August 23rd Letter from Mr. Kelly
August 23, 2019
Friday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time
Dear SJS Catholic School Community,
What a great first week at SJS! This really is a special place. Thanks to our parents, parishioners, and friends for all the support. And a special welcome to all our new parents. It can be difficult to start at a new school so please feel free to ask the office or our parent community any questions that may come up. We did a fair amount of decorating and painting over the summer and even moved our kindergarten and preschool rooms. If you haven’t been in to check out sharp looking SJS please do so soon. We also have a brand new website with a variety of features that may be beneficial to parents. Please check it out at sjsomaha.org.
At SJS we encourage you to become involved in your child’s education. We know that Parents + school= a winning team. So we will continue with the parent participation program this year. Page two of this letter is an explanation of the program. There will be many opportunities for involvement this upcoming school year so keep your eye open in the weekly virtual backpack. One of those opportunities is our Annual SOAR Dinner. It will be on November 23rd this year at Creighton Prep. It’s a night of fun, great food, live music, and community building. We also will be honoring the Servants of Mary, who served for many years as teachers at SJS and impacted countless students. The sisters are fondly remembered for their commitment to their church and dedication to Catholic education. We want to recognize and thank these sisters for all that they did for SJS. We are building on the foundation they laid. It would be great to have a large crowd at our event so we hope you mark your calendar and plan to add to the celebration.
Our weekly virtual backpack is emailed to all families. This saves the school time, paper, and money. But there is no point if it is not read. Please make the reading of the weekly virtual backpack an important part of your weekly routine. This is an easy way to know of all that is going on at school. The virtual backpack and our Sycamore school management site are two important pieces to keeping you in the loop. If you are a new parent don’t forget the New Parent Social tomorrow from 3:00-4:00 in the school gym.
One of the topics I have mentioned to the students is that it’s especially important to start the year off right with appropriate goals. Are expectations and goals being reached? What is standing in the way of higher scores? Has homework and studying been a priority? Has test preparation been thorough enough? One of my favorite parts about being in education is that there are so many opportunities for fresh starts. Every quarter, week, and day gives us a chance to improve performance. I hope you spend some time with your student assessing the start of the quarter and setting future goals.
We are looking forward to Curriculum Night on the 29th, starting at 6:30 in the church. There is always a sense of excitement in that meeting about the start of a new school year. I am confident the time spent listening to the teacher presentations will be helpful as the year progresses. This meeting is vital to understanding how the teachers run their rooms and the expectations that are present, thus the meeting is mandatory for parents.
Peace,
William Kelly
Principal
2019 SJS Parent Participation Program
For 2019-20 SJS will continue the parent participation program. The overall point of the program is to get more parents involved in the school; sometimes a little encouragement is all that is needed. And there are additional benefits too which are significant: lowered costs, examples of service for students, parents making new connections, etc. We appreciate your help and support.
The following are the details for submission of hours.
-20 hours for the year are required for 2 parent families, 10 for single parent families.
-Hours to be completed from June 1st 2019 through May 15th 2020.
-Once all hours are completed send an email to- parentparticipation@sjsomaha.
-In the email please outline how the hours were completed. Please only email once the hours are all completed, or you are done for the year.
-The following is an example of how the hours can be submitted-“ I completed my hours by finishing 10 hours through parish grounds work, 5 through Home and School work with fundraisers, and 5 through helping coach volleyball.”
-If hours are not turned in by May 16th, a $100 fee or portion thereof, will be added to the tuition bill.
-Any service done to support the school or parish will count towards parent participation hours–athletics, cafeteria work, Eagle’s Wings, classroom volunteering, baked good preparation, fish fry, Home and School, SOAR Dinner, parish grounds work, etc.
If questions arise feel free to contact the school office. Thank you for all that you do for SJS.
