Updates for April 17

This afternoon, Governor Greg Abbott and the state of Texas have closed all schools through the end of the school year - public, private, and higher ed. While this is a disappointing development, we continue our commitment to the health and safety of our community, and the important role of supporting our public officials and health professionals working to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Frassati Catholic will keep our campus closed and continue remote learning through the end of the semester.

This announcement brings with it the need to adapt our plans for completing the academic year, including reformatting events scheduled through the end of the semester. Please know the administrative team has been hard at work to adapt these plans, and we will be prepared to update the community next week. For our seniors, our prayers are with you in a special way as this pandemic has upended the final semester of your high school career. We intend to communicate directly with seniors and their families next week to actively engage them in the process of rethinking major events.

In addition to our campus closure please take note of the following information:

• We wanted to take a moment to offer a special thanks to our faculty for their exemplary work in maintaining the quality you have come to expect from the Frassati Catholic education during this time. So much went into transitioning to remote learning, and our faculty have adapted in many ways, including mastering new technologies (Google Hangout Meets, Screencastify, Flipgrid, and DeltaMath to name a few), seeking out new avenues to connect with students in a personal way, and demonstrating incredible patience and flexibility throughout a difficult situation. Many of our faculty members have done all this while teaching and caring for their own children at home. So thank you to the Frassati Catholic faculty, and we invite you and your families to send a special note of thanks to your teachers.

• Although sports for this year are now suspended, preparations for next year are already underway.  Part of that planning process includes finding out how many students we expect to participate in each sport next year.  We're asking families to talk with their student(s) this coming week about plans for athletics next year and complete the short survey that can be accessed with the link below.  In addition to helping us with our planning, this form helps us communicate with you directly about the sport(s) of your choice.  If you have more than one child who will participate in sports next year, please submit the form separately for each child.  If your child does not plan to participate in sports next year, there is a place on the survey to indicate that as well.

  You can access the survey here, or by pasting the link (https://forms.gle/UHjo3RH5T4HAJy3m9) into your browser. The deadline to submit this form is Friday, April 24.  After this date, we will be sending out more information about the FAST summer program and other possible offseason plans.  

• Please take a few moments to complete this week's survey. The weekly survey responses are a valuable tool to help us grow and adapt to better serve our students and families.

• With the cancelation of SAT and ACT tests this spring, many juniors are awaiting announcements from the College Board and ACT with updates on available testing, whether that be the reopening of in-person testing or online options for these standardized tests. Mrs. Tracey Bonini, our Guidance Counselor, will continue to update the community as those developments are made available. We also want to let the community know about the Classic Learning Test (CLT) which is another standardized testing option accepted at some colleges. The CLT is a two-hour test that can be taken at home, and the next available testing date is Saturday, April 25. The registration deadline for this test is Tuesday, April 21. Please see the "Important Information" in this afternoon's weekly newsletter for more details on how to register for the exam, colleges that accept this test in the application process, pricing, and more.

• Thank you to all the families who have completed the re-enrollment process for the 2020-2021 Academic Year. We have been working to simplify your payment through SmartTuition and now have instructions in English and Spanish for completing that process. Please take a few moments to review these instructions and complete this process on the SmartTuition website. It is important to ensure all demographic information is correct and all payment information is entered correctly for a smooth transition to next year's plan. We would like everyone to please complete this process no later than May 4 so your family's registration for next year is 100% complete.

  For those families who have not yet re-enrolled, please log in to SchoolAdmin to complete that process as soon as possible.   

• Beginning next week, we will no longer be sending our Friday updates. You will continue to receive updates every Monday and Wednesday, and the weekly newsletter will be sent on Friday.