St. Pius X / St. Leo School Newsletter
August 4, 2018
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OPEN HOUSE
TUESDAY, AUGUST 14TH
We will once again have Open House before school starts. Students will have an opportunity to meet their teachers and find their homerooms.
Please note the following:
Tuesday, August 14th will be Open House for students in Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 8 from 5:30 - 7:30 pm.
You are all welcome to come for dinner that evening in the cafeteria. Subway sandwiches will be available for you to purchase for dinner (as well as chips and pop). The school will earn a portion from each sandwich sold. Please also know that you are welcome to walk around the entire school. In the gym there will be people talking about the Music in Catholic Schools Band Program, parents selling our school sweatshirts, boys and girls scouts and several other groups.
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SCHOOL THEME
Our school theme for this school year aligns with the annual fundraiser - "St. Pius X / St. Leo School,
Community of One". We are blessed here at SPSL with such a strong and vibrant school community.
Starting this year, in conjunction with the School Improvement Plan (SIP), we will be focusing on various goals. Two of the goals are Academic Excellence and Catholic Identity. Regarding Academic Excellence, the goal is b
y May of 2022 students will improve reading and math skills as measured by a yearly increase of 3% in the NPR (national percentile rank) Terra Nova scores and a yearly increase of 3% in the STARS mean NCE (norm curve equivalent) score. By May of 2022 students’ Catholic Identity will improve as measured by an increase in the percent of students strongly agreeing to items on the Catholic Identify Program Effectiveness Survey. The strategies and action steps for these two goals will be shared under 'School Improvement Plan' on the school website in the near future.
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St. Pius X / St. Leo School is a diverse community forming students in the Catholic faith to excel in academics and service to others.
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EXTENDED CARE UPDATE
August 16 and 17 are noon dismissal days and extended care is available for children that are registered in the program.
Lunch is NOT served at school on those days, so please make sure your child brings a lunch.
Extended Care only serves a mid-afternoon snack on early dismissal days. August calendars were mailed out on July 27. Your August calendar and payment are due by August 8. If you have not remitted payment yet, please send it as soon as possible. If you did not receive your calendar in the mail or are in need of one, please direct your questions to Cheri Freese at cheri.freese@spsl.net.
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FUTURE NEWSLETTERS
This newsletter will be the only one emailed before the start of the school year. After school starts, we will email out a school newsletter approximately two times per month.
We will not be sending home paper copies of the newsletter. Please keep us posted with any email changes.
The newsletter will also be linked on the school website,
www.spsl.net
. Since this is one of the main forms of communication we use, we trust that you will read the newsletter.
As a school we are aiming to utilize email communication more and send less paper notes home. Most, if not all, of the information sent previously via paper could be found on the school website (
www.spsl.net
). The lunch menu and calendar of events will be published on the website only.
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NOTES FROM THE NURSE
All immunization records and physical forms (physical exams required for students entering kindergarten, 7th grade or students transferring from an out-of-state school) were to have been turned in to the school office.
If they have not been turned in yet, you need to do it as soon as possible-
do NOT wait and send them with your child on the first day of school
.
Your child will not be able to attend classes until the records are in the school's office. Thank you for keeping our school in compliance with the Nebraska school laws.
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IMMUNIZATION RULES
Please note the following requirement for 7th grade students. Students entering 7th grade will be required to provide proof of a booster immunization of diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis (Tdap), given on or after your child's 7th birthday. Please be sure when your child has their 7th grade physical exam that you have the doctor administer the immunization if it is needed. Thank you for your cooperation in keeping your children up-to-date with this immunization requirement.
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THURSDAY, AUGUST 16 is the first day of school. Students in grades K-8 will attend school from 8:15 am until noon. This same schedule will be followed on FRIDAY, AUGUST 17. Beginning MONDAY, AUGUST 20, students will attend school for full days - 8:15 am until 3:25 pm (except for 8th graders who are dismissed at 3:30 pm).
NOTE: Five-day and Three-day Pre-Kindergarten students will begin classes Monday, August 20. Two-day Pre-Kindergarten students will begin classes Tuesday, August 21.
Students in grades K-8 will go directly to their classrooms on August 16. All new students will be helped to find their proper locations these first days.
LUNCH WILL NOT BE SERVED THURSDAY AUGUST 16 AND FRIDAY AUGUST 17.
Milk will be available for a morning break for all grades for 60 cents per day. If your child wants milk, please send CASH to pay for milk on August 16 and 17 as milk tickets will not be used until August 20. Students may also bring a snack on these days.
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NEW CALENDAR FEATURE
SPSL is introducing an interactive calendar through our website. Click
here
to see what events are going on at school. If you want to add an event to your personal calendar, click on it and pick your platform. The school calendar is set up to sync with Apple Calendar, Google, Outlook, Outlook.com, and Yahoo. We hope you enjoy this new option!
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SCHOOL TIME
We ask that students not arrive at school before 8:00 am, nor enter the building unless he/she is enrolled in the Extended Care Program or involved in a school-sponsored organized activity or duty. We ask that students who walk or get a car ride to school do not arrive before students are allowed to enter their classrooms. The teachers and administrators are in meetings many mornings and are not able to supervise students before 8:00 am. It is also unfair to those parents who are paying for babysitters or the Extended Care Program before school if some students are dropped off early. It students walk to school they should arrive sometime between 8:00 and 8:15 am. Students will be marked tardy
if they are not sitting at their desk
by 8:15 am.
Please remember that school will dismiss at 3:25 pm (3:30 pm for 8th grade) each day this year, unless otherwise noted on the calendar of events on the school website (
www.spsl.net
). Children need to be picked up on time each day.
If this is not possible, the child(ren) need to be placed in the Extended Care Program.
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FACULTY/STAFF CHANGES
As each school year comes to an end, we say goodbye to many of our faculty and staff. We are so grateful for their sharing of their time, talents and treasures with our SPSL community and they will be greatly missed. The following faculty and staff left at the end of this past school year:
Miss Pam Botos - Pre-K teacher
Mrs. Teri Goertzen -1st grade TA
Mrs. Katie Herek - 1st grade TA
Mrs. Margie Dunlap - 4th grade TA
Mr. Mychal Lanik - PE teacher
Mr. Dave Ludwig - Maintenance Director
Mr. Bob Nowaczyk - Development Director
Mrs. Ann Marus - Cafeteria Bookkeeper
Fr. Mike Eckley - St. Pius X Priest
We are excited to welcome the following new faculty and staff members to the SPSL school community:
Becky Galvan - Pre-K Teacher
Michelle Baldwin - 1st grade TA
Monica Taylor - 1st grade TA
Becky Wessling - 4th grade teacher
Laura O'Doherty - 4th grade TA
Gabrielle Dalton - 5th grade teacher
Michelle Wilson - Resource teacher (Gr 6-8)
Troy Nelson - PE teacher
Tom Zenk - Maintenance Supervisor
Fr. Joe Wray - St. Pius X priest
The following teachers are moving to another grade level since last school year:
Jerry Carreon - to 7th grade from 5th grade
Jen Martinez - to 6th grade from 7th grade
Sarah Saucier - to Pre-K from Resource
Ryan Lampe - Dean of School in addition to 8th grade teacher
Emily Klassen - Assistant Principal from 4th grade
We are very excited for the school year to begin!
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SCHOOL UNIFORMS
School uniforms can be purchased either from Dennis Uniform, located in the Old Mill area, or from Educational Outfitters, located just north of 131st and West Center Road. Uniform skorts, jumpers or skirts can also be purchased online from French Toast.
For more information on the school dress code, click
here.
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DROP-OFF AND PARKING PROCEDURES
You may
drop-off
students in the morning in the following parking lots only:
- Church front parking lot. You must exit this parking lot by turning right on Blondo Street. You may NOT make a left turn from this parking lot onto Blondo Street when you exit.
- Lot east of 69th Street.
- South church parking lot. You may NOT make a left turn from this parking lot onto 69th Street.
The lot west of the north school building is for families who are dropping off Pre-Kindergarten students only. Families who have Pre-Kindergarten students may park in the west lot or the north side of the Pre-Kindergarten building. St. Pius X Church rectory visitors also use this lot so please be considerate of the parishioner needs.
You may use the following lots for
parking
if you wish to come in the building in the am:
- Outside area of the lot east of 69th Street.
- Outside area of the south church parking lot by the gym and playground.
Please do not park in the church front (north) parking lot until school has begun at 8:15 am. Then you may use this lot in order to park for our school Masses.
For picking up your children after school, you may park in any of the lots except the church front parking lot and the west parking lot.
At dismissal time we need to keep the church front lot free of cars as all of the students come out of school directly into this lot. Safety is a major concern, therefore, the lot must be free of cars.
The west lot is only for picking up Pre-Kindergarten students.
If you wish to meet your children, you may park in one of the other lots and walk to the front church parking lot to meet your children.
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NOTE TO PARENTS OF 5TH/6TH GRADE STUDENTS
Our 5th and 6th grade musical next November 15th will be "Madagascar Jr - A Musical Adventure".
Auditions are held in the morning before the start of the school day at 7:30 am in the music room. The students MUST come to auditions if they want to be considered for a part in the musical. The audition dates and times will be: Tuesday, August 28th at 7:30 am for 5th grade girls; Wednesday, August 29th at 7:30 am for 5th grade boys; Thursday, August 30th at 7:30 am for 6th grade girls; and Friday, August 31st at 7:30 am for 6th grade boys.
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CUB & BOY SCOUTS
If you are interested in joining Cub Scouts Pack 570 or just want some information, please stop by our table in the gym at the Open House on August 14th. Adult leaders will be available to talk to you. Cub Scouts is open to all boys in Kindergarten – 5th grades. Pack 570 has many fun programs planned for the school year, including camping and swimming programs. If any Kindergarten or 1st grade parent is interested in being a leader or assistant leader for the their respective boy's grade, or for any questions, please contact Matt Rusch. Matt can be reached at (402) 980-9131 or emailed at
mrusc@eslaw.com
.
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SAVE THE DATE
St. Pius X / St. Leo School Annual Fundraiser
A Community of One
Saturday, October 20, 2018
at Creighton Prep High School
Invitations for the event will be mailed in September. Which new friends are you bringing this year?
Plus - we are looking for more parent volunteers and donations. If you are interested, please click
here
to sign up or visit the school
website
. Committee chairs will contact you with more information. You can also contact us directly at
spslfundraiser@gmail.com
.
Lora Hansen
Laura O'Doherty
Denise Schumacher
(2018 Fall Fundraiser Event Chairs)
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ASSIGNMENT NOTEBOOKS
Student assignment books are available for purchase in the school office and will also be available at Open House on August 14. The price for each notebook is $5.00. Students purchasing assignment notebooks on the first day of school should bring their money to their homeroom teacher. Students in grades 4-8 use these assignment notebooks or similar ones.
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SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM
SPSL School has contracted with Westside Nutrition Services to provide our students lunch. Details of the new program will be shared with families at Open House. The cafeteria staff is still in need of volunteers to help serve the lunch. Please contact Mary Jalbert at mary.jalbert@spsl.net if you are interested. It also is a great volunteer opportunity for grandparents.
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SCHOOL BUILDING CHANGES
Once again our maintenance personnel have worked very hard this summer to prepare the learning environment for another school year.
- The two children's bathrooms next to the south cafeteria were remodeled.
- New partitions were installed in the 5th grade boy's bathroom.
- All bathrooms in the north and south school buildings have new faucets.
- We were able to carpet two of the 2nd grade rooms because of a generous donation from Kelly's Carpet. Money raised from last year's school fundraiser was used to pay for carpet in the other two 2nd grade rooms. These rooms were all painted.
- New parking lots were installed west of the school office as well as north of the pre-kindergarten classrooms. The new lots were made possible by donations to the One Vision Campaign.
- This summer brought the usual cleaning of everything in the rooms along with the cleaning of carpets and waxing of floors by our maintenance staff and cleaning company personnel. They worked very hard to clean everything and fix things as needed. We believe we are in good shape to begin another school year.
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MUSIC IN CATHOLIC SCHOOLS
Parents of 5th - 8th graders should be sure to stop by the Music in Catholic Schools table at Open House, located in the gym, to get information about the band program at SPSL School. Students may try out various instruments to determine which they would like to play. Parents may also register and make their first payments to MCS at Open House.
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ASBESTOS
As most of you are aware, we removed all of the friable asbestos in our school many years ago. We do have some non-friable asbestos in the floor tiles of a few of our rooms. We also have two cubbyholes with locked doors that have asbestos on the heating coils. These are located on the second and third floors of the main building. We are not required to remove these tiles or the asbestos on the coils but to inform you that we do have a management plan available in our office concerning the care of these tiles and coils if you wish to inspect the plan.
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529 PLAN NEWS
Effective January 1, 2018, those with 529 Plan accounts can use money and earnings from the plan to pay for Grades K-12 tuition at public, private and parochial schools, up to $10,000 per year per beneficiary. You are encouraged to consult a qualified tax advisor about your personal situation and how these changes may impact you depending on if you are a Nebraska income tax payer or pay taxes in another state.
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ST. PIUS X PARISH PICNIC
AUGUST 19, 2018
All are welcome to come to the St. Pius X Parish picnic on Sunday, August 19. The picnic will follow the 11:30 am Mass. The parish will provide hamburgers, hot dogs and drinks. Guests can bring a dessert (last names starting with A-K) or a side dish (last names starting with L-Z). For more information, click
here.
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ST. LEO CHURCH
PARISH FESTIVAL
SEPTEMBER 9, 2018
Mark you calendars for this fun event!
Volunteers are needed for the St. Leo Parish Festival to help with set-up, clean-up, games, inflatables, raffle, ticket sales, bake sale, food, etc. Please click
here to sign up to help. You must be at least a 7th grader to help at the parish festival as a volunteer. If you have any questions, please contact the St. Leo Church office at (402) 397-0407.
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NEBRASKA FEDERATION OF CATHOLIC SCHOOL PARENTS
The Nebraska Federation of Catholic School Parents is a statewide organization of Catholic school parents. It was created to:
INFORM the Catholic school community about public policy affecting Catholic school students and parents;
ADVOCATE for parental choice in education without economic penalty as a just and viable means of assuring well-educated citizens;
MOBILIZE the Catholic school community to communicate with legislators and other public officials regarding educational rights and public policy;
ENHANCE the advocacy efforts of the Nebraska Catholic Conference with a visible, well-informed Catholic education network in Congressional and Legislative districts across the state.
The St. Pius X / St. Leo School Board approved the use of a portion of the registration fees to be used to register all our school families with the Nebraska Federation of Catholic School Parents. We will provide them with your name, address, phone number and email address when we send in the fee to register our school families. Periodically you will receive information from them. If you do not want us to register you, please let us know by calling the school office at (402) 551-6667 by September 1st.
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IMPORTANT MEDICAL BULLETIN
SPSL School is in compliance with the state mandated “Emergency Response to Life-Threatening Asthma or Systemic Allergic Reactions (Anaphylaxis) Protocol.” The protocol involves the use of an IM EpiPen and nebulized albuterol and calling 911.
The protocol is to be administered by trained responders to ANY student showing life-threatening asthma attacks or other allergic reactions. Responders will be available during the course of regular school hours.
This protocol and its emergency medication is not meant to replace the health care provider's plan for students with a diagnosis of asthma and/or anaphylaxis. The emergency medication (such as inhalers, epinephrine) prescribed for students with known asthma and/or anaphylaxis is provided by the student's parents to the school according to the school's Medication policy.
IF YOU
DO
NOT
WANT YOUR DAUGHTER / SON TO BE TREATED FOR THESE LIFE-THREATENING EMERGENCIES YOU NEED TO SEND CORY SEPICH, PRINCIPAL, A WRITTEN NOTIFICATION PRIOR TO THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL.
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Want to learn how the every day things you do – eating, reading, traveling, surfing the web, shopping, can earn money for St. Pius X / St. Leo School? Click here for a list of all our
on-going fundraising efforts.
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p:402.551.6667
f:402.551.8123
6905 Blondo St, Omaha, NE 68104
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