Dear Parent and Guardians,
To say that this has been a challenging past several weeks is certainly an understatement. Many aspects of our lives have been severely disrupted. Globally, nationally, and especially locally, we have had to come up with new ways to meet daily challenges, including the education of our children. It is within this framework that I would like to bring you up to date on what is happening at St. Gregory’s Academy.
The Academy building has been sanitized and is now locked until classes can resume.
Most importantly, your children continue to be educated using the various distance learning tools at our disposal. It should be noted that St. Gregory’s has been in the forefront of implementing distance learning in the Diocese. Teachers continue to assign and grade work, prepare lessons and assessments, communicate with students and parents and teach digital lessons. I hope this is progressing to your satisfaction, given the circumstances. Please note that the administration is in contact with all of our teachers and monitoring progress in this regard. We are grateful for all of our teachers, administration, staff, and Ms. Alaimo for all of their hard work during this National health crisis.
Other operations also continue with support personnel working remotely to ensure that the salaries and benefits of our teachers and administrative personnel, as well as other essential costs, are paid; mail is reviewed and processed; and any other issues are addressed. Given that these costs must be paid, it is also critical that tuition income due continues to be received so sufficient funds exist to make these payments.
One issue which has surfaced is how tuition payments should be made given that the school is physically closed. Our preference would be the use of on-line direct debit or credit card payments. In an effort to make on-line payments easier, we are rolling out FACTS Tuition Management a few months earlier than anticipated. FACTS is an online tuition payment system which went “live” for our academy on March 31, 2020. It’s easy to use and only takes a few minutes to do. As with most online transactions there is a fee associated with it. Please keep in mind that we will try to eliminate this fee if we can.
Here’s how FACTS works:
- FACTS has provided an online payment form that can be found at www.futuresineducation.org/tuition
- The form will accept tuition payments, registration fees and other charges
- Parents who use the form will complete their information and select their school.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Please be sure to select St. Gregory the Great Catholic Academy – BELLEROSE, as there is another academy in Brooklyn - Funds will direct to Futures in Education, who in turn will disburse the proceeds to the selected school.
- A credit card and direct debit option will be available to allow as much flexibility as possible for families.
- Fees are 50 cents per transaction for direct debit and 2.85% for credit card. Credit card fees will be passed on to the family at time of payment as an encouragement to utilize the direct debit option.
As stated earlier, we are rolling out this tuition payment system a few months early and beginning in September the Diocese, through the academy, will waive any and all fees for one full academic year.
If you are unable to make on-line payments, you can also mail a check to the Academy
We thank you in advance for your cooperation in this matter. Obviously, the administration and the teachers, as well as the Board of Directors, all look forward to when the academy can reopen and your children return to regular classes. Also be assured that we will also keep you updated as we get further information in this regard.
If you have any questions relating to the tuition payment alternatives outlined above, please contact Stacy Andrews (Academy Bookkeeper) by sending an email to the following address tuition@SGTGCA.org. The email should indicate the issue you are having and a name, phone number and a convenient time window for her to contact you.
Your families are in our thoughts and prayers.
Stay safe. Stay in. Stay healthy.
St. Gregory the Great pray for us.
Regards,
Tom Van Buskirk
Board of Directors
