This private school has been open all school year, and has had zero in-school transmissions of COVID-19. And its tuition is far less than what the public schools spend. The real reason for keeping the public schools closed has nothing to do with COVID-19.

By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)

March 1, 2021

According to this article, zero cases of COVID-19 have been contracted at this private Catholic school in Philadelphia, which has been open for the entire school year so far.

For students who are not part of the school’s affiliated church, tuition is $6,332 yer year. It’s even less for students who are part of the church.

Source: https://d2y1pz2y630308.cloudfront.net/19763/documents/2021/2/Saint%20Pio%202021-2022%20Tuition%20Letter%20and%20Rates.pdf

By comparison, the budget for Philadelphia’s public schools is $14,812 per student per year.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=School_District_of_Philadelphia&oldid=1002556395

This debunks the claim that public schools don’t have enough money to deal with COVID-19.

Somehow, this private school, with far less money per student, was able to open up, and have zero in-school cases of transmission.

Whatever the reason is for keeping the public schools closed, it has nothing to do with COVID-19.

https://whyy.org/articles/in-person-classes-old-buildings-almost-no-covid-are-philly-catholic-schools-a-blueprint/

In-person classes. Old buildings. Almost no COVID. Are Philly Catholic schools a blueprint?

By Avi Wolfman-Arent

February 21, 2021

Francesca Russo hesitates to acknowledge any good news without crossing herself and knocking on wood.

When it comes to COVID, the principal at St. Pio Regional Catholic School in South Philadelphia likes to cover her bases — physical and spiritual.

“We have not had many cases,” said Russo, who was a teacher at St. Pio’s for 19 years before becoming principal two years ago. “Thank goodness. Knock on some kind of wood. We did play it scary-mary safe.”

Each room at St. Pio’s has a window cracked and a door open. There’s a system for when students can use bathrooms between regular cleanings. And each desk has a three-panel barrier that students raise whenever they need to lower their masks.

Behind the barriers sit roughly 230 students, from pre-K through eighth grade, about the same number who occupied this building last year. They’ve been learning in a decades-old Catholic school five days a week since the school year began.

Five members of the school community have contracted COVID-19 since September, Russo says. One of them is among the school’s 15 all-virtual students. Three contracted the virus over winter break while school was closed. The fifth also contracted the virus outside of school.

So far, according to Russo, there’s been no in-school transmission.

“We love these kids,” said Russo. “We’d do anything to make sure they’re safe, protected, and happy.”

St. Pio’s is one of about 100 elementary schools in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia that has been open for full-time, face-to-face education since the school year began. Together, the schools host about 35,000 educators and children in buildings every day, according to the archdiocese. Archdiocesan high schools, meanwhile, have been open on a hybrid schedule.

While public debate swirls over whether the School District of Philadelphia should reopen school buildings on a part-time basis for about 9,000 pre-K through second grade students, another elementary system in the same region has opened its doors to nearly four times as many students. Leaders say they’ve managed to do so safely.

Schools in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia share the same geography as the city’s public schools. And perhaps more than any other school system in the region, the parochial sector shares the public schools’ legacy of contraction, tight budgets, and, in some places, aging infrastructure.

Yet, according to officials, Catholic elementary and high schools in the five-county region have recorded just one suspected instance of in-school transmission during the pandemic. Using bedrock mitigation strategies, the parochial system believes it’s kept kids safer in schools than they would’ve been in the outside world. They’re determined to keep it that way.

“We’re gonna hold the course until June,” said Andrew McLaughlin, the archdiocese’s secretary of elementary education.