724-539-8299 info@bbcalatrobe.com

Dear BBCA school family,

What a crazy end of the school year this has been. I know what adjustments we had to make here at the school to accommodate a normal as possible finish to the school year, so I cannot imagine all that you have had to do to make it to the finish line also. I want to say thank you for making those sacrifices for your student. I believe we will look back at these times years from now and long for the days we got to spend this much time with our children. I know there are memories we have made in our family that we could not have made without the Lord intervening in our busy lives and forcing us to slow down.

As we head into the summer I want to give you some general guidelines of what we are thinking for the start of this coming school year in relation to these unprecedented times in our country. Obviously in the first days of this worldwide virus we were just as unsure of what to do as everyone else.  Trusting the health officials and the government entities was the right thing to do. As we and everyone else has gathered more information we realize that many of the things we were told were correct, but it seems just as many have been wrong. If you are in any position of leadership you know what a hard thing it is to make momentous decisions that not only affect you but also everyone else around you. But I believe that is why God has put us in that leadership position for these exact moments.

It is with these thoughts in mind and after much counsel and prayer that we stand ready to open for our school year on time and in person. We will take every precaution we have at our disposal without our methods feeling draconian for the staff or the students. Most of the precautions will be done after the students leave for the day or before they arrive in the morning. The students will not be required to wear a mask or gloves while here at the school. We will have plenty of hand sanitizer, anti-bacterial soap, brand new gym equipment, and many other practical but necessary upgrades. When all of the mass shootings in schools and churches started happening we put in a security system in the building.  It is safe and effective and does the job for us. We did not hire Seal team 6 to guard our building 24/7 because that would be overboard and impractical for our risk level. We will apply this same line of thinking to the this pandemic.  We will take all the steps necessary to keep everyone safe but we will not go overboard or become impractical. I do not know the status of the sports seasons as of yet.  We anticipate a new season and a full schedule  but want you to understand we are at the mercy of other schools and there guidelines of whether they will play sports or not. At the very least we will have intermural sports for our students to participate in.

I am excited about the new school year coming. We have some amazing things planned for the students and cant wait to see them all again in the building. Let us know if you have any questions or concerns and we will do our best to answer them. Thank you for your continued support of our school and we look forward to many more years of Patriot Pride!!!

Pastor Schwender