Dear families,

As you may have heard, the Dubuque Community School District has decided to transition to virtual learning for the week following Thanksgiving break. In light of this news, we felt it would be important to clarify our plans at Holy Family to continue with on-site learning following the break and for as long as we are able. Unfortunately, busing will not be available to Holy Family students from Monday, Nov. 30, through Friday, Dec. 4. 

We will continue to closely monitor cases within our schools, and we will continue to make any decisions about class-level, building or system-wide quarantines independently of surrounding districts.

These are challenging times, and I am grateful to our teachers and families for their perseverance and partnership in meeting the academic, social and spiritual needs of our students through both in-person and virtual learning formats.

The feedback we have received from families and staff throughout this year has been overwhelmingly supportive of our efforts to continue offering the option for in-person learning as long as we are able to. We do believe the mitigation efforts we have implemented have been largely effective in preventing community spread of COVID-19 within our schools.

That said, COVID-19 activity in our community is at record-high levels, and we recognize cases are likely to spike even higher following Thanksgiving break due to extended family gatherings, socializing with friends, and college students returning home for the holidays. For these reasons, we humbly implore each family to be mindful of limiting social gatherings as much as possible to help flatten our community curve and reduce the burden on schools and especially on our hospitals. Our ability to continue offering in-person learning will be directly linked to these actions.

If you believe your family may have been exposed to the virus during break, or if you have additional health concerns due to increasing COVID-19 activity, or if the lack of transportation poses an added challenge, you may decide virtual learning is the appropriate choice for your family the week following Thanksgiving break. We are here to support you in whichever learning format you feel is best suited to the needs of your family at this time.  Please do not hesitate to reach out to your school principal if you have questions or need help making this transition.

Please pray with us for the end to this pandemic, for the health and strength of our faculty and staff and our community healthcare workers, and for those who are sick or have suffered loss this year.  May God bless you and your family this Thanksgiving.

Phil Bormann
Chief Administrator

Updated Guidance on Cloth Masks | Effective November 1, 2020

• The CDC cautions that the effectiveness of gaiters and face shields (worn without a mask) is unknown at this time. To remain aligned with CDC recommendations and to lower the risk of transmission, Holy Family has revised its face-covering requirements. Gaiters and bandanas are no longer considered approved forms of face coverings in school or activities (effective November 1, 2020).
• Masks with openings, such as mesh, valves, or holes of any kind are not acceptable.
• All cloth face masks should be made of at least two layers of breathable fabric. A mask should fit snugly against the sides of the face, reach above the nose, and fit securely under the chin, completely covering the mouth and nostrils. It is important to select a style that will stay on your face without slipping off when talking or moving.

Please refer to the CDC guidance on face coverings for more information.

If purchasing or replacing masks poses a hardship, please contact your school office. Cloth and disposable face coverings are available for students or staff members who need them.

Friday, October 2, 2020

Dear families,

On Tuesday, September 29, Governor Reynolds and the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) changed the quarantine recommendations for people that have been exposed to a positive case of COVID-19. This new guidance would no longer require students/staff to quarantine when in close contact (under 6 feet for more than 15 minutes) with a positive case if both individuals were consistently and correctly wearing masks.

Recognizing the gravity of a departure from CDC guidance, the challenges of ensuring 100% mask compliance, and the current community prevalence, Holy Family has decided to uphold our existing CDC-recommended 14-day quarantine policy for students and staff who have a close-contact exposure to COVID-19.

This decision was made in consultation with the Medical Advisory Task Force, committing to re-evaluate the decision in the coming weeks. During this time, we will seek further data supporting the Sioux County evidence cited by IDPH. Although Sioux County’s experience aligns with our own, we feel the cited evidence was not sufficient research to warrant such a change at this time. Iowa is among few states parting from CDC quarantine rules, joining Wyoming and Nebraska.

In the past six weeks, our schools have experienced remarkably low COVID-19 case numbers. When considering the positivity rate in our community, we believe this success is due in large part to our solid health and safety protocols. With a continued focus on mitigation efforts, including mask-wearing, physical distancing, hand-washing, and staying home when sick or exposed, we hope to continue this track record.

As suggested, we will continue to monitor CDC quarantine guidance closely, in hopes that additional research may support the adoption of a policy change in the future. Our number one priority is to keep our schools open while protecting the health and safety of our students, staff and families. We thank you for your understanding and support for the measures we must take to promote that goal.

Please continue to pray for all those affected and for an end to this virus.

Yours in Christ,
Phil Bormann, Chief Administrator

Friday, September 18, 2020

Dear families,

This week, the Iowa Department of Education and Iowa Public Health jointly released updated guidance for schools regarding public reporting of COVID-19 cases, instituting limitations in accordance with the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

New State Guidance on Public COVID-19 Case Reporting in Schools:
If schools choose to share case information further with the public, such as via public dashboards, they should make considerations to protect the confidentiality of students in the school setting:

• Release case counts only when there are 100 or more total students in the student population at a location
• Schools that have no cases can report zero cases
• Schools with counts of 6 or more cases can release specific case counts
• Schools with 5 or fewer cases should not provide a specific count but can confirm there are cases within the school population
• No other demographic identifiers should be included in the school-level release

We recognize this requires an adjustment to our previous process. Holy Family will continue to provide COVID-19 campus updates but must do so under the state’s new rules, which have been implemented for the protection of privacy. While we continue to be committed to transparency, we too, aim to protect your privacy.

All data will continue to be used internally to guide our decisions regarding individual, classroom, grade-level, or whole-site quarantines. In conjunction with the Visiting Nurses Association, we will continue to notify families of exposure individually through standard contact tracing practices.

Moving forward, Holy Family’s daily reporting will be as follows:

• We will continue to report case numbers by site, if and when a school reaches six cases (as we currently stand at Wahlert Catholic High School).
• We will report “0” for all schools with no reported cases.
• For those with five cases or fewer, a “--” notation will be provided on the COVID-19 Campus dashboard.
• We will no longer report demographic identifiers such as grade level
• As always, we thank you for your understanding and support.

God’s continued blessings –

Phil Bormann
Chief Administrator

Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Adjustments to the COVID-19 Dashboard
You may notice, we have made a few small adjustments to our COVID-19 dashboard since the new state guidance on COVID-19 case reporting was issued by the Department of Education on September 18. Since then, the Archdiocesan Office of Catholic Schools has received permission to report cases at all sites, regardless of size. This means Holy Family can now report cases at Holy Ghost, following the same guidelines we do at other sites.  Finally, we have also been approved to report separately on staff and student cases at each site.  We hope you will find these small adjustments to be helpful.