Dear Saint families,
This week started off with a bang! As you all know, our school was awarded its third National Blue Ribbon. This would not be possible without the hard work of our students, partnering with our parents and wonderful faculty and staff.
I want to say thank you for the outpouring of support for the personal congratulatory notes. I am filled with gratitude to you for entrusting your children in our care. Partnering with you and your faith in us allows us to continue to strive for success. The Blue Ribbon Schools Program sets a standard of excellence for all schools striving for the highest level of achievement. “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” 1 Thessalonians 5:18. I am looking forward to celebrating this awesome achievement with our community on October 16 – more details on that will be coming soon.
With all the wonderful blessings happening within our community, I’d like to invite you to attend First Friday Mass. This Friday, October 5 is also the anniversary of when StJPII received approval from Bishop Fiorenza to open our doors! What a wonderful way to give thanks to the Lord for all he has done for us!
In Him,
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Principal
P.S. Thank you to everyone who joined us last week for Homecoming! What a wonderful way to come together as a community…in spite of the rain it was a fantastic turn out and we were so happy to have our alumni back on campus. We are looking forward to an even bigger (and sunnier!) event next year.
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2018 National Blue Ribbon School
U.S. Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, announced yesterday that St. John Paul II Catholic School (“StJPII”) has been named a 2018 National Blue Ribbon School. StJPII is one among 300 public and 49 private schools receiving this honor nationally. StJPII has already twice received this honor, once in 1997 and again in 2008. Winning in 2018 makes StJPII the FIRST and ONLY elementary school in Houston (public or private) to receive the National Blue Ribbon School award three times.
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To read the press release about winning the National Blue Ribbon Schools Award, please click on the button below.
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First Friday All School Mass
This
Friday, October 5, we will continue our tradition of honoring the First Friday devotion with an all-school Mass. Please join us as we worship together as a community on what will be a very special day.
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NO School Monday October 8 - Teacher In-Service
Monday, October 8 is a Student Holiday and Teacher In-Service Day. We hope your students enjoy the day off; please make plans now since BASP will be closed.
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Kindercare - No Parking
Please do not park in Kindercare's parking lot across the street, even for just a few moments to drop off your children in the morning. They have asked us to share this message because they have witnessed our families parking there. Unfortunately, this congests their parking lot and takes spots away from Kindercare's parents who need to park and take children inside their building. Additionally, it is also a safety concern to walk across Parkway Plaza from their driveway without a crossing guard. We must be respectful neighbors, as they are often very accommodating and permit us to use their lot after-hours for StJPII special events. Only use the established carpool line or morning walkers processes that are outlined in our handbook to drop your children off in the morning.
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Annual Fund -Kick Off
Don’t forget! Your students may wear their favorite sports team jersey or shirt tomorrow (10/3) to kick off our Annual Fund Drive! Gifts from our fans (parents, faculty, board members, grandparents, alumni and friends) form the cornerstone of our fundraising efforts. Let’s band together as a team to reach the end zone and meet our goal!
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Keeping up with the Class of 2019-Washington, DC Trip
There are No Limits for the Class of 2019! Parents, please visit the 8th Grade trip button below to keep up with our 8th graders this week!
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Online Spanish Book Fair
Hola Mis Amigos! We are having an online book fair for our Spanish speaking families. This online fair will be from
October 1 - 8. This is a great way to add Spanish titles to your home libraries. Proceeds from this fair go toward buying additional Spanish books for the school library. I hope you enjoy this new opportunity. Happy Reading - Ms. Lamb
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Adoration
Parents are invited to come to the All-Saints Chapel for Eucharistic Adoration on
Wednesday, October 3. The chapel will be open from 7:40 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. for quiet prayer before the exposed Holy Eucharist.
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Men's Retreat- This Thursday
StJPII's Father’s Ministry is designed to focus on strengthening the fathers of our students in faith and love, to help them bring the Catholic faith home to their families, and support the mission of the school. As a father of a child(ren) at the school, you are a member of this Ministry. Our ministry includes retreats, Mass, and other events that enrich and encourage your faith and witness as a man of God, all in the model of St. Joseph. Our next retreat of the year will be at on this
Thursday,
October 4 from 6:30-9:30 p.m. in St. Jude Hall. We will discuss service projects, our presence on campus and t-shirt ideas for our Dads club. All StJPII dads are invited to attend. Please RSVP to
Assistant Principal Dr. Mike Weinman.
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Grandparents Day 2018- Please Submit Contact information
StJPII's annual Grandparents and Special Friend's Day will be on November 16; invitations are mailing SOON! Have you submitted your names and addresses yet? If not, please do so by
this
FRIDAY, October 5. Even if we had your names last year in the former parent portal, we need you to refresh the information...this is the only way to ensure that your family will receive their invitation(s). It's quick and easy, just click the link below! Please contact our
Events Officer Kaela Lewis for more information.
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Fall Open House
StJPII school families, please share and invite families interested in Pre-Kindergarten through 8th grade to our Fall Open House for prospective families on
Tuesday, October 23 from 9:30 – 11:00 a.m. Visit the Fall Open House
on our website for more information including a schedule of events and how to RSVP. For questions, call the front office at 281-496-1500.
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Trunk or Treat Celebration
Join the StJPII community for our annual Trunk-or-Treat festivities in the parking lot on
Friday, October 26! Kids and parents are encouraged to dress in costume for safe trick-or-treating, games, and photos. Volunteer to decorate your trunk and you just may win a prize.Sign up below! We welcome cars of all shapes and sizes – no trunk is too small!
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RWTS- Sign up today for Registration/Shirts or to Volunteer
It’s not too late to register for the 20th Annual Run With the Saints event. The early bird deadline ends
Sunday, October 7. Our annual 5K, benefiting The Childhood Brain Tumor Foundation in memory of StJPII student Lauren Lockard is scheduled for
Saturday, October 27. We need volunteers to plan and make this the best race yet! Please sign up to volunteer here. This is a great way to get to know other StJPII families. If you are a runner, would like to sign your child up for the Kids K or want to buy a shirt, register online through our website.
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StJPII International Festival
Thank you to everyone who volunteered for committee chair positions, if you haven't had a chance to sign up yet, the last day to volunteer as a committee chair is this
Friday, October 5. Sign up below.
We are looking for International Festival Sponsors! If you or someone you know would like to sponsor the festival,
please download the sponsorship information here. This is a great opportunity for businesses to have their name in front of the StJPII community. Questions, please contact:
StJPII International Festival Committee
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WHCSA ~ Elementary Soccer
WHCSA unfortunately got rained out for all of our teams this past weekend. The league is looking to do a make-up weekend on November 17 so coaches please look at Coach Hewitt's email regarding team availability for that weekend.
Weather looks good for this weekend so we hope to get some soccer games played for our Elementary teams!
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Middle School
GHCAA ~ Middle School Sports
We had an incredible week in middle school sports! Our 1st ever Homecoming was a tremendous success despite the rain! Our Community came out in droves and of course the spirit was alive as we watched our Varsity Football team defeat St. Laurence 12-8 to end their district play with a perfect record of 5-0! Our team will now play in the GHCAA Playoff's against St. Cecilia on
October 13 at
Strake Jesuit at 5:00 p.m.
in hopes of then continuing on to the Championship game the following
Saturday, October 20
, which will be held at St. Thomas High School! Our Cheer team will be there to represent our school with spirit and confidence that we will take the next 2 games to win the Championship!
In Soccer, both our Varsity & JV teams swept St. Laurence as well as Corpus Christi and continue to improve their overall District records. Varsity stands at 6-1-1 and JV continues with a stellar 8-0 record!
Our Lady Saints have been playing a whole lot of Volleyball! Our Varsity team had HUGE wins across the board defeating St. Laurence, St. Teresa, and St. Thomas More and then closing out their week finishing in 2nd place at the St. John XXIII Varsity Volleyball tournament! JV split their week defeating St. Laurence but losing to St. Thomas More, while our C Team split their games against both schools. We are very proud of our Lady Saints!
Our Cross Country team participated in what should have been called a MUDDY BUDDY race! It was a very fun and extremely muddy meet! The overall results were the Girls team finished 13th out of 32 teams and the Boys team finished 22nd out of 41 teams. We had several athletes who continue to beat their times from their last meet and finish in the top half of their grade level!
BASKETBALL TRYOUTS are around the corner and open gyms are starting this week!
Middle School Girls & Boys Tryout's will be held on
Monday, October 22 & Tuesday, October 23
. Girls will be from 3:30-5:00 p.m., and Boys will be from 5:15-6:45 p.m. Remember you must attend both days of tryouts and you must have a physical on file with Mrs. Aertker.
Open gyms are open to any player wishing to tryout in grades 6th-8th. Girls open gyms will be on
October 6, 12, 16, and 19
. Boys open gyms will be on
October 6 & 13
. Please refer to the
BAC
Athletic Calendar
for the specific times for all of the open gyms.
Please note, open gyms are not mandatory for trying out for the team. If you participate in them, this will be for extra practice only. No preference will be given for participating in the open gyms.
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October PTO Meeting
All are invited to the October PTO meeting tomorrow
Wednesday, October 3rd at 8:15 a.m. in St. Jude Hall. We will discuss our upcoming events this Fall and hear from former founding parent, current board member, and current grandparent Theresa Bramanti about the history of our school. Please consider joining us this Wednesday. See you there!
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Box Tops Reminder
Classroom contests started Friday, September 21st. Please remember to clip those box tops! Turn in your Ziploc bags labeled with your child’s name and homeroom teacher by
October 5.
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Thank you!
Thank you to the following volunteers who provided snacks for the
September 26 Faculty & Staff Meeting: Beverly Alexander, Gail Anderson, Maria Valentina Bracho-Rodon, Diane Bramanti Andrea Dvorachek, Victoria Forkner, Analia Gugliotti, Danille LaLonde, Nicole Lambert, Amber Leech, Gwen Montesino, Sarah Moore, Thien Nguyen, Antonella Padula, Ana Parra-Esteva, Donna Peters, Marcela Pigurina, Lourdes Pozo, Alexandra Riveros, Tina Schroeder, Jennifer Sudkamp, Machi Valcarcel, Joanna Vasquez and Sandra Vreedenburgh.
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Save the Date- DARR Halloween Skate Party- October 25
Mark your calendars for a costume Skate Party October 25 from 4:00-6:30 p.m. at the Dairy Ashford Roller Rink. Join us for this annual October event, more details to follow!
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St. John Paul II Catholic School- Yard Signage
Proudly display your Saints spirit with one of our yard signs. Available for purchase now for $10.00 through our website- click “Community” tab, then click “Spirit Store”. Browse our many products perfect for Fall tailgating and sporting events. Our new Under Armor™ shirts are available under this
link as well. Thank you for supporting our Saints community!
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SJV Fall Bazaar: Volunteers Needed (All Parents and all Students)
St. John Vianney Catholic Church will host their annual Fall Bazaar on
Sunday, October 14. All are invited to attend and enjoy a fun day of "Family, Food, Fun & Fellowship. Bingo, Silent Auction & Big Board, BBQ Dinner from Mikeska’s, Merchandise Mart and the Raffle with a chance to win $10,000 in Visa Gift Cards benefiting Parish Charities." More information about the event can be found by clicking
here. StJPII has the opportunity to lead the Cotton Candy / Snow Cone booth and volunteers are needed to work 1-hour shifts. This is also a wonderful time for our students to give service to their parish. Students must be accompanied by a parent. Two adults are required for each shift. Come join in the fun! To sign up for a shift, please register on the
Sign-Up Genius. Thank you in advance for supporting our neighborhood parish!
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Aim For Success Programs- Bullying Prevention Program
Aim for Success, Inc., will present their nationally-acclaimed program to the students and parents of StJPII. The Aim for Success motivational programs have educated over 2.5 million teens, parents, and educators across America. The Radical live presentation teaches students to have a radical perspective, words and actions for working together to stop bullying at their schools. This program is designed to reach their hearts and minds with real-life stories and powerful illustrations to turn them from bullying to being “up-standers”. The Parent Program is a preview of the student presentation where parents will receive information on prevention and ideas to help their children make a radical difference in the world around them. Parents, please join us on
October 16 at 6:30 p.m. in the GSC. Student presentations will take place on
October 17 during the day.
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Save The Date: STH Home Gathering
All 7th and 8th Grade Boys and their parents are invited to a St. Thomas High School Home Gathering on
Sunday, October 14 from 6:00-8:00 p.m. at Ernie and Michelle Williamson's home. If you have any questions, please contact StJPII's Parent Ambassador,
Stacie Sudkamp.
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Did you know...that every image/likeness of our patron, Pope St. John Paul II, around our campus is from 1988! That is intentionally done to honor when our school was founded!
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10/3 Daily Mass, 7:10 a.m., All Saints Chapel
10/3 Adoration, 7:40 a.m., All Saints Chapel
10/3 PTO Meeting, 8:15 a.m., SJH
10/4 Dad's Retreat, 6:30 p.m., SJH
10/5 Box Tops Ends
10/5 PTO First Friday Staff Lunch
10/5 First Friday All School Mass, 8:30 a.m., BAC/GSC
10/8 Student Holiday/Teacher In-Service
10/8 Board Meeting, 7:00 p.m.
10/9 School Tours, 9:00/9:30/10:00 a.m.
10/10 Daily Mass, 7:10 a.m., All Saints Chapel
10/12 Art A La Carte
10/12 End of the First Nine Weeks
10/12 Living Rosary, 8:30 a.m., BAC/GSC
10/16 Aim for Success Parent Presentation
10/17-18 6th Grade Bake Sale
10/17 Daily Mass, 7:10 a.m., All Saints Chapel
10/18 STUCO Store Opens
10/19 Report Cards on Portal
10/19 Vocations Day
10/19 All School Mass, 8:30 a.m., BAC/GSC
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St. John Paul II Catholic School
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1400 Parkway Plaza, Houston, TX 77077
281-496-1500 • 281-496-2943 (fax)
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St. John Paul II Catholic School prepares all students spiritually
and academically to succeed in life and to do God's will.
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