Unlike many schools in the county, students at St. Pius X Catholic High School in Crystal City attended classes in person five days a week during the first semester, with few complications caused by COVID-19.
St. Pius, which has 279 students enrolled, started the school year in August and has closed the building for just one week because of the pandemic.
It switched to an all-distance-learning platform from Nov. 9-13, after about 60 students had to be quarantined because of possible exposure to COVID-19, Principal Karen DeCosty said.
“We decided to go virtual to kind of let everything reset itself,” she said. “It worked. It slowed it down.”
School president Jim Lehn said the need to provide distance learning for one week in November was a good reminder of how important it is for the school community to follow protocols to stem the spread of the virus.
“The spike after Halloween, you could tell people let their guard down,” Lehn said. “That was a tool to show what happens when you let your guard down.”
St. Pius, like other schools throughout the area and country, made sure preventive measures were in place before the start of the 2020-2021 school year.
Lehn said everyone is required to wear a mask when it is not possible to stay 6 feet apart from each other.
He also said frequent hand-washing is a norm for students and staff, and cleaning and sanitizing efforts have been ramped up.
“The one thing that Karen has consistently done during professional development meetings on Friday is work with teachers about reminding students we are fortunate to be here and we are here because we are following these protocols,” Lehn said. “Let’s keep doing the right thing to help us stay safe.”
St. Pius started the second semester on Jan 6, and as of Jan. 14, the school had no positive cases of COVID-19 among students or staff members. However, one student was out of school because of possible exposure to the virus.
Lehn said he is pleased St. Pius has been able to remain open for classes five days a week for most of the school year.
“I don’t know what the secret is. I don’t know if it is just being healthy and reminding kids to wash hands and keep their distance from each other,” he said. “We have very solid protocols, and we knew if we could enforce those protocols, it would increase our chances of remaining open.
“I just thank God we were able to continue to provide the level of education we have in a safe, healthy environment.”
Staying on track
Even before the pandemic struck, St. Pius had practice with students learning online since the school already had begun using a distance-learning model to avoid canceling classes because of wintery events.
That gave the school’s students and teachers a head start on how to continue to learn through virtual platforms instead of meeting in person in classrooms, DeCosty said.
“The benefit is when students are in quarantine or in isolation, they can remote into the class and be part of the class as it is occurring,” she said. “They can hear and see what is going on, and the teacher checks in with them.”
When St. Pius students must stay home because of an issue related to COVID-19, they are required to attend class virtually from home, unless they truly are too ill to take part in instruction, DeCosty said.
“Students are required to log in for everything, including home room,” she said. “(Teachers) have figured out how to continue the curriculum whether we are here in person or teaching students at home. The teachers have been rock stars.”
Because St. Pius students largely have been able to continue receiving in-person instruction this school year, it has helped them stay on track academically, St. Pius officials said.
Last school year’s graduating class had a cumulative grade-point average of 3.57 and an average ACT composite score of 23.3, and this school year’s graduating class has similar numbers after the first semester and the first round of ACT testing, DeCosty said.
“I’m not concerned about (learning) gaps because I know we are following our curriculum the way it needs to be taught,” DeCosty said. “I feel very confident in the teachers and what they are doing to feel our kids our still getting the education they and our families expect.”