St. John’s remains firmly committed to reopening our campus for onsite learning this fall. We will continue to obey all laws and work with the Health Department to make the most appropriate decisions. This summer we have hit several hurdles in respect to this goal, yet we are down to our final few obstacles. As many of you have undoubtedly heard, Governor Newsom presented a plan which outlines protocols for all schools, public and private. The most common information understood is that schools may not reopen for onsite education within counties that are on the State’s monitoring list. That is true and Kern County is on the monitoring list. That said, this should be temporary, and we have an opportunity to file a waiver with the state to reopen our campus when Kern County leaves the monitoring list. Currently, state guidance has indicated that if a school or district is allowed to open, it will not be mandated to close again if a county is returned to the monitoring list. How does Kern get off the monitoring list? Basically, we need 17 consecutive days which meet the state’s metrics for COVID-19. These are outlined at the link below.

https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/COVID19CountyDataTable.aspx

Here are our action steps:

• The start of school will be delayed to Monday, August 24.  We need more time to see what will happen with Kern County and the above listed metrics for school reopening. We will be monitoring this closely. From August 10-21, our teachers will be connecting with each family to outline the upcoming quarter.
• St. John’s has already filed our preliminary school reopening plan with the Kern County Public Health Department. This will help accelerate our waiver application.
• Once we have our plan approved by the Health Department, we will share it with all families.
• If we cannot reopen our campus on August 24, we will begin live streaming classes and begin distance learning. Our distance learning model has changed and will require some training of various online tools and scheduled time on campus for students and families. Our goal will be to return to campus ASAP.
• Finances: Please forgive me if my candor is off-putting or offensive in any way. Tuition serves two practical purposes: First, it funds all the education personnel and tools necessary to provide a high-quality education through St. John’s, both in person and online. Second, it continues to guarantee a present and future seat to all students, in good standing, who wish for this particular educational opportunity. This health situation, albeit aggressive, is temporary. To address potential financial stressors added to families brought on by COVID-19, we have decided to discount tuition each day St. John’s is forced to move to distance learning for all students. This per diem discount will be 25% for each academic day we are not on campus.

Your continued patience and understanding are greatly appreciated as we continue to navigate this ever-changing situation.

Evan Anwyl

Families,
 
After talking to several families these past few days, I neglected to add some helpful details to my last communication. Please remember we have a comprehensive school plan that has required modification almost daily. I humbly ask for your patience as we try to publish the most accurate plan/information as possible.
 
If you wish for more information regarding a home plan for the 1st quarter of the upcoming academic year, please email me at eanwyl@sjlschool.org.
Material lists are essentially the same from year to year. Please visit our website at sjlschool.org — then go to the “Resources” tabs, then “Forms”, and open your grade level folder for each student. We understand that there may be items on the list that you cannot procure, such as, Clorox wipes. Please be patient with us as we may add additional materials to this list as plans continue to change.  You will receive materials list updates through your home room teacher(s).
Mask guidelines: St. John’s is asking families to supply two cloth masks daily for each student. These do not need to conform to the uniform dress code as long as they are appropriate (not scary, political, etc.). Masks should fit properly and hook over the ear.
St. John’s has created a plan that includes action steps if a student, family member, or teacher becomes ill with COVID-19.
Classroom cohorts: a cohort is a group of people with a common path. This fall, your child’s homeroom will serve as their cohort. To do this well, we have created five different recess areas, five different lunch areas, and teachers will rotate to classrooms. A student will not interact with anybody else on campus besides those in their cohort.
Social distancing, masks, good hygiene, and separation when sick are all best practices when discussing COVID-19 transmission. St. John’s will be firm in insisting these best practices are respected for the health of our community.
 
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Evan Anwyl

Dear Parents,

The impact of COVID-19 is a complex issue and cannot simply be categorized as a health problem. It is important to recognize the response to this particular illness has and will have significant economic impact, political polarization, and social emotional consequences for children and adults alike. At St. John’s we listened to expert opinion, research, and local guidance from other school leaders and health care professionals to weigh all the trade-offs before planning our offering for the 2020-2021 academic year.

In the best interest of student learning and for the St. John’s community we have decided to offer our typical academic calendar and schedule with modifications and strict health practices. To do this well we will continue to need strong partnerships with families to provide the safest possible learning environment for our children, families and staff.
Following this letter are two graphs that visually represent the impact of Covid-19 on school aged children in California and in the United States. As you may be aware the data from both the CDC https://www.cdc.gov/ and the California Department of Public Health https://www.cdph.ca.gov/ show trends that are encouraging yet need to be met with precaution and proper health oriented procedures. One of our primary considerations was to consider the health of our entire St. John’s community. Where children may not be as severely impacted they may serve as carriers for the Coronavirus. Our updated health policy reduces person to person contact, increases cleaning, adds spacing, mandates masking, and adds hygiene procedures and education which are all designed to reduce the potential spread of illness, including the Coronavirus. We ask for your faithful partnership so we may continue to educate all students in person to the best of our abilities. All policies will be reviewed and revised regularly for efficacy.
This is a snapshot of St. John’s school policy and procedure updates for the 2020-2021 academic year. A full policy and procedure update will be included in the summer communication later this month and available on the website.

1. St. John’s will utilize classroom level cohorts. These homeroom groups of students will not interact with other cohorts on campus during academic time, recess, lunch and chapel (with additional cohorts created for math in grades 4-8). Due to the nature of Jr. High there will be grade level cohorts created.
2. Individual home academic plans per family request or due to illness. St. John’s will create unique home plans to service the academic needs of individual students.
3. Live stream for chapel and classrooms. We will live stream classrooms as needed in the event of confirmed COVID-19 illness. Individual cohorts may be shut down for 5-14 days.
4. Teacher rotation: teachers will travel to classrooms versus sharing a common space for multiple cohorts.
5. Masking and social distancing for all while on campus. We have planned “mask breaks” for students. Please help prepare your children for 40-60 minute blocks of time wearing a mask in school.
6. We have updated our health, hygiene and cleaning policies and procedures.
7. Parent partnership for daily health screenings. Health checks for an entire classroom will lessen the amount of academic time. We are asking parents to faithfully complete this task daily. A daily health screening checklist will be included in the summer communication. Mid- morning temperature checks on campus will also happen daily.
8. Several “normal” daily procedures have also been modified to minimize the number of people on campus including drop off, pick up, volunteering, etc.

Please be patient with my team during this time as we are all learning and doing the very best we can to support children and families in the St. John’s community. If you have any questions or concerns please contact me.

Evan Anwyl
Office 661-664-8090
cell/text 916-300-9995
email eanwyl@sjlschool.org.