I’m So Blessed!
There are four different opportunities to attend Mass at OLV on the weekend: 4:30 p.m. on Saturday and 7:00, 9:00, and 11:00 on Sunday. While our kids were growing up, we were regular 9:00 Mass attendees. We sat in a regular pew as well. It was close to the front so that our kids could see what was happening, but off to the side so it didn’t seem like we’d really be disturbing others. Or, that’s what I, at least, like to tell myself. The reality is that we were probably just barely making it on time, and, as everyone knows, the later you arrive to Mass, the closer to the front it seems you have to sit! As our kids hit fourth grade, they also started altar serving. That kept them engaged as well! At many of our Masses these days, there aren’t the three altar servers that typically are utilized so there are plenty of opportunities for kids. With our kids involved in practices, games, and other activities, it sometimes seemed as if Mass was the only time during the week that we were all together. Now, it sometimes feels as if it’s the only date-time that my wife and I have, and we are much more varied in which Mass we attend. I’m so blessed to have so many opportunities for Mass.
Participating Member of Our Lady of Victory or Other Catholic Parish
We do have a definition for being considered a participating member of OLV:
An OLV registered and participating member or member of another supporting Catholic parish, at a minimum, follows the precepts of the Church and is called to go far beyond the minimum in the love of God and neighbor. Below are the precepts of the Church:
- Attend Mass at OLV or a supporting Catholic parish on Sundays and holy days of obligation. Members of OLV are expected to fulfill the majority of those obligations at OLV to help ensure that the parish and families develop their relationship together as disciples of Christ.
- Confess one’s sins at least once per year.
- Receive Holy Communion at least once per year, during the Easter season.
- Observe the days of fast and abstinence.
- Provide for the needs of the Church, including OLV or the supporting Catholic parish to which one has membership. The use of envelopes or electronic funds transfer should be used by OLV registered and participating members to facilitate this obligation. If this obligation is too much of a hardship, an individualized plan for donated services/voluntarism may be agreed upon. Those who are members of another supporting Catholic parish should utilize methods desired by the supporting parish.
In addition, the following are also included in the definition of an OLV registered and participating member, and similar requirements are often made by other supporting Catholic parishes:
- Register in the parish by completing the parish registration form.
- Participate in and help with parish/school activities.
Online registration and application for PS-12th grades is open. The links and some directions are available on the front page of our website, www.olvjfk.com.
The registration fee, except for those Iowa residents applying for four year old preschool, is $125 per child, discounted to $100 if submitted prior to March 1st. The registration fee is paid at the time of registration/application. The link has been changed for new families so it includes the options for paying the extra time fee for 4 YO preschools and the wraparound registration/deposit fee. Although the fine print doesn’t indicate it, the K-8 registration fee button can also be used to pay for 3 YO preschool registration and 4 YO Non-qualifying preschool registration. We are working to get the descriptor changed to add these two registration fees.
If you are having difficulty with registration, please let us know. We’ve been to work through a number of issues easily and have had programmers involved for the more complex issues. Most of the registration issues parents have experienced are related to not having PowerSchool accounts set up or not having all of their children set up/attached to the account. Several families still need to take the action themselves to set up the parent access account. The PowerSchool parent account is needed for registration.
If a child, INCLUDING A PRESCHOOLER, is currently in JFK or any Scott County Catholic School, he/she is NOT a new student. You must do the Login to PowerSchool as a parent. If, after you login, you do not see one of your currently attending preschooler-11th grade students, please contact the school. You will need a new code to add the missing child. If you do not remember/have your PowerSchool login, please contact the school as well. If you are changing schools, please contact us so the new school can be added as an option.
Any currently attending student, including a preschooler, whose information was completed as a “New Application” will not be able to be registered for next year. A parent will need to go back and “update” the information for students already attending our schools. We will also attempt to contact families who have mistakenly completed the wrong process.
If you see a message next to your child’s name in PowerSchool that says “Not Submitted,” you must finish the registration process by submitting the application. A “Not Submitted” application is in “no man’s land;” we can’t see it at all, and we don’t even know you’ve tried to apply!
Feb 1: Date online re-enrollment/registration/new application went live. That link will be used for the following:
- Current K-11th grade students may re-enroll for 2024-25.
- Students who will be kindergartners and pre-schoolers in 2024-25 may apply.
- Families should apply as early as they can. While factors such as siblings already at JFK, OLV parishioners, members of supporting parishes, etc. will be taken into account, if all things are equal, there will be an element of first come, first served.
- Families new to JFK who will have students in grades 1-8 in 2024-25 may apply.
Feb 15:
- Deadline for priority re-enrollment for current K-7 students who are going into grades 1-8 in 2024-25. After this date, current JFK students are not guaranteed a spot for next school year.
- As of 2/18/24, about 56% of students currently in K-7th grade have re-enrolled or submitted applications for next school year.
Feb 16:
- Applications for families new to JFK with students in grades 1-8 in 2024-25 will be reviewed, and these students new to JFK will begin to be accepted.
March 1:
- Kindergarten and preschool applications will begin to be reviewed in JFK and SCCS schools, and students will begin to be accepted for kindergarten and preschool.
- Acceptance decisions will need to be made for all preschoolers and kindergartners due to class size limitations and student to staff ratios requirements.
- As of 2/18/24, there were about 41 applications for kindergarten, and we know there are more interested families that have not yet completed the process.
- As of 2/18/24, there were about 47 applications for morning 4 YO preschool slots.
- Acceptance decisions will need to be made for all preschoolers and kindergartners due to class size limitations and student to staff ratios requirements.
- Discounted registration fees end, and the registration fee goes from $100 to $125.
April 16: Target date for ESA applications to become available for the 2024-25 school year.
- Families must apply each year!
- Eligible families in 2024-25 are the following:
- All kindergartners and first graders
- New transfer students
- Students who already received an ESA this year due to transferring to JFK for 2023-24
- Families whose income is less than 400% of poverty, which is just over $120,000 for a family of four
- (In 2025-26, all families, regardless of income will be eligible for ESAs)
K-8 Tuition Rates for SCCS Schools
Below are the tuition rates for K-8 in Scott County Catholic Schools for 2024-25. For those paying tuition themselves (“private pay”), the rate is about a 5% increase, which has been about the historical average for many years.
| Grade School Tuition | ||||||
| Parish Subsidized Private Pay | Parish Subsidized ESA | |||||
| Student #1 | $4,600 | Total per student | $5,425 | |||
| Student #2 | $3,910 | |||||
| Student #3 | $3,000 | |||||
| Student #4+ | $2,300 | |||||
| Non-Parish Subsidized Private Pay | Non-Parish Subsidized ESA | |||||
| Student #1 | $6,810 | Total per student | $7,635 | |||
| Student #2 | $3,910 | |||||
| Student #3 | $3,000 | |||||
| Student #4+ | $2,300 | |||||
Preschool and Wraparound Programs and Rates
There are many possible combinations for 3 year old and 4/5 year old preschool, most of which can also be combined with part-time or full-time wraparound childcare. Three year old classes are offered MWF, M-F, or T/Th. These classes run from 7:25-9:55 a.m. Students must be 3 years old on or before Sept 15th. Four year old classes are offered M-F from 7:25-10:25 a.m. or M-F 11:40 a.m. – 2:40 p.m. Students must be 4 years old on or before Sept 15th. Five year olds may also enroll in the four year old class, if there is space available. See the below for rates for preschool and wraparound care options. This document has been updated to show the application fee/deposit for wraparound care:
Preschool Tuition Rates_FINAL 2_7_2024
April Calendar Change
April 8th is now an in-service day for JFK and all the SCCS elementary schools in order to accommodate a joint training session. The DCSD was already going to have an in-service day on this date.
Checking Grades in PowerSchool
Have you been logging in to check your student’s grades in PowerSchool? We’re right around the middle of the third quarter. Low grades, especially in the upper grades, are often due to students missing work.
What’s Procare?
For a number of years, JFK has used Procare to keep track of ECLC and aftercare hours used. We used a desktop/local version hosted in house. When our license expired at the end of the school year, SCCS wasn’t ready to tackle that type of specialized software. SCCS is now ready. We are preparing to return to Procare. This time it will be a web-based version. Eventually, we will be using iPads at sign in/sign out times and might use some of the other features in the web version. As we transfer data from the desktop version to the web version, we were notified that families may have received an email from/regarding Procare. Yes, it is legitimate, but we’ll have more information once we have a more detailed implementation plan.
Calendar Highlights
Here are just a few items highlighted from the detailed online school calendar:
- Feb 22: Formal Dress Day fundraiser
- Feb 23: JFK Reconciliation for 2nd-8th graders
- Feb 25: Ignite Sunday
- Feb 26: 2nd Grade Sacramental Prep Activity
- Feb 27: Red Out Dress Day for the American Heart Association
- Feb 29: 4th to symphony. 5th/8th to AHS musical
- Mar 1: 8th Career Fair at SAU
- Mar 4: 7/8 Grade Shark Tank Presentations. Music Boosters
- Mar 11-15: Spring Break
