Principal’s Post for January 5, 2025

Classes Resume January 6th

All K-8 and preschool classes resume on January 6th.

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:

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

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
• Discounted registration fees end

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?

5th Grade Flag Essay Winners

This year’s winners of the 5th grade flag essay contest are the following: Kai D. (1st), Gaige G. ( 2nd), and Myles H. (3rd).

Civic Oration Winners

This year’s winners in our “civic oration” speech contest this year are the following, in two divisions:

5/6 Division: 1st = Addelyn A.     2nd = Elyas R.     3rd = JaDaiveis W.

7/8 Division: 1st = Caitlyn C.     2nd = Lilly S.     3rd = Lincoln M.

With sports as this year’s theme, there was an incredible variety of sports that I have heard of, such as curling, rugby, volleyball, golf, football, jiu jitsu, and motorsports, and some that I never heard of before, such as kabaddi and wife carrying.

Catholic Schools Week

Catholic Schools Week planning has just gotten underway. Below is a bare bones outline. Many more details will be communicated as they become available. Student council and Home & School, for example, meet this week, and they will be contributing their ideas to CSW.

Sat, Jan 25

• 4:30 school Mass and book fair

Mon, Jan 27

• Dodgeball for Diapers fundraiser by grades 3-8
• K-2 Activity stations

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

Wed, Jan 29

• All school Mass
• Bring an adult guest to lunch day
• Dress: Spirit wear or green/white

Thurs, Jan 30

• Mass at AHS for students in grades 2-12 in SCCS schools
• Drop Everything and Read
• 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 game

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 

Parking Lot Traffic Patterns

Please only use the designated pick up and drop off areas. Things have gotten a little lax with traffic coming down a lane toward the school at the north end of the parking lot and dropping kids off in the lane rather than along the barriers.  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).

Please remember the following as well:

• 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.
• 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. Pets should not be among the children.