Parent Letter 9/11/20

Dear Parents,

 Welcome Back!
Greetings from St. Joseph’s School!  Our second week of school has gone extremely well.  We hope that you and your families are settling into the school routines.  Please know that our school staff is here to partner with you and assist you in any way during the school year.  Please contact the school office, your child’s teacher(s), check our school website, or look for this Friday Letter if you have any questions or need information about anything happening at school.

Preschool Children Arrive
This week Ms. Peg and Ms. Kirsten and our preschool staff welcomed our Terrific 3s, PreK4s, and PreK4/5s to our preschool programs.  It was so enjoyable seeing the children arrive excited to meet new friends, learn about preschool, complete fun activities including having their hand painted, and exploring around the classroom.  We look forward to the preschool children learning and growing throughout the year.

As we begin the new school year, we would like to share with you our Mission:

“St. Joseph’s Catholic School educates students through faith formation, academic excellence,

and the development of virtue to be disciples of Christ.”

Our school community has identified faith formation, academic excellence, and the development of virtue as three pillars of our school.  We look forward to partnering with you to provide your children with a quality Catholic education.

 St. Joseph’s School Lunch Program
ISD 197 will begin serving hot lunch at St. Joe’s on Monday, September 14th.  Please review the information below.  Please click here to view the lunch menu.  Hot lunch or bag lunch is available, salads are not available at this time.

All Students Eat FREE This Fall!
Free meals are now available to all children in School District 197 (ages 1-18). The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced it will waive all fees for school meals through December 31, 2020 (or earlier if funding runs out). This is an extension of the summer meals program that provided meals to families throughout distance learning last spring and into the summer. For more information visit our website at isd197.org/district/departments/meals.

How will students get their free meals?
When learning in-person at school, lunch will be available at no cost to students. Students may purchase a carton of milk for $0.50 to go with a lunch brought from home, as milk by itself is not free. When learning at home (either as part of hybrid learning or full-time distance learning), a free breakfast and lunch bundle will be available for families to pick up between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. at every School District 197 school (pickup is not at St. Joe’s). Free meals will only be provided for scheduled school days. Meals will not be provided on holidays or scheduled days off. Lunch menus are available on the district website.  The menus apply to meals served in school and picked up curbside.

St. Joe’s Student Lunch ID’s
All Kindergarten and New Students will be receiving their electronic lunch ID numbers over the next few weeks.  Mrs. Wrobel will email them directly to you with instructions on how to set up your lunch account.  

Do I still need to fill out a Free & Reduced Application (FRP) form
Even though meals are free for the first few months of school, you still need to fill out your Free & Reduced Application form. This ensures you’ll have help paying for meals after December 31 (or earlier if funding runs out). Complete the 2020-2021 Free & Reduced Meal Application online here or request one by calling 651-403-7320.

Please Note: Families MUST fill out a new application for benefits at the beginning of each school year or benefits will expire on October 22, 2020!

Student Drop Off and Pick Up
As we complete the second week of school, we want to express our appreciation to you for following our new procedures for the Drop Off and Pick Up of your children.  Our Preschool and K-8 morning drop off is going very smoothly.  The student pick up at the end of the school day is busy - we thank you for your patience as you leave the parking lot with your child(children).  Please continue to keep the safety of our students in mind during these times of day.  School faculty will be present during the drop off and pick up to assist our students.

NWEA MAP Assessments
On Monday September 14, students in grades 2-8 will begin the MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) assessments.  The assessments will be given over the next three weeks.  The students will complete a mathematics assessment first followed by a reading assessment.  Please click here for a letter containing more information for our students and families in grades 2-8.  We are truly excited to focu on your child’s individual growth and achievement.  For more information about the MAP Growth test, visit: NWEA.org/Parent-Toolkit.     Parents of our remote learners need to please contact Mrs. Budge (651-457-8550) to make arrangements to complete these assessments.  We thank Mrs. Budge and Mrs. Nordgren for coordinating the assessments with our teachers and administering the assessments for our students.

Classroom and Student Blessings
On Thursday, , Fr. Creagan visited our classrooms and areas of the school blessing our students and faculty as we begin the new school year.  He blessed everyone using a relic of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. Fr. Creagan shared with the students and faculty who St. Elizabeth Ann Seton was;  a wife, a mother, established the first free Catholic school in America., and the first native born American to be canonized a saint by the Catholic Church.  We thank Fr. Creagan for the blessing and helping us grow in our faith!  Please watch for pictures of Fr. Creagan blessing our students on our social media sites.

School Mass
Today, our students, faculty, and community celebrated our first all school Mass.  The Mass was live streamed on the Church of St. Joseph website.  The students and faculty were able to view the Mass in their classrooms.  As we begin this school year, our Masses may look different, but it’s a blessing to be able to worship as a community, and to receive Jesus in the Eucharist.  Fr. Creagan and Fr. Forner visited our grades 3-8 classrooms to distribute the Eucharist to our students and faculty after Mass.  School Masses will typically be on Fridays during the school year.  Please plan to join us in prayer for our next Mass on Friday, September 18 at 9:00 a.m.  You may view the Mass live streamed on the Church of St. Joseph website; www.churchofstjoseph.org.  As we continue through the school year, we plan to have our students experience the Mass in the church following the parish’s established guidelines and protocols to do so safely.

Parent Letters/ Attendance Communication
All non-emergency communications will come home on Fridays in this parent letter.  Parent letters will only be sent out by email every Friday (or the last day of the school week.)  Friday Letters may be found on the school website, www.stjosephwsp.org.  Teachers may be reached via the school’s voice mail system at (651-457-8550) or their email account by using the first two letters of their first name followed, without a space, by their last name (e.g. grwesely@stjosephwsp.org).  When leaving a message, remember teachers may not be available to return calls/emails until the end of the day.  Our Attendance Hotline is 651-457-3031.  If your child is going to be absent or late due to a morning appointment, please leave a message on the “Hotline”. 

St. Joseph’s School Gala
The St. Joseph's Gala is our largest annual fundraising event.  It's an opportunity for our community to come together and celebrate the legacy of our school and raise money for its continued education of our children in Christ.  When discussing the events of 2020 and how we could approach Gala this year, it became even more clear how much our community depends on each other.  We all look forward to the night of Gala and we want to keep that "normalcy" intact as much as we're able to.  

That said, this year's Gala 2020 will be held as scheduled on December 5th.  The event will be virtually, with opportunities for smaller community gatherings that evening.  Now more than ever, we are looking for sponsors to help us meet our fundraising goals.  If you are interested in sponsoring this event or know of businesses that might be interested, please email rachael.amarante@gmail.com.