WEEKLY BULLETIN - May 12, 2022 |
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From the Desk of Mike Fuerte |
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Dear Families,
SLE of the Month – April (Class Updates)
(2.2) A St. Louise Student is A Life-Long Learner Who Communicates effectively through writing, speaking, and listening.
In Library, Mrs. Green had first grade students read and discussed the following books: Nothing Can Separate You From’s God’s Love (Natalee Creech and Joseph Cowman), Carmela Full of Wishes (Matt de la Pena), and Boxitects (Kim Smith). These books helped students learn about the vastness of God’s love for them, no matter what challenge we may be facing in life.
In Art, the 8th Grade students made connections to our current SLE while working on their Legacy Tile art project. The 8th Grade students were asked, “What does St. Louise mean to you?” Students were challenged to answer this question through their artwork. The artwork will be turned into a ceramic tile, affixed to the wall in the main hallway above the bulletin boards and left as a lasting memento to celebrate their journey at St. Louise. The 8th Graders created artistic and thoughtful artwork that not only highlighted their time at St. Louise but also their communication skills in writing and drawing.
In Mr. Gallant’s 7th Grade Language Arts class, they recently completed A Raisin in the Sun unit featured opportunities for students to act out the classic American play in-class, participate in Socratic Seminars that require students to engage in meaningful conversation with peers, and write about the thematic elements of the play via various prompts and the comprehensive exam.
Policies and Guidelines – Tardiness
Tardiness has been a problem, especially during the 3rd Trimester. Please take the time to leave a little extra early before heading out to school. Since more businesses have been opening back up and employees have been returning to office buildings and campuses, there are more people on the road. Our Tardy policies states the following below:
A K-8 student who is not in the classroom by 8:30 a.m. or at the designated time after recess will be counted tardy when the teacher electronically submits the online Skyward report.5 A tardy student must report to the school office. If the student has a parental note with a legitimate excuse for being tardy (e.g. car broke down, doctor’s appointment), he/she will be admitted with an “Excused Tardy Slip.” If the student does not have a note or a legitimate reason for being tardy (e.g. woke up late & heavy traffic are not legitimate reasons), he/she will be admitted with an “Unexcused Tardy Slip” and will need to make up the time missed. This time is St. Louise School Policies and Guidelines 7 usually made up by staying in from recess and making up all missed work. The teacher can have the child stay in from recess that same day or accumulate the times for the week and have the child stay in on Friday of that week. This “Unexcused Tardy Slip” must be signed by a parent and brought to the school office the next day to verify that the parent knew about the child’s late arrival to class.
You can read more details about absences and tardiness on pages 4-7 HERE.
Updates on Personnel Changes
First, I would like to announce that I have found a Vice Principal to take over Mrs. Mann’s and Mrs. Danforth’s interim role. After extensive interviews, I have decided that our current 3rd Grade Teacher, Mrs. Joellyn Jaster will be part of my administration team as our new Vice Principal. Mrs. Jaster has been part of the St. Louise community since 2018 teaching 5th and 3rd grade. She has multiple degrees and credentials as well as administrative experience with the Los Angeles Archdiocese. Mrs. Jaster understands the importance of instilling a love of learning, faith, and values in our students and is committed to continue a culture of excellence. Mrs. Jaster and I will make a great team. Please congratulate Mrs. Jaster as our new Vice Principal.
We are also excited to announce the hiring of one of our two open Kindergarten Teacher positions and she is no stranger to St. Louise School. Cherie McIntosh will be returning to St. Louise after taking a year off to substitute teach to take care of her health. Cherie previously taught Kindergarten, 2nd grade and Library/K-2 Computers at St Louise for 18 years. She is ready to be back in the classroom! We are so happy to have Cherie McIntosh return to St. Louise as one of our new Kindergarten Teachers.
Next year, Mrs. Kujath will move from a part-time role as an instructional assistant for Pre-K to an instructional assistant for grades 1-2.
We currently have open positions in 6th Grade and a Full-time Pre-K Instructional Assistant. If you know anyone who may be interested in these positions, please have them apply through the following link: 6th Grade Position and Pre-K Instructional Assistant.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Mike Fuerte
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- Walk-A-Thon - see below for details
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- Chick Fil A Auction Lunch (for those who purchased)
- Cards for Cops - 1:10-2:10
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- Treat Sale
- School Commission & Parents' Club Joint Meeting - 6:30 pm
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The countdown is on to the WALK-A-THON! Tomorrow, Friday, MAY 13th is the big day so be sure to share with all your friends and family how they can donate to support St. Louise School! Click here to find out all the details!
Family Walk a Thon Packets were sent home in the Red Envelope and you should have received an email with a personal fundraising link to send to all of your supporters. If you didn't receive your packet, please stop by the office and pick one up. Please email the walk a thon chairs if you didn't receive the email with your personal link.
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Pancake Breakfast - Sunday May 22nd |
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Cards for Cops - Tuesday May 17th |
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For National Police Week, students will present the Bellevue Chief of Police, Shirley Wendell, with thank you cards. This is a unique opportunity for St. Louise students to show their support of our local law enforcement and say thank you for keeping our community safe.
Below is the schedule for when each class will be participating:
- 1:10 pm – 1:30 pm - PreK-2nd
- 1:30 pm – 1:50 pm - 3rd-5th
- 1:50 pm – 2:10 pm - 6th-8th
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COVID Reminders & Current Protocols |
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Please note the current COVID protocols for quarantining and close contacts:
- If your child tests positive for COVID
- Stay home for 5 days
- Wear a mask for 5 additional days
- Negative test is NOT necessary to return
- If your child is a CLOSE CONTACT
- Continue coming to school - regardless of vaccination status
- Watch for symptoms and test if symptoms develop
- The Department of Health recommends wearing a mask for 10 days
- The Department of Health recommends getting tested 3-5 days after exposure
- Testing
- At home tests are an acceptable form of testing
- If you need a test, please contact the school office
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You can order more tests for your family free here and here
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FATHER DAUGHTER DANCE - SATURDAY JUNE 4th
REGISTER NOW!
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Social Emotional Learning Update for May |
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Greetings from your new Social and Emotional Learning Specialist!
Over the last few weeks, I have spent a lot of time exploring bullying prevention tools with all the students (in large and small groups). Here’s what we’ve covered so far: Direct and indirect bullying; causes of bullying; classroom bullying and its effects; social isolation as a form of bullying; passive and active victims of bullying and more.
As the article explains, the main differences are:
- Rude = Inadvertently saying or doing something that hurts someone else. Incidents of rudeness are usually spontaneous and unplanned, based on thoughtlessness or poor manners, but not meant to actually hurt someone.
- Mean = Purposefully saying or doing something to hurt someone once (or maybe twice).
- Bullying = Intentionally aggressive behavior, repeated over time, that involves an imbalance of power.
I believe being able to identify different types of bullying will help the student understand if they are the target or culprit of bullying activities.
A big thank you to the generous donations from the Parents’ Club, who made possible for us bring and explore in depth a virtual play from the Taproot theater https://taproottheatre.org/. It was a great compliment to our bullying curriculum.
Thank you for reading our first social and emotional update edition! If you have suggestions for future topics or resources to share, please email them to me at mariaz@stlouiseschool.org
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SUMMER LEARNING LAUNCH
SAVE YOUR SPACE NOW!
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Summer Camp & Activity Opportunities |
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As you plan for all the fun and exciting adventures your children will be having over the summer in just a couple months, please keep in mind that summer is an excellent opportunity to keep inquisitive minds active and engaged! Research shows that summer learning loss equals at least one month of instruction. Knowing this causes parents and teachers to think about how best to keep academic skills sharp over the summer while also using the time to improve upon or master some lagging academic skills.
Please click here to find our latest update to our Summer Programs and Camps document. This is a list of opportunities for enriching summer learning and fun for grades Pre-K through 12. Please take a moment to explore the possibilities, because many camps and programs fill up quickly.
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From the Auction Office... |
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If you have not yet picked up your auction purchases, please contact the auction office (auction@stlouiseschool.org) to schedule a time to pick them up.
During the week of May 16-20, a selection of wine will be available for purchase in the auction office. We will also have centerpieces from the auction and selected other items for sale.
Also happening the week of May 16-20 is an opportunity to bid on Teacher for the Day. On May 31st, 2022, the winning bidder’s child will gather with all the student teachers (one per class) before school in the teacher’s lounge for doughnuts, hot chocolate, and lesson planning.
During the school day, your child will have a special teaching task, All “teachers” will enjoy pizza lunch in the teacher’s lounge, free dress (regular rules apply), official name tags on a lanyard to wear for the day, and a “name plate” outside the classroom.
At the end of this special day, your child will go home with a keepsake to remember their time as a teacher!
Bidding will be available online through mobile bidding beginning Monday, May 16th. Watch your email for more information:
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Student Learning Expectation (SLE) for May |
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Student Learning Expectations (otherwise known as SLEs) are expectations that our students should know, understand, value, and be able to do by the time they graduate from St. Louise School. |
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May's SLE is:
A St. Louise Student is A Well-Balanced Individual Who:
3.2 Develops mind, body, and spirit by experiencing the arts and participating in physical activity.
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A HUGE thank you to all of the amazing volunteers that helped with the book fair last week!
This book fair would not have been possible without the incredible Chairpersons, Meredith Pokorny and Colleen Mahon! Thank you to everyone who helped set up, take down, and staff the book fair.
Ingrid, Mason, and Lucy Flaat
Nori Nieuwenhuis
Winda Laurence
Laurie Friedl
Domnic Christy
Aimee Yates
Patricia Navarro
Kami Coles
Marian Zappala
Linsey Tran
Delphine Lemarchand
Roxanne Rice
Anahid Alvarez
Marta McGraw
Christina George
Danielle Condit
Daisy Mendes
Jennifer Little
Kathy Vanichkorn
Rebecca Ellestad
Alicia Bradbury
Susan Essilfie
Shiji Varuthattil Das
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AT HOME COVID TESTS
Did you know you can still order free at home COVID tests - even if you've already gotten some?
Click here to order from the USPS or here to order from Washington State DOH
Mark your Calendars for these upcoming events:
- May 13 - Walk A Thon all day!
- May 16 - MAP Testing begins - Grades 2-7
- May 17 - Cards for Cops
- May 17 - Chick Fil A Auction Lunch
- May 19 - Joint School Commission & Parents' Club Mtg - 6:30 pm
- May 21 - Saturday Spruce Up
- May 23-26 - 6th Grade Environmental Camp
- May 27 - Grandparents' Mass
- May 30 - Memorial Day Holiday - NO School OR Kids' Club
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PARENTS' CLUB - BOARD MEMBER NEEDED! |
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Thank you to all of our amazing parent volunteers! |
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If you know of a volunteer doing great work and want to recognize them, simply email their name and what they do to socialmedia@stlouiseschool.org.
Want to volunteer - check out available opportunities here!
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Dear Friends at St. Louise,
We continue to reflect on the power of the Paschal Mystery, that is, the Lord’s life, suffering, death, resurrection, ascension and sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. We use these two unusual words to describe what happened in the 33 years that Jesus walked on this earth and the 50 days following his resurrection.
Paschal: Comes from the Greek (pascha) and the Hebrew (pesah) that mean “to jump” or “to pass over.” The Hebrew meaning describes when the people of Israel “jumped over” the Red Sea, out of slavery, and began their 40-year journey to the Promised Land. The Greek meaning applies to Christians and the saving action of Jesus Christ. (Greek was the first universal language used for the Mass, and we still use a few special Greek words, Alleluia and Kyrie Eleison, Christe Eleison, in the Mass today.) Jesus “jumped” from heaven with his divinity into our humanity at his birth and “jumped” into death on the cross. His human body was the instrument to destroy death with his divine power, and so he “jumped” from death to life and gave us his eternal life. He “jumped” back to heaven at his ascension and sent the Holy Spirit, who “jumped” into the hearts of the disciples – and the Church was born!
Mystery: In common use this word means something beyond our ability to fully grasp, understand or explain. The biblical use of the word “mystery” is more specific – it means something that was once hidden and is now revealed by God. We believe that Jesus himself is the fullness of God’s revelation. Everything that we read in the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament) points to Jesus, and everything in the Christian Scriptures (the New Testament) is about him. Both understandings apply to the mystery of our Christian faith.
These days of the Easter Season are important ones for us to prepare for the Paschal Mystery of the Ascension and Pentecost, which are soon approaching! How do we prepare well? Take one at a time, simply to ponder – while on a walk, or turning off media while driving in the car – asking yourself, “What does it mean to me that Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father, that he is now beyond our sight?” Then, after we celebrate the Ascension on May 29, ask “What does it mean for me that the Holy Spirit comes to me as Jesus promised?” And consider that the sacraments are present to us by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Enjoy these wonderful days of Easter – and here’s hoping the day you read this is warmer and sunnier than the day I wrote this column! Brrr!
Fr. Gary Zender
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GALLERY
This week Mr. Fuerte enjoyed a day off while his "sub", Principal for the Day Elena, worked hard to keep the school running! In addition to coffee in her new office, Elena hosted some classmates for lunch and gave the student body a NO homework day!
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133 156th Avenue S.E., Bellevue, WA 98007
Phone: (425) 746-4220
Fax: (425) 644-3294
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