The Hornet's Buzz

September 6, 2024

Dear Holy Cross Community,

Happy Friday! Our short week was filled with many learning and growing moments for our students. I truly enjoyed visiting classrooms and seeing our students engaged, participating, and embracing new material with the unwavering support and care of our wonderful faculty and staff. As we look ahead to next week, we have some highlights to share with you.

Picture Day

Our picture day is on Monday, September 9. Monday will also be the last day to send in your picture orders. This is an out-of-uniform-day, please refer to the policy in the handbook.

FastBridge/SAEBRS Testing

We use FastBridge to support screening and progress monitoring across reading and math, and SAEBRS for social-emotional behavior (SEB).Our first round of FastBridge testing will take place between September 9 - 19. Students in grades K-8 will take these assessment in their classrooms.

Although students do not need to prepare for these assessments, it is very important that they get a good night sleep, be on time every day, and that you also encourage them to do their best effort. We have been and will continue to encourage them to do their best too!

Lemon Out Day

We are excited to announce that Holy Cross will participate in St. James Academy's Annual Lemon Out Day alongside other Johnson County Catholic Schools. This special day supports Alex's Lemonade Stand, a foundation dedicated to raising children's cancer research funds.

To show our support, we kindly ask each student to bring in a $5.00 donation. In celebration of the event, it will also be a Complete Out-of-Uniform (OOU) Day! Students are encouraged to wear yellow, gold, or Kansas City Chiefs shirts with dress code-compliant bottoms for OOU days.

Let’s come together as a community to help fight childhood cancer and make a difference!

Parish Festival

We look forward to seeing you this upcoming Saturday, September 14 at the Parish Festival. The event will start with Mass at 3:00 pm to celebrate the Feast of the Holy Cross. Come join us and enjoy cuisine from around the world, music, fun games, and more!

Volunteer Opportunities

At the heart of a successful school is an engaged and strong community that comes together to best serve our students. We wholeheartedly invite you to share your God given gifts of Time, Treasure, and Talent in service of our school and Parish this school year. We have many opportunities for involvement and look forward to your wonderful contributions. We are actively seeking volunteers for:

• PTO: please click here to sign up for available roles.
  
• Celebration, the Parish and School's biggest fundraising event of the year: please email gradeschool@holycrosscatholicschool.com if you have availability to support this event.
  

A couple of reminders to ensure a safe drop off and pick up experience:

• Early care is available beginning 7:30 am. No student should be dropped off at the school before then.
• Drop off takes place in the Tree and Baptist Church lots between 7:50 - 8:00 am (classes start promptly at 8:00 am).
• Students who arrive late between 8:00 - 8:10 should be dropped off in the Tree Lot.
• Students who arrive after 8:10 am should be dropped off at the Front Office.
• Please do not make a left tern onto 95th when exiting the tree lot.
• Parking is not permitted in these lots at any time for safety purposes.

Thank you for your partnership and support. May God's peace and blessings be with you always.

Paola V. Clark, Ed.D.

A copy of the Student-Parent Handbook for 2024-25 can be accessed here. Please note that as part of our continuous improvement efforts, this is a living document that will be revised as needed in order to nimbly respond to any needs that may arise. Any edits will appear in a different font color.

Thank you for your support following our arrival and dismissal procedures to ensure the safety of our students and staff. The graphs below show the traffic flows for both drop off and pick up.

A couple of reminders:

• Please note that parking is not permitting in the Tree lot. If you need to park and come in to the school, please use the front parking by the main office.
  
• Please only turn right onto 95th when exiting the parking lot
• Students who arrive after 8:10 am will be marked late and should be dropped off at the main office.
  

We sincerely appreciate your collaboration as we continue to enhance the process for safety and effectiveness.

• If your student has a sibling in preschool/PK, they should be dropped off and picked up at the preschool/PK location.
  
• If your student has an older sibling, they should be dropped off with them at their pick up and drop off location.

• If your student has a sibling in preschool/PK, they should be dropped off and picked up at the preschool/PK location.
  
• If your student has an older sibling, they should be dropped off with them at their pick up and drop off location.

September 9 - Picture Day

September 9 - 19 -- Fastbridge Testing (K-8)

September 13 -- Lemon Out Day

September 14 - Feast of the Holy Cross / Parish Festival

Education in Virtue, is the Archdiocesan Catholic Social Emotional Learning program which is a key component of our Virtuous Formation Program. It provides a curriculum and resources developed by the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, and based on St. Thomas Aquinas’ teachings on the virtues and gifts of the Holy Spirit. These resources provide a framework that helps all ages understand how to live a more virtuous life.

At Holy Cross, we highlight a virtue each month that is weaved organically into lessons and our daily school life. They are used in our announcements to guide our morning prayer, selection of the Saint of the Month, activities for our Faith Families, as well as classroom lessons. The virtue for the month of September is Honesty.

Please find some information below regarding safe car seats for your child in English and Spanish.

Winter is coming, and along with winter comes an increase in illness prevalence. See below for how to recognize the difference in symptoms.

If you or your child are uninsured, or have medical treatment insecurity, Johnson County has a resource: Johnson County Health Clinic. They offer many medical services from pediatrics, dental, women's health and more. They offer practitioners and services in many languages as well.

A friendly reminder that if your child will not be in school for any reason i.e. appointment, illness, or is out of town please email nurses.

Wishing all our families a happy and healthy school year!

Warm wishes,

Polly and Nina

Beginning Monday, August 16, we will go back to our regular office hours as follows:

Monday - Friday: 7:30 am - 4:00 pm

Noon dismissal: 7:30 am - 12:00 pm

The best point of contact for any student matters, is your student's classroom teachers. Our team will do their best to get back to you as soon as possible. Please note that this may take up to 2 business days to respond as our faculty and staff are tending to students and duties throughout the day. We appreciate your patience and understanding.

In case of an emergency, please call or email the Front Office at gradeschool@holycrosscatholicschool.com and we will provide assistance.

Hornet spirit wear with this year's theme is now available and on sale (30% site wide) for purchase at 1st Place Spiritwear. Explore all available options and share your Hornet pride with the community as we celebrate our amazing students and school. This is also a great opportunity to support Holy Cross as we receive 10% back on all purchases.

The Child Development Institute is a site for parents for information, products and services related to child developments, psychology, health, parenting, media entertainment, and family activities. Their goal is to promote healthy development so children can reach their potential for a successful and impactful life.