St. Peter’s School to remain in remote learning, suspends athletics under Purple Health Advisory designation
( DECEMBER 4, 2020 - MANSFIELD, Ohio) -- St. Peter’s School announced on Thursday that it would continue with remote learning now that the health advisory designation for Richland County has moved to Level 4 (purple). The school also announced that all athletic activities would be suspended through Thursday, December 10.
St. Peter’s School took precautions by moving to remote learning for the week after Thanksgiving to avoid any potential spread of the virus after holiday gatherings.
“Our Restart Smart plan was designed to switch to full remote learning if our county reached the highest (purple) level,” said pastor and local superintendent Father Gregory Hite. “To date, we’ve had a handful of COVID-19 cases in our school community and no evidence of transmission on campus. We are happy our stringent guidelines have worked thus far. However, we cannot control what happens outside the school community, and we have to do our part to mitigate spreading the virus.”
“It’s the right thing to do for the safety of our student-athletes and our community,” said athletic director David Miller. “Moving forward, we plan to evaluate our athletic participation on a weekly basis after the Governor’s press conference each Thursday.”
St. Peter’s School will return to in-person learning and extracurricular activities if Richland County goes back to a Level 3 (red) designation. The school’s Restart Smart committee will also explore options if the Level 4 designation continues into January.
“We know that students learn best in the classroom,” Father Hite said. “We have continued to reassess our Restart Smart plan as the school year has progressed. If we can bring our students back to the classroom safely while keeping our school community safe and healthy, we will try to do so.”