Dear School Families,
I can’t believe we are almost at the halfway point of the school year and our hundredth day of school! Next Friday, January 28th, will be the midpoint of Trimester 2. This is a good time to remind all families to check on your children’s supplies and see if they are in need of any refills. Pencils seem to disappear very quickly in this building. 🙂
The week of January 30th to February 5th is Catholic Schools Week. We have some fun things planned for that week. I want to take this opportunity to thank you for choosing Catholic school for your child and in particular, St. Anthony’s. We are grateful every day for your decision to send your child here. Our teachers use their calling to teach the whole child in academics, faith, and social-emotional learning. Thank you for trusting us with your most precious gift!
Shout out to our beloved Oblates of St. Francis de Sales: Please join me in wishing a blessed Feast Day to our Oblate Priests. They celebrate their feast on January 24th.
Middle States Re-accreditation: As we move along through this process, we are rewriting our mission statement. As you know, I am very attached to our previous mission. I was a part of parish and school strategic planning for the greater part of my life. We revisit the mission statement every 7 years. I consider the mission to be our promise to you; those who choose Catholic education here at St. Anthony’s. Our current mission is very lengthy. The trend now is short and concise. We have spent three faculty meetings and an entire planning day working on our new school mission statement. I want to share our current revision with you. It is subject to change.
“Serving diverse learners while supporting academic, spiritual, and social-emotional growth, St. Anthony’s school values responsibility and compassion as the foundation of our students’ lifelong faith and service to society.”
I also want you to be aware that we will be asking for your participation in a very important part of Middle States Accreditation. We will be sending out surveys in the next month or so. These surveys are lengthy because they investigate our school on several standards. You will be asked to answer questions rating us on a scale of 1 to 4, based on your satisfaction with every facet of this school from curriculum to facilities. More information will follow. I hope that we can count on you to set aside some time (30-45 minutes) for this tool that gives us very valuable information.
Catholic Schools Week: Faith, Excellence. Service – Below is a schedule for Catholic Schools Week. We will be having two events that have a fee, but are not mandatory. Throughout the week, we will have a “Guess how many candy hearts” contest in the lobby. One guess will be $0.50 or three guesses for $1.00. On Wednesday, we will have a School Spirit Dress Down Day for $1.00. Students are encouraged to add as much orange, black, and white to their outfit. All the money raised from these events will go to the Missions.
Catholic Schools Week Schedule:
- Sunday: Celebrating Your Parish, 1/30
- Catholic Schools Week begins
- Join me at 11 am for Mass in our beautiful church. Please bring any family members that are alumni! Take a photo with your alumni family members. The more the merrier! If you are not able to make Mass, please take a photo of your own alumni family and email it to me. We want to celebrate our extended school family!
- Monday: Celebrating Your Community, 1/31
- Guess the Hearts in the Jar – $0.50 per guess or 3 guesses for $1.00. Students will be able to guess how many candy hearts are in the jar.
- Scavenger Hunt – in our church (during the school day)
- Tuesday: Celebrating Your Students, 2/1
- Guess the Teacher! – Students will have a chance to see pictures of some of our teachers and staff when they were younger and see if they can correctly guess who each one is. The student in each grade with the most correct will win a prize!
- PA system B-I-N-G-O
- Schoolwide Cookie treat
- Wednesday: Celebrating the Nation, 2/2
- School Spirit Dress Down Day – $1.00 Show your school spirit by wearing our school colors (orange/black/white)! Students must wear sneakers, no boots.
- Thursday: Celebrating Vocations, 2/8
- Spirit Day – Activities planned by Mrs. Orensky in the gym.
- Oblate Cards – Students will be decorating cards to send to the retired priests at the Oblate home in Childs, Maryland.
- Friday: Celebrating Faculty, Staff, and Volunteers, 2/4
- Pajama Day! – Students and staff are invited to dress down. Sneakers must be worn.
- Movie Afternoon – More information will follow.
We hope to be able to have in-person celebrations and gatherings in the future. We are avoiding previously held assemblies such as the Knowledge Bowl and Student versus Staff Volleyball game. Such events will be held in the spring.
Congratulations to our December Students of the Month! The value of the month was compassion. The following students showed they are compassionate and give good advice about doing the right thing. Congratulations to Andrew Jakotowicz (PK3), Angelo DeJesus (PK4), Salvatore Latina (K), Jordan Lloyd(1st), Luke Scarpato (2nd), Julian Detlefsen (3rd), Gabrielle Krevchuck (4th), Mason Carroll (5th), Nora Farrell (6th), Reghan Grassi (7th), and Michael Vadden (8th)! Keep up the great work!
Cold Weather Reminders – Students will go outside for recess every day unless the temperature is too low or there is rain/snow. Many children have come to school under- dressed for the weather. All students will go outside with their class, regardless of their outerwear. We do not have additional staff to watch children who do not wear appropriate outerwear for recess.
Water Bottle Reminder – Students should be bringing a water bottle to school with them. We have water bottle refill stations on each floor that students are able to use. Water bottles are also available for purchase from 11am until 1:30pm for $1.00.
Warm winter blessings,
Mrs. White
Principal
The mission of schools is to develop a sense of truth, of what is good and beautiful. And this occurs through a rich path made up of many ingredients. This is why there are so many subjects… ~ Pope Francis