15 October Letter from Mr. Kelly

Memorial of St. Teresa of Jesus

Dear SJS Catholic School Community,

A successful SOAR event simply helps us all.  And we need your parental support to make it happen.  There are several ways that you can help.  Please visit the SOAR website to purchase your meal (due by Nov 6th), https://one.bidpal.net/sjssoar2020 .  You can also donate to our silent auction or make a gift card donation.  And, raffle tickets can be sold to your friends and family.  Due to COVID we needed a unique incentive this year for raffle ticket sales because we can’t get together and do the silly assemblies (like sliming the teachers) that we have in the past.  So, this year’s incentive will be shortening the school year by a day.  If we sell 3,100 tickets our final day will be May 18th, with a 3:15 dismissal.  If the goal is not reached we will proceed with our calendar and end school at 10AM on the 20th.  Thanks for all you do.

We are planning to bring the students back to weekday Mass next week.  So, 1-4 would attend at 8:15 on Wednesday and grades 5-8 on Thursday.  Rest assured, we would only proceed with this if we can make it safe for the students.  So, two of the grades will attend Mass in the church itself, while the other two will watch it on the screen in the parish center.  All students will be separated by homerooms.  All homerooms will remain separate to and from the Mass.  All students and staff will keep their masks on the whole time.  We will also spread out as much as possible and use sanitizer before and after.  So, we wanted to proceed slowly this school year and make sure our plan for student safety was working and effective.  And all is going well, so we will add Mass into the schedule, although there will be no singing, no sign of peace, and communion will be brought to the congregation.  In-person Mass has been a piece we have been missing, it’s an important part of the faith, and it’ll be great to bring this back to our week.  Should the need arise we will make tweaks to this arrangement.  Thanks for your continued support.

You should have received an email about signing up for conferences on the 29th.  We only want you to see the homeroom teachers this year, just to keep the crowds down and limit the number of parents in the room.  This is an unusual step for us as we value parent interactions, but it seems to be the safest move.  But, if you would like to visit with another teacher, please do so.  Simply send them an email and set up a time or phone conference.  Our special teachers will be available on the 29th.

Thanks for your continued support and vigilance with the mask wearing in the school.  It really has gone very well, we have very few mask issues and we know that is due to parental support.  We also encourage you, particularly as we enter the holiday season, to avoid large family gatherings and continue to make mask wearing a normal routine for the family.  If we are careful and look out for each other we can continue to have a successful school year.

Thanks for all you do.

William Kelly

Principal