Los Banos Catholic school reopens smoothly with a team effort

One school in Merced County that was willing, ready and able to reopen on September 21 with in-person teaching and learning was Our Lady of Fatima in Los Banos.

The Catholic school, granted a waiver by the state, indeed reopened on that date, and so far things have gone smoothly.

OLF was one of ten public and private schools in Merced County granted a state waiver to reopen in September. Like the other nine, the Los Banos school had to complete a long form presenting its plan to operate safely and make sure the plan was followed to the letter.

The plan for OLF to reopen, along with the waiver approval, applies to preschool and grades kindergarten through 6. OLF seventh- and eighth graders continue to learn through remote education, because their age group is more susceptible to contracting COVID-19.

Parents, teachers, students and staff have all worked together to follow protocols to keep everyone safe. “The school reopening has gone way more smoothly than I expected,” said Karen Forte, OLF principal.

Parents are not allowed to visit the campus but are asked to drive their children to a drop-off zone. Before children leave vehicles, a teacher takes their temperature. All parents have willingly complied with this part of the plan.

“Besides parents, the teachers, teachers’ aides and school librarian have all been fantastic,” said Forte. “They have put so much time and work into this for it to work well.”

Each grade follows a careful plan, with no more than 18 students in a classroom. “In the past,” Karen said, “I worried that our class sizes were too small. Now small classes are a blessing.”

Except for pre-school children, all students wear masks throughout the school day, except when they’re outside and stay six feet away from each other. “All of the kids have cooperated beautifully with this,” Karen said, “including kindergartners. I’m so proud of them.”

Forte also complimented her staff, McElvany Construction and Young’s Air Conditioning for their help in getting the school ready to open and keeping it safe.

Caroline Cota, the school’s office manager, has been stalwart in keeping all lines of communication open. Leon Ketcher, a grandfather of two OLF children, has been doing custodial and maintenance work each school day. And Albert Brazil has kept the landscape well maintained.

In addition, Charley McElvany, at OLF’s last minute request, had a crew working on resurfacing the schoolyard asphalt the week before the school opened and had it looking like new by opening day. McElvany also made a donation to keep the cost down.

Over the summer Young’s Air Conditioning donated and installed “air scrubbers” in all classrooms to help ensure the circulated air was as clean as possible, an important part of a strict protocol.

“It has been such a team effort,” Forte said. “Without everyone pulling together for a common purpose, we couldn’t have done this.”

Submitting the request for reopening was not easy. Fortunately, OLF was helped by the Diocese of Fresno Superintendent of Schools in completing the forms. Superintendent Mona Faulkner created a form to respond to state concerns. This form was used by a number of diocesan schools, including St. Anthony’s in Atwater, Our Lady of Mercy in Merced and Our Lady of Miracles in Gustine.

“The diocese’s standards are stricter than the state’s,” Forte said. “And I appreciate its focus on safety. Our students, teachers and parents all understand the value of in-person education, but all of us want to make sure we’re safe while doing this.”

The forms OLF filled out and the standards it follows are posted on the OLF website: olfdof.org. “Our communications director, Kristina Vaz, has done a great job,” Forte said, “keeping our website user friendly and up to date.”

OLF wants to make sure it continues to stay safe. One-quarter of its staff is tested for COVID every two weeks. Classrooms are deep cleaned regularly. Teachers and staff make sure everyone follows social distancing and wears masks.

Not only have returning students and parents agreed with the OLF plan, the school has registered seven new students within the last few weeks. “Our enrollment is higher than we expected,” Forte said. “Including preschool, we anticipated a total an enrollment of 145, but we now have 160 students.”

Each day can be challenging, but Forte doesn’t consider what she encounters as challenges but simply as things that have to get done. Many people would consider being a principal today one big headache, but Forte has a different perspective.

“I have the best job in the world,” Forte said. “Every day doesn’t always go as planned, but I understand the need to be flexible. And I love walking around the school and hear kids say, ‘Hello, Mrs. Forte.’ OLF is blessed beyond measure.”

From my perspective, OLF is an example of how the county, the state, even the country can move forward with re-opening while keeping people safe. The school has created a plan that follows standards set by respected scientists and then everyone involved works cooperatively to follow the plan.

I think the same plan could work for other schools and for businesses, too. I would love to see more places reopen as soon as possible, but not at the risk of sacrificing health, including the health of persons most vulnerable to COVID and of those helping people recover from COVID.

This story was originally published October 9, 2020 at 6:00 AM.