St. Jude's re-opening plans awaiting approval

St. Jude Thaddeus School Principal Mike Haugen gave the Havre Daily News an update Friday on its plans for re-opening this fall.

Haugen said Montana Superintendent of Catholic Schools Timothy Uhl approved St. Jude Thaddeus School of Havre re-opening plan, and it is under review by the Hill County Health Department for approval or adjustments.

“Our goal was to do everything possible to try to make sure that we have our kids in the building,” Haugen said. “We looked at all three phases of the governor’s plan and then we adapted our environment, our facilities here at St. Jude’s.”

  As soon as the school hears back from the health department the plan will be available for viewing by the community, he said.

He said the school has re-examined its cleaning and sanitation routines as far as keeping the classrooms and hallways clean and sanitized.

The school has ordered a type of UV-C light, he said, that will be put in the classrooms that will sanitize everything during the night.

“We’re hiring extra custodians then to come in and clean during the day and at night,” he said. “As far as visitors, we are really restricting visitors and parents in the building so we have control of that.”

The class sizes are small, but have large classrooms, he said, so it is easier to social distance.

“As far as creating cohorts within our school, basically the classes will be isolated and so we’re very careful on making sure that we’re not mixing up our grades and so on,” Haugen said.

He said face coverings are required when the students are at their desks and when they are moving throughout the halls.

He also said the school is looking to get the students outside as much as they can while the weather is still nice.

“As far as entering the building and exiting the building, we’ll be utilizing all four doors into the school, so we won’t have the students coming in using the same door,” he added. 

For lunch in the Parish Center, he said, three lunch periods were created with students assigned to the tables, four per table along with plexiglass being placed between the students. 

He said plexiglass will also be used in the classrooms and labs.

The school’s plan says if a student or staff member tests positive for COVID-19 the school will be closed for one or more days to clean, the plan says.

“We just have to be ready to adjust as you all know that things are changing, changing daily,” Haugen said.