Month: December 2021

Highlighted Events — Last Week Until Christmas Break

Both a summary and detailed school calendars for JFK are available on our website. Highlighted events are below:

Dec 13: Civic Oration introduced to grades 5-8. Lego League participants can be out of uniform with their Lego League t-shirts.
Dec 14:
- King’s Harvest Collection (For $1 or more donation, students may wear pajamas today.
- JFK Band concert in the AHS auditorium
  - See note from Mr. Connors regarding staggered times.
Dec 15: 3 yr old PS parent/child small group activities
Dec 16:
- Band Out of Uniform
- K-2 Christmas concert in gym. K-2 Out of Uniform
  - See note from Mrs. VanSpeybroeck regarding staggered times.
Dec 17:
- Last day of school before Christmas break begins.
- Red/Green/White/Christmas attire.
- Special dismissal at 12:40. Bus transportation available.
- No pm PS classes.
Jan 3: Classes resume after Christmas break

Ignite Sundays

See below for the list of IGNITE Sundays. There is no cost or registration required to participate. Come to as many of the opportunities listed below as you are able on IGNITE Sundays. Families are encouraged to participate together. There are small group activities and family activities at each session.

Typical schedule for IGNITE Sundays:

4:30-5:30pm Mass
5:35-6:05pm Meal in the Parish Center
6:10-7:15pm Group Gatherings

Ignite Sundays:

Feb 13: Anawim (Hebrew word meaning “poor one”) Poverty and the dignity of work
March 6: “I thirst” Lent
March 20: “I hunger” Eucharist
April 10: Family: The foundation of society
April 24: What does God want me to do?

COVID Guidance for 2021-22

Click on the JFK COVID FAQ, 2021-22 to have your questions answered. Please note that the information is, however, subject to change.

COVID Data and Comments

Below is a link to a .pdf file that shows several graphs for Scott County and JFK. Below are also some comments related to the pandemic.

COVID Data, Dec 10, 2021

COVID shots are now available for the 5-11 year old age group. They now join those aged 12 and up who can receive the COVID vaccination. Booster shots are also available for those 18 and over.
We received a number of new graphs this week from the Scott County Health Department. The first was “Positive Tests Last 7 days by Age Group.” It shows that COVID cases during the last week were fairly even distributed among all age groups, including children. The age groups with the lowest percentages of the COVID cases were those 60 and over, which was attributed to higher vaccination rates in these age groups.
The second new set of graphs, “Epidemic status during Delta surge,” show that we are at the highest levels of COVID this year and highest rates since the Delta variant started to take over in July.
The third graph shows cases and rates since COVID began being tracked in March 2020. It shows that we are currently at the highest levels in Scott County since November 2020. Our current level, however, is about 1/3 of the November 2020 high.
Hospitals are getting nervous again. About 86% of all inpatient hospital beds are being used, and 18% are for COVID patients. Again, these types of numbers weren’t seen since about November/December 2020.
- The big statistic being pushed from Genesis last week was that 15 of the 16 patients in ICU due to COVID were unvaccinated. Everyone is recommended to get their shots.
Here is a link to the Scott County Health Department. On its website is a link to a conversation among area pediatricians: Area Pediatricians Discuss COVID Vaccination
The JFK figure that has startled me was reported last weekend: from the beginning of this school year through December 3rd, about 10% of our PS-8th grade students have had COVID.
- Through all of last school year, about 4% of the student population had COVID.
We are averaging about 3-4 student absences per day due to positive COVID cases. Please note that those are not new cases per day; each student who tests positive is typically absent for a number of school days.
Two new graphs for JFK data were added this week. They look at the percent of student absences due to illnesses that are because of positive COVID cases. Through the school year, about 25% of all absences due to illnesses are because of positive COVID tests. The last two weeks have been above 40%, but the two weeks prior to that, the absences due to COVID were 0% as there were not any students absent due to COVID.
Be safe over the holidays!

Chad

Highlighted Events — Busy 2 Weeks Until Christmas Break

Both a summary and detailed school calendars for JFK are available on our website. Highlighted events are below:

Dec 6: St. Nick’s Treats from Assumption. 2nd Grade Out of Uniform
Dec 8: Feast of the Immaculate Conception
Dec 9: 3/4 Christmas concert. 3/4 Out of Uniform
- See note from Mrs. VanSpeybroeck regarding staggered times.
Dec 10: 4/5 yr old PS parent/child small group activities. JFK 3rd-8th grade Reconciliation during the day.
Dec 14: Band concert
- See note from Mr. Connors regarding staggered times.
Dec 15: 3 yr old PS parent/child small group activities
Dec 16: K-2 Christmas concert. K-2 Out of Uniform
- See note from Mrs. VanSpeybroeck regarding staggered times.
Dec 17: Last day of school before Christmas break begins. Red/Green/White/Christmas attire. Special dismissal at 12:40. No pm PS classes.
Jan 3: Classes resume after Christmas break

Staff Adjustments

We are in the process of making the following staff adjustments:

1. Brenda Werner has finished the major projects assigned to her for temporary work in the school office. She will now focus on projects in the parish office.
2. Julie Baker will be moving out of her aide role in morning preschool and concentrating more on the library, additional office-type tasks, and support for Ms. Siefers in tech support.
3. Hannah Keep, an instructional aide, is moving to Cedar Rapids later this week. We appreciate her service over the last year and a half.
4. Melissa VanDam will move into an aide role in morning preschool and will be less involved in our after school care program.
5. Jessica Rebolloso will begin at JFK on January 3^rd. She will, for the most part, assume the duties that Ms. Keep was doing in preschool, the cafeteria, recess duties, and afternoon ECLC. Mrs. Rebolloso has previous experience working in an elementary school.
6. Kelley Wohlers started last week. She has a variety of duties with recesses, lunch supervision, floating aide time in classrooms, and aftercare/ECLC. She is studying to become an elementary school teacher and worked in a childcare center west of Davenport.
7. Shayonte Lagrone is starting at JFK on December 6^th. She will be working in preschool as an interventionist aide. Ms. Lagrone has a BA from Western Illinois University and is taking coursework to become an elementary school guidance counselor. Some of the extra preschool aide time is being funded by additional restricted PS funds from the state.

DHS Site Visit for “JFK Childcare at JFK Catholic School”

We finally had our unannounced licensing site visit from the Department of Human Services for our Early Childhood Learning Center, 3 year old preschool, and after school care program. Due to the diligence of Mrs. Temming and all of our childcare staff members, there were no areas of non-compliance and no areas recommended for improvement. We’d also like to thank all the parents who stay on top of their children’s immunizations and health screenings/physicals for childcare programs. The DHS “inspector” randomly reviews about 5%-10% of our student childcare files. While it seems odd to have certain requirements for your children when in K-8 classes during the day and other requirements when in after school care, that’s just how the licensing works with two different state agencies involved.

Handicapped Parking

Please observe the handicapped parking near the divider and at the north end of our parking lot, especially near preschool pickup times during the day and after school.