An Open Letter to the Superintendent: Archdiocese of Los Angeles

Just a curious and honest question. If students are being instructed from home for a total of 1 hour Monday/Wednesday and 2 hours on Tuesdays/Thursdays in face to face instruction by the teachers via webcam conference calls and as of now there is no clear path to going back to school for the 2019-2020 school year, what would that mean for parents with regard to monthly tuition payments?

I understand the school has it's costs such as utilities, teacher's salaries and staff. However, the campus remains shut down so utilities have been drastically reduced, our teachers schedules and instruction times have also been cut by more than half, staff is also working from home and it can be assumed that they too have seen their hours cut. How does the Archdiocese of Los Angeles justify it's tuition costs when parents are bearing the brunt of the instruction and tutoring time with their children and in some instances families with two or more children.

I appreciate my administration's efforts and I can see that the roll out has been strenuous on our educators trying to adjust to a virtual environment. This is in it's most honest definition, unprecedented. But with so much uncertainty I think we need to ask these questions to these archdiocese run schools so that they can begin to come up with an answer as to how they are superior to their tuition free public school counterparts. What are parents, who are supplementing much of the school work at home, to expect in return from their schools that they pay for when the schools have become incapable of performing to it's fullest abilities?

This is not to discount the fact that we should remain patient with our schools because I understand this has been difficult on everyone. But I am concerned for parents whose jobs have been furloughed, who have been on tuition assistance and for those parents with multiple children in one school. Yes we are in this together and I am ready to stick with my school but this "we'll wait and see" approach is not a sustainable way to retain attendance when parent's are going to be affected financially. What was once a willing sacrifice for many families could possibly become a financial burden.

I continue to pray for our community, our teachers, healthcare workers and most importantly our leaders for these are truly trying times. Thank you to everyone and please continue to pray the rosary as a family and ask our Lord for patience and good health. May everyone have a blessed Holy Week.

Kind Regards and God Bless,

Jim

"For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

2 Corinthians 4:17-18