What a beautiful week- we had to extend our shorts-wearing season by a few days! A lot of classes moved outside for learning and/or extra recess time. Mrs. DeGross took her class over to the nature learning area near the church to pray their rosaries on Tuesday, the middle schoolers had lunch and kickball sessions outdoors and the preschoolers took many nature walks!

This year has brought a lot of challenges, but we are grateful to be in school together everyday. We appreciate everyone taking our protocols seriously and cooperating when asked to quarantine. We are hardy Minnesotans, and accustomed to working through it when we are under the weather. We all need to remember there is no shame in staying home! Symptoms vary so much with this virus, and even nonsymptomatic people can be carriers. It is best to err on the side of caution, and know we will all go back to being our tough old selves eventually.

We are seeing more students struggling with social emotional issues this year, which is not surprising. We have posted a new position and are hoping to have a Special Services Facilitator on our faculty soon. We are hoping to find someone with a special education background who will collaborate with classroom teachers; research and help implement academic and behavioral strategies to improve learning for students who struggle; model strategies and do direct instructional coaching as necessary; prepare individual plans and/or success plans; assess and analyze student progress toward goals; and communicate with parents of students with special needs. I will keep you posted on our progress!

Next week is the last week of our first quarter, and time to start planning for next year already. We will be working on our budget with a committee that includes parish finance council members, SAC members, and school administration. We are also working on a marketing video to use as a virtual open house this year, and believe it or not, tours for next year are already underway. Current St. Michael families are our best word-of-mouth marketers, so please spread the word about our fine school as we enter the enrollment season.

God bless your families on this beautiful weekend, prayers for safety for deer hunters, and go Blues, go Gophers (coming off a stunning loss to Maryland and facing the Fighting Illini on Saturday)!

Mrs. Kerr

We have shared this before, and will keep sending reminders about when to stay home. We follow the decision tree developed by MDH.

Please note:

This decision tree is part of our mitigation efforts. We are trying our best to avoid the spread of COVID-19 at St. Michael. We are trying to stay open for in person learning, 5 days/week, for the full 2020-21 school year. It is a pain in the neck wearing masks, trying to keep the kids at a safe distance from one another, hand washing and sanitizing constantly, maintaining learning cohorts, monitoring symptoms, and rethinking so many of our routines. We are all experiencing fatigue around these efforts. However, it is ALL worth it if we can keep our kids in school where they belong. Please hang in there with us, be vigilant, keep up the mitigation efforts and stay home if necessary. Do it for the kids!

All students, Preschool through 8^th grade, may invite Veterans to Mass at the Church at 7:50 AM on Wednesday, November 11^th. Please RSVP using the attached form and return it to Mr. Olson and Mrs. Roseen as soon as possible, but no later than Monday, November 9th. There will also be forms available in the office.

kerr@saintmpl.org.

The attached calendar is the most up to date version. The school calendar can also be found on our website: www.saintmpl.org.

Please let us know if your child(ren) will need Wednesday Early Dismissal Care (12:15 - 2:15) in December by completing this form as soon as possible, and no later than Sunday, November 15, 2020. We are offering this for families who do not have other options available for Wednesday afternoons. If you are able to have your child come home at 12:15, please do so, as the teachers are finding the Wednesday afternoon planning especially necessary this year.

*REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. Please complete one form per student. In order to ensure proper staffing and the safety of all students we request no late enrollment.

With the pandemic, rules and restrictions around gatherings and how many people venues can hold, we will be having a Virtual Gala.

We need volunteers to make this event successful. The more volunteers, the lighter the workload and the bigger the success.

Plus this is a great way to connect with our parent community!

For questions please contact, Brandi McColm Director of Advancement mccolm@saintmpl.org

LUNCH AND RECESS VOLUNTEERS NEEDED:

All volunteers must be up to date on Virtus training. See section below for more information. Please visit virtusonline.org to log in or to create an account and complete the required steps to be a volunteer.

By popular demand, Academy of Holy Angels is scheduling an evening Open House on Thursday, November 13. Our two October Open Houses are filled to our capacity. We are registering families for 4 sessions at 4:30 PM, 5:00 PM, 5:30 PM, and 6:00 PM. Each session will be one hour in length. We want to keep everyone safe, yet share the excitement and energy of AHA and all that we offer! You can register on our website at academyofholyangels.org (click Open House). Welcome to our future STARS in our Class of 2025!!

Questions: Please email Meg Angevine, mangevine@ahastars.org.