10/29/21 - Friday Forget-Me-Nots by Jim Silcott

Photo Caption: St. Joan of Arc telling Kindergartners about her life!

Dear Our Lady of Peace Family:

One of the blessings of this year has been that I have not had to devote a lot of time communicating about COVID news. Knock on wood, we have had limited cases here this year and although, unfortunately we have had to quarantine some students because of the rules still in effect, we have not had the disruptions for COVID that we had last year.

You may have read or heard about a couple of news items this week with regards to the pandemic. The first is that the CDC has made recommendations that students would no longer have to quarantine from school if exposed as long as they are masked. This would be welcome news for us, students and parents. Please know that the Diocese is working closely with both the Ohio Health Department as well as the Columbus Board of Health to find out exactly when we can enact this new policy. From what I have heard, it should not be too long so I ask for your patience. Masks? Stay tuned as well.

The second bit of news relates to the imminent approval of children as young as five years old being able to get vaccinated with a lower dosage. I want to assure you that it is the policy of the Diocese and therefore Our Lady of Peace that there will be no mandate coming down the pike about mandatory vaccinations for any of our students. There also continues to be no mandate for teachers and staff. I would only urge you to take the advice of your trusted family doctor on vaccinations rather than the internet!

I have been vaccinated and because of my age I was one of the first to get the booster shot (No side effects. I didn’t even feel the needle go into my arm!). My grandson, Brady, who is a ten year old fourth grader in Texas, actually got COVID a couple of weeks ago and was pretty sick, thank goodness only for about four days. When I finally saw my father’s death certificate this spring, COVID was listed on it as one of the contributors to his death. He had tested positive about a month before he passed and although he had no symptoms it probably hastened his decline.

I say all of that because, like all of you, I have been affected by the pandemic. And of course my job as principal has been greatly impacted by all that has happened since March 13 when our school was closed. The impact continued in the summer of 2020 when a wonderful task force helped me to forge a plan for staying open last year. Although it was difficult for students, especially our middle school students, to stay in one room most of the day and hard for our teachers who had to travel all day long, we got through the year pretty much unscathed.

At the end of the school year we thought we were done and then Delta came along. For a week or two in early August we thought that the mask mandate would be voluntary. A week later the Diocese changed course and we were back to obligatory face coverings. The famous line from “Godfather III” comes to mind. “Just when I thought I was out of it, they pulled me back in!”

I bring all of this up to say thank you to all of you in the Our Lady of Peace community. I fully realize that many of you are on different sides of the fence regarding vaccinations, masks and the larger political questions that seem to accompany the pandemic. I know how frustrating it has been for you to get that call that your perfectly healthy child must stay home for a time because of COVID exposure. Through all of this from March, 2020 to today you has been patient and kind. You have not shot the messenger. For this I am very thanksful because this has not been true in other places.

I have always tried, not only on this issue but every thing that happens at Our Lady of Peace to be honest and transparent. I have tried to balance the mandates, policies and recommendations of the huge bureaucracy above us with the needs of our individual school and the safety, happiness and educational necessities of our own students and staff. This is not something that I could have accomplished on my own. It has taken the help and creativity and hard work not only of the teachers and staff here but of many of you who have assisted and supported us. I give a very special shout out to Susan Gualtieri, “Mrs. G.” and her sidekick, Nurse Gina Connor, who so patiently handle the phone calls and love your children as if they were their own.



I wish that I could end this essay by declaring the pandemic over. Alas, I cannot. But I do think that the time is coming. I believe that we have gotten stronger as a community through this adversity and I hope that the lessons learned about civility and patience and communication and mutual respect for differing viewpoints will carry through long after this is gone. May Our Lady of Peace serve as a lesson to the broader community about what we can accomplish through common effort. I also wish that people everywhere could know the power of prayer and what it can do for both the world and every single person in it.

Jim Silcott