re-opening Plan was created with the health and well-being of our St. Edmund Prep community – students, faculty and staff – at the forefront. While much has changed, who we are and our mission remain the same. The St. Edmund Prep community is strong and poised to move forward providing a transformative educational experience for our students.

Please take a few moments to review the entire re-opening plan found below. We will update this page as new information becomes available or any modifications to the Re-opening Plan are made. Any updates will also be communicated to all students, families, faculty and staff via email.

2020-2021 Re-Opening Plan for St. Edmund Prep

Updates

Message from the Principal - November 12, 2020

Dear SEP Parents and Guardians,

Thank you for your continued patience and support as we continue to evaluate that which we are doing daily here at SEP. After a continued review of cohorts, we have officially decided to return to a full-day schedule for each cohort, effective this Monday, November 16th.

Below you will find the daily bell schedule. Each class is 37 minutes with the exception of 8th period which is 38 minutes. We will continue with a 6-minute passing time in between classes to ensure that all students continue to practice the same sanitizing procedures as we instituted when we re-opened in September.

Lunch periods are incorporated into 5th and 6th period.

Freshman lunch is period 5a.

Sophomore lunch is 5b.

Junior lunch period is 6a.

Senior lunch period is 6b.

Click here for the Full-Day Cohort Bell Schedule

Lunch will take place in the cafeteria. Students will continue to sit in individual desks spaced 6 feet apart on all sides. We are asking for the time being that all students bring a bagged lunch. We would like to evaluate this new procedure before we bring back SLA Management for cafeteria service.

All students must take note of lunch period times. Now that we have removed the two-hour travel break, this is when most students should be eating lunch. Full remote students and cohorts who are at home must keep an eye on the clock and remember to eat lunch!

If a student has a free period during a lunch period that is not their designated lunch, that student should report to the art gallery for their free period. For example, if a junior has a free period during 5a, which is freshmen lunch, he or she must report to the art gallery for their free period.

In addition we will continue with the new A/B cohorts which have worked nicely this week. The cohort calendar for the next four weeks has been added to the school calendar.

Please note that every D Day will be a full remote day. We continue to need professional development and planning time for the faculty. Therefore D Day will be a remote day. All students will be remote on D Days and faculty will have meetings and planning time in the afternoon. A schedule for D Day will be emailed next week.

Other items to remember:

Office hours will be after school
If you are a full remote student and want to transition back to hybrid we will need a few days to monitor the new schedule. Any student that transitions back to hybrid impacts class numbers, lunch periods and free periods. At the moment everything is balanced and meets all social distancing protocols. If you are interested in transitioning back please email Mr. Wagner, but please know we will not be making any additions to hybrid for at least one week.
Report cards will be emailed on November 13th. We are still working on a parent-teacher conference schedule. Please reach out to teachers directly should you have questions about report card grades.
Our next scheduled time for random COVID testing will be on November 20th. You will be notified if your child’s name is drawn at random. Parents do NOT need to be present for random testing. We need to test 25% of our students, faculty and staff in order to remain open. Our partnership with Somos will continue throughout this process. As you saw, they took extreme care to be kind and take all necessary health and safety precautions. I thank you in advance for your cooperation so that we can remain open to in-person learning.

As always, I will continue to keep you informed of any and all information.

Stay safe and well,

Mrs. McGinnis

Message from the Principal - October 5, 2020

Dear SEP Parents/Guardians,

We are devastated by the Governor’s decision to close schools in cluster areas, and even more saddened that this is to start tomorrow. We know that we at SEP have done everything we were asked to do, and then some, to keep our students and our community safe and healthy.

However, as stated in our Re-Opening plan, we must abide by the Governor’s mandate. Therefore, effective tomorrow, October 6, 2020, all students are to transfer to a full remote schedule. There will be no in-person learning until further notice. We do not know when we will be allowed to re-open for live instruction. I promise that I will keep all of our families abreast of all decision making about our ability to re-open.

While we are fully remote, please note the following procedures will continue:

The main office WILL be open daily, but for phone calls only. No visitors will be allowed in the building.
If your child is unwell and will not be attending classes at all for the day, please report the absence before 8 a.m.
If your child is late for Homeroom please notify the main office.
The schedule remains the same. All students are to log in to homeroom at 8:10 in full uniform. Students will attend classes from period 1-4, then have the mid-day break, and then log on for periods 5 -8. The schedule stays exactly the same. Continue to follow letter days. For example, tomorrow’s letter day is H day.
Uniforms are to be worn daily, students must not be late to class, and cameras must always be on.

Please note the following:

Thursday, October 8th will still be a non-instructional day. There will be NO remote classes that day.
Sports are suspended until we are allowed to re-open for in-person learning.
All other extracurricular activities will transfer to full remote. Moderators will be in touch soon with more information.
PSAT for juniors – if we are unable to re-open by October 14th, we will attempt to reschedule it for January.
We will be in touch with information about Parent-Teacher conferences.
Our October in-person Open House will be rescheduled, the date has yet to be determined

As I stated in the beginning of the letter, we are truly saddened and also quite outraged that we are being forced to close. The Diocese of Brooklyn is meeting with the Governor and Mayor today to advocate for Catholic Schools and all of the work we have been doing to ensure that we could bring our students back into our school buildings in a safe and responsible way.

Please know, that I will be I touch with any and all information as I get it.

Please stay safe and well,
Mrs. Allison McGinnis

Virtual Parent Information Sessions - August 26th & 27th

Message from the Principal - August 17, 2020

Dear Parents/Guardians:
We hope that you have taken some time to read our re-opening plan for September www.stedmundprep.org/reopen/

In an effort to best answer questions and to discuss our re-opening plans, St. Edmund Prep will hold Virtual Parent Information Sessions on the following dates:

Wednesday, August 26th at 1:00pm
Wednesday, August 26th at 3:00pm
Thursday, August 27th at 1:00pm
Thursday, August 27th at 3:00pm

Preregistration will be required - please select whichever date/time works best for your schedule! Sessions will be held using Zoom. Links for the sessions will be emailed directly to you on the morning of your session. Please sign up for a session no later than Friday, August 21st.

Sign up for an information session here: https://forms.gle/GeXZVe7UnzEQ4sCK6

I look forward to speaking with you!

Allison McGinnis
Principal

Message from the Principal - August 6, 2020

Dear Parents/Guardians,

I hope this email finds you well. As the summer continues to fly by it is time to share with you our plans for re-opening this September.

The guidelines set forth by the Governor made it clear in no uncertain terms that schools needed to create plans for re-opening that included social distancing requirements. Due to this mandate, SEP has created a plan to open this September with a Hybrid Model. That means that each day, some students will be in the building face to face while other students are at home. All lessons will be synchronous which means that the students at home will be taking part in the same live lesson happening with their class in the school building. All of this is very clearly detailed in the SEP Re-Opening Plan.

The SEP Re-Opening Plan is very thorough and detailed. Your child will be receiving a St. Edmund Prep education. An education that fosters bold learning and uncommon leaders. Resuming extracurricular activities will allow students to express themselves in a way that has been lacking these past five months. We will continue to provide opportunities for your child to grow as academically, socially, and religiously as it remains our priority to live out our mission.

It is my hope that our plan answers many of the questions you have about how your children will be returning to St. Edmund Prep in September. We will be scheduling virtual parent meetings shortly to address any questions or concerns you may have. Stay tuned for more information on the virtual parent meetings.

Please take some time over these next few days to closely read our plan.

Be well and stay safe,

Mrs. Allison McGinnis

Questions?