KANSAS CITY, Mo. — After one week, leaders at Rockhurst High School in Kansas City, Missouri, said measures in place to facilitate in-person learning while preventing the spread of COVID-19 are working.
Earlier this month, the private, the Catholic high school showed 41 Action News all the steps it took over the summer to prepare for the first day of school, Aug. 20. Changes include requiring students to answer a smartphone app-based questionnaire daily and have their temperature checked every day upon entering the school.
David Laughlin, the school’s president, said there were technical issues with the app the first day or two, but students and staff have ironed out all those hiccups.
“If you talk about the role of the school to form young people, to help them grow intellectually and in our case grow in their faith, your safety and your sense of security has to be in place in order for you to concentrate on those things.”
The school will hold classes completely online Wednesday and Thursday as a sort of practice just in case the number of COVID cases in the metro begins to rise and municipalities force schools to shut down in-person learning, or if a student contracts COVID and needs to work from home.
Laughlin said Friday, administrators will evaluate the first week and a half of the semester and make necessary adjustments.
“There are things we need to work out in terms of improvement and we do that everyday,” the president said.
