COVID UPDATE AND DATA TRANSPARENCY

FOR THE 2021-22 SCHOOL YEAR

Below is a message sent to all families on November 1, 2021 from Brebeuf Jesuit Principal, Greg VanSlambrook.

Dear Brebeuf Jesuit Community,

This message is to inform our students, faculty, and staff that beginning Tuesday, November 2, Brebeuf Jesuit will return to a policy that masks are optional for those who are vaccinated.
We continue to ask those who are unvaccinated to wear masks indoors at all times while on campus, and we support anyone who wishes to remain masked regardless of vaccination status. There still may be certain school events such as convocations or gatherings for which we will ask all participants to be masked, and we will communicate those on a case-by-case basis.

We are making this change in collaboration with our Medical Task Force, and there are three factors to the rationale:

1. The number of Brebeuf Jesuit community COVID cases and close contacts continues to be low, as seen by our regularly published COVID data chart.
2. The COVID case rates in our surrounding area have been on a decreasing trend – a significant improvement from six weeks ago when we implemented the masking policy for everyone.
3. Our vaccination rate is 93% of students and 97% of faculty/staff.

Going forward, we will continue to consider these three factors and any changes to those trends as we navigate policies around safety precautions including masking. There may be other factors that arise in the future as well, but for now we feel that the mix of data is the right one given our current public health understanding.

We appreciate everyone’s cooperation with these policies, and especially the many ways our community’s responsible and unselfish behavior has put us in the position to be learning together daily in a safe environment. We are grateful!

AMDG,
Greg VanSlambrook
Principal