The Defender
August 19, 2022
Message from Mrs. Tate
Thank you to our SMA community for an amazing start to the school year. From fantastic first day smiles to a packed Back to School Night, our families have shown up! We are truly blessed to have such support and prayer to sustain us in our work. Thank you for making our first week the very best!
As we settle back into our routines, we have a few asks of our families to help us keep our learning environment reverent and focused.
- Students are allowed to bring cell phones to school; however, they must be turned off when the students enter the building and turned in to their homeroom teacher.
- More and more students have smart watches and watch-like devices that may have capabilities like a phone. We ask that those devices be turned in to homeroom teachers at the beginning of the day. Teachers will return devices to students upon dismissal.
- We have a detailed crisis response plan that addresses communication with families in the event of a crisis, so rest assured that students will not need to take on that responsibility with their own phones/watches.
- All teachers have discussed the uniform expectations with our students this week. We ask that all students adhere to all expectations starting Monday.
- We’ve allowed this weekend to take care of getting haircuts, removing fake fingernails, removing fake eyelashes, etc. to follow our uniform expectations.
- Our goal is to provide a learning environment free of distractions while honoring the natural beauty of each human being.
- “Modesty is a virtue necessary for purity. It flows out of the virtues of temperance, chastity, and self-control. We need to maintain the concern for chaste living prayerfully in our hearts. Faith is the proper foundation in the quest for a clean heart. Growth in modesty requires loving support from family and friends as well as wise counsel and the practice of virtues.” (U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, D.C., 2006)
One of my communication goals this year is to provide our parish community with sneak peeks into the school’s day-to-day life. We take great delight in being the largest ministry of our parish, so letting our parish know what’s happening is important to our community-building efforts. I must come clean and admit my proofreading error from the bulletin and ask your pardon. Copy for the bulletin is due early in the week, and I inadvertently submitted copy that said we welcomed parents to Back to School Night on Tuesday, August 18 instead of Thursday, August 18…oopsie. It makes me crazy to make those kinds of errors, so I’m owning it and learning from it.
Speaking of sneak peeks into our day-to-day life, I shared at Back to School Night how much I LOVED getting hugs during the day. It absolutely fills my heart with joy to have students show their affection with a hug, and this morning it made me laugh out loud. One of my sweet huggers ran up to me in the courtyard to give me a big hug and then said, “Your belly is always so squishy!” I thought I was going to fall on the ground laughing! It cracked me up! Her sister wanted the ground to swallow her up, but it made my day. I told her it was because of all the candy bars I eat. Out of the mouths of babes…and straight to the gym.
We are excited to welcome the Religious Sisters of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus & Mary this weekend. They will lead a Parish Mission Sunday and Monday evenings and our School Mission Monday morning. I hope you’ll be able to join us for all-school Mass Monday morning at 8:15 and stay for the Mission. If you can’t make the morning Mission, you won’t want to miss the evening Missions in the Church. We are blessed that they will bring a first-class relic of St. John Paull II, a vial of his blood that has miraculously never congealed!! See this week’s bulletin for more information.
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 5:16
Thank you for your support of St. Michael the Archangel Catholic School!
Sincerely,
Diana Tate
Drop-Off and Pick-Up Procedures
School Messenger - Please Opt In
First Day School Supplies
My name is Molly Cole and I am the school supply coordinator for St. Michael’s. If you ordered your child’s school supplies this year through 1st Day with us, I would like to inform you of a mistake that took place. The school supply company added a corded mouse to each students supply box for K-5th that was not needed. I have contacted the company and they will be issuing a refund in the amount of $8.64 per order. The refund should appear within the next 5-7 business day.
Margo and Molly in the front office have collected all the extra mice and we will be returning them to the company.
If you have any questions regarding this matter, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me.
Thank you,
Molly Cole
2022-2023 Calendar
VSL Information
Get Involved in VSL – Volunteer Service League!
Thank you to those who attended the VSL Back to School Night. It was a huge success, and we hope if you missed it, you can join us next year! But don’t worry, you can still sign up to help in the school. Room parents, lunchroom, library, copy room, there is something for everyone! We can’t do it without all of you! You can learn more about events around SMA and sign up to volunteer on the Volunteer Service League web page.
SMA Spirit Wear
Kickoff the 2022/2023 school year with new SMA spirit wear. Due to supply issues, new styles are slowly being added to the website. Thank you for your patience! We are excited to see the kids showing their school spirit!
Serve Saturdays
Saturday, September 10 from 9-11 AM
We need 15 volunteers to help at the Turnstyles on 135th Street
Volunteers will be sorting donations, stocking shelves, and folding clothes.
For more information and to signup, visit: https://www.stmichaelcp.org/volunteer