Dear Families,
Happy Friday! This month we continue to celebrate our Blessed Mother with greater intention. On Wednesday, we were able to participate in a virtual Rosary with Bishop Malooly and students from other diocesan schools. Each class participated virtually and said the Rosary together in their cohorts. I had the pleasure of saying the Rosary with the 8th Grade class. I thank Mr. Limmina once again for inviting me. It was the most relaxing and peaceful 25 minutes of my week. In difficult times I prayed the Rosary constantly. It is a nice way to quiet yourself from this loud world and to focus on something other than noise. If anyone would like a Rosary, please send me an email. I still have a few left.
Throughout this school year we will match a Fruit of the Holy Spirit with our Corporal Works of Mercy. Our Student of the Month from each class will be acknowledged for a specific virtue. September’s virtue was “Love.” I would like to recognize and congratulate the following students for being “loving” in the month of September. The following students were the Students of the Month:
Nicholas Padovani – PreK3, Riley Beach – PreK4, Jordan Lloyd – Kindergarten, Ronnie Mercante -1, Otto Vorhauer – 2, Kaitlyn McLaughlin – 3, Malik Bamidele – 4, Chase Willard – 5, Morgan McKeown – 6, Phu Nguyen – 7, and Natalia Alfieri – 8. Thank you for spreading love in our school community!
During the month of October, we will continue talking with your students about the Corporal Works of Mercy. We will focus on the idea of “Giving Drink to the Thirsty” and on the Bible verse of the Living Water (John 4:1-15). Our virtue will be “Goodness.”
Return to School Plan Phase Two: As we continue to await direction from the Diocese, we plan to continue our next 6 weeks as we have the first. We thank everyone who responded with their desire to continue virtually, and we are excited to welcome back some of our students on Tuesday. If you have not responded to Mr. Shields with your wish to return, please do so today. A written request must come prior to your child returning on Tuesday.
Parent-Teacher Conferences: If you have yet to schedule a conference with your child’s teacher, please do so. Home to school communication is critical to your child’s success. These conferences are brief and can be held in person (safe-distanced) or virtually.
Photo-Video Release: In an effort to limit paperwork sent home, we will not be sending a photo-video release form home. If, for any reason, you do not want your child’s picture included on our school website or Facebook page, please simply email Mrs. Kee at lkee@stanthonynet.org.
Class Photos: Our photographer, Tina Gwynn, will return on October 23rd to take photos of students who were absent and to take socially distanced class photos (with in-person students only). For the class photo, it is too difficult to time when each class photo will be taken. Therefore, virtual students will not be present for the class photo. We were not planning to do class photos at all this year, but some families paid in advance, so we will honor that request.
8th Grade Confirmation will be Saturday, December 12th at 11am: A date for Confirmation has been determined. The original December date has been canceled due to the Diocesan high school placement test. This year Father Wrightson will celebrate the sacrament of Confirmation.
Halloween: We will not be celebrating Halloween with costumes and treats sent in from home this year. Student Council will sponsor a free pajama day. On Friday, October 30th, students may wear appropriate pajamas to school with sneakers. No shoe alternatives are permitted. For safety, all students will wear sneakers.
Physical Education Class: I am very happy to announce that I hired a long term substitute teacher for gym class. Mrs. Tracy Harreld will start this Tuesday, October 13th. Tracy comes to us from within our diocese at Good Shepherd School. She was recommended by her principal. She was able to teach with me this week and meet almost every class. She immediately had a nice rapport with our students. She brings with her several new ideas. I do have to admit that I loved teaching gym, but it is not practical any longer. I learned a lot about myself and have felt terrific. There is something to be said about stretching multiple times throughout the day. I am able to do a plank longer than most of your students. I bet you can’t imagine that. Ask them! Mr. Colligan is my witness. I want to thank Mr. Colligan profusely. He has been running all over this building for 6 weeks now. He has been delivering lunches, covering teacher breaks, teaching Spanish, assisting with middle school gym class, helping out with technology, and even helping students with math. He has offered to help Mrs. Harreld when she starts next week. I ask that you continue to pray for swift healing for Mrs. Orensky. She misses being here and still hopes to return.
Thank you! I would be remiss if I once again did not thank everyone for a terrific first 6 weeks of school. Everyone has followed our four priorities (masking, sanitizing, safe distancing, and screening). Thank you for helping to keep us all safe and healthy and able to remain in-person for learning. Our students are so happy to be here, and I love seeing them learning and playing with their peers. I now firmly agree with the American Pediatric Association’s claim that the benefits outweigh the risks for our young learners. I ask that you please continue best practices and screening your students before they come into school each day. Things have not changed enough for us to relax this in any way. Keep up the great work! Contact our school nurse, Mrs. Annemarie Russell, if you have any health concerns regarding your child. When in doubt about cold or allergy symptoms, we encourage you to keep your child home and contact your pediatrician.
Holiday Travel Restrictions: As you begin to plan for the Thanksgiving holiday, I wanted you to know that we will now require a two-week quarantine for anyone traveling to any state that has a COVID-19 positivity rate above 10% and/or if you are traveling/interacting with the general public or in a large gathering. Please consider staying in your family cohort and reducing your exposure to the general public. Continue to follow our four priorities of safe distancing, masking, sanitizing, and daily screening prior to school.
I hope everyone enjoys this long weekend and beautiful weather. We will see you on Tuesday.
Autumn Blessings,
Mrs. White J
“Charity is infectious, it excites, it risks, and it engages! For true charity is always unmerited, unconditional, and gratuitous!” ~ Pope Francis