Dear St. John the Baptist School Community,

I have made the decision to maintain our school's present distance learning program, in
consultation with Fr. Thuong Nguyen, until reviewing all Contra Costa County Health
Department indicators in November for potential in person learning thereafter. Thank
you to all St. John the Baptist School shareholders who participated in our most recent
surveys and conversations as results are reflected below:

• Conversations and notes with faculty and staff showed the following: 80% in favor of a slow, measured, thoughtful return to school for in person learning if indicators show that we are in the orange/yellow tier - 20% of faculty and staff are in favor of a slow, measured, thoughtful return to school with the current red/orange tier status in place.
• The data produced from the recent parent survey showed the following:
  • 81% of our families responded to our survey in grades TK-8.
  • 33% of our families are comfortable sending their child/ren to school with minimal concerns. Thus, 67% of our families who responded to our survey have concerns not being comfortable with sending their child back to school given the current county status and if all county health and safety protocols are in place.

First and foremost, we continue to first take into account the health and wellbeing of all
of our shareholders during this time. As evidenced above, all shareholders were
considered in today's decision.

In addition, such present concerns as expressed by faculty and staff and
parents/guardians are as follows:

• Reviewing health metrics and evaluations that forecast Covid-19 cases whereby mortalities into the near future reveal concerning statistics.
• We are in flu season and with resistance down and flu contagion traditionally on the rise during this season, the probability of having both is prevalent, and could pose serious health problems toward increased Covid-19 transmission rates.
• A public vaccine is not available and a large majority of all shareholders expressed their comfort level will rise after a vaccine does become available.
• Many families have made the choice to travel outside of our area for various reasons. This does present an additional risk given varied safeguards in place geographically.
• Presently, our distance learning plan is rated as strong and we would certainly agree not most ideal long-term. However, we have important distant learning routines, structures, programs, norms, policies, and outcomes in place that provide stability and safety during these most challenging times.

What's next? Following you will find an outline of our reopening plan that outlines all of the healthy and safety guidelines that will be in place when we do move to in person learning. This document does answer the many questions you have with regard to all health/safety and cohort guidelines and will serve as the framework that we will work from when we do resume in person learning. We will continue to update you on any possible changes to this reopening plan in November as well as I will be hosting
parent/guardian information meetings via Zoom for the following grade levels: Grades TK-2, Grades 3-5 and Grades 6-8. Please check the Tuesday e-news for upcoming dates and Zoom links. In addition, beginning in November, teachers will begin to host monthly "Classroom Connection" meetings to keep you informed of curriculum standards and outcomes as well as how we can work together to support the social/emotional development of your child/ren.

I sincerely thank you for trusting us and entrusting your children to our care. We thank you for your commitment to building up and sustaining our community by supporting and caring for each other.

Grounded in Grace,
Dina Trombettas
Principal