St. James Episcopal Day School COVID-19 Response

With care in mind for our students, faculty, staff, and all our families, St. James Episcopal Day School is following the recommendations of our Diocesan Bishop and the Louisiana Governor's Office to close our buildings until we are directed otherwise. In response to this, we have shifted our learning into our students' homes, giving instruction via distance learning, offering prayers through video chapels, and keeping in touch with one another through technologies appropriate for our children. 

We have taken the following steps to ensure we are supporting our parents and students during this time: 

• Daily Morning Meeting and other video updates from teachers at all grade levels
• Lesson plans and resources posted in SeeSaw or Google Classroom learning platforms
• Weekly optional enrichment activities from our teachers in Music, Art, PE, Christian Education, Guidance, Library, and STEM
• Weekly Scoop newsletter with reminders and updates 
• Monday Morning Prayer Video and Friday Facebook Live Chapel services 
• Daily Instagram and Facebook postings about student learning, highlights from the 2019-2020 school year, helpful resources, and more
• Continuous planning and adaptation of school life to keep community connected
• Weekly administrative team meetings to support classroom teachers and staff
• Regular grade level meetings between administration and faculty to ensure continuity and consistency in expectations for distance instruction
• Faculty and staff members checking in with families through phone calls and emails 

​We are aware of the stress school closures place on many of us, especially those who are trying to work while tending to our families and often working in the same shared space. As we work through the challenges, our school leadership will continue to help keep our community of parents, students, teachers, and faculty connected. The St. James’ community will pull through this together. We are so grateful to all for taking on this challenge and believe that our school will be stronger having gone through this together.