Dear Royals Family,
Out of our commitment to student safety and in accordance with official recommendations regarding proactive abatement of infection, the Bishop of Monterey will be ordering all Catholic schools within the Diocese to suspend face-to-face instruction effective this coming Monday through Friday April 3. During that time, online and remote instruction will continue. Face-to-face instruction is scheduled to resume on Monday April 6.
Therefore, effective this Monday, Mission College Prep is instituting its Distance Learning plan. This means that for the next three weeks students will be doing both their classwork and their homework away from campus.
All Co-curricular programming remains suspended, including now all athletic practices scheduled for Mach 16 - April 5. Food for People’s Kitchen will still be dropped off but no students will be serving at People’s Kitchen tomorrow.
In this fluid situation future conditions may call for the amendment of this plan and those changes will be communicated from my office.
This is not the outcome that we were hoping for but it is an outcome for which we are prepared. Students were notified of this change this afternoon and we have extended our support with counseling and have provided them with the opportunity for questions. This crisis will be an acute hardship for many families and we would like to help however we can.
Please remain in communication with the school. During this time the school offices will be operational during business hours but the campus will be closed to the public. I am sorry that this set of circumstances has befallen us but I am supremely confident in our community’s ability to transcend this challenge.
As my email yesterday explained, Distance Learning will allow for a great deal of flexibility for the student, it will still require several hours of student work daily, in a quiet, distraction-free environment. Key to the success of this contingency plan is the expectation that students would continue to engage actively and meaningfully, every day, with instructional material presented by MCP faculty.
The primary tool for Distance Learning, CANVAS, has been the primary tool supporting face-to-face instruction at MCP for the last 3 years. Activating the Distance Learning plan would mean students are studying from a different location but they would be accessing the same learning tools that they already utilize daily under normal school operations. Most assignments would feel very similar to the work students are doing now and would include combinations of student reading, researching, watching videos, participating in online discussions, worksheets, written responses, and essays.
While changing conditions could call for revision, the following are the basic protocols of the Distance Learning plan:
- There will be no school work expected of students March 16 and March 17. Families should spend those two days addressing any immediate needs, settling into routines, gathering needed resources, and making any necessary arrangements for the safety and well-being of family members.
- On March 18 academic work will begin to appear on each student’s CANVAS account just as homework and resources appear during normal operations.
- School work will be posted daily using the same rotation of courses listed in the handbook calendar and student’s schedule. Teachers will post each day’s coursework in CANVAS by noon on the day assigned.
- The length of the shutdown and the existing pacing in each course will determine whether or not tests and/or quizzes are assigned during this period. Those assessments will be at the discretion of the instructor who will provide the directions and parameters to students.
We are ever mindful of the anxiety and stress for students and families that will accompany these conditions. We will always do our best to act in support of all members of our community and clear, proactive two-way communication will be critical to the success of our community. Our counseling team will be available to students through remote connection for the duration of this crisis.
It may prove necessary to adjust our expectations as we experience this process together. I remain absolutely convinced that by working together we can successfully meet this challenge as a community.
Please continue to contact the school regarding any concerns or questions and please continue to keep our entire global, national, and local communities in your prayers.
Yours in Christ,
Mike Susank
Principal, Mission College Preparatory Catholic High School