Dear All Saints Families:

This week begins the amazing Scholastic Book Fair. This year's theme is the "Enchanted Forest" and when you see the transformation of the Media Center, you will be amazed. Our goal is always to excite our children about reading. Finding the right level of book and genre is critical to drawing a child into the love of books. With these book fairs, there is a variety of books at all levels. The themes and decorations build the excitement in our children. I thank our Book Fair Committee in all they have done to make this a magical event. Thank you to Mrs. Maihack and Mrs. Malinowski for leading the way. Our classroom parents have also heightened the excitement by decorating bulletin boards and/or classroom doors in this year's theme. We have so many talented parents who give so much of their time. Our next Book Fair in the spring with celebrate our Catholic Identity as we bring in a Catholic vendor for the first time. This will provide a wonderful opportunity to join our faith and reading in our children.

On Friday, your child's Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) scores went home. A letter also accompanied the scores to explain that scores are just the starting point for the year. They are a tool for the teacher to use within the classroom to assist in learning. Your child's scores may have gone down from the end of last year because there is generally no classroom learning with depth and rigor during the summer months. This happens to many children. This test is done early in the year to catch each child's level at the start of the school year. As educators, we are concerned about growth through the year and how to maximize learning. We did not want to send these reports home with first quarter report cards because they are truly relaying information about your child's level at two different times. MAP's is learning readiness at the start of the school year and a report card is achievement after a quarter of the school year. We will have parent/teacher conferences on Wednesday, October 24th after the end of the first quarter which ends October 12th. Both of these reports can be discussed at that time. Please feel free to contact Mrs. Jenny Uible if you have further questions about this test. A comment was made that we are doing more testing like public schools. I want to make it very clear we do not teach to the test, rather we use the data to better educate the child and learn what ways we can best meet his/her needs. Data and knowledge about the class' readiness to learn must drive instruction. We do not merely start at the same point every year and repeat what was done last year. We adapt the lessons and sequencing of learning knowing where our children are ready to learn and where they need remediation or enrichment.

The annual school auction gala is to being held on Saturday, November 3 at Marisol Country Club. Invitations were sent out over a week ago. I understand that all families are over-scheduled in our lives today. However, if possible, make time for this special event. The auction is the largest fundraiser for the Home and School Association. It is important that this event is successful. The Home and School Association is required to provide the school with $130,000 each year for the operating costs of the school. Since the Home and School Association is responsible for the major fundraising for the school, this contribution is required by our governing Board of Pastors. I truly want parents to know that this contribution is critical for the cost of running the school. It is not simply for extras needed here and there. In the last few years, tuition has increased minimally and it is through this fundraising we are allowed to keep tuition costs down, while the cost of educating a child is increasing. We appreciate all that everyone is doing for this amazing event. It is truly a community event, filled will fun and support for this strong and amazing Catholic school.

As of October 1, All Saints Catholic School is associated with Amazon Smile. Amazon Smile is a component of Amazon that allows non-profit organizations to receive a percentage back on purchases made. The amounts given to an organization vary with products bought. The buying power of Amazon is huge and can be a wonderful way to effortlessly receive some donations. Rather than logging into Amazon, one must log into https://smile.amazon.com/ and select All Saints Catholic School in Jupiter as the recipient of donations.  Once All Saints is selected, you can begin to use smile.amazon.com to shop on Amazon. Please see https://smile.amazon.com/gp/chpf/about/ref=smi_se_uspo_laas_aas for further information to log on. We understand you may also be contributing to another non-profit, but if you are not, we ask that you please sign on to help All Saints. Thank you.

Yours in Christ,

Mrs. Jill Broz

Volunteer Opportunities