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Enter to Learn. Go Forth to Serve.
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Please join us tomorrow morning for our Veterans Day Assembly!
The assembly begins at 8:15am in the O'Hara Gym.
A coffee & donut reception will be held for all veterans and active-duty military members and their families following the assembly.
Student dress code: White or Navy uniform top with uniform bottoms.
Missed Friday's email with more info? Click
HERE.
Thank you to O'Hara students & siblings Luke & Zoƫ Manning for our postcard artwork this year!
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UNIFORM SHORTS REMINDER
Beginning tomorrow, shorts are not permitted for students in Preschool - 5th grade. Students are permitted to wear shorts again when school resumes after Spring Break. Middle School students may wear shorts year round.
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TUESDAY: VOLUNTEER CASE TRAINING
All volunteers have requirements to fulfill before being eligible to volunteer at school this year. Per the Archdiocese, online updates to your volunteer training are not available this year, and anyone who wishes to volunteer must attend one of the in-person training sessions. Further instructions are on our website, please
click here to learn more. Please contact
Stacie Seaver with any questions.
One training is being offered this week:
Tuesday, November 5, beginning at 5:30pm - O'Hara Library
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WEDNESDAY: MASS
This Wednesday, November 6, is our Mass honoring all Saints. All students (except 7th Grade*) are required to wear Uniform Mass dress. Please read below for details.
Dress Code Reminders:
All boys must wear a white button down shirt and a plaid uniform tie, with khaki or navy uniform pants. Shorts are not permitted.
All girls must wear one of the following:
Plaid uniform skirt & white button down shirt
Plaid uniform jumper with collared white shirt underneath
No pants or shorts are permitted
*7th grade students will be dressing up as Saints for this Mass.
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FRIDAY: PIZZA DAY
Pizza slices will be available for sale to all students at lunch time on Friday.
Slices are $1.50 each, and students should bring coin, cash (small bills only please - there will be limited change) or check payable to O'Hara Catholic School. Sports drinks and water will also both be available for sale, $1/drink. Beverage sales benefit O'Hara's Student Council. There will be no milk service on Pizza Day.
Students who have purchased the annual lunch plan will receive 2 slices of pizza. Extra slices are available to purchase at $1.50/slice and drinks are available to purchase for $1 each.
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FRIDAY: GOSPEL T-SHIRT & JEANS DAY!
This Friday is Gospel T-Shirt & Jeans Day! Instead of a regular uniform, students have the option to wear jeans with a Gospel shirt to school. (This year's Gospel shirt or any O'Hara Gospel shirt from a previous year may be worn.) Students who do not wish to wear a Gospel shirt should wear a regular uniform top; students who do not wish to wear jeans should wear regular uniform bottoms.
*Blue jeans only
*Jeans should not have rips or tears in them.
*Ugg and Ugg-style boots are permitted on Gospel T-Shirt Days.
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FRIDAY: COFFEE CHAT
Last spring,
O'Hara introduced Faith Families to our students.
Each Faith Family is comprised of one or two students from each grade (PreK - 8). Staff members oversee our Faith Families, but all Faith Family gatherings are led by an 8th grade student(s).
The goal of this system is to increase opportunities for students to make meaningful connections with each other, foster camaraderie, encourage positive behavior and broaden leadership opportunities for middle school students. We have already had three Faith Family meetings this school year.
If you have specific questions or would just like to learn more about the Faith Family program, please join us for a special Coffee Chat we've scheduled for Friday, November 8, from 8:15 - 9:00am in the library.
You can submit your questions ahead of time here.
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RESERVED SPACES IN O'HARA'S PARKING LOT
O'Hara has a number of reserved parking signs in our front lot. Specifically, and at all times, 1 space is reserved for a priest and 2 spaces are reserved for families who purchased the spaces at last year's auction. Please note that these spaces are reserved 24/7 for the party indicated on each sign and parking by other individuals is not permitted, even for a short amount of time.
For certain school events, additional spaces will be reserved with a sign attached to the parking space. We ask that our families please take note of these spaces and leave them open for those individuals for whom they are reserved.
Reserved spaces are an auction fundraiser for our school, and the money generated ultimately helps to offset tuition costs for our families. Thank you to all of our families for abiding by posted signs and helping to make this a successful revenue stream for our school.
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PUMPKIN CARNIVAL THANK YOUS! 
Thank you to everyone who volunteered to make our Pumpkin Carnival a huge success. We are especially grateful to this year's chairs, Teresa Gray and Christa Kirkpatrick-Junge.
Thank you to everyone who attended the Pumpkin Carnival. The O'Hara community donated 767 hygiene items and over 10lb of food to Catholic Community Services. All of our donations will be distributed locally to our neighbors in need in at no charge.
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TIES FOR SALE
O'Hara has uniform plaid bow ties and traditional ties available for sale. Bow ties are $20 each, and one size fits most. Regular ties are $10 each and come in 3 size options. Please stop by the office to purchase.
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UNIFORM SALE THROUGH NOVEMBER 7
In need of a few more uniform items for your students?
Lands' End
is offering a 40% discount until November 7. Use promo code: LESUFRIEND and pin: 2019.
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TIPS FROM THE MATH AND READING ROOM
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This week's topic:
How to find the right books for your child to read based on their STAR Reading Score
You should have received a copy of your child's first STAR testing scores of the year at your parent-teacher conferences last week. One amazing feature provided by the STAR results is that you can find your child's reading level listed under the ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development). The ZPD is the reading level range from which your child should be selecting books to read that aren't too hard or too easy. The ZPD is a zone which spans reading levels that are appropriately challenging for your child.
When looking at your child's STAR report, look for your child's ZPD, it may look something like this: 2.6 - 3.7. Then grab your iPhone and download the BookScanner App ($1.99, but well worth it!).
The app is fast and easy to use! To find out if a book is in your child's ZPD, simply scan the barcode on the back of any book OR enter the ISBN number into the search. A picture of the book will appear with word count, author, AND the reading level! What a great way for your child to browse their way through the library or bookstore.
Happy reading and have a great school week!
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BOOK FAIR VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
It's almost time for the fall book fair! Volunteers will be needed for set-up, running the fair and for tear down.
Set-up will be Wednesday, November 27, from 8am - 12noon
Hours of the fair:
Monday, December 2: 10am - 2pm
Tuesday, December 3: 9am - 3:30pm
Wednesday, December 4: 11am - 2:30pm
Tear down starts at 2:30 on December 4.
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SCOREBOARD OPERATOR AND SCOREKEEPER NEEDED
We are in need of volunteers to run the scoreboard and be the scorekeeper at home middle school basketball games. Time spent volunteering counts for FIP hours, and no prior experience or ties to the team are necessary. Games begin at 4:30pm, and usually wrap up by 7:30pm. Contact our athletic director,
Mr. Milliron,
if you are interested or want to learn more.
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LINKS:
Volunteers are needed
to help in the kitchen, please contact
Tracy
if you can help.
Hot Lunch Contact:
Tracy Whalen
, Kitchen Manager (541-485-5291 x 303). Email is the best way to contact Tracy.
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FLU SEASON INFORMATION
Hello O'Hara families! Consider vaccinating your children and family against the flu this season.
- It protects against flu illness.
- It keeps kids healthy and in school.
- It keeps parents at work.
- It protects the herd, including our community members most at risk like our babies, elders and pregnant women.
Flu season is from early Fall to early Spring. Influenza can cause significant illness (like pneumonia) and death. It takes 2 weeks for your body to develop protective antibodies, so get your flu shot soon!
You can get the flu shot from your doctor's office or local pharmacist who can vaccinate children as young as age 7.
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O'HARA'S PUSH NOTIFICATIONS
As you may already have noticed, we are experiencing technical issues with push notifications coming from our O'Hara app. The issue is that the notifications are not popping up on the home screen of Apple devices. Messages are logging in the message center of the app, but the pop-up feature is not functioning properly.
Our app developer is working on the issue, and at this point, the fix appears to be a somewhat lengthy process that involves multiple parties including Apple and the Archdiocese. We are anticipating at least a few more weeks of work ahead of us. In the meantime, we encourage you to check the O'Hara calendar (accessible on the website and on the app) for the most current information. Thank you for your patience as we work to resolve the issue as quickly as we can.
(If you have a non-Apple device, and
are not experiencing a similar issue,
please let us know.)
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EXCHANGE STUDENT HOST FAMILIES NEEDED
Again, this year, O'Hara Catholic School proudly welcomes Francis Bacon School to be a part of our Catholic and educational community. This winter (February 17 through March 1), 8 students (5 boys and 3 girls) from Mexico will be attending O'Hara Catholic School with a desire to master English. Caring and committed host families form the backbone of our international student program. Sixth grade host families are preferred, but the opportunity is open to all Middle School families.
Would you and your family prayerfully consider opening your hearts and home to an international student this school year?
Host a
student from Francis Bacon School
and impact their world and yours!
Families who host an exchange student earn 10 FIP hours. For more information contact
Rich Hernandez.
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COMMUNICATIONS INFO FOR OUR FAMILIES
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NEW CONTACT INFO?
If your family has a new address, phone number, email address, etc., please make sure to update us with your new information. Please fill out
this form
, or email
Barb Whitford
if you have updates to share with us.
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O'HARA WEBSITE UPDATE
O'Hara uses a password protected portion on our website for important resources for our families. The password is: HOUSE
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EMAIL COMMUNICATIONS FROM O'HARA
Please make sure to add the following email addresses to your safe senders list and/or your address book to ensure you receive O'Hara's weekly email bulletins (sent each Sunday afternoon during the school year) and other important updates:
Parents wishing to add an additional email address (work, grandparent, nanny, etc.) to our weekly bulletin distribution list should email that request to:
communications@oharaschool.org.
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O'HARA'S APP FOR SMARTPHONES
O'Hara also uses our app to send push notification reminders for special dress days, early release days, Mass days and more. We request that all parents download our app.
O'Hara's app is available
HERE, or by searching the app store for: web4u ocs
The app includes quick access to the following:
School Calendar
Student Lunchtime Schedule
Dress Code
Weekly Bulletins
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SCHOOL CALENDAR
O'Hara uses a Google calendar as our school calendar. Parents can access this calendar via our app and our website. It can also be added to iPhone calendars. Please visit our
school calendar page on our website for the link to add the calendar to your phone.
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CONTACT INFO FOR O'HARA STAFF
All O'Hara staff members have a school email address. Email addresses are set as follows: John Smith = jsmith@oharaschool.org
There are a few exceptions to note:
Click
HERE for a complete staff listing.
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ONLINE PICTURE MANAGEMENT
New this year, O'Hara is using
Vidigami- an online picture management tool designed specifically for schools. W
e will be using their secure media management system as the place for our school photos. This online system allows for faster and more efficient picture uploads and organization for both parents and staff. In addition, Vidigami offers an app (available in the app store) so users can upload pictures directly from their smartphones.
The use of Vidigami replaces submitting pictures to our pictures@oharaschool.org email address.
In September, we launched the parent side of our system and all parents received an email (from Vidigami) with instructions for setting up their account. If you enrolled after September, or need your invitation email resent, please contact Amber Ferrari.
Vidigami is the only private and secure system designed exclusively for school communities to store and share photos and videos. Made available to users in the O'Hara community via invitation only, Vidigami closely follows and adjusts to changes in state, federal and international data privacy laws to ensure privacy for our families and community.
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"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."
-
Joshua 24:15
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