Catholic Schools Week Address
At the beginning of Catholic Schools Week each year, I give an update about Catholic School education and JFK. You can find the ten minute message here:
COVID Data
Below is a link to a .pdf file that shows several graphs of Scott County and JFK data.
I’ll add a few comments below as well.
- Several of the downward trends in Scott County continued this past week, except for 14 day positivity rate the Department of Education uses. That rate went back up to 13% from 12% last weekend.
- There has been good news on the vaccination front for those involved in PS-12 education. The Scott County Health Department has arranged for several clinics in early February through which they believe they can accommodate all of the educational staff who would like the vaccine. Follow up doses are then in early March.
- The continued and consistent message we’re hearing is that even with vaccinations rolling out, there are no changes yet to mitigation practices like face coverings, social distancing, contact tracing and quarantining, etc.
Use Your Stimulus Funds for JFK. January/2nd Semester Tuition Payments Due
Use your stimulus funds to pay the January monthly tuition payment or the second payment for those doing their tuition in two payments or to get caught up if your financial situation this summer/fall caused you to fall behind. All paid up? Consider a donation to our capital campaign. I’m sure parish leaders will be looking to see how many JFK families are willing to financially support the campaign too. We hope to do the HVAC work to the school this summer. It includes heating pipes mitigation, mechanical ventilation, and air conditioning. We are also now examining an option for air purification. For more information about the campaign, use the following link: capital campaign.
PS, ECLC, and Kindergarten Round-Up for 2021-22
“In-house” registration for 3, 4, and 5 year old preschool and daycare for OLV parishioners and current JFK community members begins on February 8th. Registration opens to the general public on February 11th. Make sure you register right away as spots fill up fast, especially morning preschool spots.
Kindergarten Round-up will be adults only this year on February 11th. The information session and round-up begins at 6:30 p.m. when it will be socially distanced in the gym. This session is intended for those who have never been to a kindergarten round-up at JFK. For those who have been to a JFK round-up in the past, round-up with forms only will take place any time between 6:30-8:00 p.m. in the cafeteria.
See the flyer for more information: K, pre-school, daycare roundup flyer, 2021
Catholic Schools Week
Below is the tentative schedule for the week of Feb 1-5. All days are “out of uniform” days, but with themes:
- Monday, Feb 1: Movie day with gourmet candy suckers
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- Pajama day
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- Tuesday, Feb 2: Bingo day
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- Class choice dress day. Look for more specific information from homeroom teachers.
- H & S event at Snow Star. Reservations are required, and space is limited. See separate flyer: CSW Special Outside Events 2021
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- Wednesday, Feb 3: Uncle Bill’s Pizza and Virtual Field Trip Day
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- Every student will receive 2 slices of cheese pizza and a bag of chips for lunch. Students may bring in an 8-16 oz. can or bottle of pop or other beverage as well. The lunch program will not be providing lunches today. Students, of course, can opt out and bring their own sack lunches and drinks.
- JFK spirit wear and/or green/white day
- Feast of St. Blaise with blessing of the throats
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- Thursday, Feb 4: Minute to Win It Day
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- Wacky dress day
- 4/5 yr old PS conferences are scheduled. No 4/5 yr old PS classes
- K-8 evening parent/teacher conferences. Drop in. Face coverings and social distancing required. Please wait on a green or black “dot” in the hallways. Second quarter report cards should be emailed to families at least on Wednesday. You can always check grades in JMC as well.
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- Friday, February 5: Class Act (recorded), Human Scrabble, and Custard Cup Day
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- Hat and crazy sock day. We’ll take our hats off for Mass!
- The custard cup provider uses a nut-free facility/process, and there should not be a cross-contamination issue, which is so often experienced with ice cream providers
- The class acts video that will be assembled will not be shared publicly at this time so that all students may participate, including those whose image we do not have permission to publish/post.
- 4/5 yr old PS conferences are scheduled. No 4/5 yr old PS classes
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In many previous Catholic Schools’ Weeks, families spent or donated quite a bit at the spaghetti dinner, book fair, bring a guest to lunch day, and even for Dodgeball for Diapers. Without the large gathering events, families may be able to keep the costs down significantly this year. However, we still want EVERY student to be able to benefit from something extra during CSW. Please see a separate flyer (CSW Week Celebration Flyer, 2021) that shares how you can help JFK and H & S by “sponsoring” your child, several classmates, or the whole homeroom for various items like the gourmet suckers, pizza meal, bingo prizes, and/or custard cups.
Confirmation Retreat Options
We have two dates and both in-person and Zoom options available for the Confirmation candidates’ retreat, which is applicable to 7th and 8th grade students. The retreat options are March 4th and March 10th at 6:00 p.m. and will be 1 1/2 hours in length. The in-person event will be socially distanced inside the church. Parents are also invited to the retreat – come gain insight into your child’s spiritual journey and feed your own soul, too! We will have a streamed option available for families who aren’t comfortable gathering together. You can sign up for both in-person and live-stream options by following this link: Sign Up
Bell Time Changes?
On Thursday, I emailed families regarding the strong possibility that bell times will be changing in Davenport, including JFK. With the governor’s signing of legislation requiring schools to offer a 100% face-to-face instructional model along with a 100% remote learning model, the Davenport Community School District has announced that its hybrid model will be discontinued beginning February 15th. The district will discuss more details at its board meeting on Monday. Unfortunately, that meeting will not be livestreamed so we will likely have to wait until details are released on Tuesday. JFK’s board meeting is then Tuesday night.
The DCSD has indicated that it will likely be returning bell times to what they were in the 2019-20 school year. They are also discussing what to do about Wednesdays as Wednesdays had an hour early dismissal every week in the 2019-20 school year.
If the DCSD reverts back to the 2019-20 bell times, JFK would likely revert back to our 2019-20 bell times as well, in order to maintain bus transportation.
- Bell time for K-8 in 2019-20: 7:25 a.m. – 2:40 p.m. (Wednesday dismissal was at 1:40)
In order to match dismissal times for siblings in PS and K-8, dismissal times may also revert back to 2019-20 times for preschool students, although plenty of discussion is still needed regarding afternoon classes, in particular, as they would have the most changes.
- Morning 4/5 year old PS in 2019-20: 7:25 a.m. – 10:25 a.m. (Wednesday dismissal at 9:55)
- Afternoon 4/5 year old PS in 2019-20: 11:40 a.m. – 2:40 p.m. (Wednesdays: 11:10-1:40)
Three year old preschool times were not changed due to COVID and would stay at 7:25 a.m. – 9:55 a.m.
When we know the DCSD’s final decision, we can make the final decision for JFK.
Chad
