Dear Blessed Sacrament Families,

Greetings from Bulldog Country! I hope you and your family have been able to enjoy the first weeks of summer and are enjoying quality time with one another. The School Office is in the midst of closing out the school year and opening our 2024/2025 school year.

Throughout the summer, I will be updating this page with the following information listed below. This information will assist our families in preparing for our new school year.

Our Tentative 2024/2025 Instructional Calendar is now available for review and planning. School holidays and early dismissal dates are concrete, but I wanted to provide you with the year's overview so that families could plan. A final calendar will be sent home on the First Day of School with all students.

Finally, I hope your summer season is filled with prayer, excitement, and activities. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the School Office at (210) 824-3381. The School Office will remain open Monday through Thursday from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. We will be closed on Wednesday, July 3rd through Friday, July 5, 2024, in observance of Independence Day. We will resume regular hours beginning Thursday, August 1, 2024.

I pray the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph continue to watch your family.

In service to the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament,

Michael Fierro

Principal

Throughout our lives, from our youngest years to our present age, we travel along the spectrum of emotions. Research shares with us that all emotions stem from six core feelings: joy, love, fear, anger, sadness, and surprise. When we experience a wedding engagement or the birth of a child, we experience excitement and happiness, while nervousness and loneliness may occur when we experience various hardships such as death or tragedy.

One must only turn on the news, open social media, or gather around the dinner table to hear the troubles in our world. On the global level, we are dealing with war, hunger, and disease. Nationally, we are politically polarized more than any other time in our nation’s history. Locally, we encounter economic uncertainty and violence. In our homes and school, we may be challenged with a student who lacks the motivation to work, a teenager who spends too much time on their device, an elderly parent, family dynamics, or busy schedules that prevent family dinners and time for prayer.

In my heart, I believe the circumstances above, along with others that we might not be able to share, are based on the feeling of frustration. Frustration is defined as “an emotional response to obstacles, setbacks, or unmet expectations.” When we face challenges that seem too difficult to overcome, encountering repeated failures, or feeling unable to achieve a goal despite our efforts to do so, this frustration can manifest in various ways including physical symptoms, emotional signs, behavioral reactions, social effects, and an impact on our mental health.

We can easily pray that God will address the issues at hand or rationalize them as part of God’s bigger picture. Unfortunately, when we do not see a change in circumstances or the changes we have prayed for, the frustration only builds like a volcano waiting to erupt or an earthquake relieving stress along a fault line. There is even a danger because at times it feels like God has abandoned us.

As Catholics, we fundamentally believe that God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-loving and He can fix any problem – big or small – by simply commanding it. We must also accept, however, that while waiting for Divine Intervention is an option, being active participants in bringing about positive change in the world is at our fingertips.

I have selected DO SOMETHING as our spiritual theme for our new school year. Ultimately, the call to action within the Blessed Sacrament Catholic School community is an opportunity to respond to the Divine mandate of living out the Good News of the Gospel. By embracing this call and working together to address the challenges facing society and our campus, we can play a vital role in bringing about transformation and healing in our world.

As a campus, we are also embarking on the journey to create a new strategic plan and beginning the TCCBED reaccreditation process. We can either choose to be complacent and accept the status quo or DO SOMETHING! As St. Paul told the Ephesians, “For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)

Let us begin the work at hand and DO SOMETHING allowing us to Have Courage, Move Forward, and Make Noise!

In service to the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament,

Michael Fierro

Principal

Students can lose as much as one to two months of learning during the downtime of summer. All young people experience learning losses when they do not engage in educational activities year-round. Research spanning 100 years shows that students typically score lower on standardized tests at the end of summer vacation than they do on the same tests at the beginning of the summer (White, 1906; Heyns, 1978; Entwisle & Alexander 1992; Cooper, 1996; Downey et al, 2004). Though summer vacation should be a time for leisure and fun that only summer can bring, we require our students to read and engage in math practice to counter potential academic regression.

Students entering Pre-Kindergarten 3 through Eighth Grade are strongly encouraged to complete their Summer Reading Practice and Summer Math Practice building on the successes of the past school year and planting the seeds for positive performance during the Fall Semester.

Please accept our invitation to our Back-to-School Open House and Social on Monday, August 12, 2024. The Open House will be held from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and will provide parents and students the opportunity to meet their teacher(s) and drop off any school supplies alleviating heavy backpacks on the first day of school. Once you have dropped off supplies, you are invited to the Parish Hall for a social and fellowship. This will be a great opportunity to celebrate our Catholic Christian faith, gather and build community, and celebrate the beginning of another great school year while enjoying an end-of-summer treats and sweets.

As in previous years, Faculty and Staff members have provided a list of school supplies needed for classrooms. If you have questions regarding a certain school supply list or are having difficulty finding an item, please contact the School Office at (210) 824-3381.

• Elementary School Supply Lists
• Intermediate School Supply Lists
• Middle School School Supply Lists

The School Office also receives donations during the summer months, so if you are in need of supplies, please contact Mrs. Martinez.

General Uniform Information

To assist our families in shopping for uniforms, clothing, and accessories, we have provided a General Uniform Information Page to assist you. Please contact the School Office if you have any questions or would like additional information to be included.

Uniform Prices and Online Ordering

Our school uniforms are sold directly at Blessed Sacrament Catholic School and can be ordered year-round using our Online Uniform Store. We invite you to visit our online store to preview school uniforms, sizes, and prices.

Uniform Store Hours and Appointments

Our Online Uniform Store will open beginning in July and continue through the First Day of School. Our Uniform Store Hours have been updated and published on our website. Finally, families can sign-up for a Fitting Appointment ensuring they get the perfect size for their Bulldog!

Crave-It Nutrition will continue as our school lunch provider. Moving forward, all ordering and billing will go through Crave-It Nutrition's platform with the exception of those Early Childhood students enrolled in the Angels & Saints Program. I invite you to learn more about Crave-It Nutrition and how to create your family's account for online ordering by visiting our School Cafeteria Informational Page.

On Wednesday, August 14, 2024, the first day of the new school year, students will receive a packet of information that should be reviewed by every parent/guardian and student. Items will include the 2024/2025 Parent-Student Policy Handbook Acknowledgement Form, Photography/Video Permission Form, Internet Usage Policy, Family Survey, Medication Permission Form, Family Emergency Card, Student Emergency Card, Student Insurance Application, and the BSS Jacket, Fleece Jacket and Sweater Order Form. In addition, please take note that we dismiss at 12:30 p.m. on the first day of school. Both lunch and after school care will be provided on the First Day of School.

Our Elementary School Back-to-School Night will be held on Tuesday, August 20, 2024, at 6:00 p.m. followed by the Middle School Back-to-School Night on Wednesday, August 21, 2024, at 6:00 p.m. These evenings are a great way to learn more about your child’s school, teacher, curriculum, and classroom routines. Both evenings will begin with an information session in the Parish Banquet Hall.

I invite our faith community to review The 2023/2024 Bulldog Way (Parent-Student Policy Handbook) throughout the summer months. Additionally, I welcome any clarification requests that will help our families understand a particular policy outlined in the handbook or assess whether our school community would benefit from additional information about a specific policy. Families may submit their Handbook Revision Request through Friday, July 12, 2024.