January 24, 2023

The National Catholic Education Association (NCEA)

defines excellence as the hallmark of Catholic education

intentionally directed to the growth

of the whole person – mind, body and spirit

Principal's Message

Dear SPN Families,

Catholic Schools Week begins this Sunday, January 29th with 9:00 a.m. Family Mass followed by our in-person Open House from 10:00-11:30 a.m. We have a lot to celebrate here at St. Philip Neri Catholic School! We begin by celebrating our students and families. Join us for Family Mass, prepared and hosted by our Student Leadership Council and enhanced by our children’s choir. Then be sure to come to Open House to see our students’ many achievements and beautiful work. Check out other classrooms to see what other grade level students are working on or just to meet the teachers. Another purpose for Open House is to share our wonderful school with prospective families. Our Student Leadership Council will be leading campus tours, and as "experts" on SPN, please feel free to reach out to visiting families.

We have a week of celebrating planned with the following schedule 2023 Catholic Schools Week January 29 - Feb 3. We thank the PTG and parent volunteers for supporting all of these wonderful events!

We celebrate with Catholic schools across the country. Collectively we acknowledge the following achievements of Catholic schools:

Catholic schools continually outperform public and other private schools on national assessment tests, such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
Catholic high schools have a 99 percent graduation rate compared to 86 percent of public schools.
Catholic schools’ service programs expose students to different communities of need and service to others, raises their social awareness and helps to build a better society.
Catholic schools are near the top in national testing in learning outcomes for students receiving free and reduced-price lunch.
Urban Catholic schools help stabilize other community institutions.
Catholic school attendance boosts the likelihood that a minority student will graduate from high school from 62 percent to 88 percent.

Please join us on Sunday to begin our week’s long acknowledgment of our students and their accomplishments, our teachers and their dedicated professionalism, as well as the tradition of excellence and faith of Catholic schools across the country.

Finally, at last night’s Advisory Board Meeting, the following information was shared by the Finance Committee and will impact tuition costs for 2023-24. For more information, please read:

An Important Message from Superintendent Currier regarding Salary Increases

Warmly,

Ms. Thomas

Focus on HOPE: “May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you.” Psalm 33:22

Call for Readers!!!

The SPN School Advisory Board's Belonging and Inclusion Committee is excited to announce a series of initiatives to celebrate this trimester’s theme of HOPE! The series will include

reading a book on hope,
planting seeds of hope,
and sharing your family’s vision of hope.

The first initiative, a school-wide reading event, will feature Hope is an Open Heart by Lauren Thompson. The words and images in the book celebrate loving families, caring friends, and small kindnesses. To make the book accessible to our entire community, we invite any SPN community member (student, parent, teacher, staff, etc.) to read a few pages from the book on camera so that we can hear different voices and see different faces as we enjoy the book being read to us in a video.

If you would like to be a reader in the video, please check out the instructions and sign-up sheet (and email Ms. Kristen ksmeal@csdo.org with any questions). We ask that you sign up by Friday, February 3rd and submit your recording by Friday, February 17th.

Information and Updates

Tomorrow, Wednesday, January 25th is a NOON DISMISSAL: SPN faculty will be attending a training. Share & Care will be open.
Sports Photo Day Wednesday, January 25th (tomorrow): Athletes need to bring their team uniforms to school and can change into them prior to taking pictures. Parents with children in Share & Care should communicate with their coach and Mr. Croft to coordinate the check in and check out from Share & Care. The photos will occur in 15 minutes increments, starting at 12:15p.m.:

8th Grade - Boys BB and Girls VB

7th Grade - Boys BB and Girls VB

6th Grade - Boys BB

5th Grade - Girls VB

4th Grade - Boys BB

3rd Grade - Boys BB

Cross Country

Register for Spring Sports: Use this link to register for Track and Field, Girls basketball, and Sand Volleyball.
TK/K Admissions Event Tomorrow: If you see extra little ones around tomorrow morning it's because TK and K classes are hosting prospective SPN families at the Come Play in TK and K event. After classroom activities, families will gather in the garden for refreshments. Interested families may call the office to register.
Open House: All current and interested SPN students and families are invited to visit classrooms and teachers during our Open House on Sunday, January 29th! Families are invited to attend 9a.m. Mass and then visit classrooms after Mass concludes.
Choice Lunch Volunteers Needed: Work a lunch shift and earn a free lunch for your student! 11:30a.m. - 12:30p.m. M-F slots available. See sign up sheet here and contact parent Janelle Sheets (jtpaws@hotmail.com) for details.
Looking for a past newsletter? Check out our Newsletter Archives on our website.
COVID Update: We have had 1 Covid case since Tuesday, January 17, 2023.

SPN 2023 Spartan Masquerade Auction - You are Invited!

Spartan Sports Section

It was another exciting weekend of Spartan sports action! We had a unique situation where almost every one of our sports teams played at “home” at Alameda Point Gym! Ms. Thomas and Mr. Toner were in the house to root for our athletes. Having them there showing their support gave our players extra energy and excitement! Here’s a quick recap on the events:

Girls Volleyball

Both 5th grade teams had close games this weekend but ultimately prevailed in 3 sets! Both matches were back and forth and were definitely not for the faint of heart. It was a true team effort as all the the players had an excellent game.

Our 6th grade team has made tremendous strides since the beginning of the season under the direction of Coach Grace Hoffman and Coach Scott Kallsen (both SPN alums and helping us out this year). The team played two very closed matches on Friday and Saturday, leading 1-0 after the first set, but their opponents forced a tie-breaking 3rd and we narrowly lost. While not coming away with wins, the team played their hearts out and deserve tremendous credit for digging deep and playing incredibly! One more game next week - come out and cheer them on!

The 7th grade girls volleyball team won the game against St. Theresa in three sets (21-25; 25-17; 15-8). After warming up with the first set, the team pulled in a win with the second set to force a third set. They kept putting pressure on St. Theresa, made a few amazing plays, and took the third set to win the match. Go Spartans!

We ended the day with another close match between our 8th grade team vs. St. Theresa. They are a tough component but our Lady Spartans came through in the 3rd decisive set to take home the victory!

Our Spartan mascot was there to cheer on all the teams and lost all his fingernails from all the nail biting matches…pun intended...

Boys Basketball

Saturday’s action started with the 3rd grade boys basketball team. While no official scores are kept at the 3rd grade level, our boys looked great, staying in their positions with great executions throughout the entire game.

Our 4th and 6th/5th grade teams showed a lot of heart and determination in their games, fighting and competing well against teams who have played together much longer.

The basketball action was capped by a victory by the 8th grade team. Coach Kirk has got the boys gelling and the team’s cohesiveness is peaking at just the right time of the season. This team hadn't played together until the beginning of the season and it's a credit to Coach Kirk to see how he's been able to bring the team together in such a short time. Go Spartans!

All the teams have one more game for the season. Come out and cheer on the teams if you are able to! Here’s are the games for this coming weekend:

GVB

5th grade Green - Friday 6pm against St. Theresa, game at St. Anthony

5th grade White - Sunday 1pm against St. Patrick Rodeo, game at St. John’s El Cerrito

7th grade - Sunday 3pm against St. Elizabeth Blue, game at St. Joseph Alameda

BBB

7th grade - Sunday 5pm against St. Paul, game at St. Patrick Oakland

8th grade - Saturday 12pm against St. Patrick Rodeo, game at St. Patrick Oakland

Girls Basketball Shoot Around: All grades are invited to participate in a mini clinic. SPN black top. 3:30-4:30. Friday Jan 27th. Depending on the number of girls, we’ll run some mini games and shooting drills.