Principal’s Post for January 12, 2025

Posted on by csteimle

Special Calendar Events

Wed, Jan 15: Special dismissal at 12:40. End of 2nd Qtr. No afternoon PS classes. Buses and aftercare available

Mon, Jan 20: No classes. ECLC open

Thurs, Jan 23: Drop in K-8 conferences. 4F conferences will be scheduled.

Thurs/Fri, Jan 23/24: 4 YO PS scheduled conferences. No 4 YO PS classes on Jan 24

Action Needed by Those Receiving ESAs

Tuition amounts for the second semester have been uploaded to Odyssey.  Please log in to your account and approve the tuition.  It should only take a few minutes. Then, the State of Iowa will be able to pay Scott County Catholic Schools (SCCS) for your students’ tuition.  This needs to be done by January 31, 2025. Failure to take action will result in you being responsible for the tuition without the benefit of state funding.

If you have any questions or need assistance, please call the SCCS business office at (563) 326-5313.

Registration/Re-Enrollment and Application for 2025-26

Below is the tentative timeline for registration/re-enrollment and application for the 2025-26 school year in SCCS elementary schools. The registration fee is $150 per student. ESA funds may not be used for registration.

Jan 22:

  • Registration/re-enrollment and new application link goes live
  • Current K-11th grade students may re-enroll for 2025-26
  • Students who will be kindergartners or pre-schoolers in 2025-26 may apply
    • Acceptance is not automatic due to space/class size restrictions
  • New families with students in grades 1-8 may apply
    • Acceptance is not automatic due to space/class size restrictions

Feb 10:

  • JFK’s preschool open house, 5:30-7:00 p.m.
    • Learn more about JFK and our preschool and wrap around care programs
    • Receive help with the online application
      • We encourage families to complete the online application even prior to round-up as time/date stamps may also be used. Morning preschool slots fill up fast throughout SCCS!

Feb 13:

  • JFK’s kindergarten round-up, 6:00-7:30 p.m.
    • Learn more about JFK and kindergarten
    • Activities for future JFK kindergartners
    • We encourage families to complete the online application even prior to round-up as time/date stamps may also be used

Feb 21:

  • Deadline for preferred re-enrollment of current K-7 students who are going into grades 1-8. After this date, current SCCS families are not guaranteed a spot for next school year. Re-enrollment is not complete without the $150 per student registration fee.

Mar 3:

  • Applications for families new to SCCS schools with students in grades 1-8 for next year begin to be reviewed and accepted
  • Kindergarten and preschool applications begin to be reviewed and accepted for SCCS schools

Are You a Participating Member of Our Lady of Victory or Other Catholic Parish?

We do have a definition for being considered a participating member of OLV. When one does a quick scan of weekend Masses and doing a little extrapolation and estimation, about 20%-33% of JFK’s students are probably at an OLV weekend Mass. Just over half the children who actually are in attendance at a weekend Mass are JFK students, which seems low considering about 70%-85% of all children in the parish actually attend JFK. Would anyone consider you to be a participating member?

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.

Registration/enrollment for 2025-26 will be available first to participating members of OLV. Families who are members of OLV “in name only” may not be given as high of a priority.

Are you saying “Yes” to weekend Mass worship?

 

Catholic Schools Week

Catholic Schools Week is underway. Below is an outline.

Sat, Jan 25

  • 4:30 school Mass
    • Wear JFK spirit wear or green/white
  • 5:30 Family meal (prepaid is ideal)
  • 6:00-8:00 Family Fun Night

Mon, Jan 27

  • Dodgeball for Diapers fundraiser by grades 3-8
  • K-2 Special classroom activities
  • Dress: Athletic attire with fancy/crazy socks

Tues, Jan 28

  • Talent show in the afternoon
    • Information/sign up sheets were distributed prior to Christmas break. Contact your child’s homeroom teacher or Mrs. Putnam for extra copies. Returned information goes to Mrs. Corcoran
    • K class act begins at 12:00. Individual/group acts will follow but be grouped by the type of act rather than grade level this year. Guests are welcome, but we cannot anticipate the time of the performers.
    • Students may also bring a pillow to sit upon
  • Dress: Wacky Tacky Dress Day

Wed, Jan 29

  • All school Mass
  • Bring an adult guest to lunch day
    • K: 10:40-11:10
    • 3/4: 11:10-11:40
    • 1/2: 11:40-12:10
    • 5/6: 12:10-12:40
    • 7/8: 12:10-1:10
    • Lunch flyer/form was emailed and sent home via hard copy last week. The child’s lunch account will be charged for the adult meal. Just make sure there are funds in your child’s lunch account; no separate funds are needed for the adults.
    • After lunch, students and their adult guests are welcome to attend the book fair in the library
    • Parents may take their children home for the day after lunch but must check their children out through the office, and let the homeroom teacher know as well.
  • Dress: Spirit wear or green/white

Thurs, Jan 30

  • Mass at AHS for students in grades 2-12 in SCCS schools
    • The first set of buses will leave JFK around 8:45. Mass will conclude around 10:30. The last students should be back at JFK by around 11:30. There is no separate permission slip as long as you gave permission for your child to attend field trips during the online registration last spring.
  • Drop Everything and Read
    • Students can bring a pillow to sit upon
  • Science Fair showcase for 8th grade
  • Dress: Take pride in your uniform day. All students in SCCS will be in dress code (even those upper grade students who may have PE today)

Fri, Jan 31

  • 8th grade vs. staff volleyball games with other grades cheering them on or doing special activities determined by teachers
  • Dress: Teacher/Student Flip Day. Students dress like teachers (Mrs. Tilkens excluded), and staff dress like students

Career Fair Presenters Needed

Presenters are needed for the annual SCCS 8th grade career fair at St. Ambrose. This year’s fair is March 7th. We are seeking presenters from area businesses, the trades, colleges and universities, health care professionals, law enforcement agencies, public and private sector agencies, etc. to join us in educating our 8th grade students about the varied employment opportunities available to them.

Presenters are asked for a time commitment of 8:15am-1:30pm. We ask you
to prepare a booth with information about your career (job duties, professional
expectations, hours, required education/training, technology, general salary range, likes and dislikes, etc). We are requiring that you bring a hands-on activity for students. The students will rotate in groups and complete a career
questionnaire about each booth they visit. A thank you lunch for all presenters will
be provided. Additionally, all presenters are invited to join us for the celebration
of Mass at 1:30 in the Christ the King Chapel on campus.

If you are interested in being a presenter or know of someone that we should contact, please reach out to Emma Wolf at JFK: emma.wolf@olvjfkmail.com

Standards/Evidence-Based Assessment and Reporting

A letter regarding the next step in the diocesan and SCCS elementary schools’ transition to more standard/evidence-based assessment and reporting was emailed two weekends ago. It is also available below:

SBAR Letter

Here, again, is the link to the UPDATED instructions for parents to check their students’ “in progress” standards grades. It also includes directions for checking missing assignments and Algebra grades for students taking the class at Assumption. The directions cover how to use both the PowerSchool portal on a computer and the PowerSchool app.

Instructions 

Highlighted Events

The following events are highlighted. For all of our events and more information, please see the calendars on our website and communications from individual teachers:

  • Jan 13: FAST reading and math screening begins
  • Jan 15: End of 2nd qtr. 12:40 early dismissal. No afternoon preschool classes. AHS winter info “knight”
  • Jan 16: SEICDA Youth Honor Choir Festival
  • Jan 18: OLV Parishioner Appreciation Dinner
  • Jan 20: No classes. ECLC is open.
  • Jan 21: Skate night
  • Jan 22: Let’s Connect. AHS 8th grade parent mtg.
  • Jan 23: Scheduled evening 4 YO PS confs. Drop in evening K-8 confs
  • Jan 24: 4 YO PS scheduled confs. No 4 YO PS classes. AHS Pack the Gym

“New” Lessons from the Grocery Store

When our children were growing up, I used to take one or two of our kids with me to do the weekly grocery shopping. As our kids moved out and since COVID, I haven’t done much of the grocery shopping any more, but I’ve did a little more during the recent holidays. Here are a few of my “new” lessons from grocery shopping:

  • Prices have changed a lot! I used to do the shopping for a family of six and spend about $200 per week. Now, it seems like it’s almost that much for just my wife and me.
  • We are so blessed to have well-stocked grocery stores. I feel guilty looking at how many different types of pop, frozen pizza, fruit, etc. are available to me whenever I want them. Do I really need that many choices of bread when some don’t have any?
  • The time of day makes a difference. When I went to the store fairly early in the morning one day, I thought I might need to show my driver’s license to verify that I was old enough to be in the store!
  • I see more dads with kids doing the full-blown grocery shopping (as opposed to a quick after work stop) than when my kids were young. Good job, dads!
  • Grocery shopping isn’t as much fun without a child with me. When I reach the end of the aisle and say, “to the right” or “to the left,” there’s no one there to learn right/left. There’s no one there to calculate with me if two 12-packs of pop are a better deal this week than a 24 pack. There’s no one to organize the empty cans so they can receive the recycle money in return. And, worst of all, there’s no one to tease about sending back to “shopping school” if they put heavy items on top of light items; I can only blame myself!

 

Chad