Prep Tutors Continued Their Important Work Despite the Pandemic

....Of the four elementary schools annually participating in the program, Our Lady of Sorrows School (South Orange) and the newly added St.. Thomas the Apostle School (Bloomfield) opted to join in the year’s effort. Teachers and parents there committed to making the necessary technical adjustments to ensure that their children could make weekly Zoom connections from their homes with 65 Prep tutors, whose on-screen presence each week would rely on whiteboards, PDF file exchange and, most importantly, the building of relationships with 50 students that would support the latter’s academic growth.

     Once the technological wrinkles had been ironed out as all the schools found their ways through the early days of the school year, Prep Tutor Coordinators and Mr. Pascal organized and directed the distribution of homework and support materials from the two schools to the Prep Tutors on Mondays or Thursdays during the winter. The Prep's co-ordinators and adviser periodically “zoomed in” to the tutoring sessions to ensure that things were up and running smoothly.

      Last Thursday a socially distanced assembly at The Prep honored the members of the program. Prep students heard words of appreciation and gratitude from St. Thomas the Apostle Principal Prep graduate Michael Petrillo ’05, OLS teacher Matt Ferro and OLS Principal Ms. Judy Foley, all of whom expressed wonder and admiration for not only the enduring energy and time spent by the Prep students in their efforts, but at their ability to create meaningful and cherished relationships with the young students. Their words were echoed by Prep Headmaster Michael Gallo and President Msgr. Michael Gallo, both of whom were 20^th century graduates of Our Lady of Sorrows.