Registration for 2021-22 PREP IS NOW OPEN!

I wanted to update you on the latest information for St. Basil’s religious education program (Prep) for the coming school year. I greatly appreciate your patience in waiting for this news. After speaking with many other DREs and pastors at local parishes and looking at the current information available regarding COVID-19, we’ve decided to make Prep totally online again for the coming year. As you can imagine, this was a very difficult decision, especially since any choice was bound to disappoint some people. Our primary concern for making this decision is the safety and health of our children, families, and volunteers. We also considered other factors such as the number of volunteers we would need to successfully run an in-person program, the impact of the vaccination status of all involved (including the fact that children under 12, which constitute the vast majority of children in our program, are not yet eligible for vaccination and might remain so for a significant period of time), and providing program predictability and sustainability for our participating parish families. There is still just so much we still don’t know about this virus and its variants, and with infection rates rising across the country once again, we didn’t want to take any chances, especially when we have other means of bringing religious education to our children.

In this year’s homeschool program, each student will receive a textbook, along with an accessible website for resources, e-learning tools, and assessments. Parents will guide their child through the textbook each week for their respective grade and then take a general assessment of the material after completing each chapter. This assessment will then be directly emailed by the parents to me, as I will be overseeing this program. Due to the importance of having involvement with a religious education teacher for students preparing to receive sacraments, however, all 2^nd and 7^th grade students will also be assigned teachers who will guide parents in preparing and educating these children. The 2^nd and 7^th grade teachers will give weekly assignments to the parents, who will work with their children to complete such assignments and return them to the teachers. Fr. Gary, the teachers, and I may also send audio and/or video lessons or messages to be reviewed with the children. This change to last year’s programs was necessary because of a lack of catechist volunteers.

We hope to enrich these homeschool offerings throughout the year by posting/sending video messages from Fr. Gary and the DRE from time to time and hosting periodic in-person and Zoom/online retreats, family nights, parent meetings, or other services, meetings, or events (pandemic permitting). These possible events are in the planning stages now and details will be provided as they are finalized

Registration materials are posted below. Please read them and contact me with any questions you may have. We are asking everyone to register as soon as possible (and by no later than August 31, 2021) so we may order books and supplies and prepare for the coming Prep year.

We are very grateful that you have chosen to educate your children in our faith. We look forward to working with you to accomplish that this year. Please contact me should you have any questions. Thank you and may God continue to bless you and your families!