St Francis Principal’s Newsletter February 22, 2017

ASH WEDNESDAY

Ash Wednesday is one of our most important holy days in the liturgical calendar. Ash Wednesday opens Lent, a season of fasting and prayer.

Ash Wednesday takes place 46 days before Easter Sunday, and is chiefly observed by Catholics, although many other Christians observe it too.

Ash Wednesday comes from the ancient Jewish tradition of penance and fasting. The practice includes the wearing of ashes on the head. The ashes symbolize the dust from which God made us. As the priest applies the ashes to a person's forehead, he speaks the words: "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

It is important to remember that Ash Wednesday is a day of penitential prayer and fasting. Some faithful take the rest of the day off work and remain home. It is generally inappropriate to dine out, to shop, or to go about in public after receiving the ashes. Feasting is highly inappropriate. Small children, the elderly and sick are exempt from this observance.

It is not required that a person wear the ashes for the rest of the day, and they may be washed off after Mass. However, many people keep the ashes as a reminder until the evening.

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Season of Lent. It is a season of penance, reflection, and fasting which prepares us for Christ's Resurrection on Easter Sunday, through which we attain redemption.

School Mass Friday, February 24,

2017 9:00 a.m.

Please have your students wear the Full Dress Uniform

Vest Don’t forget your $0.25

for the collection.

School Mass

Friday, March 3, 2017 9:00 AM

Please have your students wear the Full Dress Uniform

Vest Don’t forget your $0.25

for the collection

Stations of the Cross Wednesday, March 8 Thursday, March 16

Wednesday, March 22 Thursday, March 30

and Thursday, April 13 at 2:20 p.m. in the

Church. Please join us!

We will be participating in Ash Wednesday Mass on Wednesday, March 1, 2017 at 9:00 am and also on our School Mass on Friday, March 3, 2017. All students are expected to wear full dress uniform on both Mass days.

CONFIRMATION Congratulations to our eighth graders who will be receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation, Friday, March 3, 2017. The ceremony will be held at our regular 9:00 a.m. school Mass! We ask for prayers for all of the candidates as they continue their journey in their Catholic faith!

DIOCESAN CONFERENCE FOR TEACHERS The Diocese of Tucson will be hosting a Diocesan Conference on March 9-11, 2017. St. Francis School teachers will be attending the conference in Tucson. Students will be dismissed half day on Thursday, March 9, 2017 at 12:05 (9:00 Mass - Full Dress Uniform and NO HOMEWORK CLUB). There will be no classes on Friday, March 10, 2017. Classes will resume on Monday, March 13, 2017.

REGISTRATION FOR 2017-2018 We are currently beginning the process of opening up enrollment for prekindergarten through eighth grade for school year 2017-2018. If you know of a family who would like more information about St. Francis of Assisi School or would like to enroll their child(ren), please make sure they mention your name as we have a referral program that offers any family $500 (per child) to go toward their own tuition when the referred family completes a full school year! Please stop by the office or look at our website for more details regarding our referral program. Beginning March 1, 2017, we will open the registration process for our currently enrolled families for school year 2017-2018. Registration will be open until March 31, 2017. Thank you in advance for submitting your registration forms by the deadline. Beginning April 1, 2017 we will open up registration to new families on our waiting list.

STUDENTS’ OF THE MONTH

DECEMBER JANUARY FEBRUARY

PRESCHOOL Abigail Carranza

Claire Jones Ethan Lackey

KINDER Jayden Trujillo Trace Jonas Kamilah Ramirez

REMINDERS 1. City of Yuma, Imagination Playground will at our school for grades K-4 on Thursday, February 23, 2017. Please have your child wear their PE uniform that day. 2. Dads’ Club Meeting at the Patio on Thursday, February 23, 2017 at 6:30. ALL dads welcome and needed! 3. Scrapbooking Club will meet on Friday, February 24, 2017 from 12:05-1:30 in the school library! Please join in on the FUN! All students welcome! 4. SERVICE HOURS If you are still in need of completing your service hours, Home and School is accepting $25 gift cards (equal to 1 service hour) from Walmart and Smart and Final (will also help you with your Scrip commitment) to purchase items for the Benefit.

5. St. Francis Boys’ basketball home games will be played at YC for the remainder of the season.

FIRST Brock Domingos

Avreigh Edholm

Lucy Perricone

SECOND Stella Perricone

Christian Castro

Alyssa Salas

THIRD Chloe Doten Maleigha Sweet

Luke Freeman

FOURTH Mariana Vega Ella Jones Alex Valencia

FIFTH Antonio Gil Jackie Quintero

Isabella Nicholls

SIXTH Isaac Villaverde

Lila Sanchez Hayden Potter

SEVENTH Francis Gonzalez

Kitzia Curiel Jenoah Armijo

EIGHTH Sofia Hebda Megan Haworth

Emily Martinez

LIBRARY Alexis Scott Emma Amon Juan Pablo Ontiveros

COMPUTER PE

Abby Guzman Aiden Scott Isabella Schelanko

~ WAY TO GO WILDCATS~

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WILDCAT STUDENTS OF THE MONTH FOR BEING GREAT EXAMPLES OF OUR STUDENT LEARNING EXPECTATIONS (SLEs).

IT’S HERE! ST. FRANCIS BENEFIT FOR THE CHILDREN

DINNER/DANCE

February 25th, 2017 5:30pm –Midnight

Rococo Banquet and Event Center 1335 S Pacific Ave #212

Yuma, AZ 85364

6. SCRIP NEWS Don’t forget to buy Scrip! Please call Ms. Ochoa if you would like to know your purchase amount this year. 7. Families can track their service hours through Renweb. Please look under your family information. Please call Ms. Ochoa with any questions. There is an online submission form located on our web page under the “About Us” tab - Volunteers in Partnership. 8. UNIFORM EXCHANGE Please check out our uniform exchange for crew neck sweatshirts, pants, and V-neck sweaters. 9. Box Tops For Education!

Our school is collecting Box Tops again this year. Please cut them off of General Mills cereal boxes, cans, tissue boxes etc. and send them to school with your child. When your child has collected and turned in 25 Box Tops they are eligible to pick a prize from the treasure box in the school library! For a

**Prefered Parking Spots Update**

Due to the Benefit for the Children being so early this year, we have made changes to the parking spot effective dates. From now on, the 4 parking spots that are auctioned off at the Benefit for the Children will go into effect from August - June. Therefore, if you win a preferred parking spot at the Benefit for the Children, you will take ownership of that spot in August 2017 and it will carry through until June 2018.

Read Across America Day!

Thursday, March 2, is “Read Across America Day”

We will have a few fun events planned on this day including a door decorating contest and inviting some of our St. Francis

alumni, parents, and teachers to join our student council in fun read alouds.

Students are invited to bring a stuffed animal or a pillow to hold as they listen to stories from all over the world. You may even

see some familiar book characters in front of the classroom teaching the students. This is a day to celebrate reading at

St. Francis Catholic School!

WALK-A-THON

The Home & School Association Board is looking for a Chairperson for this year’s Walkathon to be held on Friday, April 28, 2017. If you are interested in volunteering or assisting with this event, please contact Maria Raymond at raymondsrus@yahoo.com or 928-446-3964.

CTSO

It is not too late to make a contribution to Arizona’s Catholic Tuition Support Organization (CTSO) for the 2016 tax year. This is a way to direct your tax liability to Catholic Schools.

complete list of participating products please check out the Box Tops for Education site on the Web.

Example 2:

The Garcia Family would like to give to CTSO, but often times life gets busy and when it is finally time to complete their taxes, they do not have $2,173 (because they have a tax liability equal to or greater than $2,173) to pay to CTSO. So this year, as they are preparing their taxes, they logged on to the CTSO website and have set up a payment plan. Each month in 2017, they will donate $181 to CTSO.

Now, in 2018, when the Garcias receive their refund from their 2017 taxes (at the very least what they donated, the $2,173) they will go ahead and pay that directly to CTSO.

The Garcias will be able to re-donate that same money every year and not have to worry about an initial payment ever again. The Garcias are happy to support Catholic Education.

Please visit: www1.ctso-tucson.org for more information or call their office at 520-838-2558. They can also be reached via email at ctso@diocesetucson.org. Their staff is readily available and always ready to assist you with any questions or needs.