October 22, 2024



The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the generosity of its members,” Coretta Scott King

Dear St. Philip Neri School Families and Friends,

Our Annual Fund 2024 has begun. As of Monday, we are now using our thermometer to track donations towards our goal of $50,000. In the past our Annual Fund has been used to close the gap between tuition fees and the actual cost to educate a student in our school. This year we are dedicating our Annual Fund monies to our tuition assistance program in order to support students and families currently attending St. Philip Neri Catholic School.

While we are looking for 100% of our families to contribute to our Annual Fund in some way, it is our intention that you will reach out to family members and friends to support this fundraiser. To that end, we have a convenient way for you to have others support our Annual Fund: just text “spartanfund” to 44834. They will then get a link to the donation form. 

The link includes a question for the donors to give school families “credit” for the donation: this way we can hold our annual grade level contest for 100% participation. All students in a family will get credit for any donation that names the family with the donation. We also send letters to parishioners of SPN-SA parish, we have speakers at Masses at both churches this weekend, and we have already received $4,000 in donations from members outside of our community.

“Charity begins at home,” so please demonstrate the greatness of our community by supporting our Annual Fund.

Peace & Blessings,

Ms. Thomas

Principal 

This is a reminder to stay vigilant in keeping sick students home and informing the Office of symptoms so we can guide a safe return to school. We have had 0 cases of COVID since September 4, 2024.

Residential households in the U.S. are now eligible to order four (4) free at-home COVID tests from the US Postal Service. Orders will ship free, starting September 30, 2024.  Some of the tests shipped may show “expired” dates on the box, please note the FDA has extended the expiration dates of the tests being distributed through this program. You can find the full list of extended test expiration dates here.

Order COVID Tests - https://special.usps.com/testkits 

October 2024

Oct 21 - Nov 15 Annual Fund Drive

Oct 25 8th Grade Bingo Fundraiser

Oct 28 School Board Meeting, 6:30 p.m.

Oct 31 Noon Dismissal. Halloween Parade 8:15 a.m.

November 2024

Nov 1 All School Mass: All Saints Day, 9:30 a.m.

Nov 3 Family Mass, 9:00 a.m., Hosted by grades 5 & 6th

Nov 4 PTG Meeting, 6:30 p.m.

Nov 4-8 Caritas Creek, 8th Grade

Nov 8 End of 1st Trimester

Nov 11 NO SCHOOL: Veterans Day Observed - No Share and Care

Nov 12 Trimester 2 begins

Nov 15 Minion & Friends Day

Nov 15 T1 Report Cards Distributed

Nov 18 - Dec 13 Adopt-a-Family

Nov 18 School Board Meeting, 6:30 p.m.

Nov 19 Free Dress for November B-days

Nov 20 Noon Dismissal / Professional Development Day

Nov 21 National Catholic School Principal Appreciation Day

Nov 25-29 Thanksgiving Break - NO SCHOOL/ No Share and Care

The SPN Belonging and Inclusion Committee invites the SPN community to celebrate the long-standing SPN tradition of honoring our loved ones who have passed away by co-creating a Dia De Los Muertos Ofrenda featuring our students' art docent projects.

The altar will be set up on Monday, October 28 from 2-6pm in the school lobby and will be taken down on Monday, November 4 from 3-4pm. If you are available to help set up or take down, please sign up here (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-3SqjEZBU1vNpMMvl_LiDSQQk8zkV_6XcuKZ1OrlZYE/edit?usp=drivesdk). 

We invite anyone to bring a framed photo of a loved one who has passed away and place it on the altar. Please be sure to put your name somewhere, such as on a piece of painter tape on the back of the frame, so that we can make sure any photos not claimed by November 4 make it back to their owners. 

If you have any questions, please contact Justine Lazaro at JustineLazaro@gmail.com.

Thank you for taking the time to fill out the family directory. Your contact information will be shared with the St. Philip Neri School community. Please ONLY include information you want shared. If you don't fill out the family directory by October 25 we will assume that you want all your information to be shared.



https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScFZuqDufq6bZKe5p_X-Vjp99_lY-Z8CAP27N8J2G_gpGWKDg/viewform?usp=sharing

https://bit.ly/3AzWbN7

Please continue to follow parking and traffic rules– NO PARKING IN RED ZONES, NO JAYWALKING, NO DOUBLE-PARKING– during morning drop off and afternoon pick up to maintain safety for our students as well as to not be cited by law enforcement.

The SPN PTG is selling delicious See's candies as an on-going fundraiser. To help support the PTG, simply visit one of our two virtual stores, make your purchases, and your orders will be shipped directly to you. It’s that easy! Our main store is open for orders now, and will remain open until the end of the year.

See's Candies Yum-Raising - Saint Philip Neri School - St. Philip Neri PTG

yumraising.com

This year, we will also feature a Winter Store. This storefront will feature some additional items to choose from. Items from this store can be purchased now and will be available to ship from 11/11/2024 to 12/06/2024. Items will be sent directly to the customer. Please use this link for the Winter Store. 

See's Candies Yum-Raising - Saint Philip Neri School - St. Philip Neri PTG Winter

yumraising.com

The PTG thanks you in advance for your support! If you have any questions, please reach out to spn.ptg@csdo.org

Our Volleyball and Boys Basketball teams have started practice with much anticipation for the upcoming season. Our Spirit Store is open 24/7 for your convenience and we have our first hosting date set for the opening weekend of games. For our hosting dates we have three games being played every hour with both teams from our school and teams from our league. Two Volleyball and one Basketball game happen at the same time and as you can imagine it takes a lot of help to have these days be a success.

We are asking parents to please volunteer for pen shifts to work. Jobs include, running a scoreboard, keeping score, selling entrance tickets, snack bar and set up/clean up. We really can not pull off these hosting days without the help of our community. It is a fantastic way to show our Spartan Spirit, see our teams in action and knock off some of those parent volunteer hours! Let's not forget families involved with sports have an additional FIVE hours to complete. So please sign up and we will see you out there! As always, any questions I am happy to help!

SPN Athletics Hosting Nov 2nd, 2024

volunteersignup.org

Spartan Spirit Store

Go Spartans!

Jeff Croft

jcroft@csdo.org

Cross Country

Good Afternoon SPN Families!!

Friday was our Last Cross Country Meet of the season where our kids race against the whole Oakland Diocese, which I think is about 26 schools. Crown Memorial Park was filled with about 1000 people when you count all the racers and parents. Each runner raced against anywhere from 80-150 other kids. 

The kids who placed in the top 30 at Friday's meet were Brynn DeGolia, Eleanor Toner, Sirvon Toner, Rory Castelaz, Yusuf James, James Toner, Cole Castelaz, Hudson Patterson and Clara Castelaz.

The Thursday Joaquin Miller Meet the prior week who placed in the top 30 were Brynn Degolia, Zara Ravichandran, Makenna Kong, Eleanor Toner, Sirvon Toner, Rory Castelaz, Yusuf James, James Toner, Cole Castelaz, Zeke Mendes, Clara Castelaz and Chiara Losk.

The kids did amazing this year and it was our youngest kids from K-5th grade that had the biggest improvement in their times from 20 seconds all the way to 1 minute and 30 seconds. That is crazy hard and just amazing.

I am so blessed to have the help of all the parents at every practice and meet. They run with the kids, stand as markers for the kids, help cheer them on at practice, help marshall at the meets and bring snacks. It is such a wonderful and supportive community. Especially want to thank Needlen D'Mello for helping me coach. Just know that everyone can experience the joy that the kids and parents bring to this community and I look forward to seeing how it will grow next year.

Kids and Parents through the rest of the year remember our SPN XC Montra, "Through God All Things Are Possible" and let God be the Wind Beneath your wings in all things. God Bless you all and thanks for an amazing season.

Coach Elaine

Earn Volunteer Hours & Link to Log Hours

Families can now get volunteer hours for buying items from Grade Level and Department Amazon Wishlists. You will get 1 volunteer hour for every $20 spent. If the class does not have any items available on their list, Amazon gift cards are welcome, too!

Please include a gift receipt so we know who to thank!

Please contact Ms. Trujillo with any questions.

Log your Volunteer hours Here

https://forms.gle/3VhHDCEhxiPa5YXg9

Preschool

TK

Kindergarten 

1st Grade

2nd Grade

3rd Grade

4th Grade

5th Grade

6th Grade

7th Grade

8th Grade

Art/Spanish

Library

MakerSpace

Music

Office/Shared Areas

PE

Resource

Share & Care

Garden

Science

Choice Lunch Calendar for Volunteer

Thank you so much to Needlyn D'Mello for creating the calendar this year.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1O9RBOBiRFZ-ngev5lHPL0nL718i0_IakbZwIL0t2i4w/edit?usp=sharing

PTG - Sign Up Form

https://bit.ly/3MTGSlg

Annual Auction + Gala

Math Kangaroo Competition 2025

A Better Way to Buy Scrip

Do you want to get a head start on your Scrip purchases for the 2024-2025 school year? We now have an easier way to start earning!  Order your gift cards to be delivered to the school or your home. Raise Right also features an app that allows you to purchase egift cards delivered to your ewallet within seconds. There are hundreds of stores available including gas stations, grocery stores, clothing & shoe stores, hotels and more. Check it out today!

Enter enrollment code 432BQIZ543ML at RaiseRight.com/Enroll 

Saint Philip Neri Social Media

Have you joined SPN on social media? 

We would love to have you as a part of our social media community.

It only takes a few seconds to join.

Check us out on Instagram at “spnalameda”.