Catholic Schools Week
Below is the outline for events during Catholic Schools Week. See JFK’s Facebook or our closed Facebook group “JFK Moms & Dads” for information as well:
Monday, January 31:
- Dodgeball for Diapers fundraiser for grades 3-8
- Athletic Dress Day/Out of Uniform
- Treat from Home & School
Tuesday, February 1:
- Talent Show
- Grades 5, 1, and 2 at 7:50 followed by an intermission and grades 3 and 4
- Grade K at 12:50 followed by an intermission and grades 6-8
- We will be rotating performing grades and audience grades so there is still spacing in the gym. Those students who are not performing or in the gym will watch it live-streamed to their classrooms. Due to privacy requests by families, the livestream will not be made available outside the building.
- Guests are welcome, but we cannot be more particular about the time of performers. It all depends upon how many acts there are, how long each act actually is, etc.
- Class Dress Alike Day determined by each homeroom
Wednesday, February 2:
- All School Mass with Individual Blessings of Throats
- Bingo Day
- Spirit Wear Tops or green/white tops. Bottoms may be out of uniform.
- Home & School sponsored night at SnowStar, 5:00-8:00. Reservations can be made online at www.skisnowstar.com. Promo code: JFKSCH2022. Once a reservation is made, a waiver will be emailed to you. One completed waiver per family is required.
Thursday, February 3:
- Minute to Win it Activities
- Wacky Tacky Dress Day/Out of Uniform
Friday, February 4:
- 8th grade vs. Staff Volleyball Games
- In-building livestream of VB or other movie in other grades
- Hat Day (Hats will not be worn in the church by those going to Mass on Fridays). The rest of the students’ attire is “in dress code.”
Sunday, February 6:
- Donuts & More. Pick up between 7 am – 1 pm at their Brady St. Location. Cost is $12.99 per dozen. Pre-order required by noon on February 4th, 563-322-5111. $1 off specialty drinks if you mention JFK.
Kindergarten Round-up and Pre-registration
Kindergarten Round-up, once again, has two options:
- Informational Session and Pre-registration: 6:30-8:00 p.m., Thursday, February 10, 2022 in the gym (adults only)
- Pre-registration and forms only: Drop in any time between 6:30-8:00 p.m., Thursday, February 10, 2022 in the school lobby. This adults only session is intended for families who already have children at JFK and/or do not need the informational session.
Future kindergartners who are already in our preschool will tour the kindergarten rooms, meet the teachers, etc., at a later date.
See the K, pre-school, daycare roundup flyer, 2022
Pre-school and Daycare Registration
For parishioners and JFK community members with siblings already at JFK: Begins 7:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. on Monday, February 7, 2022
Open registration: Begins 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, February 10, 2022 in the school cafeteria
Do not delay, especially if you want a morning pre-school slot. Those slots go fast!
See the K, pre-school, daycare roundup flyer, 2022
Stuffed Animal Party for Aftercare Students!
Students in aftercare on Wednesday, February 2nd will be having a stuffed animal party! Bring your favorite, Catholic school appropriate stuffed animal or toy figurine to aftercare.
Tuition and Textbook Tax Credit
As you prepare your 2021 income taxes, don’t forget that Iowa doubled the tuition/textbook tax credit. The maximum one can now receive is 25% of the first $2,000. The only trick is to remember that tax years run from Jan 1 – Dec 31, while school years run from roughly July 1 – June 30. If using tuition amounts paid, you need to look at what you paid in 2021, which splits the 20-21 and 21-22 school year.
Dress Code
Once our five days of themed attire for CSW is concluded, we will be back to dressing according to our policies. We have been pretty lax, and things need to be tightened up. Below are some things for which we need to do better. Some are perennial issues, and some are more recent issues. Note that the below is not the entire dress code; it’s parts of the dress code for which we need to do better:
- Skirt lengths should be no shorter than 2″ above the knee
- Shirts should be tucked in
- No hooded clothing is allowed to be worn inside the building
- Belts are worn in grades 4-8 with clothing that has belt loops
- Grades 5-8 when they have PE: Non-white solid colored plain t-shirts or t-shirts with a JFK or AHS logo. Over their t-shirts, students may also wear sweatshirts, fleeces, and long-sleeve dry fits that meet the regular uniform policy.
Dress code demerits in grades 5-8 do lead to detentions, but let’s see if we can clean things up with community reminders this week before we move toward demerits after Catholic Schools Week.
Book Fair Support
Thank you for your support for our book fair. With sales just short of $3,000, JFK earned the value of about $1,500 for library books.
Science Fair
All students in grades 7/8 complete science fair projects at JFK. These science fair projects are often the ONLY times in students’ K-12 educations or even college educations when they do the whole scientific method from start to finish. For most science activities, experiments are “canned;” the teachers control the activities, students are given the materials to use, and the results are really pre-determined. JFK’s science fair projects put students in control from the beginning.
Congratulations to the following students who will advance to compete in a science fair contest with other Catholic school students:
7th grade: Ava S., Payten P., and Aiden N.
8th grade: Lauren S., Kathleen Y., and Ben A.
Congratulations to JFK’s Lego League
JFK’s senior team, Atomi(K19) Fireballs won the Robot Design award, an award we have never won before! Members are the following: Elise B., Clara N., Brook W., Damien B., Andrew R., and Bryce E.
JFK’s junior team, the Electro Monkeys, includes the following: Nathaniel B., Corinne N., Isaac R., Eli M., Braeden B., Ava Mae W., Wes W., and Ashton S.
Lego League is coached by JFK parent Lori Brown.
Other Volunteer Opportunities
Great programming, like Lego League, doesn’t happen without parent volunteers. Volunteers are still needed for the following:
- Junior Achievement’s Finance Park: Finance Park is the capstone program for personal finance and career exploration held at JA’s facility in downtown Davenport. Eight or more adult volunteers are needed for the time period of 8:15-1:00 on Friday, February 25th. The first 45 minutes is an overview and training for the adults. Although we do Finance Park with 7th graders, the volunteers are not limited to 7th grade parents. Please contact Bridget Parr (bridget.parr@olvjfkmail.com) or me if you can help.
- Scott County Catholic Schools and St. Ambrose University 8th Grade Career Fair: Friday, March 4, 2022. While most presenters operate a booth/station for the full day, the full day is not a requirement. Representatives from small businesses would be a great addition to the career fair. If you can help, please contact our Student Support Specialist, Emma Wolf (emma.wolf@olvjfkmail.com).
Scott County Catholic School System
As I mentioned at Masses this weekend, the unification efforts to form the Scott County Catholic Schools System continues. Recent decisions are mentioned below. The system should be fully in place July 1, 2023, about one and a half years from now.
- Because decisions need to start being made from a system-wide perspective, local boards of education will begin transferring their power on July 1, 2022.
- Some finance work will begin to be done on a centralized basis during the 2022-23 school year.
- Tuition payments for the 2022-23 school year will begin July 1, 2022 and match the fiscal year for schools, July 1 – June 30. JFK was the only school that began tuition payments in August and ran its 12 month payment option across fiscal years. For some JFK families, therefore, who are on a 12 month payment plan, they will be making their last payment for the 2021-22 school year in the same month when their new payments begin for the 2022-23 school year.
- More social media posts and marketing will begin to be done on a system-wide basis in the next few weeks.
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. The most recent changes were made on January 2 and 5, 2022.
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.
- Some of Scott County’s COVID numbers have dropped a bit since the record highs two weeks ago. We are still firmly entrenched in “high” community transmission, however. The last time we were even at “substantial” community transmission was August, and “moderate” community transmission was in July.
- There was another new record set within the geographic boundaries of the Davenport Community School District: 23.4 cases per 1,000 residents. Using this statistic and with the number of students and staff at JFK at about 450, one might expect about 10 cases at JFK (45% of 23). This week our absences due to positive cases among students and staff were below that level. We started the week with 6 and ended the week at 3.
- A new graph this week shows how COVID cases have evolved rapidly from the original strain to Delta and now to Omicron.
“State of the School” Annual Address
Below is the script that was used at this weekend’s Masses:
“Thank you, Father. Once per year, I address the entire parish with the “state of the school.” Last January, I did it solely via video, and I highlighted that I thought we were going to make it through COVID as all the numbers were falling. That was true for last January. Now, since July 4th , COVID cases have steadily increased, and are now at record highs.
The impact of COVID on schools, including JFK, has been tremendous. As we stand today, nearly 1 out of every 5 PS-8th grade students at JFK has already tested positive for COVID sometime already during this school year, and about 1/3 of student absences due to illnesses this month have been due to COVID. Add in both teachers’ and support staff members’ illnesses, combined with teacher, substitute, and labor shortages, and COVID has taken a toll on us all.
But at JFK, we’ve survived, remained open, and have thrived. Last year’s school theme was “I Need You,” and it was so apparent coming out of an unprecedented school closure of five months. We all needed and continue to need one another. I can tell you, the number of hugs I have received from students this year is beyond any other year. We need one another to love one another, to work together, and to be a real community.
This year’s theme is “Here I Am.” And so, “Here I Am” today to share with you how JFK has thrived over the last two years.
First, JFK’s kindergarten through 8th grade official enrollment is up 3.5% over a year ago, and three year old preschool also saw a healthy increase. These enrollment increases were even greater than we had anticipated so, thankfully, we had enough in our budget to add more desks, chairs, and textbooks.
Federal COVID relief funding has also helped us to deal with issues presented by a pandemic. We have, for example, been able to purchase large quantities of portable air purifiers and cleaning supplies. Did you know that we are on track to spend more than $11,000 for Chlorox-wipes and $6,000 for hand sanitizer over the next two years? Those types of expenses can be mind-boggling. But we’ve also been able to purchase science supplies, webcams, and document cameras, and we have been able to finish becoming a 1 to 1 school with tablets or Chromebooks that every K-8 student takes back and forth to school each day just like they would their pencil box.
Direct services to students have also been a result of federal funding. Reading interventionists, who can help struggling students, were retained. Instructional aide time for working with students in one-on-one or small group settings was increased. Free, school-based therapy mental health services are available for every family who needs them, and our summer reading and math program, called Leaps & Bounds, has been approved to be free for all students this summer. Finally, every student’s school lunch has been free for the last year and a half, saving families over $700 per child. As we have scrambled to meet students’ needs during a pandemic, federal COVID relief funding has, indeed, been a God-send.
I would be remiss as well if I didn’t thank you “in person” for your support of our capital campaign at Our Lady of Victory. You are able to hear me quite well today through the new sound system, and many of you may have participated in a live-streamed or recorded Mass at OLV. Both sides of the campus have also benefited greatly through the work on our heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems. While the primary reason for doing HVAC work at the school was due to the condition of the aged heating pipes, the most noticeable benefit from the students’ perspective was, honestly, the added air conditioning. As one student so profoundly noted this fall, “…it sure is easier to focus on our schoolwork now because we’re not wiping the sweat off our heads or having sweat drip on our papers.” JFK is now the only Catholic school in Scott County with a modern, high efficiency heating and air conditioning system and a mechanical ventilation system that meets today’s building codes. “Here I Am” today to say how grateful we are for your pledges and payments to the Cultivating Our Future capital campaign.
During the last two years of a pandemic, JFK students have continued to thrive academically as well. Over 20% more JFK students, for example, are at screening benchmarks or at end of the year proficiency levels for reading and math than students across the entire state of Iowa. We have even found ways to continue with, revise, or improve upon such traditional activities as 3rd grade can character book reports, 4th grade organ and state reports, middle school science fair projects, and, of course, civic oration, which will be adding a PowerPoint element to it this year. Civic oration, for those of you who don’t know, is a research paper and public speaking project that students do each year in grades 5-8. Civic oration, I might add, is still credited by my own children, who are all now college graduates, as the single best academic activity they have ever experienced and the one that prepared them the most for their future educations.
Speaking of the future, the future of Catholic school education in Scott County is still progressing towards unification. By the 2023-24 school year, about a year and a half from now, we will be one Scott County Catholic School system. We would like to thank OLV parish members Andy Craig, who has been selected to be the president of the new system, Tammy Askeland-Nagle, who is serving on the new system’s board of directors, and, of course, Fr. Jake, who is on the board of trustees and board of directors, for their service. The more we work together as one Scott County Catholic school system, the better we are able to meet our present challenges and implement a better vision for the future of Catholic school education in our area. We want to not only survive; we want to thrive, and we can best do that when we work together as one.
Finally, “Here I Am,” as usual, before our God. Or, maybe I should say, not quite as usual. Through the last two years, I’ve worn masks to Mass, sat socially distant from others, and put dots on pews to indicate where students sit during school Masses. My wife and I have become regular, if not daily, watchers of Masses online, and we have even celebrated Mass, without the Eucharist, on Christmas Eve with a family gathering of seven people and six dogs in our family room. It certainly has not been usual. But, through deaths in my own family and surgeries for both my wife and I, we have, as the psalmist proclaimed today, continued to turn to our Lord to be our rock and our fortress, our hope and our strength. “Here I Am,” Lord to lay open my life in front of you. “Here I Am,” Lord, to worship and do your will. “Here I Am,” Lord, at John F. Kennedy Catholic School and Our Lady of Victory Parish. As principal of JFK, I want to “thank you” for being here with us too and for your support. May God bless you and your families.”
Chad
