August Update

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 27^th, with an 11:30 dismissal. Our first All School Mass will be Tuesday, August 28^th, 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.

For more detailed information about the curriculum, please visit www.corestandards.org

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 5^th-8^th 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

scottczarnopys@gmail.com