In-person and livestreamed, with plans at the moment to limit attendance to immediate family
After a year of mask-wearing, social distancing and an endless supply of hand sanitizer, Catholic schools in Arkansas can see a glimmer of light on the horizon with vaccinations and an eye toward graduation.
Theresa Hall, superintendent for Catholic Schools, said the lessons learned from the 2020-2021 school year during the COVID-19 pandemic will be useful for the future.
“It has made us think what can we do, how can we do things a little bit different. Sometimes we’re creatures of habit and sometimes it’s easy to stay doing what we always do because it works, but this has made us think outside the box and what can we do differently,” Hall said. “This makes you stop and think, ‘This is working or this is not working.’ It makes us reevaluate what we’re doing and how we do things like fundraising, recess, sports, teaching.”
Alesia Schaefer
Northwest Arkansas high school runners Mia Loafman (from left), Mary Helen Schaefer, Abigail Livingston and Dawson Welch say training and hard work helped them cope during the pandemic and have a successful cross country season. Jacob Tyburski is not pictured.
Alesia Schaefer
Northwest Arkansas high school runners Mia Loafman (from left), Mary Helen Schaefer, Abigail Livingston and Dawson Welch say training and hard work helped them cope during the pandemic and have a successful cross country season. Jacob Tyburski is not pictured.
BENTONVILLE The sport of running has seen a rebirth during the pandemic, but for competitive runners it has not been without its challenges.
With almost a semester of learning under their belts, students and teachers are bracing for a trend upward in COVID-19 cases.
Following the Thanksgiving holiday, several schools saw an uptick in positive cases, which is likely to continue into January following Christmas.
“What I m seeing is there are a few more cases,” said superintendent of Catholic Schools Theresa Hall. “Not that they’re starting at our schools, but families are doing more activities in groups, which I feel is a cause for some of this growth.”
However, there have not been any schoolwide outbreaks and in-school transmissions are low, thanks to diligent efforts in mask-wearing, social distance, hand-washing and keeping groups isolated by classes or grades, Hall said. For the week of Nov. 30-Dec. 4, all Catholic schools in Arkansas reported the following to the Catholic Schools Office: