SAINTS WEEKLY NEWS!Saint Wenceslaus Catholic School !

OFFICE UPDATE!

September 8, 2015

From the Desk of the Principal...!News from Kim DoyleDear Parents, Grandparents, and Friends: ! The first week of school was quite a challenge with the heat. Teachers and students were real troupers! They survived and stuck with the tasks at hand even through the heat. We are all looking forward to a new week and now that the opening tasks and class procedures have been set in place, teachers will be able to dive into the curriculum. !! We will be holding our annual parent night on Thursday. This is a great opportunity for all school parents to learn more about what your child will be learning in grades K-8. You will meet the teachers and hear first hand how they intend to work with the students in their particular classroom. It is a great way to make a connection to the school and your child’s teacher. One special quality of SWS is the deep connection between teachers and parents and with parents to each other. Our school is a family and we continue to thrive by the bonding that happens within our school family. Let’s work together to raise our children to be confident learners with a strong moral heart. Wishing everyone a wonderful and successful school year.!

kim.doyle@swsaints.org

Calendar of Events Upcoming Activities Tues., Sept. 8 - First Day of Preschool!Tues., Sept. 8 - Home/School Meeting 7:15!Wed., Sept. 9 - School Mass (Gr. 8 plans)!Thurs., Sept. 10 - Parent Information Night K-8!Mon., Sept. 14 - Climb Theatre Presentations K-6!Wed., Sept. 16 - School Mass (Gr. 6 plans)!Fri., Sept. 18 - Dozinky weekend begins!Sat., Sept. 19 - Dozinky Parade 12:00 noon!Mon., Sept. 21 - School Advisory Meeting 6:30 PM!Wed., Sept. 23 - School Mass (Gr. 5)!Fri., Sept. 25 - NPHS Homecoming !Sat., Sept. 26 - School Marathon 8:15 at Memorial Park!Mon., Sept. 28 - 9:15 - Speakers from Common Hope!Wed., Sept. 30-School Mass ( Gr. 7 plans)!Wed., Sept. 30 - Gr. 4/5 Field Trip!Fri., - Oct. 2 - Marathon Money due!Tues., Oct 6 - Gr. 7/8 Retreat!Wed., Oct. 7 - School Mass ( Gr. 4 Malecha plans)!Wed., Oct. 7 - Marathon Prize Rally 12:30!Mon., Oct. 12 - Principal’s Pizza Party!Wed., Oct 14 - School Mass (Gr. 3 plans)!Thurs. and Fri., Oct. 15/16 - No School!

Parent Information/Curriculum Night Thursday, September 10 Teachers in Grades K-8 will hold information sessions about what happens in their classrooms throughout the year. This event is for parents only. Club House will be open from 6:00-8:15 free of charge so that parents can attentively listen to the teachers. !Please come at the specified time for your session because teachers will be giving a presentation and will want to begin on time.!6:00 – 6:30 – Kindergarten (Busch)!6:00 - 6:30 – Grade 2 (Jeffrey)!!6:30 - 7:00 – Grade 1 (Wetschka)!6:30 - 7:00 – Grade 3 (Rosen)!!7:00 - 7:45– Grade 4 (Malecha and McNamara)!!6:00 - 7:00 –Grade 5 (Smisek, Malecha, Zwirner)!6:00 - 7:00 – Grade 6 (Zwirner, Christy, Grygo, Smisek)!!7:00 - 8: 15 – Grade 7 (Schoenbauer, May, Grygo, Zwirner , Christy)!7:00 – 8:00 – Grade 8 (Christy, Zwirner, Schoenbauer, Grygo)!

Club House Hours MWF - 7:00 am-9:00 (preschool session)!MWF - 11:00-2:30 (preschool session)!M-F-2:30-5:30 Preschool and older children!Open on non-school days as needed.!Call ahead for drop in care.!Please contact Mary Wick, Club House Director with questions. mary.wick@swsaints.org

The Parent Handbooks The handbooks are on-line and are located on the school website. Due to the length of the book and the large amount of information, paper copies of the book will only be sent home by special request.

Required Volunteer Activities K-8 parents help with two events: Fish Fry, Auction, Golf, or serve on a planning committee of another event as approved by principal.!Preschool parents help with one of the above events.!!Time varies for each volunteer activity.!

Check in to the Office Please remember to check into the office every time you come into the school building. For safety reasons, we need to know who is in our building and why. Those coming to get uniforms in the parent room, please be sure to come up to the office first.

September 8, 2015

Celebrate Catholic Schools Mark Your Calendars For September 26th !Celebrate our Catholic schools by attending the third annual Night of Light celebration of Catholic education on September 26th at the Depot Minneapolis. The Aim Higher Foundation invites you to join hundreds of the most committed Catholic school supporters from this area for this fun and inspiring event. As an independent 501(C)3 non profit, the Aim Higher Foundation is committed to raising needed resources to keep our schools strong. More than 200 students from across the Archdiocese will provide entertainment and hospitality. !!Please support our Catholic schools by attending this great event. To buy a ticket or reserve a table, visit www.AimHigherFoundation.org!

Future Newsletters We will send all weekly newsletters out electronically. Let us know if we need an additional address for you. Please let us know if you need a paper copy of the newsletter instead of electronic copies. Do you know a grandparent or friend who might like a newsletter? Send Kim the e-mail address and they will be added to the list. If you would like one of your e-mail addresses deleted from the list that is ok too, but keep in mind that the newsletter listing is also used as our emergency contact list.

Required Fundraising Activities: Marathon - $150 per child K-8, $50 per preschooler!Sweepstakes - $300 per family, $50 per preschool family!Fish Fry Dinner - sell 10 tickets $100 - $50 per preschool family!All of the other fundraising activities are optional - But of course necessary and we appreciate as much help as possible!

Birthday Treats and Other Snacks!In an effort to keep our school healthy for all students we will institute the following rule:!!Only individually wrapped items with the list of ingredients on the label can be given. This way students can put it in a back pack and take it home if they choose. Teachers can also check the product for certain allergy ingredients. !!Please DO NOT BRING BOXES OF CUPCAKES OR BOXES OF DONUTS! (Even if you get them from a store or bakery.) We do not want these items coming as birthday treats.!!Several of our classrooms have students who have food allergies and certain foods could be life threatening if the child were to get this treat. Furthermore - when kids who have allergies are left out of getting a treat that their classmates can have - It hurts! Please ask your child's teacher for more information. Maybe you could consider giving out small toys, stickers, pencils as birthday treats instead of food. !!(Please keep in mind that the school does have school wide days for treats from our home/school association - cookie days, donut days, pizza days - and we will make every effort to make sure that the kids with allergies get a comparable treat item.)!

Marathon for Non-Public Education Each year it is important for our school to come together to raise the needed funds to support our programs. Tuition covers most of our expenses but we do need to do some fundraising. The marathon is the first of the 3 required fundraising activities. We kicked off our collection on Sept 3. Mark your calendar to join us on Saturday, September 26 for Marathon Day. This is a great fundraiser and a fun spirit day for all families Preschool to Grade 8.

Lunch Account Lunch cost PreK to Grade 8 - $2.60 per day. !$1.50 for extra main dish.! !Snack milk or extra milk at lunch $.40 each!Kindergarten snack milk is free through a federal grant!

SCRIP! SCRIP is a great way to offset some of your school expenses. Buy the gift card from the school, use it as cash, and a portion comes back to the school which we in turn place in a special SCRIP account for you. Order by Monday - receive the cards by Thursday each week. shopwithscrip.com

September 8, 2015

Looking for Guitar Donations!Seeking acoustic guitars. We will be collecting these all year.!Mrs. Bennett will be teaching a class guitar class in the 4th quarter of the school year. If you have a guitar that you no longer use at home just taking up space, consider making it a donation to our school.

Learning Without Limits @ SWS (LWL @ SWS)

Parents in grades 7 and 8 will get more information at the parent meeting on September 10. Students are required to complete a course on internet safety and in using the computers outside of school responsibly. It is called Digital Citizenship. Students will be allowed to take the computers from the school but the cost of the insurance is passed on to the family.!The insurance fee is $75 for the students in grades 7 and 8. These are MacBook Air computers.!Insurance cover most accidental damage, but will not cover purposeful damage. Loss and stolen computers will need a police report.!!We will ask parents to be vigilant about the use of the computer while outside of the school and that you work

with your student in keeping the school computers safe and damage free. A contract for use will be coming your way soon with the policies for the 1:1 program.

Band, Piano, or Voice Lessons SWS is extremely fortunate to have so many opportunities for students to take lessons in music. If your child would like to get involved you can contact Mrs. Gallagher or Mrs.

Gorr. Students are given a group lesson or a private lesson for a very reasonable rate. Contact the school office and ask to be contacted with one of these teachers.!!

Collection of School Supplies Did you buy any extra school supplies? We are gathering school supplies to give to the speakers of Common Hope. We have been working with this organization for many years and they will be coming to speak to the students on Monday, September 28. Common Hope is the group that we have our adopted Guatemalan student, Geissell. Geissell is now turning 18 years old. She has received a special gift of support each year from us since she was just a small child. We have helped her get an education and have supplied her family with a small amount of goods to help their very poor family survive. !!On September 28, representatives of Common Hope will be coming to school to show the students what their organization does and talk about how our gifts impact the families that they try to reach.!!We are doing a collection for the group and will present this to them on September 28. How appropriate that September 28 is the Feast of St. Wenceslaus. St. Wenceslaus was known for his generosity in giving his riches to the poor.!!Please look through the extra supplies you bought - We all have the extra items that were purchased for pennies when shopping for our own kids. Please send them to school before September 28!

Marathon T-Shirts Students can wear their new marathon t-shirts every Friday from now until Christmas.!All students should also wear their marathon shirts on marathon day-September 26.!!

School Supplies to Donate to Common Hope New Supplies only! Ink Pens (black, blue, or red only) !Black flairs (any brand) !Erasers !Sharpeners !Glue bottles !Colored pencils (12-pack only) !Scissors (4-7” only) !Rulers (plastic only) !Water colors !Compasses !Protractors !Backpacks!Gently used: Recorders (plastic flutes) !Spanish-English dictionaries !Scientific calculators!Teachers need: Whiteboard markers !One inch masking tape !Popsicle sticks !Yarn!Stickers!!N0 donations of : Paper, Notebooks, Folders - Not needed at this time.

Free/Reduced Lunch Applications 2015/16-Forms are now due! PLEASE APPLY for this if you qualify. Our school receives federal dollars and services — the more who apply — the better it is for our school. These applications are held strictly confidential. Your children will receive a lower price or a free lunch program and our school gets benefits. Fill out the form and return it in a sealed envelope to “Kim Doyle”. Please apply if your salary falls within the guidelines. Forms can be located in the “back to school packet” on our website.!!

! North!

! East!

! Morning!School!Bus!Drop!off.!

! South!

! West!

General Notes on Parking Lot Reconstruction 1. Reconstruction of the parking lot will begin on Tuesday, September 8, 2015.!2. Construction is expected to take 9 weeks and will likely wrap up sometime the first week of November.!3. See map on the left for phases of construction. !4. We will need your cooperation on parking. We intend to keep the church as accessible as possible. !5. There is no parking in the southern portion of the parking lot during phase one of construction.!6. There is no entry into the church parking lot from Main Street during construction.!!School Morning Procedures 1. SWS bus drop off will occur at or near the corner of 2nd Street NE and Columbus Ave. Students will be escorted by teachers to the building from there.!2. SWS Parents are asked to drop off at the Columbus Avenue door of the school. Only drop off on the school side of the street with your car driving toward Main Street. !School Afternoon Procedures 3. SWS parents will pick up students at the Columbus Avenue entrance of the school after the buses have vacated the area. Only pick up on the school side of the street with your car driving toward Main Street.!4. West side church and PAC entrances will not be open for pick up and drop off.!!Mass 5. Wednesday morning school masses will occur in the church. Entry for those masses will be on the East side of the PAC.!!6. We ask you to avoid parking on Columbus Avenue nearest the school from 7-noon and from 2-3 pm.!!Your patience and understanding are appreciated! We all need to work together to make sure our students can safely enter and leave the building for the next 9 weeks.!

!! Phase&1!Sep!8th(Oct.!9th!!

!Phase 2 Oct. 12- Nov. 6

!! Parent!Drop!off!and!pick!up!

Got your SWS Car Magnet? Become recognizable when you drive around town. Everyone loves to seek out the SWS Magnets on the cars. E-mail kim.doyle@swsaints.org to request a magnet for every car you own!!!Lost your magnet in the car wash? !We will give you another one. !Just let us know. This is a fun thing for !the kids to look for and a great advertising !tool for our school.