Monday Memo

Dear parents,

The Indiana Choice Scholarship (voucher) program has increased its income limits for the 2023-2024 school year. These new limits are available at the end of this newsletter. For example, a family of four can now have an adjusted gross income up to $166,500 per year and still meet the income limits to participate in the program. It is expected that up to 90 percent of Hoosier families fall within these income limits. The value of a Choice Scholarship varies from $5,800 to $6,500 depending on the public school district of your residence.

In addition the the income requirements, students must be five by August 1, 2023, and enrolled in K-12 at a Choice Scholarship school to apply. Students must also have a pathway to participate in the program. Our most common pathways include receiving Choice or tax credit scholarships in the past, having a sibling that has participated in the program in the past, or having moved to Saint Susanna from public school. I can explain the pathway that applies to your student.

I would highly encourage any family who meets the income requirements to begin the process of applying for a Choice Scholarship, even if you are uncertain about the pathway requirement. Applications are completed by me in the school office. I will need the first page of your family's 2022 federal 1040 tax return that shows your family members and your adjusted gross income. I do not need social security numbers; those can be blacked out before sending them to me or bringing them to the office to be copied.

Finally, this is a budget year for the Indiana General Assembly which means they are considering expansions of the Choice program. Expansion could include dropping pathway requirements, increasing income restrictions, or increasing the amount available for each scholarship. I will communicate any changes in the program when they are finalized.

God bless, Janet Abdoulaye

Tuesday, February 14th

• Happy Valentine's Day
• Students may wear Valentine's tops (red, pink, white) with uniform bottoms for K-5
• Middle School Field Trip (uniforms)

Wednesday, February 15th

• 2:50 PM Release - EDM until 6:00 PM
  
• PS/PK/K Prayer Service at 2:15 PM

Thursday, February 16th

• School Mass at 8:45 AM; Mass hosted by 5W

Friday, February 17th

• Spiritwear tops with spiritwear or uniform bottoms for students and staff
• 1:20 PM Dismissal for Presidents Day Weekend - EDM until 6:00 PM

No School, Monday, February 20th

Future Events such as the mass schedule can be found here: https://saintsusannaschool.com/events?page=1

We will be hosting a Mother and Son laser tag night this upcoming Sunday February 19th from 6-8PM at Xtreme Laser Tag in Avon. Each family will be responsible for a $20 cash entry fee. Food and drinks will be provided. Please make sure to RSVP no later then this Wednesday February 15th. You don’t want to miss out on this action!

https://m.signupgenius.com/?mibextid=l066kq#!/showRSVPSignUp/8050a49abaa28a1fd0-mother

Please note if mom is unavailable or not present on this night any adult family member can attend. We hope to see you all there!

CYO chess would like to start back again this Spring. We are looking for any student enthusiastic about playing chess. I am hoping to have our first meeting on March 5th at 5PM. If we can get interest from 5 families I will set the meeting up. Please write back to dastorey@gmail.com if you would like to be a part of St Susanna's chess club. - Daniel Storey

Cardinal Ritter is excited to welcome the Class of 2027 next fall! As a reminder, the Application for Admission is now available online at www.cardinalritter.org. Please contact Jamie Liston, Director of Admissions if you have any questions at jliston@cardinalritter.org or 317-9244333 ext. 426.

Also, parents are reminded their Pre-Registration Curriculum Night is February 23, at 7:00 pm in the gym. Parents will receive their students’ mock schedules, course directories and schedule their registration appointments. Please plan to attend.

Fellow Parents,

My name is Stacey Weaver and I’d like to introduce my family to you if we have not met. We have a son in 3rd grade at St. Sue and a daughter in Kindergarten there now as well. My husband Ben and I own Oak Tree Golf Course here in Plainfield. Ben is a Certified PGA Professional and has decades of teaching and coaching experience. His true passion is teaching kids so when our son asked if St. Sue has a team it immediately got us thinking about doing a fun program for the younger kids and starting a middle school team. This is our 3rd year now running these programs!

For the K-5 program we do a 6-week session starting in April (one night a week for about an hour). Whatever night there is not a conflict with other sports or whatnot. This would be a simple and fun golf instruction program. There is no cost to the parent, we volunteer our time and take all responsibility in finding additional volunteers to keep the coach/athlete ratio reasonable.

For the middle school team, it would again be a spring sport in April & May. This will be a COED team at this point. It would actually be a Club sport to compete with other schools like Kingsway, Park Tudor and other Christian Academies and even other surrounding middle schools. Ben will be the coach of this team. There is a cost of $150 to the parents of the players. This fee covers a team shirt, golf balls and a golf bag. The middle school would practice 3 or 4 days a week after school for about an hour and have approximately 8 matches.

If your child is interested in either program please send me (sweaver@oaktreegolf.net) an email with name, age and good contact info. We need your response by February 10th.

Thank you!

Stacey Weaver

Mrs. Carson emailed EDM tax statements this afternoon to the emails on file in the daycare system. For tuition tax statements, Saint Susanna's Federal Tax ID is 35-0942645. Families who pay tuition on a FACTS payment plan can access their tuition statements by logging into FACTS, clicking on "view details" and then "view payment summary." (see screen shots below). FACTS will show you all tuition paid in the past calendar years and divide it out by child and grade level.

The updated tuition schedule for the 2023-2024 school year is attached to the bottom of this newsletter. The overall structure for tuition remains the same with a single tuition rate per child and a multi-child discount for multiple children in K-8. The per-child tuition increased by 3 percent and the multi-child discount is $750 per child for multiple children in K-8. Additional discounts remain for younger siblings who are in preschool or prekindergarten. Over the last few years, we have absorbed increased expenses for almost everything, especially textbooks, and we increased each teacher and staff member's compensation by at least 4 percent. This increase in tuition will continue to support these efforts.

We are proud to offer multiple avenues for financial aid for all families, as we never want to price anyone out of Catholic education.

1. We will continue as a Choice Scholarship school. Choice Scholarships fund between 75 and 100 percent of tuition for eligible students. Income guidelines for the 22-23 school year are available as an attachment at the end of this newsletter. Updated income guidelines will be available in February. Families who would like to be screened for a Choice Scholarship must submit the first page of their 2022 federal tax return showing their household members and their adjusted gross income to Mrs. Abdoulaye. We highly recommend submitting these in person rather than by email. We are happy to make copies for you.
2. We are able to offer additional financial aid to those students who meet the Choice income requirements through our SGO Tax Credit Scholarship. This additional scholarship is available to offset costs not covered by the Choice Scholarship or for Kindergartners who do not qualify for Choice Scholarships yet. To apply for additional SGO funding, please use the grant and aid application within your FACTS account.
3. We are able to offer a new scholarship for students who do not qualify for Choice or SGO Scholarships. The Saint Susanna Parish Scholarship is not income based and offers a maximum of $300 per student in financial aid for those who apply while funds are available. The application can be completed anytime at this link.

As always, I am available to answer questions or confidentially discuss any family's financial situation. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me.

I am happy to announce that Saint Susanna has a school counselor available for our students on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Mrs. Mariah Turnquest comes to us from Catholic Charities. She is a master's level Licensed Social Worker. She will work with students on an individual basis, as needed. She will also teach whole class social-emotional lessons on topics such as being a good friend, bullying, and other age-appropriate topics. Mrs. Turnquest's presence in our school is made possible by utilizing a portion of our EANS grant from the federal government over the next two school years.

Students may be referred to Mrs. Turnquest by teachers or the principal for a one-time visit. After that, parents must complete a consent form for continued visits. The consent form is available at the end of the Monday Memo or in the school office. You can reach Mrs. Turnquest directly at mturnquest@saintsusanna.com

A few gentle reminders about our dress code:

• Shorts are not allowed after fall break. Students may wear these again after Spring Break. Girls should wear plain black, white, or navy leggings under their uniform skirts.
• Uniform shirts are red monogrammed, light blue and white polos. Dark blue polo shirts (excluding the monogrammed middle school shirts) are not part of our dress code.
• As the weather turns colder, students may want to wear an additional layer. Acceptable additions to a uniform polo include:
• A navy or red cardigan or pullover sweater. These cannot have any designs or other colors.
• A navy or red pullover crew-neck sweatshirt. These may be plain or monogrammed through Avon Sports Apparel.
• A plain white short or long-sleeved undershirt.
• All students in K-8 must wear a belt with uniform pants. Uniform pants must have belt loops.

I have included our uniform policy summary at the bottom of this newsletter.

The Archdiocese recently changed their safe environment training provider to Safe Parish, from the previous Safe and Sacred system. In the new system, all volunteers are monitored quarterly. As long as you have a previous background check, your background check will be monitored on an on-going basis and it will not expire after five years as it did in the previous system. All volunteers must be registered in the Safe Parish system before they can volunteer. Instructions for registering and training are in the newsletter each week (see below).

In order to volunteer in our school building during the day or attend field trips as a chaperone, you must have a current safe environment training on file with us. This requirement includes safe environment training and a basic background check through the Archdiocese. The training and background checks are good for five years from the time of completion.

To check your current expiration date, contact Mrs. Carson at kcarson@saintsusanna.com

To obtain a new training and background check:

1. Go to the website www.archindysafeparish.org
2. Create an account as this is a new system. Previously the Archdiocese used a system called "Safe and Sacred."
3. You will need a passcode in order to create an account. The passcode is Archindy2021
4. Complete the background check for school or parish VOLUNTEER and select Saint Susanna as a recipient of your information.
5. Complete the training video and questions.

Please allow up to two weeks for this process to be completed.

The service hour tracking form can be found here and a copy will be sent home in the back-to-school packets. We ask that each family complete five service hours this school year. These hours can be completed during school or parish events.

Box Tops for Education

Here’s how it works:

• Step 1: Download the new Box Tops App (iTunes or Google Play) – it’s free
• Step 2: Create a username and connect it to your child’s school
• Step 3: Scan your grocery store receipt. Items with the new Box Tops label will be automatically credited to your school

Does this mean I should stop sending in my paper Box Tops that I have already clipped? No! Continue to send those to the school!

Kroger Community Rewards

Information on the Kroger Community Rewards program can be found here on their website or under the "rewards" tab in your Kroger app. You will need to search for the exact name of our organization as SAINT SUSANNAS SCHOOL PTP . From there, you can link your Kroger card with our organization and a portion of your spending at Kroger will come to us.

St. Susanna Catholic School's mission is to provide a Christ-centered, quality education that prepares and inspires its students to excel as they progress in their scholastic careers. Based on Catholic teachings, our students and staff exemplify the value of faith, service, love, and respect in all situations and with all people.

Email: jabdoulaye@saintsusanna.com
Website: www.saintsusannaschool.com
Location: 1212 East Main Street, Plainfield, IN, USA
Phone: 317-839-3713
Facebook: facebook.com/stsusannaschool