OCCS News and Announcements
December 4, 2019
December Hymn: Seek Ye First
Verse: "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him." 1 John 5:14-15
Attention GLC parents
Please let the school office know if you will be using bonus bucks for your teacher’s Christmas present by Wednesday, December 11.
Geography Bee
OCCS is once again participating in the National Geographic Geography Bee. Our classroom bees will be held on Friday, Dec. 13 in grades 4-8. Winners of our classroom bees will be given a pizza coupon from Pizza Ranch and be invited to our school geography bee which will be held on January 16, 2020.
Hot Lunch Accounts
Please keep your hot lunch account current and not with a negative balance. Email notices will go out when you are running out of money. Please send in a check as soon as you receive notice. Thank you!
NICSTO Donations - Urgent Need
You may have heard about our need for additional NICSTO contributions for the upcoming calendar year. We have 75 families that depend on this aid to lower their cost of tuition due to their income level. Each year we help these families budget out their tuition payments based on the contributions that we get from donors. If we do not receive these contributions, we will be forced to add hundreds of dollars on to the tuition statements for each of these families.

Anyone who contributes will receive a 65% tax credit up to the total amount of Iowa income tax that he/she pays. For example, if you donate $2,000 to NICSTO, your state income tax liability will be reduced by $1300 while NICSTO uses your contribution to help qualified students attend a Christian school. Our school still needs close to $160,000 before the end of the year. We encourage you to participate. It’s a win-win situation, for those who give and to those who receive! What a privilege to be able to use some of our state tax dollars for non-public education! You may also donate non-cash items such as grain, stocks and securities. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact Mr. Kramer at Unity 737-4114 (NICSTO Treasurer) or Mr. Alons at 737-2274 or stop by the school office. The donation forms are also available on the school website under "About Us", "Support Us", then "NICSTO Contribution Form."

If you plan on donating, we need to know as soon as possible for us to be able to distribute funds to our families for this coming spring semester. Donations are due by December 31.
On-Line Shopping
OCCS is signed up for parents/constituents to do online Amazon shopping through AmazonSmile. The name is listed as: “Orange City Society for Christian Instruction.” The funds earned from this foundation will be used by the Technology Department. The bottom link will take you right to the sign in page for OCCS. You can still use your TRIP certificates when shopping through AmazonSmile. If you have a current Amazon account, you can use that information to log in.

What is AmazonSmile?
AmazonSmile is a website operated by Amazon that lets customers enjoy the same wide selection of products, low prices, and convenient shopping features as on Amazon.com. The difference is that when customers shop on AmazonSmile (smile.amazon.com), the AmazonSmile Foundation will donate 0.5% of the price of eligible purchases to the charitable organizations selected by customers: http://smile.amazon.com/ch/42-0776438