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2017 - 2018
School Year
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Dec.
25
- Jan. 5
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Christma
s
Break
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Jan. 12
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No School - Teacher In-service |
| Jan. 15 |
MLK Holiday |
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Feb. 19
|
Presidents
Day
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| March 10 |
Auction Gala |
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March 29 - April 6
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Easter Break |
| May 28 |
Memorial Day |
| June 15 |
Last Day of School |
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|
 |
December 20, 2017
Dear St. Francis of Assisi Parents and Guardians,
The weekly faculty prayer service is one of my favorite St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School traditions. I am inspired by the message and the bonds shared with and among the faculty. The inspiration for this week's message came from last Friday's faculty prayer service led by 1st grade teacher, Alma Santillo.
As we prepare for Christmas, the young children often remind me about the joy of the season. At Friday's prayer service, Mrs. Santillo shared videos of her students reading prayers of thanks they wrote about the special people in their lives. The students' prayers of thanks were heartfelt and sincere expressions of love. Isn't that what the Christ Child is to the world?
One of the most popular activities of the Christmas season, especially at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School, is the singing of carols. I am sure everyone has a favorite Christmas carol that evokes fond memories of happiness and joy. Did you know that the first carols were sung thousands of years ago in Europe, but these were not Christmas carols? Carols were written and sung to celebrate the seasons, but only the tradition of singing them at Christmas has really survived. Listening to our children sing Christmas carols is a wonderful reminder of the beauty of the season.
Another popular Christmas activity is to erect a Christmas tree. Most likely the Christmas tree had its origin through the Christmas Candle where Christians would hang apples and other meaningful items on the tree, including small candles to remind them of God's gift to them of Christ the Savior, the "light of the world".
A third popular Christmas activity is the setting out of the manger scene, which is an attempt to reconstruct the stable and manger environment in which Christ was born. The nativity scene as we know it, was started by St. Francis of Assisi who, on Christmas Eve 1223, celebrated the stable scene with a sermon about the humble surroundings into which Jesus was born in the humble town of Bethlehem.
These symbols of Christmas help in celebrating the real meaning of Christmas: the birth of Jesus, God's son. It is somewhat of a forlorn wish that peace will be in our home during the Christmas period, as peace runs the great risk of being overrun by feverish activity, intense focus on material gifts, and rising stress levels. Let's make Christmas what it should be; a time of great celebration honoring the birth of our Lord in a setting of peace and joy.
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| Musical Production, "Aladdin Jr." |
St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School will be presenting its second musical production, Aladdin Jr., this February. The production will be managed by Mrs. Lambert and Starlight Family Productions and will be held at the Servite Theatre.
Thank you for all who came out for our Aladdin auditions. We will announce the cast tomorrow, Thursday December 21, by noon on our school website under Student Life tab. |
 Our annual Auction Gala is the largest fundraising event of the year. This exciting affair is open to all school and parish families. In addition to raising money to support our school, it is a great evening with fun and friends. The 2018 Auction Gala is set for Saturday, March 10, 2018 at the Hilton Hotel in Costa Mesa, CA.
As we prepare for this event, we need your help!
Please consider making a donation to our school's largest fundraising event and take advantage of one final opportunity for a tax write off in 2017. Your gift can make a difference for our students!
Below are samples of the types of items you or your business can donate to ensure a high level of bidding participation:
- Technology - i.e., wireless headphones, Google Home or Amazon Echo, Apple Watch Series 2, drone, Fitbit, bluetooth speakers, GoPro
- Access to timeshares or vacation homes - i.e., Big Bear, Mammoth and Palm Springs or other desirable locations
- Rounds of golf at a country club
- Tickets to sporting events, theater and/or cultural events - i.e., Ducks, Angels, Dodgers, Lakers, South Coast Repertory Theatre and Pantages Theater tickets
- Gift certificates to restaurants or department stores - i.e., The American Girl Store, Nordstrom, Macy's, William-Sonoma, etc
- Passes to Legoland, Disneyland, SeaWorld or Knott's Berry Farm
Please contact Sherry Shandra at sherryshandra@gmail.com for more information! |
| Reminder: Parking Lot Rules |
We wanted to remind everyone to please follow the parking lot rules: DO NOT PARK IN THE RED ZONES IN THE HANDICAP SPOTS UNLESS YOU HAVE A PLACARD and DO NOT DOUBLE PARK. The only exceptions are when making a delivery and when directed to park temporarily in the red zone during pick up.
We need your cooperation and support to ensure emergency vehicle access. Our kids, staff, and visitors deserve everyone's cooperation. |
| The Innovation Center computer lab is open for students in 3rd - 8th grade to work on ALEKS, Mathletics or Reflex on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:50 - 3:30 pm. Students must be picked up promptly at 3:30 pm. or they will be sent to daycare. |
Session Two (8 weeks divided into two 4 week blocks):
November 27 - December 22
January 8 - February 2
NOTE: No School on Friday, 1/12 and Monday, 1/15 (MLK Holiday)
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| Logic Club will take place on the second and fourth Mondays beginning in January. |
Order Your Yearbook Today!
|
Online ordering of 2017 - 2018 Yearbooks is open at a cost of
$45.00.
Order now to avoid the final price increase!
The final date to personalize yearbooks is January 31, 2018. The final date to order yearbooks online is May 14, 2018.
Click
here to place your order!
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Friday, December 22nd is our last day of school and Pajama Day. Students may all wear pajamas on Friday but still need to wear their normal shoes to school.
The Pre-K Staff is wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year filled with many blessings!
See you all back on January 8th! |
Please turn in ALL items to Coach Blake by Wednesday, December 20:
1. Signed introduction letter.
2. Emergency Cards (Only if your son/daughter didn't play a Fall sport.)
3. Athletic Handbook Agreement.
4. Sports Fee ($95 for our first season players/ $85 if your son/daughter played a Fall sport.) |
Our 8th grade class is hosting a Christmas wrap this week
to help make your holiday season easier! It will be available until Thursday from 3:00 to 4:00 pm. All proceeds will benefit the 8th Grade East Coast trip this Spring.
Please come and drop off anything that you need to be
gift wrapped
for Christmas. Bring your list of items and within an hour your items will be ready to be put under your tree! You can check off your items and inspect them at
pick them up. Donations are encouraged.
For more information click HERE.
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Below is an order form for DC Dining for Trimester 2 at St. Francis. You may fill out the entire form at once, or print and order on a weekly basis. If you are ordering weekly, please be sure to turn the form and payment in to the office by Monday of the week you are ordering a meal. When we come back from break, we will be serving Costco Pizza.
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AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for you to support our school every time you shop, at no cost to you. When you shop at
smile.amazon.com
, you'll find the exact same low prices, vast selection and convenient shopping experience as Amazon.com, with the added bonus that Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of eligible purchases to St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School. Simply click here to begin shopping through AmazonSmile.
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| Hot Lunch Volunteers Needed! |
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Volunteers for hot lunch are needed for
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 11 am to 12:30 pm. This volunteer opportunity can help you earn two hours of volunteer AND lunch credit. If this is something that you're interested in, please reach out to Jenny Lagazo at jlagazo@sfayl.org. Thank you!
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| Volunteers needed to chair our 4th Annual Fr. Seamus Tuition Assistance Dances. This year the dances will be held on February 2 and February 3 in the Seamus Center. There is minimal time needed to plan our dances. The majority of time needed is for set up the day of the dances. If this is something that you're interested in please reach out to Tawna Khamo at tawny.khamo@gmail.com. |
| Be a Classroom Treasurer! |
Plans for the 20th annual auction, Charting the Course, are underway. In the past we have asked each class to create a Class Project that would be auctioned off to the highest bidder. This year we have chosen to introduce "Classroom Treasures." Each classroom will put together a beautifully themed basket to be auctioned off at our Gala event. We need your help to create these beautiful themed baskets. If you have always wanted to volunteer and the thought of creating a "project" intimidated, this is the perfect class role for you. We have plenty of classrooms still looking to help steer our "treasured baskets" into the right direction.
Please reach out to your child's teacher or go to your teacher's signup.com home page to volunteer for this fun role. Please reach out to Tawna Khamo at tawny.khamo@gmail.com for additional questions or to join.
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Santa Clara de Asis - Children's Faith Formation
Volunteers Needed! |
| Mater Dei High School- Upcoming Events |
For more information, please click:
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| Santa Margarita Catholic High School Upcoming Events |
Servite High School - Upcoming Events
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For students interested in experiencing Servite first-hand, a
Shadow Day
can be arranged. This gives them a glimpse of "a day in the life of a Friar." They do this by attending classes, exploring our campus, and spending break and lunch with their host. A brief presentation and campus tour is also offered for interested parents once the Shadow students head to their first class around 9:00 am. You may sign up by completing an inquiry form
HERE
.
2. Application Process
Servite High School is accepting applications for the Fall of 2018. You may find details regarding the Application process by clicking
HERE
.
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