From the desk of Mrs. Lestina | |
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Good Afternoon St.Gabriel Families,
Happy January! The weather certainly has been keeping us on our toes lately. It is nice to see the sun popping through every now and then!
We have been doing pretty well keeping up with the COVID virus. Thank you to everyone for taking extra precautions to help keep everyone safe. As of Thursday morning, we have 6 positive cases among our students and 19 students who have quarantined due to close contact. In comparison with other schools in our area, we are doing pretty well!! Thank you to everyone for continuing to monitor for symptoms and keeping your children home until you are sure that they do not have the virus. I have included a link to our COVID protocol for your reference. Our protocol includes links to the CDC and Washington County Health Department recommendations.
Please remember that we are focusing on in-person learning. Virtual learning is only offered to students who are quarantined due to COVID. Please notify the office if arrangements for virtual learning are necessary due to exposure. We will help determine when it is safe for them to return to school using the guidelines provided to us by the CDC. We are doing our best to keep everyone safe but we cannot do it alone. This is a group effort!! Click to read the current COVID protocol.
HVAC Issues:
Recently we have been having some trouble with our HVAC units shutting off intermittently.
Our maintenance staff is aware of the situation and has been working with the contractors to fix the problem. Each time this has occurred they have been able to restart the units and the building warms up. If we are ever in a situation where the units do not start up again and the building temperature does not improve, families will be notified and students will need to be sent home for the day.
Dress Code Transition:
Just a reminder, St. Gabriel Parish School will begin to implement the Mass Day Dress Code five days a week, as of the 2022-2023 school year. While it is not required to follow the Mass Day dress code on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, we would like to give families this opportunity to ease their students into this new routine. Please take advantage of this transition time if you are ready to do so. Please refer to the dress code link for more detailed information regarding the dress code for the next school year.
2022-2023 Dress Code Policy
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Our Lands End school account has been updated to reflect next year’s dress code. Our school number is 900129099.
Lands End School Account Info
Lands End Website
Weather: Closures and Recess:
Please keep in mind a couple of things. First, please make sure that your child is dressed appropriately every day for winter weather. This includes a hat, mittens, snow pants, and boots. We will be going outside any day that the temperature is above 10 degrees so the appropriate outerwear is necessary. If the temperature (including the wind chill) dips below 10 degrees, we will be staying inside for recess. Since weather can be unpredictable and may change significantly by the afternoon, it is a good habit to always be prepared to go outside.
Secondly, there may be a day this winter that requires us to close the school due to inclement weather. When this occurs, we generally follow Hartford Area Schools since they provide our hot lunch. To be sure, please check the school closings listed on WISN 12, TMJ 4, and/or FOX 6 News. Unless we have an unusual amount of snow days, if St. Gabriel School needs to close due to weather, it will be a “snow day” and not a virtual day. Families will be notified if we need to switch to virtual days in order to meet the required number of instructional minutes required by the Archdiocese and the state of Wisconsin.
Gym Floor:
Speaking of the weather, we need to remember how damaging salt can be on our gym floor. For that reason, we are asking that students avoid wearing the shoes they wear outside to gym class. They can either keep a pair of shoes for gym in their cubby/locker, wear boots to school during the winter, or just bring a separate pair (other than the ones worn to school that day) on gym days.
Athletics:
Due to some activities in the Parish Hall that typically coincide with practices, all players, coaches, and parents will now need to use the main entrance to the school and no longer use the rear entrance into the parish hall.
Additionally, please see the below signup for our basketball games this Saturday, January 22. Any time that you can help is greatly appreciated. Volunteer Sign-up for Athletics
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After School Learning Program and Care:
We emailed the 2021 year-end ASLP statements for tax purposes on 1/5/2022. Please note that our Federal Tax ID number is available on that statement. As always, thank you for participating in this program.
After School Care Sign Up
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We are kicking off the week with an Open House/ Campus Tour Day on Sunday, January 30 from 8:30 am - 12:00 pm.
Thank you, in advance, to all of the Students, Families, and Alumni who are helping either as Lectors, Greeters, Servers, or Parent Ambassadors at the weekend Masses and during the Open House event on Sunday.
Grab and Go refreshments will be available in the Parish Hall for touring families.
If you are attending Mass that weekend, we are asking you to show your St. Gabriel Sprit and have your child/ren wear their Mass Attire or Spirit Wear. If you have any St. Gabriel Spirit Wear we would love for you to wear yours too!
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Below is the list of activities that we have planned for Catholic Schools Week. | |
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| Theme | Dress | Activity | | Monday,
January 31 | Celebrate Community | Mix-Up Monday - Mismatched clothes & socks | Spirit Groups will work together to make valentines for homebound parishioners | | Tuesday,
February 1 | Celebrate Students | Spirit Group T-shirts and jeans | 12:30 pm -3:00 pm Fun-Day
Spirit Groups teams compete playing games in the gym! | | Wednesday,
February 2 | Celebrate our Nation | Mass Day Dress Code | Proud to be an American: Each classroom makes a flag showing why they are proud to live in America | | Thursday,
February 3 | Celebrate Vocations | Thoughtful Thursday: Inspirational t-shirts - wear a shirt with a positive motivational message for all to see | Guest Speakers to speak to students about vocations | | Friday,
February 4 | Celebrate Faculty and Staff | St. Gabriel Spirit Wear with jeans/athletic pants & Crazy Hair Day! | Movie in the classrooms during the afternoon | | |
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Do you know about St. Gabriel's New Family Referral Program? Help us spread the word about our school!!!
If you aren't aware, new families may indicate on their student's application that a current family has referred them to St. Gabriel. The current family will receive a $500 one-time tuition credit for that referral after the new family enrolls their student(s) AND the new student(s) begin the school year.
More information is available on the Admissions page of the school website. If you have any questions, please contact Celia Meyers at [email protected].
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On the Calendar...
January 28th - Early Dismissal (11:00 am)
January 30th - Open House 8:30 am- 12:00pm
January 30th - February 5th - Catholic Schools Week
February 11th - No School - In-service Day
February 24th - Spirit Groups
February 25th - Early Dismissal (11:00 am )/End of Trimester
March 1st - Report Cards Go Home
Peace and Blessings,
Kim Lestina
Principal
St. Gabriel Catholic Parish School
With God's help, we will do MIGHTY things!
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🎉Save the date for our 2022 Auction 🎉
We will have more information to share with you over the coming weeks about our theme and ideas for the event. In the meantime, we invite you to join us in the Parish Hall on Wednesday, January 26 at 7 pm for a volunteer information session.
We will be introducing the auction committee members and discussing volunteering opportunities for this coming auction. Please come out and join us.
Many hands make work light! For more information, please email Connie Helm, Auction Chair, or Dawn Jorgensen at [email protected]
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From the Hawks’ Nest:
This past Saturday there was some tremendous basketball being played right here at St. Gabriel. Our teams played hard and are continuing to make great strides this season.
We had six full hours of basketball on Saturday, and I especially want to thank our volunteers that helped make this event a success. We wouldn’t have been able to do it without each and every one of you.
I would especially like to recognize our Queen of Snacktopia (Concessions Coordinator), Sarah Kohls. Your passion, dedication, and commitment to our school is extremely admirable. Thank you, Sarah, and all of our volunteers for giving your time to make this day memorable for our students, parents, and visitors.
Another noteworthy event, due to a scheduling mishap of one of our opponents, we all were treated to an incredible scrimmage between our 5/6th grade Lady Hawks and some of our 6-8th grade boys. This was some of the most incredible sportsmanship I’ve ever seen. The boys were amazing sports, playing 3 on 5 basketball against the younger (and shorter) girl's team. The girl's team showed some tremendous improvement throughout the game in moving the ball around and finding the open pass and/or layup. And……….they went home victorious. Beating the boys 33-29. Even the referees were smiling at the end of the game. One of them may have even played some last-minute defense against the much taller boys team.
We even had some incredible cheerleaders from the stands. The 8th-grade girls cheered as loud as they could for the girl's team and may have even gotten in some good old-fashioned heckling of their 8th-grade classmates, all in good fun of course.
This display of love, compassion, sportsmanship, and true catholic values was truly amazing to watch.
Until next time,
Jeff Poff
Athletic Director
GO HAWKS!!
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Check out the volunteer opportunities for this weekend.
A few more spots need to
be filled!
Click the picture to become
a volunteer.
Come out and cheer on our Hawks while giving back to our Athletic Program.
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We will be utilizing Constant Contact for our weekly Gazette this school year. Please mark these emails as "safe" so you receive important updates and news from St. Gabriel Catholic Parish School. | | | | |
