Principal's Newsletter: Observing Lent as a Family, Hats Off to St. Marys, Spring Break Attendance, Annual Fund Update, 2019 St. Marys Football, School Calendar and more.

Dear School of St. Mary Parents

As we head into this weekend's Hats Off to St. Mary Party, we take a moment to celebrate what makes Catholic education special and honor those who contribute to our schools' excellence. It is only fitting then, that we celebrate you, our School of St. Mary parents, for choosing Catholic education for your family.

As parents, you light the way for your children each and every day with your choices, your words, and your actions - one of the most important of which is your choice of Catholic education. By choosing a Catholic School for your child, you are sending the message that you value the fact that the Gospel Message and the Person of Jesus is woven into every aspect of the school day - from the curriculum to spiritual formation to extracurricular activities. Christ's presence is readily evident.

You are your child's primary teacher and role model. But, parents are not the sole educators of children. The School of St. Mary partners with you in that education. Our dedicated teachers and staff share your commitment to offering a learning environment grounded in faith, discipline and moral growth, as well as superior academic achievement.

As a Catholic School, we are dependent upon tuition, fund raising, corporate sponsorship and Parish subsidies for operations. We could not exist without this. One significant form of funding for our school comes from our Parents' Association Annual Fund. All money raised by t he Annual Fund goes directly to support the operations of the school, whether it be financial aid for our students, technology or books in the classroom, laptop computers for our students and staff, playground and athletic equipment, as well as ancillaries and other items to support our students education and operate our school. A portion of the Annual Fund goes directly to staff bonuses to support our amazing teachers that work with our students' day in and day out. Our staff is a truly dedicated group of amazing professionals that partner with you to provide a faith filled, outstanding education for your children.

Our teachers don't just teach children. They help prepare our students for the road ahead in life. Theirs is not a forty hour work week. They willing give up their personal and family time to grade papers, prepare lessons, and attend conferences. Teachers buy materials with money from their own pockets and volunteer their Saturdays and vacation time to develop their own skills. They don't do all this for the money, I assure you. They do it because they care about the quality of education for our children. One thing you may not know about our staff at the School of St. Mary is the financial sacrifice that our teachers make to work in Catholic Education. Catholic School Teachers typically are paid anywhere from 60-70% of what their public school counterparts make. It's a choice they make willingly to work in a Catholic School. All one need to do is spend time with our teachers and you will find what a caring and dedicated staff we truly have.

Unfortunately, our Parents' Association is far from our necessary fundraising goal of $330,000. One of the likely cuts if they don't meet their fundraising goal will be the annual teacher bonuses. The teacher bonuses don't come close to making up the tens of thousands of dollars in difference between their salary and those teachers in the public education sector. It's the thought and gesture of the teacher bonus that counts. It says that we really do love our teachers, staff and school, and it is greatly appreciated! Our numbers may be smaller than in years past but that is all the more reason to pull together to be stronger and meet our budgeted goal!

I am writing to ask for your help.

Every dollar counts and we are hoping to garner participation from 100% of our school families. Every donation that goes towards the Annual Fund directly impacts our students and teachers. There are opportunities coming up to help us reach that goal, but we will need the help of ALL of our School of St. Mary community and friends to do so.

The Hats Off to St. Mary party is an excellent opportunity, as all proceeds will go directly to supporting the Annual Fund. Bid early and often with our Silent Auction items. If you can't make the Hats Off to St. Mary Party, you can still contribute directly to the Annual Fund.

Thank you again for your continued support of the School of St. Mary. God bless you and your family. I hope to see you Saturday!

Dave Wieters

Principal

Buy your tickets now for the Hats Off to St. Marys Spring Event

St. Mary Steps Up Shoe Drive

Thank you to all the families who donated new and gently used shoes to the St. Mary Steps Up drive during our extended Catholic Schools Week. Due to the generosity of our families we were able to donate 120 pairs of shoes to Catholic Charities of Chicago. The donation was greatly appreciated and will go towards helping those less fortunate as the winter cold continues to linger. Again we would not have been successful without all the participation from our families and were blown away by the generosity.

Internet Awareness and Safety

This week, Ms. Egan spoke with our 7 ^th and 8 ^th grade students on internet safety using the NetSmartz curriculum. She covered the following topics: how posting something inappropriate online can have serious consequences, what kind of personal information is not okay to post and how to protect your privacy, what to do if you get unwanted requested from someone else, and why we all need to work together to stop cyberbullying. If you would like more information on how to keep your child safe online, please visit https://netsmartz.org. Thank you Ms. Egan for teaching this important lesson to our students.

Embrace Lent As A Family

UGC Spring Break Attendance Notification

Spring Break begins on Monday, March 25th thru Friday, March 29th, returning to school on Monday,

April 1st. If anyone is planning on taking additional days off, please send Mrs. Liden an email with the following information.

Student Name

Homeroom Teacher

Days and dates of absences

Return to school date

Reason for absence

Wear Green on March 15 for St. Patricks Day

The School of St. Mary will celebrate St. Patrick's Day on Friday, March 15. Students may wear green tops with their uniform bottoms (pants, skirts). If students choose not to wear green tops, they are expected to wear their regular school uniform. This is NOT a casual or dress-down day. No blue jeans, etc. Students may wear green socks. For students at the UGC: We are attending Stations of the Cross in the Church. Staff members can ask students to change out of anything inappropriate for being in Church or that is too distracting in class.

Parent's Association Annual Fund Update

Dear School of St. Mary Families,

We hope the current school year has been full of learning and fun experiences for both you and your families. It is hard to believe the year is over halfway done and we are almost to Spring Break already!

We at the Parents' Association wanted to provide you with an update on the 2018-2019 Annual Fund Fundraising campaign. While the year started off well with high corporate sponsorship contributions and our strongest Giving Tuesday campaign ever, we are still unfortunately very far from our necessary fundraising goal of $330,000, with $117,188.83 raised year-to-date.

As many of you know, the Annual Fund goes to directly support the operations of the school, financial aid for our students and bonuses to support the amazing teachers that work so hard to shape our children day in and day out.

We are writing to ask for your help.

The Hats off to St. Marys party is on Saturday, March 9 and proceeds from the silent auction will go directly to supporting the Annual Fund. The silent auction items are now posted and can be viewed here. Additionally, we have our great GiveCentral platform that allows for online giving and provides a real-time status of the Annual Fund.

We know that in the School of St. Mary community anything is possible if we work together. There will also be more fun events in the future so please keep your eyes peeled for announcements for the rest of this school year. Finally, we invite you to join us at our next Parents' Association Meeting Wednesday, May 8th where we will outline the events for next school year and begin planning all the fun fundraising events for the future. If you have any questions about donating to the Annual Fund please reach out to Marketing and Development Director, Julia Donohoe at jdonohoe@churchofstmary.org.

We look forward to reaching this goal together and thank you for your continued support of our great school!

Sincerely,

Julia Donohoe, Development Director

School of St. Mary Parents' Association

School of St. Mary Football

Important Information regarding the 2019 Talent Show

The Talent Show scheduled for Tuesday, April 30th has been rescheduled to Wednesday, May 1st. Performances will still be held at the UGC gym, with the afternoon performance beginning at 1:00 pm and the ev ening beginning at 6:30 p.m. Look forward to seeing everyone there!

Amazon Smile

AmazonSmile is a website operated by Amazon with the same products, prices, and shopping features as Amazon .com. The difference is that when you shop on AmazonSmile , the AmazonSmile Foundation will donate 0.5% of the purchase price of eligible products to the School of St. Mary.

To use amazon smile go to smile.amazon.com and then select School of St. Mary Lake Forest, IL as your organization of choice. Then just use amazon as you normally would you will be supporting the school without even thinking about it.

Lake Forest High School: Parents Unofficial Guide to Freshman Year

Thursday, April 11

6:30 - 8:00pm

Raymond Moore Auditorium

Lake Forest High School East Campus

1285 N McKinley Rd.

Hosted by the Association for Parents and Teachers and Educational Services

Hot Lunch Orders

Please make sure you are placing your orders for hot lunch by clicking here . We are happy to again be working with Kiddos Catering to bring our students hot lunches. For more information on our hot lunch program please read this story from the AP about how they are changing school lunches. If you need assistance with the Kiddos Catering program, please contact them at support@kiddoscatering.com.

Church of St. Mary Sacrament Schedule

Woodlands Parent Preview

Tuesday, March 19th at 9:00am

Parents get a first look at what a Woodlands Academy education could look like for your daughter. Enjoy a round table converstaion with our Principal, Head of School, current parents, and other key members of the administration followed by a personalized tour of campus. To register click here.

Chicago NFL Alumni Hero Youth Football Camps

School of St. Mary Calendar

March 9 - March 22

Saturday, March 9

Hats Off to St. Marys PA Spring Event- 7-11pm at the Lake Forest Club

To purchase tickets click here

Sunday, March 10

PGC Choir sings at 10:00am Mass

Monday, March 11

AdvancED School Improvement Review
Engineering is Everywhere Club 3:45-5:15pm at the UGC
8th Grade Production of Godspell 6:30pm at the UGC

Tuesday, March 12

UGC Mass at 9:00am at St. Mary Catholic Church
8th Grade Production of Godspell for grades K-7, 1:00pm at the UGC

Wednesday, March 13

PGC Mass at 9:00am at St. Patricks Church
Senior Citizen Luncheon 12:00-2:00pm at the UGC
School Advisory Council Meeting 6:45pm at the UGC

Thursday, March 14

Career Day at the UGC 1:45-3:42pm
Engineering is Everywhere Club 3:45-5:15pm at the UGC
4th and 5th Grade SING 6:30-7:30pm

Friday, March 15

Students may wear green shirts and and accessories with uniform bottoms for St. Patricks Day
6th Grade Stations of the Cross at 9:00am at St. Mary Catholic Church
Coffee with the Principal at 10:00am at the UGC

Sunday, March 17

1st Graders attend Mass at 10:00am at St. Mary Catholic Church

Monday, March 18

Engineering is Everywhere Club 3:45-5:15pm at the UGC

Tuesday, March 19

UGC Mass at 9:00am at St. Mary Catholic Church
4th-8th Grade Reconciliation at St. Mary Catholic Church 10:00am-1:00pm

Wednesday, March 20

Early Dismissal Day: PGC 2:00pm; UGC 2:20pm
PGC Mass at 9:00am at St. Patricks Church
5th Grade Field Trip to the Field Museum 9:00am - 2:10pm

Thursday, March 21

1st Grade Field Trip to Marriott Lincolnshire to see Seussical the Musical
8th Grade Field Trip to the University of St. Mary of the Lake 9:00am - 1:00pm

Friday, March 22

End of 3rd Quarter
Casual Dress Day - Supporting St. Judes Children's Research Hospital
5th Grade Stations of the Cross at 9:00am at St. Mary Catholic Church
4th Grade Leader Program with Officer Long 1:30pm at UGC

Monday, March 25 - Friday, March 29

Spring Break