Online Learning Update

11.20.2020
 
Dear Parents and Guardians,
 
As you are aware, our students have been learning fully online this past week and will continue online learning up until the Thanksgiving break.  In performing the contact tracing and working with the Allegheny County Health Department, we saw that the majority of the positive cases could be traced back to an external source.  As of today, based on the information provided by students and families, no cases have been traced back to community spread during the school day despite an apparent spread within athletics communities. It appears that the safety measures that we have put in place to protect our students while they are learning in person are working. 
 
The number of daily cases in Allegheny county is at the highest level of the school year; at the same time, data from the Allegheny County Health Department indicates that schools present a relatively low level of transmission risk. 
 
Our mission is to provide the best education and formation possible, while mitigating risk as much as possible.  In order to provide the best education for all of our students, we transitioned to fully online due to the number of positive cases that necessitated other students to quarantine. 
 
In an effort to mitigate risk and keep our students safe and healthy with the threat of a possible spike in cases in Allegheny county post-Thanksgiving, Central Catholic will continue online learning December 1^st through December 4^th, then continue back in hybrid the following week from December 7^th through Christmas break December 18^th with pause days on December 9^th and 16^th.  Based on the conditions in Allegheny County and what we are experiencing in school, we will determine what to do following the Christmas break.
 
Winter sports practices will begin November 27^th. All juniors and seniors may park in the lot while we are in the hybrid model. Students who have been awarded permits for the remainder of winter will be notified after Thanksgiving break.
 
We will continue to offer a fully online instruction option when we return to hybrid. If you choose to continue fully online instruction for your son, please send me an email no later than Wednesday, December 2^nd. As a reminder, enrolling your son in fully online education requires committing to remaining online for the entire second quarter and he will not be allowed to participate in in-person extracurriculars and/or athletics.
 
Throughout the holidays and upcoming winter months, we encourage you to remind your sons the importance of mask wearing, hand washing and social distancing. We will continue to balance keeping our students safe while staying dedicated to our mission of educating young men.  We look forward to seeing your sons again in December.
 
We will keep you informed of any other updates that we may have. As we have all come to know, things can change rapidly, and we are doing the best we can to keep everyone up to date. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me.
 
Fraternally,

Brother Tony Baginski, FSC

Principal

View December Calendar