COVID-19 is real at Totino-Grace High School in Fridley. Students have tested positive for the novel coronavirus since the school’s decision to offer mostly in-person learning for the 2020-21 school year. Teachers have contracted the virus, too.

The pandemic reached all the way to the administrative offices, with Principal Cheri Broadhead testing positive in December and carrying out the mandatory quarantine. And, President Craig Junker has had quarantine periods as well.

His situation is different than most. His wife, Jennifer, works at the school, and all three of his children attend. In his mind, it was only a matter of time before the illness touched home, which it did in October when one of his sons announced that a T-G soccer teammate had tested positive.

“If one of our kids goes down, we all go down,” Junker said, noting that the son entered quarantine immediately and later tested negative for the virus. “That’s on our minds. So, we are particularly careful.”

Despite the risk — and the reality — of COVID-19, Junker made the decision in June 2020, with his staff’s full support, to open Totino-Grace for in-person learning in late August. Using a long list of benefits as a motivator, Junker welcomed students, staff and teachers with confidence. And, having just six positive tests schoolwide since that date confirmed for him and others at the school that it was the right decision.

Most Catholic elementary and high schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis made similar moves to in-person learning at the start of the school year, using varying models and also offering distance learning for families who preferred that approach or needed to quarantine. School leaders and teachers speak confidently of their results during the first semester, pointing to positive feedback from students and parents, and even increased enrollment. All of this is taking place in the midst of continued reluctance by public schools to open their buildings and offer in-person learning. While some public school districts are now reopening, many remain closed, citing high numbers of COVID-19 cases within their boundaries.

“Many schools just look at the county: ‘The county has bad (COVID-19) numbers, we’re all closing,’” Junker said. “A county is a good number to look at. A better number is what’s happening inside the school. What are your numbers?”

In addition to overall COVID-19 numbers at a school, he said another key statistic is what he calls “community spread.” It has to do with how much an infected student, teacher or staff member spreads the virus to others at school. In the six cases at T-G, he said only one person spread it outside of the immediate family, and no one passed it to another person at the school.

Those are results he can live with, especially when weighed against all of the advantages of learning in the classroom. Other school leaders feel the same way.

“Everybody that we’ve talked to and the feedback we’ve gotten from students and parents is they love being here,” said Jim Hansen, president of Hill-Murray School in Maplewood, the first Catholic school in the archdiocese to open this school year, on Aug. 19.  “It’s impossible to provide 100% proof that this is a safe environment, but we have taken every rational step we can to make it a safe environment.”

He noted that in his public school district, No. 622, 5% of public-school teachers tested positive for COVID-19 through Dec. 31 even though all their schools use distance learning, yet only 7% percent of his teachers have tested positive while spending four days a week with students under the school’s hybrid learning format. He credits detailed planning, extensive protocols that included the recent installation of a high-tech air filtration system costing $100,000, plus the full buy-in of students, teachers and parents.

School leaders acknowledge that the effort at all Catholic elementary and high schools has involved hours of extra work and lots of creativity to provide a learning environment that is both safe for students and effective for learning. But, leaders are confident of the learning models they use, and the results they have achieved.

At Totino-Grace, classrooms are limited to 15 students per class session to create the proper amount of social distancing, with the other students (up to a dozen or so) spending the classroom period in either the gymnasium or school commons. Teachers make sure that all students rotate between in-class and virtual learning on a daily or weekly basis. Also, there are a handful of students whose families have chosen exclusively to use distance learning.

“On my desk, I have two computer screens, one that I present off of, and one with a camera in which I can see the kids who are at home or in other locations (in the school building),” said teacher Brian Litecky, 42, a T-G alumnus who has children learning in-person at St. John the Baptist School in New Brighton. “Ever since the first day of the school year, I haven’t had a full class. I’ve had kids scattered all over the place throughout the year.”

He believes having students in the classroom is best “for not just educational purposes, but for relationship purposes, too. It’s hard to develop an authentic relationship with a student through a computer screen. … Having conversations with their teacher face to face is priceless.”

Erin Schmidt, another T-G teacher whose children attend a Catholic elementary school, also believes in-person learning is best, even though she has had COVID-19. Her positive test came in early August, so her quarantine ended by the time school started. She considers herself a valuable resource for those who wonder what it’s like to have the illness, which, in her case, produced only mild symptoms.

As a biology teacher, she sees in-person learning being especially important when it comes to labs. She shoots videos of experiments for students who are not in the classroom to watch, and has found creative ways to keep more kids close by, utilizing a back room off the main classroom to accommodate a few students, and even having some students observe at a safe distance from a hallway right outside the classroom.

She acknowledged that the additional planning involved in this style of learning is “definitely more work,” but she has made the adjustment since the start of the school year “when it was very stressful.”

“I think the key to it is organization,” she said. “It takes time. … I’ve put in way more hours prepping at home and on weekends than probably the last 15 years of my career.”

Like Litecky, Schmidt values the rapport she’s built with students during in-class learning.

“If I was doing distance learning this whole time, I would not have the relationships I have with some of these students,” she said. “I had a girl crying on my shoulder the other day. She was telling me some really horrible things that she’s going through. Nobody’s going to tell you on camera, on a Google meet, that their grandma is going through cancer.”

This leads to the faith element that some point to as the biggest reason why Catholic schools are sticking with in-person learning. Todd Flanders, who has been headmaster at Providence Academy in Plymouth since it opened in 2000, wouldn’t have it any other way.

“We made that decision late spring that we were going to be serving (students in person) five days a week,” he said. “And then, we did something very funky. At the beginning of June, I went on video and told everybody that we will be starting in September five days a week in person or your money back.”

He made good on his promise and did not refund a single dime of tuition. In fact, the school’s overall enrollment grew this year by 55 students, with 196 students new to the school, for a total of 829 students in preschool through 12^th grade. Like other schools, Providence Academy dealt with COVID cases and quarantines, but the school has stepped forward without missing a beat. Staying open is driven by a mission that has fueled the school since its inception.

“What we do is based on why we do it,” Flanders said. “Why are we teaching children in the first place? They’re created in the image and likeness of God. They have innate dignity. God wants to see a trajectory of their growth, and we have a vocational privilege and responsibility to be there for them, if at all possible.”

This passion was encapsulated in remarks made by one teacher at a faculty summit in August addressing how educators at the school feel about in-person learning.

“I allowed them to give voice to some fears,” Flanders said. “An older faculty member with (health) vulnerabilities took the floor, the virtual floor, and said, ‘Look, I’m probably the most vulnerable person on this faculty. … (But) I want to go do my vocation. I want to do that. I want to serve. That’s what I do.’ And, she said, ‘I realize that there’s a heightened risk, but it’s a risk I want to take. And, I don’t want to do it alone. I want us to do it together.’”

Flanders was moved by her courage. “My heart beamed,” he said. Her remarks brought him squarely back to the mission of his school.

“We’re serving children, we’re serving families,” he said. “We’re doing what God wants us to do. We’re providing the formation, and the education and the experience. And, we are instilling courage in our students, not fear.”

At the same time, Flanders is not ignoring the potential risks and disregarding the seriousness of COVID-19 and the ways it can spread. Like leaders and staff at other Catholic schools, he and school staff work diligently to stay on top of what’s going on with the illness, and react quickly to positive test results.

“We have been completely transparent with our community about COVID cases, about close-contact quarantining, about number of cases currently active in the school,” he said. “We have a dashboard that is live every day, showing week by week, new cases, current cases, active cases. And, currently, that is zero.”

Across the board, Catholic schools in the archdiocese are succeeding with in-person learning, according to Emily Dahdah, associate director of Catholic education in the Office for the Mission of Catholic Education.

“We at the archdiocese set up a task force to assist our Catholic schools in the planning and the implementation of these health and safety protocols (expressed by government agencies like the Center for Disease Control),” she said. “And, our schools have implemented them extraordinarily well. These health and safety protocols are working to keep our kids safe, keep families safe, keep faculty and staff safe for in-person learning.”

In working closely with teachers and leaders at Catholic elementary and high schools, Dahdah has been heartened by the way they all have taken on extra work to fulfill a valuable service to families that goes beyond just education.

“Especially for those families struggling through the weight of the pandemic (job loss, more children at home), this commitment to providing safe in-person learning has been transformative,” she said. “Our Catholic school teachers know that. Our principals know that. And, that drives them to give of themselves even more, to step up. They’ve really taken on a lot. … That’s been so edifying to see. That’s been key, that’s been foundational to the success of this whole project of in-person learning during the pandemic.”

She credited not only school leaders, but pastors and parishes who have supported schools, especially financially. Costs have increased for items needed to clean and disinfect classrooms, desks and everything students come in contact with. Plus, there have been personnel increases to help keep track of COVID cases and do contact tracing. Totino-Grace, for example, hired an administrative assistant to take on that task, while Hill-Murray hired a full-time nurse. The public school district had been supplying one, but it got suspended with the onset of fully distance learning.

Yet, as expenses have gone up, tuition has either remained the same or increased only slightly. Totino-Grace has announced a tuition freeze that will stay in effect through the next school year, while Providence Academy and Hill-Murray have had only marginal increases, with Hansen at Hill-Murray noting a longtime school policy to keep tuition hikes below the current rate of inflation.

As the second semester gets underway, students, teachers, staff and families have grown accustomed to the current reality, and even are turning some attention toward having fun. At Holy Cross Catholic School in Webster, Principal Connie Krocak, who has served in Catholic education for 40 years, is brainstorming festive activities for National Catholic Schools Week.

“We’re hoping to do an outdoor Olympics day,” said Krocak, who has had to quarantine entire grades in the preschool-to-grade-eight school because of the smaller number of students overall, “We have lots of yard, lots of snow. We can have fun with that.”

For people like Krocak, seeing students every day is especially rewarding. It’s what has kept her in Catholic schools for four decades. She stands by the entry doors when students arrive and when they go home. With masks and social distancing, she is not able to see their smiles or receive their hugs. But, she was keenly aware of the emotions students carried into the building on the first day of the school year.

“It was just thrilling,” she said. “Kids came running up to the door. … It was just like a big family reunion.”

The second semester already is having a different feel than the first. As the COVID-19 vaccine becomes available, school employees are anticipating their turn within the next few weeks. Hansen said he expects all teachers and staff at Hill-Murray will be vaccinated by the end of February. But, with 90 Catholic schools across more than 40 public school districts, it’s hard to say when the process will be completed for all Catholic school personnel in the archdiocese. Whenever it does end, educators like Principal Broadhead at Totino-Grace think families will know and appreciate more the commitment schools like hers have made to educate their children.

“It has opened parents’ eyes to how much teachers work, how hard teachers work,” she said. “If you’re at home trying to teach your younger kids, you realize, ‘Holy cow, this is a hard job.’ What I hope it’s done is helped people value education and value teachers.”

It’s already happening, with Junker noting that a parent recently came in and dropped off $50 gift cards for every staff member at the school. But, the biggest gift of all would simply be an end to the pandemic and a return to normal. Already, the anticipation for that is building.

“I’m so thrilled, I’m excited,” Broadhead said of the upcoming arrival of a vaccine. “I hope that we can be back to normal next fall. … I really hope for our students’ sake that they can go back to normal and just enjoy each other, enjoy their relationships, enjoy their activities.”

And, “live their lives without such anxiety and fear.”

Banding together

When the COVID-19 pandemic closed the doors of Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in March 2020, school leaders immediately went to work trying to figure out how to do distance learning and decide what to do for the 2020-21 school year.

Craig Junker, president of Totino-Grace High School in Fridley, was at the time leading monthly meetings of all Catholic high school presidents. He decided to go from monthly to weekly meetings so all of the presidents could exchange ideas and work together to formulate strategies. The weekly meetings started in March and went through September, dropping to once or twice a month after that.

“At the time (weekly meetings started), the questions were: What do you think about reopening? What about contracts? What about (school) enrollment? How are you raising money? Are you raising money for emergency funds? For tuition relief? How are you taking care of your teachers? What special things are you doing to be attentive to your students?” Junker recalled.

As the school presidents met as a group to address those questions, principals were doing the same thing, as were athletic directors and even school nurses, who would be tasked with the job of monitoring students’ health and contact tracing, and giving quarantine instructions whenever there was a positive COVID-19 test or exposure to someone who had tested positive.

In the large and new endeavor of offering in-person learning during the pandemic, school leaders and staff found strength, support and solutions by banding together. As schools have found success in their unique strategies and approaches, leaders and staff members from the respective schools continue to meet and exchange ideas, though not as frequently.

“There’s (been) lots and lots of talking among the Catholic schools,” Junker said, noting that the high schools also have started sharing their knowledge with Catholic grade schools and even public school districts. “It was hard. It was hard to try to make decisions. What was helpful was to problem solve together, to listen to other schools, and to argue it out sometimes, or just listen. I found that incredibly valuable, and I think everybody else did, too.”