St. John Vianney Early Learning Center teacher Mary D’Avirro chats with one of her students online during school closures in April. (Courtesy photo)
Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald
All Hawaii parish schools will continue with distance learning for the remainder of the 2019-2020 academic year.
The Hawaii Catholic Schools office made the announcement on April 17, shortly after the state public schools superintendent made a similar update for all island public schools.
“This decision was based on our primary concern for the safety of our students, their families and our employees,” said Michael Rockers, superintendent of Hawaii Catholic Schools, adding that he’d spoken to school administrators and others in coming to the decision.
“I could not be prouder of our administrators, teachers and staff who have collaborated with our devoted parents to provide excellent distance learning programs to our hard-working students. I know they will continue to do so for the rest of the school year.
“This Easter Season we are reminded that God is with us and we can put our complete trust in Him. During this season of change and transition, let us be attentive to the New Life which will certainly continue to emerge.”
Sacred Hearts Academy, Saint Louis School and Damien Memorial School, Hawaii’s three independent Catholic schools, have also announced they will be continuing distance learning for the rest of this school year.
Local parochial schools had an incremental pushback of a potential “return to campus” date as state COVID-19 monitoring continued. March 27 became April 13 and then April 30. While the rate of coronavirus cases in the state is slowing, new cases continue to pop up.
Artwork by Martian Binonwangon, eighth-grader at St. Catherine School on Kauai, made as part of his online art class during distance learning this semester. The drawing was done for an Earth Day project where students where asked to focus on inspirational or motivational words that could have a positive impact. (Courtesy photo)
Catholic school graduation ceremony decisions are still in flux, according to high school administrators and staffers to whom the Hawaii Catholic Herald spoke.
Saint Louis School president Glenn Medeiros said that safety will be the first decision-making priority for all the all-boys school, but that he still hoped some sort of graduation ceremony would be possible for its eighth and twelfth graders.
“We’re trying to look at this in a positive way and see what we can save,” Medeiros said.
Hawaii has 25 parish-based Catholic schools and early learning centers, including Maryknoll School, and three independent Catholic schools.
This story was updated on April 23, 2020.
