August, 2012
To Our Saint Patrick School Families:
Many
new families will be joining our school community this year. We are eager to
welcome all of you with open arms as you become members of our school family. I
encourage all of you to join us at our back to school picnic and open house on August
29. This will be a great opportunity for parents and children to meet each
other and to have an opportunity to go into the classrooms to learn about each teacher’s
hopes and dreams for the school year. Bring the whole family and enjoy a night
on us!
Our teachers will be in the
building the week prior to school beginning as they complete setting up their
classrooms and planning for the year. If you’d like to bring your children in
early to visit, contact us and we would be more than happy to see you.
First Day of School
The first day of school for
all of our full time students will be Monday, August 27th, with an
11:30 dismissal. Our first All School Mass will be Tuesday, August 28th,
at 9am.
Please note that there will
be no Lowell busing until after Labor
Day weekend.
Bea Byrne Media Center Dedication
We encourage you to join us
and to stop in after Mass for Father Mark’s dedication to the brand new Bea Byrne Media Center on Tuesday,
August 28th. The Norm and Rosemary Byrne family made an extremely generous
donation that has upgraded every facet of our Media Center. The Bea Byrne Media Center is outfitted with
new paint, carpet, and furniture along with all new hardware and software
upgrades in the computer lab!
Second Year of NWEA MAPs Testing
All of our elementary schools
in the Diocese of Grand Rapids have adopted and implemented a new form of
standardized testing. Students in grades 2-8 are now participating in the NWEA
MAPs assessment.
This form of assessment gives
immediate feedback on how each child is performing on each standard in our
curriculum. Based on individual strengths and weaknesses with particular
standards, our staff will be able to provide data driven instruction to benefit
every child with their individual needs. We will continue to work within our
school improvement team to interpret the data and to implement new teaching
strategies that will foster academic growth for each student.
For more detailed information
about the testing, please visit www.nwea.org
Career Readiness Program
Under the direction and
guidance of David Faber, the superintendent at the Diocese of Grand Rapids, all
of our schools will continue the three year transition into the “Career
Readiness Program”. Forty eight states have adopted the Common Core State
Standards Initiative with the goal of the standards being fully implemented by
the year 2014. The new standards will focus on college and career readiness to
prepare our students to compete successfully in a global economy. Educational
Leaders within our Diocese are working on a project designed to infuse the
upcoming standards with Catholic Identity while providing tools, resources and
sample units for our teachers.
Welcome Cindy Kendall - Assistant Superintendent
Cindy Kendall was recently
hired as the Assistant Superintendent of
Curriculum and Technology Integration. Cindy will be working with
administrators and teachers in leading and developing professional development
on the Career Readiness Program and the NWEA MAPs testing.
Cindy is a needed addition
and we welcome her expertise that will ultimately improve instruction in our
schools.
New Programming
Band – Band
will be offered for 5th-8th grade students beginning this
Fall. Mr. Matt Palmieri will be our new band instructor and can be contacted at
sps.bandinstructor@gmail.com
if your child is interested in participating. More information about the
program will be communicated in early September.
Before/After Care – We have made progress in the development of the new before/after
program that St. Pat’s plans on offering this school year. Details will be
immediately communicated when the program is ready to begin.
Hot Lunch – The
position for a food service worker to run the school hot lunch program has been
posted for months. Unfortunately, we have been unable to find an individual
willing to commit to the position. The job remains open, any takers?
Mass Schedule Change
All school Mass will gather
every Friday beginning the week after Labor Day instead of every Thursday. The
school will continue Friday Rosary at the end of the school day.
In Christ,
Scott Czarnopys – Principal
