May 14, 2021
BK Alive
Weekly News and Information for BK Families
THIS NEWSLETTER CONTAINS A LOT OF INFORMATION, AND THE LENGTH OF THE NEWSLETTER CAUSES IT TO BE TRUNCATED.

LOOK FOR THE BLUE LINK AT THE BOTTOM OF THE EMAIL THAT SAYS "VIEW ENTIRE MESSAGE" TO EXPAND THE EMAIL, OR CLICK HERE TO SEE ARCHIVED COMMUNICATIONS FROM BK.
Next Week at a Glance
Monday, May 17
B Day
9:15 AM Start, 2:36 PM Office Hours
Tuesday, May 18
A Day
8:15 AM Start, 3:09 PM Release
Wednesday, May 19
Mass Day
9:15 AM Start, 3:10 PM Release

Mass Attire for the Class of 2021: Sunday BEST. Ladies: Modest dress, Modest Skirt and Blouse, or BK Mass Uniform. Gentlemen: Slacks/Khaki's with tucked in Button down shirt, tie, and Jacket. (Jacket optional but encouraged.) or BK Mass Uniform.
Thursday, May 20
A Day
8:15 AM Start, 3:09 PM Release

Yearbooks will be distributed during lunch on this day.
Friday, May 21
B Day
9:15 AM Start, 2:36 PM Office Hours

Possible Senior Out to Lunch, pending Mass Attire
Upcoming

Sunday, May 16th - Sports Physicals Clinic at BK - don't forget to take this sports physical form to your appointment.

Wednesday, May 19th - All School Mass Honoring the Class of 2021. LIVE for Seniors and Senior Parents (with masks and physical distancing in place) on the BK YouTube Channel for everyone else.

Tuesday, May 18th - BK Orchestra and Choir Concert

Thursday, May 20th - BK Band and Guitar Concert

Finals Week:
  • Monday 5/24 - 8:15 AM, 7th Period Final; 10:00 AM 6th Period Final
  • Tuesday 5/25 - 8:15 AM, 5th Period Final, 10:00 AM 4th Period Final
  • Wednesday 5/26 - 8:15 AM, 3rd Period Final, 10:00 AM 2nd Period Final
  • Thursday 5/27 - 8:15 AM, 1st Period Final

Thursday, May 27th - Baccalaureate Mass for the Class of 2021

Friday, May 28th - Commencement Ceremonies for the Class of 2021
A Message from Rich and Mike
Dear Bishop Kelly Parents,

The countdown is on - two weeks from tonight is the 57th Commencement of Bishop Kelly High School. We continue to be grateful for the support from you, our parents, throughout this school year. 

In this very full BK Alive, we will provide an update on the results from the annual satisfaction surveys from you, our parents, our students and our faculty/staff; ask you to take one more short survey to close out the year and help us prepare for next year; discuss our mask policy in light of recent new guidelines from the CDC and the State of Idaho and Bishop Peter; announce a second Saint Alphonsus Mobile Vaccine Clinic here at BK on June 8th; and, share the latest COVID-19 numbers here at BK.
Annual Satisfaction Survey Results from Parents, Students, and Faculty and Staff
Overall the scores were very positive from all stakeholders, and were either the same or higher than the prior eight years of these satisfaction surveys. There were also many positive comments and many of you wrote of your gratitude for how well this school year has gone. Specific areas that saw significant increases were:

  • "Teachers, staff and administrators care about my student as an individual (from parents) and “about me as an individual" (students)
  • "BK embodies the teachings of the Catholic Church" (students)
  • BK Way values of Faith and Safe and Caring Place from students
  • "I feel like I have the opportunity to voice my opinion" (students)

A few areas continue to be of concern but their scores did increase. Specifically, bullying and cliques scores are up but still low (3.7 and 3.3). When parents and students were asked "I would like more support in ...", the top clusters of comments were the following:

  • Academic counseling and support (parents and students)
  • Professional development (faculty/staff) 
  • Communication and feedback (parents and faculty/staff)
  • College prep and planning (parents and students)

Finally, the highlight of the surveys for us were when we asked all of our stakeholders  if they were "happy with the decision to send their child to BK" (you, our parents), "happy to be attending BK" (students) or "glad they made the choice to be part of BK''. The scores were the highest in eight years of doing these surveys. And they were already very high in prior years. The weighted average score (strongly agree was a 5, strongly disagree a 1) for parents was 4.6/5.0; for students 4.1/5.0; and, for faculty/staff 4.8/5.0. Similar scores were seen when asked about recommending BK to a friend. 

In my many years of  conducting and reviewing similar employee and customer satisfaction surveys while at HP and on various boards of nonprofit and for-profit companies, these are unbelievably good and almost unheard of scores. Thank you, our parents, for your partnership with the teachers, staff and administration in making this year so successful. 

Top 5 Most Important Priorities for 2021 - 2022
Now, on to next year’s priorities. More good news is that you, our parents, our faculty and staff, and our students were very clear and aligned on what the top five priorities are for the upcoming 2021-22 school year. 

First, here is what you, our parents said in order of priorities most cited:

  • Strengthen a sense of belonging for each student
  • Developing a caring and compassionate culture
  • Strengthen academic support for students  
  • Maintaining the BK Way culture while managing enrollment growth
  • Expand course offerings and academic program

Faculty and Staff cited four of the five that you did, with "belonging" number one also, and added one more (strengthen the sense of school spirit and pride):

  • Strengthen a sense of belonging for each student
  • Maintaining the BK Way culture while managing enrollment growth
  • Developing a caring and compassionate culture
  • Strengthen the sense of school pride and school spirit
  • Strengthen academic support for students

Finally, students also had "belonging" first but had some different priorities more focused on their experience here at BK:

  • Strengthen a sense of belonging for each student
  • Expand course offerings and academic programs
  • Strengthen involvement in activities and clubs
  • Strengthen academic support for students
  • Identify ways to better recognize and celebrate successes

For us, two themes emerge from our surveys and these priorities - 1) our culture - sense of belonging for each student, caring and compassionate, maintaining it while growing, recognizing and celebrating successes, and more school pride and spirit; 2) academic needs - strengthening academic counseling and support, expanding course offerings, professional development, and college prep and planning. As we move forward with setting objectives and action plans for the upcoming school year, these will guide our work along with our 2023 strategic plan. Thank you again for providing this feedback.
 

End-of-the-Year School Survey for Parents
For those of you who currently have students attending BK, you may recall we did two surveys during this school year, one at two weeks into the school year, the second at 11 weeks. We would like to ask you to complete a final end-of-year survey with the same six questions, plus we added a few questions on communications needs/feedback and your vaccine plans for your students. For new, incoming parents please complete the questions on communications and vaccine plans. The survey is only 10 questions and will take about 5 minutes to complete. Here is the link. The survey will remain open until the end of day on Friday, May 21st.
BK Mask Policy for the Final Two Weeks of School
What a whirlwind of activity regarding masks and gathering sizes in the past eight days. We know many of you and many of our faculty and staff have asked what we are planning to do for the final two weeks of school.

To recap the past eight days or so, last Friday we did change our outdoor mask policy based on last week's CDC guidance on outdoor guidelines but we kept the requirement for masks to be worn indoors in BK facilities. This Wednesday, the State of Idaho moved back to Stage 4, and Catholic churches will be removing restrictions. And, then with the news yesterday that the CDC changed guidance on removing indoor mask restrictions for vaccinated people, it caused us to pause and consider if we should also change our indoor mask policy for the final two weeks of school.

Bottom line, we have decided that we will not be changing our indoor mask policy for the final two weeks of school. Here are the reasons we have made this decision:
  • Wearing masks and 6 feet of social distancing have been key contributors to the low case counts and reduced quarantining we have seen all year and especially the past two months.
  • We run the risk of increasing positive cases and resulting quarantines right at finals and graduation time, when we need all kids to be as healthy as possible and in school and to be able to participate in their graduation festivities and celebrations.
  • There is no CDC/CDH guidance yet on masks inside schools.
  • We do not know how many and which students have been vaccinated and the May 13th guidance from the CDC is only for vaccinated people.
  • Changing policy at this late time would be a controversial decision and much energy would need to be expended at a time we are all about out of it and we all need a surge of energy to finish the school year strongly.
  • Churches, with one hour services, are very different environments than schools where students are inside for up to seven hours per day.
  • We have already relaxed outdoor mask wearing and with the nicer weather we have strongly encouraged our teachers to take their classrooms outdoors whenever possible. Masks will also not be required at Graduation on May 28th since it will be held outdoors at Nick Ysursa Field.
  • While case counts are down in Idaho and the Treasure Valley, the UK, India and California variants that are present here are much more contagious, especially among young people. 
  • Once we relax the indoor mask policy, it will be very difficult to go back. Three schools in Coeur d'Alene have had to do that this week as they had clusters of in-school transmission after relaxing their mask policies.

We all are ready to be done with mandatory masks but now is not the time here at our school with so little class time left. We are planning on starting the 2021-22 school year without masks should the current positive case counts continue to decline and a high percentage of our BK student population gets vaccinated before the start of school in August.


St. Alphonsus Vaccine Clinic here at BK on June 8 and June 29
As you know, the Pfizer vaccine has recently been authorized for use for individuals aged 12 and up! This is very welcome news . We strongly encourage you to consider having your children vaccinated as soon as  possible. The higher the levels of vaccine participation will help ensure a safe return to school this upcoming fall. 

To make it easier for our high school students and our partner Catholic school students, Saint Alphonsus will be bringing their mobile vaccine clinic once again to Bishop Kelly on June 8th between 7:30 am and Noon for ages 12+. Walkins are welcome or you can pre-register at THIS LINK or use the QR code on THIS FLIER.


COVID-19 Update
Here is our update for this week on the COVID-19 numbers for Bishop Kelly. We have had no new cases this week after three the first week of May. We have no students in quarantine and only one student who tested positive two weeks ago is still out.
Final Thoughts
As mentioned previously, two weeks from this evening we will be honoring the BK Class of 2021 on Nick Ysursa Field! Let’s continue our theme of finishing the school year strong, healthy and let’s achieve personal excellence in the classroom, on the playing fields, and in their end-of-year performances!
Have a wonderful weekend!

God bless,
Rich Raimondi
President
Mike Caldwell
Principal

Knights of the Week
Each week Bishop Kelly faculty and staff nominate students, and students nominate faculty and staff, who have demonstrated the BK Way attributes of Faith, Safe and Caring Place, Academic Excellence, Activities, Honor, Generosity, Community, and Partnership.

Congratulations to this week's Knights of the Week!
Liam Page
Academic Excellence
Liam is an outstanding student. He is especially gifted in the area of theology and loves to learn. He is the only student who consistently turns in paragraphs for extra credit "chase" questions". He participates in groups well and is a huge asset to the class

Emma Schaffner
Community
Emma is a cheerful and positive young lady who makes others feel valued. Emma contributes to her prayer team by her insightful comments and encouragement of others.
Evan Postigo
Community/Faith
Evan is a leader in his prayer team. He motivated and encouraged them in a recent project and the final result was due to his hard work. Evan is a valued member of the Theology classroom!

BK Faculty/Staff Member of the Week

Mr. Brian Klein: 
Partnership, Academic Excellence
  • Mr. Klein is always supportive of me as a student. He has given countless opportunities to help strengthen my skills in Algebra II, and he is always open to forming a partnership that helps provide the best educational experience
  • Mr. Klein is a very caring teacher and I feel like he is always there to help me learn. He had a hard time this year trying to teach during covid but he did a great job. 
  • Mr. Klein goes out of his way to help students learn the material. I appreciate all the extra effort he puts in.


Parents - PLEASE update your contact information with BK!
Please take a few minutes this weekend to verify we have your correct contact info in Infinite Campus. (If you have enrolled a Freshman, or a new student at any other grade level for the 2021-2022 school year, you do not need to follow these steps as we have already verified your address and contact info.)

Everything is done online, so start by logging into Infinite Campus at https://campus.bk.org/ Once logged in, please click on "More" on the left menu, then choose "Online Registration" on the middle menu, then choose the left button for "Click here to go to Existing Student Registration". At the bottom of the preview page, you can click "Begin Registration" to start the review process.

Thank you for your time. If you have trouble logging into Infinite Campus, please email helpdesk@bk.org
It's Yearbook Time!
Yearbooks will be handed out for the signing day on Thursday, May 20th during lunch. We will have a limited number of books on hand to sell that day, so in order to guarantee a yearbook, please go online to Jostens.com to order yours by MIDNIGHT on Sunday, May 16th. Online orders will close at that time so that we don't oversell the books. Students will still have the option to purchase available books during lunch on the 20th. Yearbooks are $80 and can be purchased on that day with cash, a check, or through Venmo (the Venmo account will be published that day). Don't miss out on this unique, and perhaps historical, yearbook!

Not sure if you've already ordered a yearbook? Check this list. Questions can be emailed to Mrs. Bainbridge at dbainbridge@bk.org.
Activities
Bishop Kelly Tennis
The BK Tennis Knights are right in the thick of District III competition. Last Saturday the JV Boys took overall 1st place in the team competition while the Girls finished 2nd. Congratulations to the team and these individual event winners: 
  • Bennett Loayza (Boys Singles)
  • Isaac Pettyjohn and Ruby Pulver (Mixed Doubles
  • Laurel Hancock and Kylie Jackson (Girls Doubles) 

Varsity is fighting hard on Day 2 today after a promising opening day and hopes to clinch titles and individual State berths tomorrow.
Albertsons Boise Open
We are excited to announce that Bishop Kelly has been selected as one of the beneficiaries of the Mondelez Tickets For Charity program with the Albertsons Boise Open. Any tickets purchased through THIS BK TICKET PORTAL will earn money for our school.

Daily tickets are $25 and include admission to the golf tournament, after-golf concert, and two on-course hospitality venues - The Albertsons Fan Pavilion on the 16th green (featuring the Albertsons Signature Cafe) and the Coors Light Fan Deck on the 18th green. 100% of the ticket sales, minus service fees and sales tax, will come back to BK!

Visit the Albertsons Boise Open Website to learn more about this year's tournament

And make sure you use THIS LINK to the BK TICKET PORTAL to purchase your tickets.
Summer 2021
Academic Boot Camps
Academic Boot Camps are BACK for Summer 2021!

These sessions are for BK students who need to brush up on their skills during the summer months. Look for registration links for the following Academic Boot Camps in next week's BK Alive:

  • Math Foundations Launch Pad
  • Writing Launch Pad
  • Academic Survival Skills
  • Artistic Creations - Drawing
  • Artistic Creations - Ceramics
  • Coding and Robotics
  • Catholic Theology Basics
  • Evangelization & Leadership

International Student Host Family
We are in need of a host family for a BK student for the 2021 - 2022 school year.

This student will be a junior. This will be his third year at BK. The stipend for hosting a student is $700 a month, or possibly more upon discussion. For more information or to ask questions, please contact  Ying Donegan @(208) 853-8542 or ying@7eie.com.

Thank you BK Families for generously opening your homes to our International Knights!

Volunteer Opportunities
Be a Parent Ambassador for Bishop Kelly!
We have two upcoming needs for Parent Ambassadors:

1) Ushers and Greeters for Graduation - if you would like to attend graduation and don't have a ticket, this is an excellent way to see the Class of 2021 walk across the stage. We need several volunteers to help greet guests and get them to their seats.

2) Welcoming and helping families that are new to BK - ambassadors use the summer months to contact each of our new BK families and help with the welcoming and onboarding process. (We'll train you!)

If you are interested in helping with either of these upcoming Parent Ambassador volunteer opportunities, please FILL OUT THIS GOOGLE FORM.
St. John's Cathedral Centennial Celebration
St. John's Cathedral will celebrate the Cathedral's Centennial Celebration June 6, 2021. We are seeking volunteers to help with the street festival that afternoon between 1-8:00 pm.


Are you a talented baker and decorator? We're having a cake competition too! All kids and adults are invited to participate! Limited to 24 entries. Bishop Peter and Fr. Mariusz will judge your entries, so bring your "A" game!


For questions email julier@boisecathedral.org.

College and Career Center
Virtual College Visits at BK
Coming Soon!

College and Career Fairs

Scholarship Opportunities
For scholarship information see Current Scholarships on the BK website.

If you have questions contact Ms. Klover at jklover@bk.org
NEW Job Openings at Bishop Kelly
Full-time Counselor
Part-time Psychology Teacher
Development Coordinator
Technology Support Technician
Activities Bus Driver
Substitute Teachers
Substitute Kitchen Assistant


Online Ordering from the BK Spirit Store!
In order to maintain safe distancing AND be available for all your Spirit Wear needs, the Bishop Kelly Spirit Store will be offering online ordering for Fall Semester. A selection of items will be available each month, and you can order via email!

Please note, the actual BK Spirit Store will NOT be open during the lunch hour for additional items, and the Front Office staff will not have access to the store.

We're all getting really good at shopping online, right?
#146
Ladies Short Sleeved BK Strong T-Shirt
$15.00

#147
Mens Short Sleeved BK Strong T-Shirt
$15.00
(Not pictured, Same Design)

(Size Small SOLD OUT)
#256
BK Unisex Hooded Sweatshirt Drk. Gray
$36.00

(M, L, XL and 2 XL SOLD OUT)
#255
BK Unisex Hooded Sweatshirt Lt. Gray
$45.00

(M, L, XL, and 2XL SOLD OUT)
#141
Unisex Long Sleeved T-Shirt
$20

Size Small SOLD OUT)
#822
BK Cap, Velcro Back
One Size Fits All
$22.00
#253
Black Crewneck Sweatshirt (No hoodie)
Small and Large
$30.00

(M and XL - SOLD OUT)
How to Order

*Order deadline: EVERY MONDAY      
*Order Pickup: EVERY FOLLOWING THURSDAY for PREPAID Orders only.
You will be emailed a confirmation.

Email bkspiritstore@gmail.com and must include:
  • Your Name
  • Contact Phone Number
  • Item # listed above
  • Size of Item (S, M, L, XL, 2XL)
  • Price

Method of Payment Before Pickup: Venmo @BK-ParentsAssociation, or Credit Card. These are the only payment options at this time.

NOTE: If you are paying by Credit Card, you will be contacted via the "Contact Phone Number" listed in your email at confirmation between 1:00 - 3:00 PM on Tuesday.

ONLY PREPAID ORDERS via the email process listed above will be accepted at this time. The Front Office Staff does NOT have order information.

THANK YOU for your cooperation as BK Spirit Store volunteers try to keep BK Spirit Store items available for our community.  

Important Links
Contact BK
  • Front Office: 375-6010
  • Fax: 375-3626
  • Business Office Manager: 947-1209
  • BK Development Office: 947-1325
  • BK Foundation Office: 323-4789

To add, remove, or change your email address, or to remove your name from our regular mailing lists, please contact Chrissy at cbeckner@bk.org.
Bishop Kelly High School | (208) 375-6010 | www.bk.org