Recess is a chance for kids to be themselves: get up from behind the school desk, meet up with friends from other classes, and put their high energy to good use. But this school year, playground time looks a lot more like an office coffee break for young ones in Catholic schools throughout the Diocese of Brooklyn.
Ashley Lantz was one of the first local Catholic school teachers to receive the first vaccine shot when appointments opened in early January. As luck would have it — or rather, it being “a part of God’s plan,” as Lantz says — she found an afternoon appointment on Jan. 11, the first day of eligibility for teachers in New York City.
When local Catholic school teachers learned they were eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine beginning Jan. 11, they quickly went online to schedule appointments.
The Test for Admission into Catholic High Schools (TACHS), which was administered online last month due to the pandemic, seemed to go off without a hitch. More than 10,000 eighth-graders from Catholic, public, and private schools in the Diocese of Brooklyn, the Archdiocese of New York, and the Diocese of Rockville Centre, took the exam this year.
As the first trimester of the school year comes to a close on Dec. 7, the 69 Catholic schools and academies across Brooklyn and Queens continue to go above and beyond for their communities. Children are still learning the fundamentals, while adhering to health and safety guidelines, through in-person learning or a hybrid learning model.
Seven local Catholic high school students are realizing their academic and athletic dreams, thanks to scholarships from the Rising Stars Youth Foundation.
Bishop Kearney High School’s larger-than-life Blessed Mother statue has found a new home, just a block away at St. Athanasius Catholic Academy. It used to be a welcoming, iconic figure on the high school’s exterior, located on the corner of 60th Street and Bay Parkway.
The Superintendent of Catholic Schools for Brooklyn and Queens has announced that all 69 schools and academies will remain open and continue to provide in-person learning, irrespective of any impending decision pertaining to the status of New York City public schools.
This year, the annual Futures in Education Gala has officially gone virtual to help families keep their children in local parish schools and Catholic academies. Futures in Education relies on this gala every fall to raise money for scholarships.
The start of the 2020-2021 academic year last month began positively as schools in the Diocese of Brooklyn reopened on time, with proper health and safety measures enforced.
