September 2, 2020

Good Afternoon St. Anne Families,

As you know, on Tuesday August 18, 2020 the difficult decision was made to transition our schools from our blended learning environment to a fully remote learning environment.  This decision was not made lightly, and several factors were taken into consideration including, but not limited to, multiple positive COVID-19 cases of employees as well the need to isolate and/or quarantine additional staff as a result of such. 

Since August 18th I am so proud of the work that our faculty, staff, students, administration and parents have done in quickly transitioning to a fully remote environment.  I’m not going to say we haven’t experienced some bumps in the road, but for the most part things have gone well.  Additionally, by transitioning to a fully remote learning environment, we were able to quickly mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in our buildings and no further cases have been reported. Your unwavering support has been incredible during this transition and please know how much it is appreciated. 

As I have said numerous times it has been and continues to be our goal to return to in-person learning as soon as possible, as we recognize the important of this to our student’s academic and social-emotional growth.  To that end, we are pleased to announce that, after much discussion with our local health department and planning we will be returning to our in-person hybrid learning environment with remote option on Monday, September 14, 2020.  According to the Kankakee County Health Department, the positivity rate in our county is currently at 6.7%, which is well below the warning threshold.  Given the low positivity rate and our success in mitigating the spread from the initial three cases, we feel that our District is in a good position to return to our in-person learning. 

Please understand that, due to the unpredictable nature of this virus, the possibility of disruptions to in-person learning remains and there may be times during this school year that we will need to transition back to a fully remote learning environment.  No perfect scenario exists in these uncertain times.  Nonetheless, please know that the health and safety of our students and staff is our number one priority.  We continue to ask for your understanding and grace as we strive to keep the safety and security of our students and staff at the forefront.  I encourage those of you

who are in need of child care to continue to have a plan B in place if the need to transition to full remote learning occurs once again in the future.   

Sincerely,

Charles Stegall, Superintendent