Leading with Faith
February 25, 2025
by Chris Riso
2/28/25 HS Scholarships for Academic Excellence (SAE) Nominations Due Online (Post)
3/5/25 Quarterly Government Services Update at 3:15pm
3/8/25 CIDEL “Call to Leadership” - Free Professional Development
3/10/25 Mandated Services Data Entry Session at Immaculate Conception
3/11/25 Mandated Services Data Entry Session at St. Amelia
3/14/25 Last Day to Submit Erie 1 BOCES Textbook Requisitions
3/17/25 Save Mandated Services Claim online for C. Riso Review
3/31/25 NYSED Nonpublic Safety Equipment (NPSE) Claims Due
3/31/25 NYSED Elementary School AIS Claims Due
4/1/25 Online 2023-24 Mandated Services Claim Due to NYSED
4/1/25 Updated Mandated Reporter Training Due for All Required Staff
NYSED Mandated Services Update:
Mandated Services Online Portal Now Open: The online system is now open for 2023-2024 Mandated Services claims! To open a new 2023-2024 claim, go to the Mandated Services application on the NYSED Business Portal (http://portal.nysed.gov/) and, next to “Create:”, click on the button marked “2024-New”. When you hover over “2024” once the screen reloads, the new claim should be on the screen and marked as “OPEN”. Before you begin entering your claim online, please refer to the advice sent to Principals and Business Managers on 1/29/25 - this email contained important advice for Mandate 1 and all Mandates with exam or graduation counts. Also, make sure you have official payroll and benefits reports to support the salaries and benefits you will claim for each staff member.
I also recommend you use the personalized Excel spreadsheet I have created for your school (email me to request this); once you clean up this information you can use the resulting information on the second tab (“23-24 MSA Claim”) to help you fill out your “Form 2” Word document or start working online. Once “Form 2” is complete, you have everything you need to enter your claim online.
Mandated Services, Thoughts on Payroll and Benefits Records: As I mentioned before, due to recent NYSED audits I highly recommend that you print out official payroll and benefits reports from your payroll and associated companies to support what you are claiming for Mandated Services. I thought some additional recommendations might be in order. For salary, I recommend you print out an official 2023-2024 payroll report from your payroll company, essentially a payroll report from 9/1/2023 to 8/31/2024. Ideally, the report would have a “regular” gross pay line for each person’s main educational duties (along with any “Bonus” pay for Christmas and Easter somehow indicated or included) with any stipends or pay for coaching or work in a before or after school program separated out since we can’t claim this pay on Mandated Services. If possible, the payroll report might show at least the employee share of their taxes and maybe even their Healthcare and retirement deductions. Here is what NYSED indicates in their User Guide on Page 11 with regard Payroll Records, along with an example:
“Payroll records for those employees including a breakdown of fringe benefits with sources of data (company names) must be maintained and made accessible upon request.
Payroll company documents are preferred with a logo showing; if payroll is completed in-house, you will be asked to provide signed staff hiring agreements or contracts on school letterhead.
Please redact identifying personal information from documents before submitting.”
As for Benefits, you can claim the employer’s share of the following benefits, to the extent such share is actually paid for the benefit of employees engaged in providing required services: Retirement, Social Security and Medicare Taxes (FICA/FIT), Workers’ Compensation Insurance, Life Insurance, Unemployment Insurance, Disability Insurance, Health Insurance, and Union Welfare benefits. I think they will accept a spreadsheet with all benefits listed for each employee, but your Business Manager should try to print out official benefits invoices or reports from each of the companies to “prove” these were the actual benefits paid to each person. Most payroll company reports show the Medicare and Social Security Taxes (FICA/FIT) paid by the employee with the school paying the same amount for each employee. Hopefully you can get official documents for Healthcare, retirement (“Who’s Where”), and legacy pension costs by employee.
by Julie Gajewski
Marketing and Enrollment: Scholarships and Tuition Assistance
We are excited to continue supporting our schools in their mission to teach, serve, and evangelize, developing students who live, learn, and lead as disciples of Christ. Our goal is to nurture lifelong learners with strong moral compasses, who strive to live like saints.
The Diocese of Buffalo envisions providing access to Catholic education for all families who desire it, now and in the future. To help families achieve this, several organizations and foundations offer scholarships and tuition assistance.
Tuition Assistance and Scholarship Opportunities:
Foundation of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo (FRCDB): The FRCDB offers tuition assistance and grants. Recognizing the challenges families face during hardships, their Emergency Tuition Assistance program helps ensure children can continue their Catholic education uninterrupted during difficult times like the loss of a parent, job loss, or other unforeseen crisis.
More information can be found on their website: Tuition Assistance : The Foundation of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo
BISON Children's Scholarship Fund: BISON provides K-8 scholarships to low-income children, empowering parents to choose the school that best meets their child's needs. Since 1994, BISON has awarded over 41,000 scholarships, promoting educational opportunities.
Learn more at: BISON Children's Scholarship Fund
St. Thomas More Guild of Western New York: The St. Thomas More Guild is pleased to announce its 19th Annual Grade School and High School Scholarship Contest. One $1,200 scholarship will be awarded to a Catholic elementary school student, and one $1,600 scholarship will be awarded to a Catholic high school student. The submission deadline is April 11, 2025.
Details are available on their website: St. Thomas More Guild
Weekly Virtual Principal Meetings
Meeting Details:
Day and Time: Wednesdays, 10:00 AM - 10:45 AM
Platform: Microsoft Teams (link sent by Laurie)
by Laurie Wojtaszczyk
Job Postings
Please remember to send all job postings to Lindsay Gibson. She handles all postings for the Diocese, including our schools. You can view all available postings at this website.
TEENAGERS – YOU’RE INVITED . . .
Young people in grades 8-12 are invited to No Matter WHAT: A Day for Catholic Teens on Sunday, March 30th from 12-5:30pm at Hilbert College in Hamburg! (5200 South Park Ave., Hamburg) Gather with teenagers from across the Diocese of Buffalo for an interactive day with national speaker Paul J. Kim! The day concludes with Mass with Bishop Michael Fisher. The cost is $25 and includes lunch. For more information or to register, click this link or scan the QR code below. This will be an experience you won’t want to miss! Pre-registration is required by March 17, 2025.
eSchool and STAR
I have recently verified that eSchool does not charge when you enter your PK students into their system. They can and should be rostered just like any other HR class. This will in turn sync them with the STAR system for those of you who want to test them there. The only thing different from rostering PK as opposed to other classes is they need to be excluded from state attendance and reporting. Here is a worksheet I created to show you how to do that as a batch change. Please let me know if you have any questions on how to go about making this change or adding PK to your rostered classes. I will be creating a one page document in March outlining how PK should be rostered to show the difference in eSchool for half day and full day students as well as Kindergarten Readiness programs.
If you have not seen the February eSD newsletter, you can see it here. Hopefully your eSD reps should be receiving it starting in March if they were not receiving it previously. There are also monthly calls for your eSD reps to get on to learn about updates, ask questions, etc.
Science Fair - St. Joseph’s Collegiate institute, March 29, 2025
Parents should read this helpful rule guide first, and then feel free to sign up their Scientists as early as possible before March 21st. We need a minimum of 10 Scientists in a category to hold the judging for that category. If less than 10 sign up for a category then that category will be an exhibition of experiments. We currently only have 5 total students signed up over 2 different categories. Please get those registrations in as early as possible.
The four categories are:
Life Science (all animal, plant and human body experiments)
Physical Science (matter and structure, electricity, magnetism, sound, light, or anything else that shows how something works)
Earth and Space Sciences (weather, Geology, space)
Engineering (applying scientific principles to manufacturing and practical uses in mechanical, chemical, electrical, photographic, sound or environmental engineering, etc.)
Art Show - Notre Dame Academy, May 13-15, 2025
The 35th Annual Diocesan Art Exhibition will be held at Notre Dame Academy, 260 Okell St, Buffalo. All schools are welcome to attend. You can find more information and sign up through this link or scan the QR code on the attached information sheet. Your school must register by April 18th, however early registration is highly encouraged.
Open House Lead Cards
If any lead cards were returned to your schools during open house, please forward them to me. You can scan them in and email them or type up the information from the cards into an email. Your choice. The drawing is supposed to happen on March 15th, so please get them in ASAP. Thank you!
by Mary Jo Aiken
Welcome Back! Let's Beat Those February Blues!
Hello everyone,
I hope you all had a wonderful and restful February break! It's great to have everyone back in their buildings, refreshed and ready to tackle the rest of the school year.
We all know that February can sometimes feel like the longest month, with the excitement of the holidays long gone and the promise of spring still a little ways off. We all experience those February "doldrums" – that feeling of being a bit sluggish and unmotivated. But let's shake off those winter blues and come back strong!
Remember why we do what we do: the students! Their smiling faces and eagerness to learn are the best antidote to any winter blahs. Let's focus on creating a warm and engaging learning environment where every child feels supported and inspired.
Here are a few ideas to help us all get back into the swing of things:
Embrace the cozy vibes: Let's make our classrooms extra inviting with warm colors, soft lighting, and maybe even some cozy reading nooks.
Celebrate small victories: Every day brings new opportunities for learning and growth. Let's acknowledge and celebrate both the big and small achievements of our students and ourselves.
Connect with colleagues: A friendly chat and shared laughter can work wonders for boosting morale. Let's support each other and create a positive and collaborative atmosphere.
Remember to recharge: Just as we encourage our students to take breaks, we need to do the same for ourselves. Take a few minutes each day to step away from the hustle and bustle and focus on your own well-being.
Let's make the rest of this school year the best one yet! Together, we can overcome any challenges and create a truly memorable experience for all our students.
Welcome back, everyone! Together, we can “beat February” (it’s over at the end of this week!) and accomplish great things.
Warmly,
MaryJo
by Nancy DiBerardino
March Principals Meeting please register before you leave for the winter break. Diploma covers and Character Award stickers will be handed out at this meeting. Click on the link below that is provided https://forms.gle/9PFTaNpLDWiaH9dF7.
Mark your calendars! The Annual Elementary Track Meet will take place this spring on Monday, May 12, 2025 and Tuesday, May 13, 2025 at St. Francis High School in Hamburg. More information will be forthcoming at the beginning of March.
Virtue/Diocesan Character Trait - Awards will be handed out at the March Principals Mtg.
Month of February - Reverence/Inclusion - Deadline March 14, 2025
Definition – Showing your deepest respect for things of God & making sure everyone feels value and part of the group. https://forms.gle/vC7dEccHKjvGrTYe8
by Stephanie Genco
This is your sign to register your students for the 2025 X-STREAM Games & Expo!
We are hoping to have all teams and individuals registered by this Friday, February 28. If there are any problems with this, please contact Stephanie at stream@wnycatholicschools.org as soon as possible!
→ Registration forms are on our website, here
Need simple ways to get more students involved? Consider these four ideas:
Insert a “special project week” into ELA, Social Studies, or Art, and take on Public Speaking (writing short Ted-Talk style pieces and having your own mini-event as a celebration of learning) or a mini-version of The Power of Art (creating a found-materials art piece that reflects a social justice issue). You may sign up your school for the X-STREAM Games this week and list students as “TBD” until you know who will be attending!
Take one Science class/period, or one after school meeting, to introduce the Science Scrimmage Engineering Challenge, build some excitement, and get a team registered! They just have to understand the challenge; all materials will be provided for them at X-STREAM Games.
Encourage involvement in the Science Fair, as these are student-driven projects.
Have a small group of teachers and students put together a display of all the amazing STREAM learning experiences that happen at your school throughout the year, and register for an Exhibition table!
If there are any ways I can help you to make this happen, I am here for you! I am working diligently on my end, and know that this year’s X-STREAM Games can be a huge success and a true celebration - we just need those students to be there!
And of course… We need volunteers! Please consider signing up to spend a couple of hours with us, and share the volunteer form with your teachers. We are especially in need of a couple of key volunteers to lead CSI/Forensics & Science Scrimmage, as well as volunteers and judges for various events.
Important Dates
March 28 - Diocesan Wide 8th Grade Retreat, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, 3148 Abbott Rd., O. Park
March 29 - X-STREAM Games & Science Fair & Expo, St. Joseph's Collegiate, 845 Kenmore Ave., Buffalo
March 30 - No Matter WHAT: A Day for Catholic Teens, Hilbert College, 5200 South Park Ave., Hamburg
May 13-15 - Diocesan Art Show, Notre Dame Academy, 260 Okell St., Buffalo