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* Welp…
Dear Catholic School Parents and Guardians,
Due to the prevalence of COVID-19 (coronavirus) in the greater Chicago area, the Archdiocese of Chicago is announcing a system-wide closure of Catholic schools, effective Monday, March 16. This decision applies to all Catholic schools in Cook and Lake Counties operated by the Archdiocese of Chicago. Catholic schools not operated by the archdiocese, such as those governed by religious orders, will make decisions individually.
This decision extends to all regular operations of our Catholic schools, including all extra-curricular activities, social events and other school-related gatherings.
At this time, we have not determined how long this closure will last. We are in close communication with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Illinois Department of Public Health, and other agencies managing the public health response to the COVID-19 epidemic. We will make an announcement when we have determined a date to reopen.
We will perform extra cleaning of our facilities while school is not in session.
During this closure period, Catholic school students will be asked to complete academic work through electronic learning (“e-learning”) or alternative learning. You should expect communication from your school’s principal on how e-learning or alternative learning will take place.
I encourage you to continue to pray for God’s grace throughout this time of uncertainty. Let us pray for the health and wellbeing of our Catholic school community and all our brothers and sisters affected by the epidemic.
Yours in Christ,
Jim Rigg, Ph.D.
Superintendent of Catholic Schools
Archdiocese of Chicago
Your move, Gov. Pritzker.
*** UPDATE *** Wow…
Catholic churches in the Chicago Catholic Archdiocese will stop holding masses starting this weekend and is closing its schools as a precaution to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
Cardinal Blase Cupich announced that mass will be suspended in all churches starting Saturday evening, but the churches will remain open for those seeking private prayer. Cupich encouraged parishes with the capability to broadcast their mass online to do so.
posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 10:14 am
Sorry, comments are closed at this time.
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Wow, the slowest moving bureaucracy on Earth made the right decision before our governor. Unreal.
Comment by Ducky LaMoore Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 10:21 am
Huge, huge pressure in the Governor now..
This isn’t a “snow day” type of decision choice.
The stark contrast now is going to be highlighted every day schools are open and the administration does not close them.
Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 10:26 am
So, the Archdiocese based on information from Pritzker’s department of public health decided to close all of its schools, while Pritzker based on information from his own department of public health decided to allow Chicago public schools to remain open?
That is going to be very hard to explain.
Comment by Charlie Brown Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 10:32 am
The Catholic Church has closed all churches in Rome. That would have influenced the decision.
Comment by Last Bull Moose Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 10:38 am
Ducky -
How many Chicago Catholic school kids get much / most of their meals at school? How does that compare to CPS?
Comment by Anyone Remember Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 10:40 am
Anyone Remember–right on target. Thousands of kids will not get enough to eat if their school closes.
Comment by ajjacksson Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 10:43 am
CPS needs to close. Period.
Comment by St. Margaret of Scotland Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 10:43 am
“That is going to be very hard to explain.”
Not really, to anyone who understands that not every CPS family is middle class with a mommy who stays home all day, which describes about 80% of families at the Catholic school my kid attends. Completely different demographic needs and therefore different factors that have to be considered.
Comment by Larry Bowa Jr. Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 10:45 am
== Period ==
Are you going to feed all of the students that can’t get food when they close? I would hate to be in charge of making this decision. period.
Comment by Hungry Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 10:46 am
Has to Diocese announced what they will be doing with their unused toilet paper? Asking for a friend. /s/
Comment by Downstate Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 10:54 am
If the City and CPS dont already have a well developed and gamed out contingency for providing food to youth during a system-wide shutdown, they’re criminally negligent and shouldn’t have their jobs.
Move faster.
Comment by ImHere Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 10:56 am
Easy to say close CPS not so easy to actually deal with it.
How many children live in food deserts and cannot get a meal in their home? How many children will have no access to a safe household and a parent or older sibling to be there to take care of them? How many single parent households will lose pay to be home with their child and not be able to afford to buy 3 weeks of food and supplies if there’s a full lockdown? How many CPS students live in an area where their only home food comes from little corner stores that will be out of supply? How many of these corner stores are going to take advantage of this and start triple and quadruple upcharging, surge pricing, their products?
These are just some questions that need to be answered before you dump 280,000 low income children out into the street. Yes 77% of CPS students are low income so what do you do and how do you coordinate? These aren’t NBA players or college kids that have means to handle issues these are children. Need a plan before you make that decision.
Comment by Frank talks Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 10:59 am
he’s just waiting to close them until election day is over, right?
Comment by hisgirlfriday Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 11:01 am
== If the City and CPS dont already have a well developed and gamed out contingency for providing food to youth during a system-wide shutdown, they’re criminally negligent and shouldn’t have their jobs.
Move faster.=
This is an incredibly tough call for these officials on closing CPS. There are the meal issues, yes but there are also child care issues. Cancel child care get call offs. What happens when they close CPS and 50% of CNAs and housekeepers at our local hospitals need to choose between staying home to watch their child or going to care for the people that have it? If they send their child somewhere else it will likely be a grand parent which could expose the elderly.
Catholic school children generally come from families with more means. This is an easier call.
This is not as clear an issue as you make it out to be and I doubt you understand the cost/benefits of the decision you are so quick to make.
Further who calls people providing a free meals for poor children criminally negligent when they could not forsee a way to get these meals to children during a pandemic? This is a free governmental service. This is something we had to do to fix an outcome of a fundamentally flawed set of value judgments our society has made that allows anyone to go hungry.
Solution may bee keeping the schools open but making attendance optional. Keep the meals going, our public servants getting a check, and child care for those who need it. The same way they did during the teachers strikes.
Comment by Gosomewhereelse Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 11:16 am
Is this just a snub to JB from the church?
There are many other catholic dioceses in the state. I haven’t heard of any of them closing yet. Just Chicago.
I also don’t see anything about churches closing. Packing a few hundred adults shoulder to shoulder on a Sunday morning seems like it may be a concern, if this was actually their concern.
Obviously, I don’t trust the intentions of the catholic church. Mostly because I attended a catholic school for 8 years.
Comment by TheInvisibleMan Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 11:16 am
=he’s just waiting to close them until election day is over, right?=
There’s absolutely no evidence that this is his motivation other than your cynicism. There are serious consequences of shutting down schools in any area and they go up exponentially in low income areas. Now if you have answers to those problems offer them up.
I fully expect that schools will close throughout the state. Ensuring that there’s a plan in place to deal with the real social problems that will go along with that makes sense.
Comment by Pundent Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 11:17 am
City Colleges of Chicago to remain open until regularly scheduled Spring Break (March 30 - April 12). During the break, options will be explored to resume classes via distance learning.
http://www.ccc.edu/Documents/City%20Colleges%20Announcement%20on%20Remote%20Learning%20%20Spring%20Break.pdf
The City Colleges of Chicago have the only unelected community college board in Illinois: all of the college trustees are mayoral appointees.
Comment by Practical Politics Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 11:19 am
And they suspended mass.
Comment by Some Anonymous Dude (S.A.D.) Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 11:23 am
==he’s just waiting to close them until election day is over, right?==
BREAKING NEWS: Louisiana will postpone next month’s Presidential Preference Primary due to coronavirus concerns.
Notice the word “postpone”, JB? You could still do it without losing any of the votes that have already been cast early or by mail.
Comment by Responsa Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 11:26 am
Frank Talks - you don’t get it. you’re still holding out that this will just “go away.” it won’t. You either close schools now and prevent the spread, or you react after your first positive test, by that point it’s too late. You close schools now, there’s less spread and less long term disruption. You wait, you’ll have a longer disruption and those 300,000 low income kids have a longer time without resources. You can’t gather a quorum for all the committees and hash out a plan for this, viruses don’t work that way.
Comment by Merica Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 11:27 am
=you’re still holding out that this will just “go away.” it won’t.=
I believe the conclusion was “have a plan.” Closing schools without one would be a disaster. If it takes a day to create the plan, let it happen. The schools will close.
Comment by Pundent Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 11:31 am
My public school kid is staying home Monday whether Governor Pritzker calls it off or not, thank you very much.
Comment by Elijah Snow Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 11:33 am
No Mass, during Lent.
Churches closed, during Lent, in Rome.
To this…
=== Notice the word “postpone”, JB? You could still do it without losing any of the votes that have already been cast early or by mail.===
With less than 4 days away, tall order to decide to postpone an election.
Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 11:52 am
===Thousands of kids will not get enough to eat if their school closes.===
To every one repeating these claims, please remember we just went through a strike in the fall, for two weeks, and the schools stayed open without instruction for this very reason. There is no reason they can’t do it again.
Comment by Joe Bidenopolous Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 12:13 pm
===My public school kid is staying home Monday whether Governor Pritzker calls it off or not, thank you very much.===
Mine are home indefinitely as well
Comment by Joe Bidenopolous Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 12:16 pm
My kids are out of school for the foreseeable future as well.
CPS should have been closed days ago. The National Guard should get ready because JB will probably need them.
Comment by ImHere Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 12:24 pm
Closing the Masses is a major change. I never liked the “sign of peace’ handshakes, or the seemingly unending calls for money (Peters Pence?), or the drinking of wine from the same chalice (wiped after every partaking, but it was the same cloth doing the ‘cleaning’. The idea that missing Mass for ANY reason (which is what I was brought up with) must shake the sensibilities of some of the faithful. My point, I think this was a gutsy call, and not done for political payback.
Comment by Sayitaintso Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 12:43 pm
InvisibleMan - my kids go to a school in the diocese of Peoria. We got a letter last night saying they’d be closed for 2 weeks starting Monday. Their spring break is next week, so they are to stay home the following, with a potential e-learning day on Wednesday of that week.
Comment by CentralILGuy Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 12:45 pm
=The National Guard should get ready because JB will probably need them.=
Exactly for what purpose? The goal in closing schools, businesses and cancelling masses is to “flatten the curve.” That is, keep the health care system from being overwhelmed beyond their limited resources. I’m not sure how mobilizing the National Guard helps that.
We do need to act with a sense of urgency but we also need careful planning to avoid further unintended consequences. We also have to be cognizant of the fact that many of our social service systems and schools are severely underfunded and under-resourced. A lot of the same folks who routinely advocate around here for cutting spending and eliminating feel good social services are now the same people complaining that things aren’t happening quick enough for their liking.
CPS will be closing just as the St. Patrick’s day parade was cancelled. But closing schools without a plan would be disastrous particularly if we over tax our first responders and health care workers as a consequence.
Comment by Pundent Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 12:53 pm
@Merica no where did I say it will go away. All I said is you need a plan. Maybe we can send 280,000 poor kids to your house or maybe you’ll grab a bunch of semi trucks and bring them food.
There needs to be a plan. And it doesn’t involve just locking doors and saying good luck hope you don’t get it, we’ll see you in a month.
Comment by Frank talks Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 12:59 pm
I wonder if the school food programs could distribute the food in bags, delivered by bus thru the school bus routes to the kid’s pick-up spots?
Comment by idea Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 1:10 pm
–Prudent–
Well, for starters, security. A big wildcard here is what happens to all the crime in the city? Does it fall off to next to nothing or does it explode? Do the gangs follow shelter in place guidelines or do they view it as an opportunity? Besides that, you’ll likely have to enforce some sort of curfew, and that requires bodies.
2nd, medical support. They will likely be needed to set up field hospitals to treat covid patients without infecting an entire hospital that already has at risk patients inside its walls.
3rd, relief support. Moving food, water and medicine to at risk neighborhoods and communities.
And 4th, provide supplemental support to EMT and fire services transporting patients.
That’s just a small list. I’m sure they will be involved in much more than that in the weeks to come.
Comment by ImHere Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 1:16 pm
Springfield diocese just announced all their parish schools are closing next week:
https://www.dio.org/coronavirus.html
Will District 186 (Springfield Public Schools) and other area schools follow?
Comment by Leatherneck Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 3:08 pm
Re: school food programs
I posted this in another thread, but it seems that CPS is planning for student meals if there’s a closure: https://www.chicagotribune.com/coronavirus/ct-cps-coronavirus-student-meals-free-lunch-20200313-ouemjjdqtjagfp5iwxmxjxnire-story.html
Comment by JoanP Friday, Mar 13, 20 @ 3:17 pm