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August 20, 2021By Bill Doyle | CFP Correspondent
At Assumption School in Millbury, Julie Olson serves as principal, teaches the fourth grade, performs recess duty and works the extended day program.
Assumption successfully held classes in person for the entire 2020-21 school year for students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade despite the pandemic, but Mrs. Olson admits she couldn’t help but be concerned about keeping everyone safe.
“All the time,” she said, “but you take it day by day, one day at a time, and you work with what you’ve got that day and you make it work. God’s on my side all the time. He’s got my back. He helped me through, 100 percent. He helped my school through. I’m not going to complain.”
Assumption not only survived the pandemic; it thrived. Enrollment skyrocketed from 96 students at the end of the 2019-20 school year to 134 at the start of the 2020-21 school year.
“It was all COVID,” Mrs. Olson said. “It was public school students who wanted the in-person five days a week.”
Assumption offered full-time, in-person classes during the 2020-21 school year while most public schools taught remotely.
Already, 140 students are registered to attend Assumption in the fall. That’s the most in five or six years.
Assumption’s preschool enrollment increased so much the school offered one class for 3-year-old students and another for 4-year-old children whereas before they were combined. In September, 15 children are expected to be in each class.
The number of students in Mrs. Olson’s fourth grade class tripled from four to 12 this past school year.
“It went phenomenally well,” Mrs. Olson said. “Aside from snow days, we were in school every day.”
The kindergarten learned remotely for four days after a student tested positive, but classes were held in person each day for every other grade, Mrs. Olson said.
No student or teacher contracted the virus at the school, she said. A staff member tested positive, but no student or teacher came in contact with her.
“Everybody was very appreciative,” Mrs. Olson said, “complimentary of all of the guidelines, protocols that the school had put in place to keep their students here all year long. They were very appreciative, and they were just as proactive as we were to keep the school open – as far as keeping their children home if they didn’t feel well.”
Students wore masks except for outdoor recess, a 15-minute snack time and lunch break. Desks were spread six feet apart and cleaned daily. Hands were sanitized.
“Any protocol the state told us we had to have, we had,” Mrs. Olson said. “We went by the state guidelines 100 percent.”
Some of Assumption’s teachers and older students were vaccinated late in the school year.
“I am very pleased with how the school year went,” Mrs. Olson said, “given the restrictions that we were under. The kids did a phenomenal job, the parents did a great job, my staff did an outstanding job. We all came together. We worked as a team and we accomplished quite a bit this (past school) year.”
St. Aloysius Catholic School
Enrollment has also soared at St. Aloysius Catholic School in Gilbertville. In September 2020 the school opened with 62 students in preschool through eighth grade, and ended the school year with 65. But director Roberta McQuaid said that 89 students have registered for the upcoming school year, although that could change. She said she was proud of the increase and the COVID was the impetus behind the jump. However, the upcoming enrollment figures have fluctuated and some families that were expected to enroll their children have decided to wait another year.
“It’s been crazy,” she said. “People are kind of divided on the mask issue and no one knows what’s going to come down from the state or local officials yet. So people are being cautious, I think.”
While some students left to home school in 2020-21, others replaced them. So the overall enrollment remained steady.
Mrs. McQuaid has been director since she started the school five years ago after St. Mary’s School closed in nearby Ware due to declining enrollment. St. Aloysius opened with only 38 students in three classrooms in 2016-17. In September, the school will have 26 children in the preschool program alone and there is an opening for only one more student.
The school will also no longer combine the kindergarten and first grade classes. Kindergarten has a waiting list. St. Aloysius will offer a stand-alone first grade and combined classes for second and third grades, fourth and fifth grades, and sixth, seventh and eighth grades.
A number of families enrolled their children at St. Aloysius because of its in-person teaching, but Mrs. Quaid didn’t know what to expect once public schools began teaching in person full time late in the school year.
“We thought for sure that these families were going to leave and go back to public school,” Mrs. McQuaid said, “but what happened instead was that they told their friends about us and now their friends are joining the party too. Word of mouth has been amazing.”
COVID testing was available at St. Aloysius, but Mrs. McQuaid said no students, faculty or staff tested positive at the school. St. Aloysius granted the request of one family that wanted its two children to study at the school remotely the entire year. All teachers were trained in Google Classroom in case the school had to switch to full-time remote learning, but that never happened. St. Aloysius never had to close.
Everyone wore masks and maintained social distance. Gathering in the assembly hall for morning prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance could no longer be accomplished safely so the school purchased an intercom system for that purpose.
In order to spread out, students watched Mass online each Friday instead of attending in person.
Mrs. McQuaid knows how the school’s parents felt because she had two daughters attend the school this year. Her daughter, Hannah Fanelli, graduated from the eighth grade at St. Aloysius and will attend Pope Francis Preparatory School in Springfield in the fall. Her daughter, Eden Fanelli, just finished the sixth grade at St. Aloysius.
Mrs. McQuaid’s brother, Chuck McQuaid, enjoyed his Catholic education at St. Mary’s so he made a donation to help start the St. Aloysius school in a building that hadn’t been used for a school in nearly half a century. Other schools donated desks, computers and books when St. Aloysius opened. Five years later, the school is more popular than ever.
Everyone wore masks and maintained social distance. Gathering in the assembly hall for morning prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance could no longer be accomplished safely so the school purchased an intercom system for that purpose.
In order to spread out, students watched Mass online each Friday instead of attending in person.
Mrs. McQuaid knows how the school’s parents felt because she had two daughters attend the school this year. Her daughter, Hannah Fanelli, graduated from the eighth grade at St. Aloysius and will attend Pope Francis Preparatory School in Springfield in the fall. Her daughter, Eden Fanelli, just finished the sixth grade at St. Aloysius.
Mrs. McQuaid’s brother, Chuck McQuaid, enjoyed his Catholic education at St. Mary’s so he made a donation to help start the St. Aloysius school in a building that hadn’t been used for a school in nearly half a century. Other schools donated desks, computers and books when St. Aloysius opened. Five years later, the school is more popular than ever.
