SFSS Family Newsletter

Can it really be only 5 days until the start of school on Wednesday, September 6?!?! The summer has flown by.

This week our staff had a beginning of the school year meeting. We identified our school priorities and would love support for these:

• Catholic Identity - growing as a Catholic community. We are all on a faith journey. We will continue to promote stewardship through service projects and understanding the mysteries of our faith through faith and prayer experiences. We want to invite our families to help us show our Catholic identity to our local parishes who support our school in many ways. We as a staff promise to not only help your child know, love, and serve God at school, but we hope to inspire and encourage our families to do so at home. We will start with a weekly: This is our faith section of the newsletter and each month we will invite our families to participate in a Mass at one of our local parishes. It's very important for these parishes to see our students in their uniform and see them lector, sing, bring up the gifts, and altar serve. We want them to know the SFSS spirit is alive and well.
• Academic Achievement - Our staff continue to be dedicated to reviewing different data points to improve learning particularly in ELA and math. Most of our teachers spent time this summer taking professional development on various instructional practices and strategies. They are excited to share their ideas and learning with each other and implement it in the classroom.
• Personal Development - We discussed different elements of our school that help support students and discussed what type of activities and skills our students learn. Teachers are looking at what skills we want our students to have as they move through the grades and once they graduate. We look forward to working with each child and help them develop many skills.

Students should wear their PE uniform on the following days:

Grade 1 - Mondays and Wednesdays

Grade 2 - Wednesdays and Thursdays

Grade 3 - Tuesdays and Wednesdays

Grade 4 - Mondays and Wednesdays

Grade 5 - Tuesdays and Thursdays

Grade 6 - Tuesdays and Wednesdays

Grade 7 - Mondays and Fridays

Grade 8 - Mondays and Fridays

On Mass days - the regular dress uniform is required. Students may bring PE clothes to change into following Mass.

Please be sure to review the family/school handbook.

Note that in the handbook under section 2:03, it reads:

· No extreme or distracting hairstyles are permitted, such as mohawks, shaved designs, elongated sideburns, etc. (Administration reserves the right to determine what is considered extreme or distracting.)

In your back to school packet mailed the first week of August was a yellow handbook acknowledgement form, please sign and return this form by the first day of school.

A copy of the handbook can be found on our website:

https://www.stfrancisststephen.org/family-resources/

We want to welcome Ms. Ashley Sykes as our 4th grade teacher. Ms. Sykes studied at SUNY Brockport. She comes to us with high recommendations. We are so excited she and her daughter have joined our school family.

We will be welcoming a new administrative assistant and business manager in the coming days. We appreciate your patience with the recent office staff changes.

Before school care is from 7 am - 8 am. There is a fee for this. $5 per child per day. Maximum charge of $150 per month per family. Billed at the beginning of the following month. Please enter using the buzzer through side small parking lot door.

Regular student drop off is between 8 am and 8:15 am. Students may enter through the Elmwood Ave door or the High St playground door. Students arriving to class after 8:15 am will be marked tardy.

Bus riders will be dismissed at 2:20 pm. Parent pick ups and walkers will be released at 2:30 pm. Kindergarteners and their families will be dismissed from the kindergarten doors. Middle school will be dismissed using the garden door next to Ms. Pohorence's office and grades 1-4 will be dismissed using the High St. playground door.

After school care will be available from 2:30 pm - 5:30 pm. Early dismissal days will be from 11:20 am - 5:30 pm. There is a fee of $15 per child per day. Maximum charge of $250 per family per month. Billed at the beginning of the following month. Parent's picking up from after care will use the wireless door bell located to the right side of the side small parking lot door.

Our annual walk-a-thon will be underway starting today!

Get those pledges in - the pledges will go to support our school's annual fundraising efforts.

We cannot operate and provide tuition assistance with donors and fundraisers. Our walk-a-thon goal is $15,000. We can do it! An email will be sent in the next couple of days with your child's personal link to their 99Pledges page.

Each student will have a goal of raising at least $150. Any student who meets this goal will have a chance to win one of two gift cards to Walmart or Amazon.

Each class will have a class goal. This is calculated as the number of students in the class x $150. Classes that meet or exceed this goal will earn a pizza party.

Our event will end with the physical walk-a-thon on Friday, September 29th starting at 12:30 pm. Last year we had a blast walking around the block in class colors, being cheered on by the Hobart football team, and treated to popcorn, apples, and water.