Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update – August 20, 2020

Happy Aloha Thursday Saint Mark Parents!

I hope and pray you are doing well.  I am writing with the latest Saint Mark updates.

I want to begin by sharing how happy I am to report that we have now had our campus open to students for over three weeks and in that time have witnessed true joy in the student’s eyes as they interacted together with their peers and teachers. In this time, the students have worked hard and adapted well to the many new rules and other changes thrust upon them.  And thanks to the collective hard work of our entire Saint Mark community, we have not had any reported cases of COVID-19 in our school.

MOVING MIDDLE SCHOOL ON-LINE (PK to Grade 5 Staying on Campus)
That good news aside, I am writing today to inform you that after very careful consideration of the conditions in the external community and out of an abundance of caution, Saint Mark has made the decision to move the entire middle school (grades 6 to 8) into a distant learning environment for at least the next two to three weeks. (We will reevaluate the situation after the Labor Day weekend). Much like our local government, Saint Mark has taken a targeted approach and is moving only the middle school grades online rather than the entire school. We are doing this as our middle school students represent our largest cohort (over 50 students) and as our oldest learners, they tend to be more independent and can therefore more easily transition to an on-line learning environment.

CONFIDENT but CAUTIOUS
We remain steadfastly confident in our safety protocols and are convinced that should COVID-19 come onto our campus, it would not easily be transmitted. However, with Hawaii having sustained triple digit reported cases for the past 18 days and with a 7-day average of 220 new cases, and a 9 to 10% positivity rate the past couple of days, Saint Mark believes that moving the middle school on-line while continuing with the PK to grade 5 students on-campus is the prudent and appropriately cautious move at this time.  We look forward with great enthusiasm to resuming on-campus instruction for the middle school in September when the community spread hopefully subsides.

MIDDLE SCHOOL DISTANCE LEARNING – Begins MONDAY, AUGUST 24
The middle school students will take home their books and other needed materials today Thursday, August 20, and will begin the on-line learning on Monday, August 24.  We are fully prepared to deliver the comprehensive academic, social-emotional and community building online framework that we used in the fourth quarter of this past school year; however, the middle school students will be following their daily schedule rather than the block schedule that was used in the spring (See the Distance Learning Plan) . We want the online experience to be as similar to their daily experience as possible knowing that the students will resume on campus instruction in the near future.

I imagine that some of you may be disappointed with this decision, but please know it was made only after careful consideration and will hopefully only be for a short period of time.

Please do not hesitate to contact the school office should you have any questions.

Thank you for your time and support!

Mahalo, Blessings and Stay Safe,

David Gaudi
Head of School