Our first week of school has been wonderful so far! It hasn't been without its hiccups, but they seem (to me) to be fairly minor and manageable. Having the kids on campus has been greatly encouraging for me and the rest of the teachers and staff. I still have a few emails from parents that I'm behind on, if yours is one of them, I apologize for the delay and I'll be responding soon! 

Here are a few updates.

• Holy Sacrifice of the Mass — Tomorrow, we will have our weekly all school Mass on the SJA courtyard at 10:30am. Due to limits around congregating and cohorting, we'll have a couple classes out in the courtyard to attend the Mass in person, and the rest of the classrooms will Zoom in. I am sad that we will not be able to welcome parents to the Mass, and I look forward to when we may be able to in the future. I would like to invite any and all parents and distance education students to Zoom in to the Mass. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the cornerstone of all Catholic life, including and especially Catholic education; so I highly encourage all distance education students attend the Mass Zoom meeting and pray with us. Here is the Zoom information:
• Click this link to join the meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85213224502?pwd%3DcG9SVi9zSDUxYnB5b2dTK2VBY0dtUT09
• Meeting ID: 852 1322 4502
• Passcode: holymass
• Pick-up on Half Day Fridays — On it, you'll see that tomorrow is also a half-day Friday (ends at 12:35pm). In my message from earlier this week, I asked that parents stagger their drop-off and pick-up times according to family carpool numbers. That system worked very well today for drop-off! We're going to continue to reevaluate it as time goes on to ensure the maximum amount of convenience and efficiency. For half-days, the staggered schedule will be thus:
• Carpool numbers 1-160 should (as far as is possible) pick up between 12:35pm and 12:45pm.
• Carpool numbers 161-330 should (as far as is possible) pick up between 12:45pm and 12:55pm.
• Masks — In our reopening plan, we detail that we'll provide education for families on face masks. Please find that here.

Keep the faith!

Mr. Luke Heintschel, M.A.

Headmaster

Saint Joseph Academy