Weekly Newsletter

Mrs. Wellman’s and Mrs. Mangich’s kindergarten classes are busy doing research for their service learning project. The students have chosen to “help the earth by picking up garbage.” Mrs. Mangrich’s husband works at ADS Recycling, and he sent some plastic pellets for hands-on learning and some informative coloring sheets.

This holiday season the Don Bosco National Honor Society will be purchasing gifts for the giving tree. These gifts will go to children in families who cannot afford to have extravagant Christmases. To raise money to purchase these gifts the National Honor Society will be putting on a K-12 penny war. The guidelines of the penny war are simple. Pennies and paper money are worth “positive” points and any silver coins are worth “negative” points. The “teams” will be students' homerooms. Each homeroom will have a bucket that will hold their coins. Students should aim to have as many pennies or paper money in their homeroom’s bucket as they can and should put any silver coins in opposing homerooms' buckets. The homeroom bucket with the most positive points after canceling out the negative points will win. The winning homeroom in each unit will get an ice cream treat. The penny war is set to begin on Monday, November 18, and will be one week long, ending Friday, November 22.

November 27-29, No school.

Our school-wide WIG (Wildly Important Goal) is to increase reading scores by reading more books.

Our second quarter goal is to read 1250 books by January 10. Each "book" on this shelf represents a book read by a K-12 student. So far we have read 460 books. Midterm is November 26. Once we reach half of our goal we will cover these "books" with blue "books". Keep reading! If we hit our goal we will celebrate with an out-of-uniform day and time to read with our Faith Buddies.

Practice Putting First Things First

Return the November Bingo Card by November 26 for your family's chance to win a prize at the December Leader in Me Assembly.

You Are Invited to our December Leader In Me Assembly!

Make plans to join us on December 2 at 12:30 in the DB gym. Come and see our student leaders in action.

The Bosco Catholic School System PTO is looking for 2025 Volunteer Hall of Fame nominations. The individual(s) will be recognized during Catholic Schools Week Mass on Friday, January 31. We ask that you submit nominations by December 20 to Jessica Steils (jess.steils@gmail.com) or Leah Reiter (lschmit2000@yahoo.com). Please provide a write-up/list of the volunteer activity for the nominee to indicate why they are deserving of this award. We have so many wonderful volunteers in this community. Please consider nominating someone!

• For school closings due to bad weather, Bosco Catholic School System normally follows Waterloo Public Schools. However, we will occasionally make our own call.
• In the case of a two-hour late start due to weather, there will be no morning preschool and no morning activities.
• In the event of an early dismissal due to weather, ABC will be closed for the afternoon, unless school closes for a high temperature day.

You will receive a call from SwiftReach. You may also watch KWWL or KCRG, or check their websites.

Former DB girls basketball players and friends are invited to help us celebrate the leadership of Rich & Angie Hach, along with their assistant coaches, at the Varsity Girls Basketball game at Don Bosco on December 2.

Our girls basketball program has a history of hard work, grit, and success, thanks to all who participated along the way. Our current program is working hard to strengthen itself at the high school and youth level. Did you know that an alumni group is raising funds to renovate the girls' locker room? Game time is 6:30 so come around 6 PM to take a look at the room and plans. If you are a DB alum you may be surprised to see the locker room has not changed since you were in high school! More info via the Facebook Event

Bosco Catholic School System is excited to have joined forces with Leader Valley this year for implementation and coaching for the Leader in Me. The support we are receiving has helped spur us along on our path to reach the Lighthouse School Milestone. The community is invited to the Leader Valley Gala to help support the organization's amazing work to develop tomorrow's leaders today. All proceeds will be matched!

If you purchase gift cards, please purchase them through our Scrip program. It is a win, win!

K-5 Christmas Program

The K-5 Christmas program will be on Wednesday, December 4, at 6 PM in the Don Bosco gym. Students should dress up for this concert (no jeans please). Students may start arriving at 5:40 and go to the classrooms assigned below. If you have any questions, please email Mrs. Knepper at nknepper@boscocatholic.org

Kindergarten - Mr. Arndt's room 111

1st Grade - Mr. Armbruster's room 109

2nd Grade - Mrs. Zimmerman's room 107

3rd Grade - Mr. Schmidt's room 106

4th Grade - Mrs. Bergfeld's room 104

5th Grade - Mrs. Knepper's music room

Middle and High School Band and Choir Christmas Program

Enjoy this event on Wednesday, December 11, at 6 PM in the Don Bosco gym. Only students involved in the middle school band and choir will perform for this concert, but all students and families are encouraged to attend.

Bosco Catholic School System is thankful for the supporting parishes and communities we work with and live in. Visit the parish links for Reconciliation and Adoration times.

Parish Mass Times

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

Sat 4 PM, Sun 8 & 10 AM, M-W-F 7:45 AM

ST JOSEPH

Sat 5:30 PM, Tue 6 PM, Thur 8 AM

ST ATHANASIUS

Sat 5 PM, Sun 8:30 AM, Tue 5:30 PM, Thur 8:30 AM, Fri 8 AM

ST FRANCIS-BARCLAY

Sun 10:30 AM, Wed 8 AM

ST MARY OF MT CARMEL

Sun 8 AM

15 – Professional Development (No School)

15 -17 – Fall Play

18 – Iowa Star Conference Band Festival @ Janesville

21-23 – All State Music Festival @ Iowa State Univ.

25 – MS Lock In 7PM - Tuesday AM

27-29 – Thanksgiving Break (No School)

MISSION STATEMENT

With support from families, we respect and encourage students to reach their potential

• Spiritually by developing a strong relationship with Jesus and knowledge of His church,
• Academically by igniting learning, leadership and life skills,
• Physically by learning about and living healthy habits and
• Socially by becoming active members of the community who serve others as stewards of the Gospel so they are the light of Christ in the world.

Preparing students to be the Light of Christ in the World!

Submit newsletter articles to icsjnewsletter@boscocatholic.org by 3 PM on Wednesdays.

Website: boscocatholic.org

Facebook boscocatholic.org

Mailing Address: P.O. Box 256, Gilbertville, IA 50634

Don Bosco High School

405 16th Ave

Gilbertville, Iowa 50634

319-296-1092

dbhssecretary@boscocatholi.org

Immaculate Conception K-8

311 16th Ave

Gilbertville, Iowa 50634

319-296-1089

icsecretary@boscocatholic.org

St Joseph Center PS/PK

6916 Lafayette Rd

Raymond, Iowa 50667

319-233-5980