Principal's Letter
Dear All Saints Families,
Hopefully everyone had a wonderful Easter break filled with God's love and eternal forgiveness. I am sure breaking bread with family and friends included much good food and sweets. We now begin the fourth quarter. Teachers will be intensely finishing up the required standards and benchmarks within the curriculum to ensure full learning for the year. We have had several back-to-back breaks and we ask that all families refrain from further holidays that remove your children from the classroom. It is so hard to believe we are already into the final lap of the year. Just a reminder that report cards went home the Wednesday before Easter break. Parent/teacher conferences are scheduled for the half day on April 11th. Sign up opportunities will be going home early this week.
Last week we had a very informative and positive safety/security meeting. Thank you to the parents who attended and who gave us positive comments and suggestions. The administration purposely did not video the meeting as this content is private and should not be shared with the public for the privacy of our plans and school. Many parents were pleasantly surprised at the training our administration and teachers have and are undergoing. As I have said on many occasions, safety of our children is at the forefront of our attention. During the meeting, I mentioned that constructive and positive discussion on such issues are always welcome by the administration.
In early May our school will be going through our mid-evaluation in our seven year accreditation process. This will be a small visit that will include analysis of the status of our action plan created three years ago, test scores, survey results, parent/student/teacher discussions, and meetings with administration. Our faculty have worked very hard on our action plan and will move forward with a new action plan so as to enhance our school in the four pillars of accreditation - Mission and Catholic Identity, Governance and Leadership, Academic Excellence, and Operational Vitality. On a side note, our survey results will be shared with our families in my next week's principal's note. Thank you to the many who responded to the survey.
It has come to administration's attention that Facebook classroom pages are becoming a strong component in classroom activity. The original purpose of setting these private pages was to enhance communication for auction projects, general class information, and special occasions. The pages were never intended to be a sharing of homework requirements/commentary or a platform to air displeasure for a teacher or school practices/policies. I have been shown or told about some very disturbing posts on such pages. These posts truly do not represent the Catholic values of community that our school wishes to uphold. As a valued All Saints community member, please refrain from using such private pages for the purposes that were not intended.
Please check out our HSA President's monthly report found on this page. As feedback from the survey, families wanted to know more about the activities of our wonderful association. Our President, Mrs. Ani Battifarano responded promptly with these updates. She will be providing more information on opportunities for all families to volunteer, particularly working parents.
Mrs. Jill Broz
Please pray for the repose of the soul of Mrs. Erbe, mother of Mrs. Lena Connolly, first grade teacher and family member.
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HSA Fourth Quarter Report
Dear All Saints Catholic School Parents:
As our children begin the fourth quarter of the school year, the Home and School Association (HSA) would like to give you an update on the ongoing initiatives of the HSA. We would like to thank all of our volunteers for their continued support and to all for the financial support on our initiatives. Financially, the HSA has moved $130,000 to the school-operating budget. This is our committed yearly contribution to the school. These funds are transferred every January after the auction. At the end of the year, we will once again take a look at the HSA account balance and we will move any surplus funds to the school to meet specific needs. At the end of last year, the HSA began the Sports Field Initiative Account with $50,000.
In order to help our school stay competitive in the private school sector and to have all areas of our school shine like our amazing students, the HSA took on the task of installing a new athletic field and improving the other areas of the back grounds. After much investigation and many quotes, comparing natural and artificial turf, the HSA Board has agreed to the development of an artificial turf field. Artificial turf will allow us to address all four problems that currently exist. The current challenges are the moles and the holes in the ground, safety, drainage, appearance and the overall maintenance of natural turf. In the past 15 years, the administration has made attempts at fixing these problems but the efforts are only temporary. This project is a huge undertaking and requires total commitment of all stakeholders. We have targeted a two-year time frame to raise the funds and plan to be ready to start the project in the winter of 2019, running through the beginning of 2020. Total projected cost is $550,000. Current balance on the Sports Field Account is $200,000, which is 36% of the $550,000 Sports Field goal. Some expenses have occurred already.
After Christmas break, we reached out to our All Saints families in an attempt to find a volunteer to lead The Sports Field Capital Campaign with no luck. The HSA, Principal and our Pastors voted to hire a seasoned fundraising specialist who has worked with Catholic schools in the past. With the approval of the Diocese, her engagement with All Saints began 2 weeks ago. Given the opportunity to engage with someone of such experience, the scope of her engagement will not only include the Sports Field fundraising but will also look at our school's financial needs for the next 3-5 years. With her expertise our goal is also going to focus on expanding our fundraising to the community so that we do not put the burden of the initiatives solely on our families. We are also trying to expand our fundraising tools for the future. Our school is 15 years old and our tuition fees do not cover major capital improvements that do come up and will come up as we try to improve and maintain the facility and the programs we offer our children. We are very excited and look forward to what the future brings for our children at this wonderful school.
Upcoming Events
Please join the All Saints team on May 12th for the Live Like Jake 5k, our school will receive 20% of our team's entry fees for the event and it helps support a local community charity. What a wonderful opportunity to come together with our community.
When we return from Spring Break our second biggest fundraiser for the HSA will be the Ladies Luncheon on April 27th at Saint Paul of the Cross. This is a great community event and we look forward to seeing moms, grandmothers, aunts and friends. We appreciate the volunteer's efforts and your support of such an event.
2018-2019 School Year
Believe it or not 2018-2019 school year is not far away for the HSA and the planning for our events are underway. The auction chairs are working on securing the location and date for the event. We should have that wrapped up in a few days. We are also looking at our volunteer needs for the upcoming school year. We currently are in need of a chair to lead our Fall Fundraising Initiative, which will either be the Magazine Drive or the Mix Bags. We are also in need of a chair for our welcome back Italian Night, this is a great evening we host to kick off the school year, welcome new families and build on our school community. If you are interested in volunteering for these roles or would like to hear of any other opportunities please reach out to myself
anibattifarano@yahoo.com and Patty Rabideau
pattyrab@comcast.net she is our volunteer coordinator.
On behalf of the HSA we wish you all a blessed spring.
Ani Battifarano
ASCS HSA President
