Welcome to 2022-23
Welcome to the 2022-23 school year! With the excitement of a new school year and new schedules, it may also be time to renew and/or adjust your weekend Mass attendance schedule. OLV has four weekend Masses: 4:30 on Saturdays and 7:00 a.m., 9:00 a.m., and 11:00 a.m. on Sundays. Each Mass has a slightly different “feel” as well, if that aspect is more important than time of day. All of them have the Eucharist. Come to the Table!
First Principal’s Post for 2021-22
This Principal’s Post is officially the first of the new school year. Principal’s Posts are written each weekend and posted on our website, available off the front page. I also send a link via email and post it to the school’s Facebook account. I use the Principal’s Post to reach the whole school community and sometimes highlight happenings in particular grades. You will also receive numerous email communications from teachers. Email is probably the number one form of communication in schools.
We also utilize a JFK Facebook page, and there is a closed Facebook group, JFK Moms & Dads, where people can post to others in the group. JFK’s Facebook page can be accessed from the front page of our website. If you’d like to be a member of the JFK Moms & Dads group, please let Angie Hillebrand, in the school office know via a Facebook request or even via email. Social media is not the best venue for voicing a concern, and posts that appear to do so will be removed while we try to reach out to address the concern through a better means. Social media, including our Facebook pages, are great ways to share your photos and connect with other JFK families. Photos from an event are often posted to these pages by families before we can even get photos taken by staff posted. Make sure you “like” us on both Facebook pages!
Occasionally, we will also “blast” a text message to families. A good example of a mass text message would be a last minute school closing due to weather. If you are not registered to receive text messages from JFK (primarily families new to JFK and/or preschool), type “Y” or “Yes” to 67587. You will not receive text messages from JFK if you do not take action yourself. There is no action required to receive email or phone messages.
Parking Lot Drop-Off/Pick-Up
Please observe the parking lot traffic patterns for our parking lot. They work rather smoothly. However, a few reminders are below:
- Proceed SLOWLY and cautiously through every location. Little kids are hard to see by cars. What one makes up in time by speeding through the lot will matter little if someone is hit by a car!
- Be attentive to your driving. Talking on a cell phone, even handsfree, can be a distraction when one’s attention is needed most to watch for kids and pedestrians.
- Only use handicapped parking spots if qualified. Handicapped parking spots are reserved for those who need them throughout the entire day, including morning drop off, mid-day pre-school pick up and drop off, and pick up at the end of the day.
- Accompany younger students to/from the barriers, if you park in the lot and are not using the drive-through lanes. Parents who are standing and waiting for their little ones should stand on the school side of the barriers. All children should be supervised.
A photo of the parking lot patterns can be found using the following link: Parking lot traffic patterns
- Red arrows are the drop off/pick up zones. Note that the main one is at the north, but there is also one that can be used at the south.
- Blue arrows are the one-way pick-up lanes.
- Orange arrows are one-way lanes.
- Green arrows indicate where traffic goes in both directions.
- Note that in some areas there are two lanes going in the same direction: one lane is just driving through (orange arrows) and the other lane is the pick up lane leading to the drop off/pick up zone (blue and red arrows).
Bus Issues
It seems like it always takes a little time for the bus company to smooth things out at the beginning of the school year. Please be patient with the bus company as well. Employees of JFK can work as liaisons, but we have no control over busing.
Parent Meetings
Homeroom teachers will conduct informational parent meetings beginning this week so you can find out more information about your child’s grade. These meetings are different than the “meet and greet” nature of the Unpack Your Backpack/Meet Your Teacher event. The parent meetings are in-person. Meetings for grades K-5 will be held in one of the two teachers’ classrooms. Meetings for grades 6-8 will be in the cafeteria.
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- Wed, Aug 24: 6:00 K; 6:45 1st
- Thurs, Aug 25: 6:00 7th; 6:45 8th
- Mon Aug 29: 6:00 2nd; 6:45 3rd
- Tues, Aug 30: 6:00 4th; 6:45 5th
- Thurs, Sept 1: 6:00 6th
New Staff Members/Assignments
Most new members were introduced earlier this year, but we want to welcome them again. We also have some staff members switching positions:
- Kayelyn Blake will be providing reading and math intervention services this year. Federal Emergency Assistance for Non-Public Schools (EANS) funds are paying for her salary this year. These federal COVID relief funds are allowing us to expand our interventionist services.
- Jasmine Bowman, who did her student teaching in 2nd grade at JFK last spring, will be teaching third grade this year.
- Jessica Freemyer will be doing some instrumental lessons at JFK. She had been going to be our full-time band teacher, but the opportunity to teach in Bettendorf at Lourdes, where she lives and her children go to school, arose this summer. Mr. Connors will be doing large group band instruction, and we are coordinating schedules with another person to offer lessons until a full-time band instructor can be found.
- Beatriz Herrera will be working in our lunch program and in after school care. Mrs. Herrera has two children joining the JFK community as well this year.
- Bridget Parr will also be providing reading and math intervention services this year made possible by EANS funding.
- Shannon Runyan will be teaching 6th-8th grade science. Mrs. Runyan has over 20 years of teaching experience.
- Substitutes Needed: JFK is in need of substitutes for both long-term assignments (like maternity leaves) and short-term assignments (like when a teacher needs to stay home with his/her own sick child). You do not need a teaching degree to work as a substitute. A minimum of an associate’s degree may be enough to qualify. The process to become a substitute teacher includes completion of a 15-20 hour workshop, multiple background checks, and applications with the Iowa Board of Education Examiners and JFK. Workshops are being held almost every week throughout the state, and many of them are virtual so geography does not need to be a limiting factor. Recognizing the need for substitute teachers, JFK’s board has authorized a $450 bonus at the pay period following the fifth day of substituting at JFK to the first five people to take advantage of this offer. The bonus will essentially cover the workshop fee, license application fee, background check fee, and pay an amount for the workshop time. If you are interested in being a substitute, please contact me and/or the Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency at 563-359-1371.We would also like to thank our current substitutes: Amy Farrey, Kayla Mason, Jen Kira, and Mary Sunderbruch.
Safety
Just as staff members go over many other procedures with students at the beginning of the school year, they will have discussions and review practices for fires, tornados/inclement weather, and dangerous individuals, including active attackers/shooters. Whether we discuss Run-Hide-Fight or ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate), how the topics and practices related to dangerous individuals are approached can vary greatly throughout the building as we have three year olds through 14 year olds at JFK.
Since this spring’s incident at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, TX, we have updated our staff training at JFK and engaged in discussions about vulnerabilities and responses last week. We will also be having another safety audit by the Iowa Office of Homeland Security. All ideas are discussed as we try to assess with what levels of risk we want to live. Yes, kids would be safer if there were never recesses, but that’s not the way we want to or should have to live.
One of the changes you will notice is that visitors to the school will have to be “buzzed in” at the farthest exterior doors in the front. We have been allowing people to enter into the foyer because all other doors around the foyer are locked; once in the foyer, there’s no where someone can go. However, we have decided that people won’t even be able to enter into the foyer area without being “buzzed in.” All the doors of the school, therefore, are locked throughout the day. (The church doors are also locked once students have entered for school Masses.)
COVID Guidance for 2022-23
COVID is still around. Reported infection rates this summer have been anywhere from 1.2 to more than ten times worse than last summer. We have even had staff miss work already this school due to COVID. Luckily, the severity of the disease doesn’t seem to be as great, and hospitals are currently able to handle the number of patients they are seeing.
COVID mitigation strategies at JFK this fall emphasize the following:
- Vaccination: All people ages 6 months and older are eligible for COVID vaccination. Like the flu shot, COVID vaccination won’t necessarily prevent one from catching COVID, but it will greatly lessen the likelihood of serious complications.
- Please check with your child’s pediatrician about other vaccinations required for school or childcare attendance. State law requires school officials to exclude students who do not have the proper immunizations. Because the Catholic Church is not opposed to vaccinations, there should be no religious exemptions for Catholics.
- Flu shots will again be offered free to K-8 students later this fall thanks to the Genesis Flu Free Quad Cities program.
- Ventilation: We have both building-wide ventilation systems and portable systems operating at JFK.
- Handwashing (and hand sanitizer) and respiratory etiquette. We purchase hand sanitizer by the case!
- Staying home when sick:
- Temperature 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit or higher
- Students must be fever free for 24 hrs without the use of fever reducing medication before returning to school
- Sore throat
- New uncontrolled cough that causes difficulty breathing and/or prohibits the student from doing his/her work (for students with chronic allergic/asthmatic cough, a change in their cough from baseline)
- Diarrhea, vomiting, or abdominal pain
- Students must go 12 hrs without vomiting or diarrhea
- A common definition of diarrhea is 3 or more loose/watery stools in a day
- New onset of severe headache, especially with a fever
- Any other symptom(s) which interferes with your student’s ability to learn, including a non-allergy causing runny nose
- Those who test positive for COVID are excluded from school for 5 days from the date the positive specimen was taken or 5 days from the day symptoms began. The day of the test or the day symptoms began is day 0. After the five days, one may return to school if wearing a mask for another five days. Those who will not be wearing a mask need to stay away from school for a total of 10 days.
- Temperature 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit or higher
- Cleaning and disinfection: It seems odd to say that we are continuing with extra cleaning and disinfection; entering our third school year with COVID, it seems more the norm now than extra.
Physical distancing and/or plastic barriers between students will not be in place this year. Face masks, however, are still an option for everyone. Contact tracing and/or letters sent home will not take place, except where required in DHS childcare programs just as notifications might be for other diseases.
Transition to a New Student Information System
The Diocese of Davenport has licensed a student information system (SIS), PowerSchool, for all schools in the diocese. It is taking the diocese much longer to transition all of the schools to the new system, and one cannot imagine all of the things that are now tied into an SIS. Our email communications may be duplicated or have difficulty reaching everyone during this transition. We are currently running multiple systems to try to make sure we don’t miss anyone!
Handbook Sign-Off
Please read the parent and student handbook, available HERE, and on our website: https://www.olvjfk.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Parent-Handbook-2022-23-pdf-version.pdf Then, print off the last page, sign it, and return it to the school office — one per family. Thank you for helping us to reduce our printing costs.
Thanks for the Financial Support
We would like to thank you for your financial support of JFK, especially with the change with tuition payments beginning in July rather than August. As we move toward becoming a regional Scott County School system, JFK was the only school that had tuition payments beginning in August and concluding in May or June, depending upon a 10 or 12 month payment plan. All of the other schools had tuition payment plans beginning in July and concluding in April-June, depending upon the payment plan. These payment plans coincide with schools’ and parishes’ fiscal years, which begin1 July 1 and conclude June 30. Rather than the other schools changing plans to match JFK, JFK had to change its plan.
If you have not made a July or August payment yet, you may be 30-60 days behind already. If you are in this situation, please contact us regarding a payment plan that may be different than the one for which a contractual agreement was made.
Upcoming Events
Both a summary and detailed school calendars for JFK are available on our website. Highlighted events are below:
- Aug 22: ECLC Begins
- Aug 23: PS-8 Classes Begin
- Aug 24: K-8 1 hr early Wednesday dismissals begin (1:40). 4/5 yr old PS special Wednesday times begin.
- Aug 26: JFK/AHS Spirit Day. Students may wear any JFK or AHS spirit wear along with uniform pants/skirts/bottoms. Home & School Movie Night
- Sept 5: Labor Day. No school/ECLC closed
- Sept 18: OLV 60th Anniversary Celebration
An Update About Me and My Family
The big event for my family this summer was the wedding of my youngest daughter, Caitlin. While the wedding date, August 13th, wasn’t the most convenient for me, and I’m still struggling with another “little girl” of mine marrying, the ceremony at OLV was beautiful. After a honeymoon in Hawaii, Caitlin and her husband returned to Kansas City. My children, thus, continue to be spread out across the country. Colleen and her husband live in the Charlotte, North Carolina, area and purchased their “first” home earlier this year. Our son, Tom, is in Charleston, South Carolina and continues to work in the entertainment industry. Kirsten resides in Des Moines and is entering her fourth year of teaching special education in a grade school.
I am beginning my 22nd year as principal at JFK. Prior to coming to JFK, I worked for ten years at Assumption High School where I taught religion for nine years and then worked in student services for one year. I grew up in a working class suburb just south of Milwaukee, WI. My undergraduate degree is from Marquette University in Milwaukee, and I have graduate degrees from the University of Chicago and Western Illinois University. I also hold a superintendent’s certificate from the University of Northern Iowa. Lynn and I have just celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary. Lynn works in student services at Assumption High School, where we met. She is a life-long resident of Davenport and graduate of Assumption and St. Paul’s. She also holds three college degrees. When Caitlin finishes law school, we will have thirteen college degrees spread out among the six of us in our family. Education was been a big part of our lives!
Chad