Parent Letter 10/30/20

Dear Parents,

We had another exciting week as we completed our ninth week of the school year and wrapped up the month of October.  At our school Masses this morning the following scripture passage was read;  the beginning of the Letter of Saint Paul to the Philippians (1:1-11).  A portion of the reading really hit home with me as I reflect upon the tremendous work being completed by our faculty and the wonderful support you are providing to your children, their teachers, and our school.

“ … grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  I give thanks to my God at every remembrance of you, praying always with joy in my every prayer for all of you, … I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it.”

Thank you faculty, students, families, and benefactors for everything you are doing in these very interesting and difficult times to continue to carry out the mission of St. Joseph's School.

As you are aware, we are currently holding our All School Raffle with a goal of reaching $75,000.  This raffle and the other development / fund raising events scheduled for this year are very important.  We pray for their success.  

I would like to share with you that to reopen our school in the midst of the COVID pandemic, numerous investments were made to support the academic programs and provide a safe environment for our students and faculty.  Some of these include; purchasing additional technology devices, instructional programs, and increasing our tech infrastructure to support teaching and learning in person and remotely, placing air filtration units in our classrooms, increasing sanitization and cleaning with additional personnel, the installation of hand sanitizing stations, water filtration systems, and water bottle filling stations throughout the school.

You will find important information about the school raffle as well as our school Gala to be held virtually on December 5, 2020 further down in this Friday Letter.  The proceeds from these events will support funding the improvements and enhancements made to our school building and programs this year.

“O When the Saints Go Marching In”
Today, our school celebrated the Feast of All Saints.  Our fourth-grade students attended the Mass dressed as the Saint that they researched and studied as part of a class project.   After the Mass, these students hosted a speaker,  Mr. Pat Millea, St. Joseph’s Sr. High Youth Director.  Students then presented the information about their saints and prayed together.  Special thanks to Ms. Schmid and Ms. Buerkle for providing this wonderful learning experience for our students. 

We hope that your children have shared with you that Fr. Creagan and Fr. Wratkowski visit their classrooms.  Fr. Wratkowski shared the following from one of his recent visits.

“Hello Fr. Creagan and Mr. Wesely,

I was in Ms. Hanson's Kindergarten class and before explaining the life of St. Jane Frances de Chantal, which is what Ms. Hanson had requested, I asked the kids: "What is a saint?" One kindergartner replied, more or less, in the following way, "A saint is someone who made good choices their whole life and is now with God in heaven forever."  I thought that was just awesome!”

We do too!  Thanks for sharing fr. Wratkowski!

No School – November 2
There will be no school Monday, November 2.  St. Joseph School faculty will be engaged in Professional Development.  Our faculty will be engaged in several activities including NWEA MAP data review with a consultant from Tierney and classroom technology development.  School will resume on Tuesday, November 3.

No District Transportation or Food Service - November 3
St. Joseph’s School is in session on November 3.  ISD 197 is not in session and for that reason there will not be bus transportation or food service provided on November 3.  Please plan transportation to and from school accordingly.  In addition, please send a lunch and beverage from home for your student.

All School Raffle
The second week of our All School Raffle wrapped up with our second turn in day on Thursday.  You will recall, our school has secured donations of a brand-new 2020 Ford Escape, tickets for a pilgrimage for two people through Mater Dei Tours, and $1,000 “Christmas Cash”.

Several of our students returned tickets and money and it was so exciting to award 15 $10 gift cards through a special drawing.  Please continue to work hard contacting family, friends, and neighbors to sell your raffle tickets.  One of the goals for the raffle is to have 100% of our students and families participate in selling/purchasing tickets.  Raffle tickets and money turn in days are scheduled for Thursdays; November 5 and 12.   The raffle will include special incentives and exciting contests for our students as they sell the raffle tickets.  Next week’s prizes include $50 gift cards from Target.

One hundred percent of the proceeds from the Raffle will be used to support St. Joseph's School by financially assisting with the numerous investments the school has made to be open during the COVID pandemic.  Your support through the raffle will assist our school in covering some of these expenses.

St. Joseph’s School Gala:  Donations Needed
We need your help to make this year's St. Joe's Gala Silent Auction the best one yet! We are looking for items to be donated to the auction.

To make it easy, we have created a Sign Up Genius where you can sign up to donate an item. Donations are not limited to just within our community- if you know someone who has a business or item you think they would be willing to share, please forward this link to them! Our auction is one of the best ways to support our school and we appreciate all the help to make our auction a huge success! Click here to sign up to donate!  If you have any questions please contact Bria Hammel, briahammel@gmail.com

The St. Joseph's Gala, our school’s largest annual fundraising event during the year, will be a virtual event held on December 5, 2020.  It's an opportunity for our community to come together and celebrate the legacy of our school as well as raise funds for carrying out the mission of our school; educating students through faith formation and academic excellence.  Please start making your plans to attend and participate in the Gala.  If you are interested in sponsoring this event or know of businesses that might be interested, please email rachael.amarante@gmail.com

St. Joseph’s Middle School Newsletter - The Jaguar Journal
St. Joseph’s School has a very robust and enriching Middle School program.  Each Trimester our Middle School Faculty publishes a copy of The Jaguar Journal that shares information about current events and curriculum.  Please click here to read the most recent Journal.  

Restaurant Night - Cafe Zupas - Tuesday, November 10
School families are invited to the St. Joseph’s School Family Restaurant Night at Cafe Zupas in Eagan between 5:00pm and 9:00pm for Dine-In or Curbside.  Please let them know you are there for the St. Joseph’s School Fundraiser or bring in or show the Cafe Zupas Flyer for our school to receive up to 25 percent of your purchase.  You are encouraged to order online Cafezupas.com or through the Cafe Zupas App  and enter code FUNDRAISER25 when you check out.  Proceeds from our school’s restaurant nights are used to fund important programs within the school.  Thank you to our Home & School for Coordinating this event!

Thanksgiving Dinner Restaurant Pre-Order - Jameson’s Irish Bar (Formally Cherokee Tavern)
Thanksgiving 2020 Curbside and pick-up:  Please let them know you are there for the St. Joseph’s School Fundraiser and 15% of the proceeds will go to our school!

2 people $60
4 people $115
Add-on Leftovers $20, includes more turkey, mash potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole
Add a pumpkin pie for $12

Roasted turkey, white and dark meat, mashed potatoes and gravy, fresh cranberry salad, green bean casserole, sweet yams, stuffing, cucumber salad, rolls and butter

Everything packaged oven ready with instructions, Pick-up is Wednesday November 25 from 1-7pm

Email order to sales@briecater.com or call the owner Brian Rubenzer 651-755-4798 and we will process payment and schedule a pick-up time that works for you

Preschool News
We are grateful to our preschool faculty and staff along with our families to make it possible to have our preschool open.  We have excellent protocols in place to support this success.  

In our preschool this week, Thursday and  Friday were “wear orange and black day!” We had a festive snack, played some Halloween games and did some special crafts . Our 3’s made Orange Pumpkin plate magnets and the 4’s decorated orange puffy pumpkins and made pipe cleaner spiders. 

Preschool will not be in session on Monday, November 2 or Tuesday, November 3.  Ms. Peg and ms. Kirsten will be  having Parent Teacher Conferences.  Preschool will resume on Wednesday, November 4.  

St. Joseph’s School Spiritwear
St. Joseph’s School spiritwear will be delivered to students in their homerooms on Tuesday, November 3rd.  Please watch for those items to come home with your child.  

Thanksgiving Food Drive  “Do a good deed; help a neighbor in need!”
St. Joseph’s eighth grade class is sponsoring a canned goods / non perishable food collection to support the work of Neighbors, Inc.  Our collection will be Monday, November 16 - Friday, November 20.   Please consider helping people in need of food in our area by donating food items during the collection.  Thank you for your generosity.  Eighth grade students will be out collecting during morning drop off.  Please help us to surpass our total collected food last year of over 1,000 lbs!  Click here to view the flyer with more details.

Picture Retake Day
Picture Retake Day is on Monday, November 23.  All students may be out of uniform on this day.  If you would like to have your child’s picture retaken, please send back the original pack of school pictures on November 23rd with your child.  

School Mass
Our students and faculty will continue attending Mass in person following the parish’s established guidelines and protocols to do so safely.   Two Masses will be held; 9:00 a.m. for grades 4-8 and 10:00 a.m. for grades K-3.  School families are invited to continue to watch the Masses live streamed on the Church of St. Joseph website; www.churchofstjoseph.  At this time, our school Masses are not open to families and the public.  We thank Fr. Creagan and Fr. Wratkowski for presiding at our school Masses.

St. Joseph’s Home and School Association 
Our next Home and School Association meeting is next Wednesday, November 4, at 7 pm. Since this is a virtual meeting, if you would like to attend for any reason, or if you have comments or suggestions for the administration or the group, please reach out to Betsy Joyce betsybjoyce@gmail.com or your grade reps. Minutes from the meeting will be posted on our website a day or two after the meeting.

The Weather is Changing  - Reminder; The last day to wear shorts was today Friday, October 30.
As the fall weather continues to change (colder, warmer,, colder, warmer) it is a good time to start sending your children to school with coats and jackets.  In addition, students should bring / wear long sleeves, sweaters, sweatshirts, or three quarter zip pullovers to be comfortable in their classrooms.  Please remember that when there is snow on the ground and colder temperatures, please send your child to school with their “snow gear” allowing them to play in the snow while on the playground during recess.  Please remember to label all of your child’s clothing so that it can be returned to them in the event that it is misplaced or lost while at school. 

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.  

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”. 

Mission

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

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

For Your Information
St. Joseph’s School is an important ministry of the Church of St. Joseph.  Some of our school families are not members of the parish.  In our efforts to serve all school families, our Friday Letter may at times include information about activities and events that are taking place at the Church of St. Joseph.

Please click here to view our St. Joseph’s Church weekly bulletin.

Important Upcoming Dates:

• Monday, November 2 - No School for Students / Professional Development for Teachers
• Tuesday, Nov. 3 - No District Food Service or Transportation

• Friday, Nov. 6 - Mass 9am and 10:00am
• Tuesday, Nov. 10 - Restaurant Night Cafe Zupa Eagan 5-9pm
• Friday, Nov. 13 - Mass 9am and 10:00am
• Monday, Nov. 16 - Friday Nov. 20 - Food Drive
• Friday, Nov. 20 - Mass 9am and 10:00am
• Monday, Nov. 23 - Picture Retake Day - Out of Uniform
• Tuesday, Nov. 24 - End of Trimester 1
• Wednesday, Nov. 25 - Friday Nov. 27 - No School, Thanksgiving Break
• Sunday, Nov. 29- First Sunday of Advent
• Monday, Nov. 30- Beginning of Trimester 2

Important Links:

Lunch Menu (2 week rotation)