• This past weekend Bishop Barber was our celebrant at the 5:00 p.m. mass as he blessed, via a ribbon cutting ceremony and open-house, our new Faith Ministry Center. I have been so honored to be a part of the facilities committee under the leadership of John Kluesner, and a dedicated/talented group of members, that have met bi-monthly for several months to operationalize this beautiful new building.

• This school year 47 families applied for 36 kindergarten spots. The committee is to be commended as we met several times and relied on multiple measures of assessment with a pristine protocol leading the way to accumulate the class. I was so honored to interview all families and guide them through this important process.

• This year we re-adopted Step Up to Writing as our faculty and staff received professional development with this program that provides differentiation based on each student’s needs. Strategies embedded in the program teach the three major text types with the ideal strategy being to help students improve their writing skills. The cool part is that the majority of the cost for adopting/developing such a program was picked up by Title Two Funding that continues to keep our school financially healthy, viable, and with great stewardship in mind and action.

• FACTS Tuition Management and Grant & Aid Assessment products offer flexible, online payment services and secure financial aid assessment and awarding. For a small fee relative to tuition we can now streamline our tuition collection process. More information will be forthcoming with tuition contracts coming out in a few months as this new system is unveiled.

• Monday, March 4th we had a wonderful assembly for our 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th grade students and families with a 68-minute film, named, “Screenagers” presented and directed by Delaney Ruston, M.D. Special thanks to our evening’s expert panelists: Darryl Holcombe, Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office, Senior Inspector Digital Forensics/ICAC; Lauren Whalen, Deputy District Attorney (Special Operations Division) at Contra Costa County; Enrique Alvarez, FBI Special Agent.

• Tomorrow morning, as planned, our seventh and eighth grade students will partake in another important program on Vaping, Tobacco, Alcohol, and Drug Awareness presented by the Contra Costa Office of Education: Tobacco Use Prevention Education (TUPE), Project SUCCESS, and Todd Jung, CTK parent/sergeant of the Pleasant Hill Police Department.

• Skirts and jumpers are no shorter than the crease at the back of the knee
• Shoes are athletic tie or velcro only; no slip ons or Mary Jane styles
• Hair must not obstruct vision or cause distraction or disruption. Boys hair length must be cut above the collar.