Search
Letter from Superintendent, Mr. Deegan - January 1, 2022
-
January 1, 2022
Solemnity of Mary, The Holy Mother of God
Dear Catholic School Communities,
I hope you had a blessed Christmas and as enjoyable a New Year celebration as possible. We are all weary of the COVID-19 pandemic and all the accompanying impositions on our personal lives as well as the requirements on our schools in order to remain open safely, as they have since the beginning of this pandemic.
I am very pleased that after much work between the Health and Safety Task Force of the Office of the Superintendent of Schools and government officials, Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of New York will be able to provide every family and staff member with a COVID-19 home test kit. As municipalities and health organizations struggle to stock up on these much sought-after kits, we hope our distribution of tens of thousands of test kits will provide some small measure of comfort in knowing you will have these crucial tools in your home when you are exposed to COVID.
Your principal will be in touch regarding the distribution of the test kits for your school community this week. Please be sure to review the document distributed with these kits for critical information on their use and contact your school office with any questions about the distribution of these free kits. While we will strive to continue to make kits available in the future to you, please know that you can and should also visit the free testing sites linked here: https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/find-test-site-near-you. In NYC: https://www1.nyc.gov/site/coronavirus/get-tested/covid-19-testing.page
While social media and newscasts portray many conflicting and contradictory headlines and narratives, and COVID mandates seemingly change on a daily basis, you can be confident that our schools remain a constant in a universe of variables: our buildings are safe and remain open for our students to safely pray, learn, and grow together. We remain so by continuing to follow the health and safety guidelines that got us here. We will continue to require temperature checks, face coverings, physical distancing and enhanced ventilation processes in all of our school buildings.
The experts of the Health and Safety Tasks Force of the Office of the Superintendent of Schools are evaluating all of the new guidance and information about quarantine, isolation, close contacts, testing and the associated timelines for each. We will leave behind the chaos of government and press releases and in the coming weeks, provide updated protocols for our families, recognizing; however, if some warrant implementation sooner, we will do so. While we understand that some want the policies implemented overnight, as we have always done, our response will be thoughtful, intentional and always made in the best interest of all of those in our school communities.
Lastly, it is imperative that if you or your child have any symptoms, even mild ones, get tested and remain home until you receive the results of the test. We know that PCR testing remains the gold standard of testing and that those who are vaccinated may take a day or two to test positive after being symptomatic with the new variant Omicron.
Please join me in praying for an end to this awful health crisis and that 2022 brings us closer to the freedoms and simplicity we enjoyed at this time two years ago. I remain grateful for your support, resolve and partnership in keeping Catholic schools at the forefront of education and safety throughout the global health crisis.
Sincerely,
Michael J. Deegan
Superintendent of Schools
Archdiocese of New York