Dear School of St. Mary Parents,

The 2018-19 school year is racing to a finish. Our Eighth-grade graduation is only 11 days away. As I type this newsletter and reflect, numerous events and happenings made this a truly great school year.

One of my goals as principal was to see the increase and implementation of more technology across both campuses. This year, we were able to expand our Chromebook program to be 1-1 for all students in Sixth through Eighth grades at the UGC. With the increased number of Chromebooks available, we were able to move more of our laptops to the PGC for increased student usage there.

Through the hard work of our teachers and parent volunteers, we were able to secure grant funding to create an active sensory room for our students. Sensory rooms are specially designed with equipment to provide a range of stimuli to help individuals develop and engage their senses. The rooms are designed to assist students in organizing, calming, relaxing, and seeking out sensory information. The goal of a sensory room is to provide a safe place where students can go when they need to either calm or stimulate their senses and can work through some of the challenges they may experience.

Through a generous donation by our Parents' Association, our school was able to purchase a set of Ozbot robots for our STEAM Lab. Ozbot is a little robot that blends the physical and digital worlds and is used to teach kids coding and programming. Coding refers to writing codes for applications, whereas programming is used to find solutions to problems and determine how they should be solved. Not only were we able to offer this at the UGC this year, but we were also able to provide STEAM offerings for the first time at the PGC. Our younger students received an introduction to coding from our STEAM teacher, Christine Spevacek, and a number of our 7th-graders.

As a part of our attempt to bridge the gap between the PGC and the UGC, we hosted our first ever Fly-Up Day for our Second and Third-grade parents. Parents were able to listen to presentations by our two outstanding Fourth grade teachers, Jennie Bodine, and Kristina Madsen, and what their children can expect as they move from one building to the other. A number of other UGC teachers and administrators gave talks about the UGC as well. Following a question and answer session, our outstanding Student Council members gave tours of the building.

With our small class sizes, we continued to provide educational and exciting learning opportunities for our students through the many field trips our school takes. Our students visited the Field Museum, the Skokie Holocaust Museum, Milwaukee Public Museum, and the Chicago Botanical Gardens. We took an architectural tour of Chicago by boat, attended the Holy Fire Retreat, toured the North Shore Congregation Israel Synagogue, saw Seussical the Musical at the Lincolnshire Marriott Theater, and attended the dinosaur exhibit at the Kenosha Public Museum. We have field trips planned to attend Old World Wisconsin and the Shedd Aquarium in late May/early June.

The School of St. Mary hosted an all-school field trip to see Mary Poppins Returns in December. Prior to the trip, our teachers created Pop-A-Thon. All of the teachers at the UGC incorporated themes from Mary Poppins to create mini-lessons to show students how pop culture is interwoven to everyday life. Among the many integrated curricular offerings, our students in Fourth and Fifth grade read the Mary Poppins Returns novel, students in Social Studies learned about the women's suffrage movement, animation and film were taught in STEAM while the game of Cricket was taught in Physical Education. Not only was it a fun and educational experience, but our students also got to spend an afternoon with their buddies.

We continue to grow and expand our Liturgical offerings for our students this year. We prayed the Holy Rosary every Friday during the month of October. Our student celebrated the Stations of the Cross throughout Lent. We continue to pray daily, take part in community service efforts, and raise funds for the less fortunate. Students took part in Reconciliation during Advent and Lent. Not only do our students continue to grow academically and physically, but spiritually, morally and emotionally as well.

One of my favorite quotes begins: It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. With all of the many great things happening at our school, there is some reality we must face. As you might know, the School of St. Mary has been faced with declining enrollment. Ten years ago, our school's enrollment was at 611 students; 5 years ago it was at 544. Our best projections for next year put enrollment at 375. With the declining enrollment comes declining revenue due to less tuition being collected for the school to operate with. The majority of our school budget is salaries and benefits. The school is still staffed, for the most part, as if we still have three sections of classes at each grade level like we were 10 years ago. Two different buildings also double the cost of utilities and maintenance. In planning for next year, we have had to take a hard look at ways to be more cost-effective. We cannot continue to operate and staff the school as if we're at 550-600 students.

We have done some smart-sizing with our staff and reduced several teaching positions at the school. We are blessed with a great staff, and any reductions will result in the loss of some good and talented people. I know that any one of our staff is some student's favorite teacher and that they will be hurt by the loss. Please be aware that any staff that we are letting go has to do with budgetary issues.

While we will be right-sizing our staff, we will continue to offer an excellent, faith-based education. All academic classes currently offered at the School of St. Mary will continue to be provided. We will still have an excellent student to teacher ratio of 16:1. We are blessed in that many of our teachers on staff are licensed to teach more than one subject area. We will see several very talented teachers working at both the PGC and UGC. We continue to investigate new educational possibilities, including shared staff with other Catholic schools as well as advanced placement offerings and online learning classes. Even though we may be smaller in size, the future of education at the School of St. Mary continues to remain bright.

As is always the case at this time of year, the School of St. Mary has had several teacher resignations. We say goodbye to four fantastic people who have come to love our kids and school: Beth Brueggeman, Nicole Graham, Christine Spevacek, and Francesca Sullivan. They have truly made a difference in the lives of those students they have taught. On behalf of the School of St. Mary, I want to thank them for their service to the students, staff, and parents of our school. We wish them well in their future endeavors.

With Memorial Day on Monday, we remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for the freedoms we enjoy every day. We think of how they have followed in the footsteps of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Please hold our servicemen and women in your prayers. We also remember the families of our troops. We ask for God's blessings to fill their homes, with peace, provision, and strength to fill their lives. May the members of our armed forces be supplied with courage to face each day and may they trust in the Lord's mighty power to accomplish each task.

David Wieters
Principal
New Family Referral Program: Click Here for the Form
Crusader Challenge Week 4 Update
School of St. Mary 2019-2020 Football Registration
8th Grade Washington D.C. trip reflection letter
School of St. Mary Summer Parade Floats
We're back on the parade circuit! The School of St. Mary will have a float in the Lake Bluff 4th of July Parade and the Lake Forest Days Parade! 

We need your help! If you are skilled in designing or have construction/ crafting abilities and want to assist with the float, please join the float committee! 

For more information, please contact 
Kim Egan: (312) 720-9614 or 
Kelly Rynes: (847) 987-6296 

We love our Crusader community! Mark your calendars! 
JOIN US and show your CRUSADER PRIDE! 

June 28 and 29: Float Creation Days! It's a family affair! Come out to the UGC parking lot and have some fun while constructing the float! 

July 4 and August 7 - Ride or walk the route with us! More details to come! 
Amazon Smile
AmazonSmile  is a website operated by  Amazon  with the same products, prices, and shopping features as  Amazon .com. The difference is that when you shop on  AmazonSmile , the 
AmazonSmile  Foundation will donate 0.5% of the purchase price of eligible products to the School of St. Mary. 

To use amazon smile go to smile.amazon.com and then select School of St. Mary Lake Forest, IL as your organization of choice. Then just use amazon as you normally would you will be supporting the school without even thinking about it. 
Last Week of Hot Lunch Orders: May 31 last day
REMINDER: KIDDOS LUNCH IS ONLY SERVED THROUGH MAY 31st

Please make sure you are placing your orders for hot lunch by clicking  here .  We are happy to again be working with Kiddos Catering to bring our students hot lunches. For more information on our hot lunch program please read this  story  from the AP about how they are changing school lunches.  If you need assistance with the Kiddos Catering program, please contact them  at support@kiddoscatering.com. 
Community Events for School of St. Mary Families
FORE THE KIDS
Monday, June 24, 2019
Chicago Highlands Golf Club, Westchester, Illinois

Archdiocese of Chicago Catholic Schools Golf Outing

$300 per golfer
$1,200 per foursome
Registration open now click here

For questions or additional information, please contact Teresa Battaglia at 
tbattaglia@archchicago.org 

Proceeds from Fore the Kids benefit emergency tuition assistance and academic innovation. Emergency tuition assistance provides scholarships to economically challenged students, enabling them to continue their pursuit of academic excellence through Catholic education. Academic innovation includes updated classroom technology and equipment, dual language immersion, and resources to serve students with defined learning needs.


May 17 - June 7
Monday, May 27
  • No School - Memorial Day
Tuesday, May 28
  • 8th Graders wear High School Shirts and Sweatshirts with Uniform Bottoms
  • Athletic Ceremony & Honors Night - 7th and 8th Grades 6:30 pm in the UGC gym
Wednesday, May 29
  • Last Day of School for Monday, Wednesday and Friday Preschool
  • Eighth Grade Turn in Chromebooks, Chargers and Cases
  • All School Mass at 10:00 a.m. at St. Mary Catholic Church
Thursday, May 30
  • Last Day of School for Tuesday, Thursday Preschool
  • 8th Grade Graduation Dinner/Dance 6:00 p.m. at Deer Path Inn 
Friday, May 31
  • No School for Eighth Graders
  • Last Day of Kiddos Hot Lunches
  • 4th Grade Field Trip to the Shedd Aquarium 9:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
  • 3 & 4 year old Preschool Family Picnic 9:45 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.
  • 6th Grade Pen Pal Picnic 11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. at West Park
Monday, June 3
  • Last Day for 8th Grade
  • Fly-Up Day grades 3-6 from 9:15 - 10:15 a.m. at the UGC
  • No hot lunch served
Tuesday, June 4
  • UGC Mass at 9:00 a.m. at St. Mary Catholic Church
  • 8th Grade Graduation Mass at 5:30 p.m. at St. Mary Catholic Church
  • No hot lunch served
Wednesday, June 5
  • 7th Grade Field Trip to Old World Wisconsin 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
  • Kindergarten Celebration 9:30 - 10:30 a.m. at the PGC
  • No hot lunch served
Thursday, June 6
  • UGC Math Carnival 8:00 - 11:30 a.m. 
  • No hot lunch served
Friday, June 7
  • Casual Day at PGC and UGC
  • Early Release Day PGC at 2:00 p.m. and UGC at 2:20 p.m.
  • End of the 4th quarter
  • Activity Day at the PGC
  • Field Day at the UGC
  • Last Day of School