October 8, 2024



Strength in Unity:

“Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable,” Kenyan Proverb

Dear St. Philip Neri School Families and Friends,

Many thanks to our 7th and 8th graders who served as lectors, altar servers, and Offertory gift bearers– Chiara Losk, Mateo Laniecki, Gertie Kennedy, Katelyn Condez, Constantine D’Mello, Anna Lee, and Elias Hall –as well as all of the families who attended Family Mass on October 6. Mark your calendars for the First Sunday of the month at 9:00 a.m. for our Family Mass celebration.

Today begins Parent-Teacher Conferences, including Students in Grades 2-8. These meetings are vital to our partnership between school and home and setting up our students for success. Students’ strengths and areas for growth will be identified and discussed, and while academics and test scores are a major part of these discussions, we know that social emotional wellness and a sense of belonging are also very important to a student’s overall achievement. Thank you for making the time to meet with teachers and engage cooperatively for your students’ best interests. 

Peace & Blessings,

Ms. Thomas

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.

October 2024

Oct 8-11 Noon Dismissal Days, Parent-Teacher-Student Conferences

Oct 14 NO SCHOOL: Indigenous Peoples day

Oct 15 Free dress for Oct B-days

Oct 16 - Nov 10 Annual Fund Drive

Oct 22 Re-take pictures

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

Attention SPN community, we need your help! The annual tradition of Breakfast with Santa is back this year, however, to make it happen, we are still in need of a group of people to chair the event.  We are looking for the following volunteers (#8 volunteers minimum, more to help support):

• Ticket sales and advertising:#2-3 people ideally to make a flier, print and sell tickets – we’ll have electronic purchasing available as well– and take tickets at the door.
• Decorations: we have a lot of decorations to start with: inventory what we have, envision the table settings and decor for the Hall, set up, clean up: this committee could easily be #2-6 people or more.
• Set up and Clean up can be done by small groups of volunteers
• Food planning, preparations, and serving: easily #3-6 volunteers and more for serving, this committee will plan the menu, purchase food items, prepare breakfast, and serve.
• Event Chairperson(s): #1-2 people who will oversee the above committees to ensure that it all comes together smoothly. 

The PTG is happy to help the group make this event fun and stress free! We

have detailed information from the prior chairperson to guide the breakfast

planning. PTG is available to support the group with other needed tasks. Santa

is already confirmed, and middle school students are available to help with

many of these committees. 

We need to have a committee in place by 10/15/24, to avoid cancellation of

event.  If you have ANY questions or concerns about volunteering, please reach out to me at either spn.ptg@csdo.org or emilylibby16@gmail.com.

https://bit.ly/3AzWbN7

The Public Hearing on Monday, September 23 resulted in a vote to allow the sale to a preschool/after school care organization but with a number of revisions, such as reducing the number of students from #100 to #50 and many things that will be determined by State licensing. Thank you to all of our community members who were able to attend the Zoom call that night. Our neighbors are grateful for our support throughout this process. 

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.

Friday, October 18, O’Brien Hall, 7:00-8:30 p.m. Discover God’s plan as it is expressed through the Bible and the Mass. Built around three of Dr. Scott Hahn’s foundational talks: “The Lamb’s Supper,” The Fourth Cup,” and “Consuming the Word.” The Eucharist in Scripture examines the biblical foundations of the Eucharist and explores the Church’s liturgy as the original context for the books of the Bible. Presented by OCIA and Fr. Joseph. Registration Information at the Parish Office with Lee Romero (510-373-5200)



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 18 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

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

Lifetouch will take make up school photos on Tuesday, October 22 for any students that missed the original photos or are not pleased with the photos taken. Pre-order today on mylifetouch.com using Picture Day ID: CQBZGXTVE

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

Last Friday we had our first relay race at Crown Memorial Park. Out of our 5 teams 3 placed in the top 30 teams. Relay teams consist of 5 people and can range in age anywhere from 5 - 14 years in age and each runner runs 1/2 mile. This means that you have 5 year olds racing against 14 year olds. It was crazy and awesome all mixed together!!  

The Girls-1 Team placed 26th out of 49 teams, with a time of 21:30.96 seconds.

The Girls-2 Team placed 33rd, with a time of 22:36.71 seconds.

The Boys-1 Team placed 14th out of 54 teams, with a time of 17:25:98 seconds.

The Boys-3 Team placed 22nd with a time of 19:25:05.

The Boys-2 Team placed 37th with a time of 22:01.74.

Big shout out to Annamarie Patterson and Zara Ravichandran. Since we didn't have enough runners to make a second team, they volunteered to run for another team, the other team only had room for 1 runner and then that team's runner showed up and they didn't have a team. So they decided to run twice so little Eleanor Toner could run. This team has so much heart and man do they love to run!! Their run time was less than 1 minute slower than the older girls from SPN that placed. We didn't have enough runners and they stepped up and said they would run 2 laps so they could have a team. So proud of these young ladies and their team spirit. Way to go Annamarie and Zara!! 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”.