Learning, Loving, and Leading through Christ

January 15, 2024

Leadership Team Updates

Dear St. Alphonsus Families,

Thank you for sharing with us your Snow Day fun last week and answering Father Kevin's #StAlsSnowmen Challenge! It was great to see so many students building amazing snowmen in the winter weather!

A few other reminders for this week:

It's cold outside! When you come to school in the mornings, you will notice that Mrs. Bruhn & Mrs. Hoeppner will not be holding doors wide open. We don't want them to get too cold standing outside, so the doors will be cracked, not held wide open, and we will be watching for your kids to come in. Rest assured we are here and we will open the doors as the kids come up!

Tomorrow are our 8th Grade Formal Pictures & Activity Pictures. 8th Grade may come to school in their formal dress & should bring a uniform to change into--they will go first to have their photos taken and then all other groups will be called down. All other activities like Girl Scouts, etc. should dress in their regular school uniform, but bring their sashes or vests. Athletics pictures will NOT be taken tomorrow, but all other extracurricular activities will.

If you have a student in grades 1, 2, 3, or 6 and have not already returned your special video opt-in for our CESA training this week, please return these by Wednesday.

We are so proud to announce that Mrs. Gutche and Mrs. Schermetzler have been nominated for the Catholic Financial Life Give Back Contest! Winning teachers receive $500 each and $2,000 for our school! You can vote once per day PER DEVICE, so vote often! Click this link and search for each teacher by their last name to vote. You will need to enter your name and email address for voting. Winners will be announced during Catholic Schools Week.

Stay safe and warm this week!

Ms. Parey, Principal

Mrs. Schermetzler & Mrs. Bruhn, Leadership Team

January & February Dates to Remember

01/16 - 01/26

STAR Testing

Grades 1-8

01/24

Dine Out Night

Red Robin

01/26

Pizza Fundraiser Lunch

Details Below

01/28

PACK THE CHURCH

for Catholic Schools Week!

9:00am Mass

01/28

Open House

10am to 12pm

for all current & prospective families!

01/28 - 02/02

Catholic Schools Week!

More Details Coming Soon;

Dress Down Days Below!

02/02

11:30am Dismissal

02/07

Dine Out Night

Cousins Subs

02/09

Cougar Carnival

Details Below

02/14

Ash Wednesday

02/19

Home & School Meeting

6:00pm

02/21

Dine Out Night

Noodles

02/26

No School

Teacher In-Service

January & February Lunch Menus

Our Next Pizza Lunch is Coming Up on Friday, January 26th!

Order forms went home last week and are due back to school by Wednesday, January 17th in the morning. Please note that there is NO HOT LUNCH OR MILK served on this day, so if your students are not ordering the pizza lunch you will need to send a cold lunch. LATE ORDER FORMS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED--NO EXCEPTIONS. We are held to tight deadlines by the vendor and must have the order forms by Wednesday morning!

A copy of the order form is attached here. Return forms by January 17thwith cash or check for payment. Exact amounts only, no change will be given. One form per child but families can use one envelope.

January Out of Uniform Schedule

We thought it might be easier for you to have a list of days that are Out-Of-Uniform either with a pass or with special circumstances for the whole month, so here are the Out-of-Uniform Days for January:

01/25

Out of Uniform with Dine Out Night purchase on 01/24 (receipt required)

01/26

Last Friday of the Month

Out of Uniform with Purchased Pass

01/29 - Catholic Schools Week

See Special Dress Day Schedule Below!

01/30 - Catholic Schools Week

See Special Dress Day Schedule Below!

01/31 - Catholic Schools Week

See Special Dress Day Schedule Below!

Catholic Schools Week is Coming!

We are excited for another great Catholic Schools Week celebration coming up at the end of January & beginning of February!

This year's national theme is United in Faith & Community, and what better way to showcase our tightknit St. Alphonsus School! We wanted to give you a heads up on the special dress down days & themes that the students will have during that week.

Monday, January 29: Care for All God's Creatures

Dress like your favorite animal! Add a headband, a fun t-shirt, or just wear the colors of your favorite animal. We will have a fun animal-themed activity that day!

Tuesday, January 30: United in Community

Dress in your unity shirts and jeans!

Wednesday, January 31: United in Faith

Dress your best by dressing UP for our all-school mass!

Thursday, February 1: United in Community

Dress Like the Decades. Choose any decade between the 1950s and the 1990s and dress in that style. If your student chooses not to participate, they should wear their regular uniform.

Friday, February 2: United in Community

Dress in Class Colors & Comfy Bottoms. Each class has been assigned a color:

3K & 4K: Red

5K: Purple

1st Grade: Pink

2nd Grade: Orange

3rd Grade: Green

4th Grade: Blue

5th Grade: Yellow

All Middle School (6, 7, 8): Black or White

There will be lots of special activities to match the dress & themes for each day. We are finalizing our last details and will share more then!

Cougar Carnival Updates

Get ready for an evening of family fun at the annual

Cougar Carnival!

Friday, February 9th

5:30-8:00pm

Ticket and Food Pre-Orders: Please return these by Friday, January 19th. An order form is included here.

Thank you for sending in your prize room donations! You may still send this in if you have not done so already. We appreciate all the help with this!

Volunteers Needed:

In order to make an event like this run smoothly we need help from all families! Please consider helping set up, or help during or after the carnival to ensure the evening runs smoothly. Thank you for your support! Sign up here!

Blue and Gold Raffle Items Needed:

If you or anyone you know would like to donate items for the Blue and Gold Raffle please contact Dawn Eisold. Once again we are looking for items such as tickets to sporting events, larger raffle items, larger gift cards, experiences around the area, etc. Thank you for your generosity!

Spring Extracurricular Opportunities

It's time to think about signing up for Chess Club, Coding Club, and STEAM Club once again! Please see detailed information on the flyers below. Please note that clubs can only be run if the minimum number of students required sign up. To sign-up, visit this website.

Cougar Sports Corner

Congratulations to our 8th Grade Boys team who beat St Roman’s this weekend to win the St Roman’s tournament! They won 47-30 to win the tournament.

The 5th grade girls team also won their first two games of the Mayhem at the Mural Tournament and advanced to the next round. They will play Tuesday, January 16th at 5:30pm at St. Agnes.

Below is the schedule for each St Alphonsus team (and students playing at other schools) for the upcoming weekend:

5th Grade Boys: 10:00 am January 20 @ home at St Alphonsus

5th Grade Girls: 11:00 am January 20 @ home at St Alphonsus and 2:00 January 21 @ St Matthias

6th Grade Boys: 10:00 am January 20 @ Burlington Catholic

6th Grade Girls: 11:00 am January 20 @ St Mary’s

7th Grade Boys: 10:00 am January 20 @ St Mary’s HC and 12:00 pm January 21 @ St Gregory

7th Grade Girls: 9:00 am January 20 @ St Matthias

8th Grade Boys: 6:30 pm January 19 @ St Leonard, 9:00 am January 20 @ St Mary’s and 2:00 pm January 21 @ Parkway Apostolic

If you are looking for volunteer opportunities, we do have concession and admission spots open! High school kids looking for volunteer hours are welcome, we just ask that one adult is with them as well. Please use this link to sign up for an open spot.

We also have multiple positions on the Athletic Board open. Please reach out to Nick Warrichaiet, Athletic Director, if you are interested in any of the below spots:

Treasurer
Volleyball Coordinator
Communications Coordinator
Concessions/Volunteer Coordinator

As always, thank you for your support and gooooo Cougars!

SCRIP Makes Sense!

This week's SCRIP updates:

Welcome to 2024!

Time to make that New Year's resolution and join the SCRIP bandwagon! One family earned over $400 in tuition rebates this past year shopping at Woodman's and Pick n' Save and filling up the gas tanks at Kwik-Trip! It's easy to reload physical cards or use e-cards in the RaiseRight app on your phone!

There are 27 school families that purchased SCRIP at least once this year. Only 6 of those families earned over $100 in tuition rebates. Become a regular SCRIP purchaser and you will see those rebate numbers grow! Two families have grandparents purchasing SCRIP. Perhaps your parents would help too!

Our SCRIP coordinator, Vickie, is available to show you how you can build that account up!

There are parishioners who use SCRIP regularly to help the school. Join them in their generous support!

Signing up for SCRIP is easy, and there is even an app to use! Register here, using the enrollment code 855F1LF31943. You can also check out our Enrollment Forms and FAQ on our school website. If you would like to order via paper order form, you can find that here.

Any questions, please call or email our SCRIP coordinator, Vickie Major at 414-704-0526 or via email here.

Home & School Happenings

Help out our school while you shop at Target! You'll earn 40 bonus Box Tops when you buy any 4 participating products at Target and can your receipt in the Box Tops app within 14 days.

Use our referral code BTNX89MQ when you sign up and you’ll get 25 Bonus Box Tops when you scan your first receipt now through 05/31/2024, while supplies last! Download the Box Tops for Education app here.

Any questions, please contact our Box Tops Coordinator Carrie Jurgens.

Join St. Alphonsus and the Home & School Association at the Milwaukee Wave Game!

St. Alphonsus Catholic School is the featured organization at the Milwaukee Wave game on March 22 at 6:35pm. We hope you can attend, watch a great game and support St Alphonsus Catholic School!

Please use this link to buy your tickets and we’ll see you at the game! St. Alphonsus School will get a percentage of the money from each ticket sold at this link, so feel free to spread the word & share this with your family and friends.

Local School & Alumni News

Please note that any outside activities are not sponsored or endorsed by St. Alphonsus Parish or School

Franklin High School Hosts Freshmen Preview Night

Is your student attending Franklin High School next fall? Learn more about their Freshmen Preview Night in this letter.

Calling all St. Alphonsus Alumni!

Do you have an alumni student in your home? Are you an alum yourself, or maybe you've heard some great things our alumni are up to? Please share them with us! We would love to share more alumni news in upcoming newsletters and on our social media. You can email items to Mrs. Schermetzler. Thank you!

Parish News

Pastoral staff & Council Message on Non-Partisan Volunteering

Dear Volunteers and Ministers,

We hope that you have all had a wonderful Christmas Season and that 2024 is off to a great start for you and your family! Thank you for all that you do for our parish and its ministries. We hope to see you at the volunteer appreciation dinner on January 14th. Given that this New Year is a presidential election year, we wanted to send an important reminder as political passions increase.

Like all Catholic parishes St. Alphonsus is ”non-partisan” and cannot directly endorse or support any candidate. Whenever you are volunteering in a ministry of the parish you are representing the parish community as a whole. With that in mind, we kindly request that while you are working in your volunteer or ministerial position that you do not wear any apparel or accessories supporting any party or individual candidate. While this may be your opinion of the best person that represents our Catholic values, if worn during your service to St. Alphonsus Parish it could be viewed as St. Alphonsus supporting a candidate. This could put St. Alphonsus at risk for legal action from the IRS as a violation of our Tax-Exempt status.

We continue to thank you for your support of St. Alphonsus Parish with the time you

spend in your ministries.

Sincerely,

The St. Alphonsus Pastoral Council and Parish Staff

Do you have items for the newsletter? To submit them or for questions and submission guidelines, please contact Amy Schermetzler.

Please note that submissions are due by 12:00pm Fridays.