Dear Walla Walla Catholic School parents,
I would like to thank so many of you who have reached out in support of myself, and the faculty and staff. It has been a real source of comfort to know of your understanding during these times. In turn, I know that this year is presenting uniquely trying times and that there is great suffering that many of you are experiencing.
The word compassion comes from the Latin, to suffer with. So many of you have shown compassion toward me, and I am greatly appreciative.
I too would like to be an agent of compassion with you. I will be working to reach out to all of our families in the coming weeks, but I also would like to make myself as available as possible for any concerns you may have.
In addition to our normal methods of communication, we have set up two others ways of connecting with us during this challenging time. Through Calendly, you should be able to easily schedule a meeting with me by using this link—
https://calendly.com/frseidel/parent-meeting. If you prefer to talk about your concerns with your child’s classroom teacher, please
fill out this form.
In Christ’s Most Sacred Heart,
-Father Curtis Seidel
President of Walla Walla Catholic Schools
WWCS to Begin Remotely for Grades 3-12; K-2 In-Person
At the Walla Walla Catholic schools, we believe that excellence—or virtue—lies in what the philosopher Aristotle calls, “the golden mean,” which is to say that the truly excellent act is neither excessive nor deficient. For example, the exercise of the virtue of studiousness involves devoting the right amount of time to study.Too little, and we would fail to fully engage the intellectual gifts that God gave us. Too much, and other parts of our lives, like family and healthy recreation, suffer. The same could be said about the virtue of courage—the right balance between the excess of foolhardiness and the deficiency of cowardice. As Christians, we believe the greatest source of courage is the grace of God.
I have found one popular prayer for serenity, courage and wisdom to be particularly poignant in these times: “Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Thy will, not mine, be done.” Courage is considered one of the four principal virtues, making it essential to the fulfillment of every human life. This need for courage is all the more pronounced in times of great stress and turbulence.
Since last spring, the faculty, administration and the WWCS Board of Directors have been working to return our students to in-person instruction. We truly believe the best learning environment for all students is in-person. Having spent my summer as a remote learning student at Notre Dame, I can attest to the fact that remote learning is not a substitute for an in-person experience. Throughout the summer, John Lesko, in conjunction with our faculty and myself, worked with the ever-changing state regulations and guidelines to construct an opening plan that would allow us to bring students back on campus at the start of the year. This plan was vetted by the Walla Walla County Health Department and was noted to be “robust.”
Unfortunately, two weeks ago, the state released guidelines and a decision tree outlining its recommendations regarding the modality of learning (in-person, remote, or hybrid) based upon the case rate per 100,000 in a particular area. This metric classifies Walla Walla’s current level of COVID-19 activity as “high,” and, therefore, recommends remote learning with the “option for limited in-person learning in small groups, or cohorts, of students for the highest need students,” such as younger learners, students furthest from educational justice, and students with disabilities.
Believing in-person instruction is what is best for our students and families, we spent the past weeks working to maximize the amount of in-person time we could provide in our community. This work was done in communication with the Diocese of Spokane and the health department, along with our insurance company and legal advisors. The conclusion of this conversation was that the school has some flexibility to provide some students in-person instruction, but not enough flexibility to engage in a hybrid or in-person model at this time.
Given these limitations, the WWCS Board of Directors and the administration have determined that it is necessary for the Walla Walla Catholic Schools to begin almost entirely in a remote learning environment, and then to phase-in in-person instruction. This conclusion is also in accord with the directives of the Bishop and the Diocese of Spokane.
On Monday, August 10, we published our remote learning class structures, which will be utilized for grades 3 through 12. Grades K through 2 will begin with in-person instruction. Research has shown that these grade levels suffer in a particularly notable way when attempting to engage in entirely remote learning. As such, we believe that for the wellbeing of these students it is necessary for us to begin Grades K through 2 in person. Remote learning for older students does not have such a negative impact on their learning. Further, these students are also at greater likelihood of viral transmission of COVID-19. Given these circumstances, the K through 2 opening is what the Diocese was able to establish with the health department.
This decision undoubtedly complicates the lives of all of our families, and I am truly sorry that such complication was necessary. As your companions and partners on this pilgrimage of forming your children to be disciples of Jesus Christ—strong in virtue, exceptional in learning, and generous in service—we are committed to doing everything we can to minimize this disruption and foster a fruitful formation environment under less-than-ideal circumstances.
Following this letter will be an outline of our class schedules, start-of-year procedures, spiritual-and community-building opportunities, and a path for communicating concerns and difficulties created by this period of remote learning.
We truly believe that the best learning environment for students is an in-person experience. However, it has become necessary for us to adapt and to make the most of a suboptimal reality. To that end, our teachers at WWCS have been working with great effort to ensure that the online aspects of remote learning are engaging, well organized, devoted to continuous improvement and meet the highest standard of learning for each student.
It is natural, and indeed good, for any community to arrive at a variety of conclusions when weighing competing goods. The physical health and the learning, social, and emotional health of our community are indeed both extremely important goods currently in tension with one another. I pray that our chosen plan is guided by the wisdom and prudence of God so as to best balance these goods and provide for our students within the constraints of the current pandemic.
"God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Thy will, not mine, be done."