Office of
Catholic Schools
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Lord, we thank you for the mission of Catholic education, where we have the opportunity to hear your call.
May we be open to the needs of people we encounter each day. Through our caring words and actions, may they see your love for them.
May Jesus give us the strength to follow Him and to make choices that will lead us to being His disciples.
Amen!
Prayers and wishes for a
HAPPY CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK!!
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Dates at a Glance (articles below or *in previous edition*):
- Jan. 26 Catholic Schools Week 2020 Begins
- Jan. 28 NCEA - Many Gifts - One Nation Event as Part of Catholic Schools Week
- Feb. School Choice dates below
- Feb. 3 New School Administrators meeting (9:00-1:00)
- Feb. 11 Powerschool user group (8:30-10:00)
- Feb. 24 Principals Meeting (VIRTUAL) Morning Session 9:00 AM-11:00 AM
Afternoon Session 1:00 PM-3:00 PM
- March 4 New Teacher Methods B in-service
- May 5 Principal and Pastor day
Mark Your Calendar
September 24, 2020 - All Schools Mass for grades 3-12 at the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help.
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Our next New Teacher in-service for those teachers who are new to Catholic schools will be
March 4 from 9:00-2:30
at the Diocesan Office. This session will be the second part of the Methods B course for Faith Integration. Please register your new teachers or send them the link to register. Thank you.
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The ACRE IFG Religion survey for fifth, eighth, and tenth graders takes place in March. The website for ordering materials is
https://www.nceaifg.com/
Click on FAQ’s for all the answers to questions you might have about the survey ordering or administration. The survey can be administered online or paper (online is cheaper).
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New Report on Catholic Education
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You may find some good statements for marketing in this article:
I commend to you the attached awesome report on Catholic Education from the Manhattan Institute, which was issued last month. It includes some shocking context and compelling history of Catholic Schools in detail that is commonly glossed over. It provides a wonderful vision of education reform.
Bottom line: The modern focus on test scores stems from an effort to find a common value system in education. But real values education (character, how one ought to live) is truly the common denominator in what enables our children to succeed when it comes to academics.
It's a 10-minute read that is worth your time.
Sharon L. Schmeling
Executive Director
WI Council of Religious & Independent Schools (WCRIS)
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Compass Spanish Insert Ad
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The Office of Catholic Schools will be running an ad in the Spanish insert that will appear in the February 7th publication. The ad, written in Spanish, will waive the enrollment fee for any
NEW FAMILY (defined as a family that currently does not have any children enrolled in any Diocese of Green Bay Catholic School).
For schools to be reimbursed, they must return the coupon in the ad along with the cover page of the enrollment form (please block out any confidential information) that shows the child’s name. Forms need to be returned to
Lori Paul
no later than
March 31, 20120
for reimbursement.
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The Rural Life Scholarship is a scholarship worth $500 sponsored by the Rural Life Committee of the Diocese of Green Bay. The purpose of this scholarship is to provide financial aid for an aspiring student going into the agricultural field. To qualify for this scholarship, the applicant must meet the following criteria.
• Pursuing post-secondary education that results in serving the agricultural community in their chosen profession
• Be an Active Member in Their Parish Community
• Exhibit Leadership Qualities
• Receive Recommendation from Pastor, Pastoral Leader, or Religious Education Coordinator
To be eligible for the scholarship, applicants must submit both the application and the Pastoral Recommendation Form (both can be found
here
as fillable PDF’s). The application
deadline is March 15, 2020
. If you have questions, please contact Peter Weiss (
pweiss@gbdioc.org
; 920-272-8321).
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Lent
will be here before we know it. Ash Wednesday is February 26. Here are a couple of links to great
free
Lenten resources. Please share/edit/use as much or as little as you like.
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The Wisconsin Bankers Foundation (WBF) is now accepting applications for its Spring Scholarship Program.
All seniors who are attending a Wisconsin accredited college, university or technical college are eligible to apply for this $2,000 scholarship. Students attending a Military Academy or private trade school are not eligible to apply.
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The billing will be sent to you for WCRIS dues. It is based on 2018-2019 PK4-12 enrollment.
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TV Commercial Ads in Support of Catholic Schools
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The commercial will air January 20-February 2 on E, Food, Freeform and Hallmark. It will air 10 times on each network between 10:00 am and midnight. It will also air during the Marquette Basketball games on January 24, January 29 and February 1. Finally, because we are using Spectrum, we are able to also air it on all streaming systems. (Roku, AppleTV, etc). This will help us reach those households that do not subscribe to cable TV. Please feel free to use the ad on your social media.
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Keith Ahrens from the Ahrens Group represents several publishers. Before Christmas he and I had the opportunity to talk about some of the new resources available. Some of you have asked about writing programs. He was excited to share two products:
Jump Into Writing: A Workshop Approach
by Zaner Bloser and
Being A Writer
by the Center for Collaborative Classroom. There are some opportunities to pilot these products.
If you are interested, feel free to contact
Keith Ahrens
Ahrens Education Group
920-460-0099
Companies represented: Zaner-Bloser, Booksource, Sundance-Newbridge, Okapi,Stenhouse, Collaborative Classroom, InquirED, ThinkCERCA For Special Discounts, Workshops, Professional Development, Samples, or Digital Access please go to our website at:
www.ahrenseducation.com
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February 1
- Deadline for schools to submit in OAS the completed second Friday in January Count Report.
February 3
- Open Application Period begins for the 2020-2021 school year.
By February 28
- State aid payments sent to schools based on January count.
The Qualifying Income Levels for the Choice Program for 2020-2021 have been released. They are:
Family Size Max Yearly Income Single Family Max Yearly Income Married Family
1 $27,478
2 $37,202
3 $46,926 $53,926
4 $56,650 $63,650
5 $66,374 $73,374
6 $76,098 $83,098
For each additional child – add $9,504
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Four Ways to Get Faculty Involved in Enrollment
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As a school leader, managing your school’s enrollment is a hard and, sometimes, lonely job—and there never seems to be enough time to get everything done. Often, your colleagues at the school don’t understand the impact of your school’s enrollment numbers on the financial well-being of your school. If they do, they have few opportunities to collaborate or even understand how they can help make a positive difference in recruiting and retaining students. Here are some ideas to help this process:
- Talk and brag about your faculty.
Parents want to know that the people teaching their children are qualified, smart teachers. They trust that they are going to help that child grow both academically and socially over the next year. But most parents know very little about the teachers at your school. Your first step is to make sure that you have compiled bios on all your teachers. These should be a mix of things that establish the quality of your teachers; the level of education, where they went to school, types of degrees, years teaching, etc., as well as fun facts, hobbies, favorite experience as a teacher, what inspired them to work in a school, etc. Then publish these on your school website faculty section as well as feature a faculty member each month on social media.
- Use your staff as subject-matter experts.
Set up a simple editorial calendar by asking each of your staff members to write one or two articles a year that you can use in your marketing. Put these articles on your school website or Facebook page.
Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Should students specialize in one sport or play multiple sports? - Athletic Director / Gym Teacher
Best educational toys for a third-grader – Third Grade Teacher
The books that every 6th grader should read – Sixth Grade Teacher or Librarian
How much screen time is too much? – Guidance Counselor
Signs that your child is ready for kindergarten – Kindergarten Teacher
- Get staff involved in recruiting students.
The personal touches in your student recruitment are often going to make big impressions with prospective parents. When a student tours your school (and you’ve collected their contact information), as part of your follow-up process, have one of the teachers who will be working with that child in the upcoming year write a short personal note thanking them for coming and describing a little bit about what the next year will look like. This doesn’t have to be a long letter, but it is much more about the thought and the fact that the teacher personally reached out to the prospective parent.
- Increase the amount of positive communication between the teacher and students.
Parents love to know how their child is doing in school. Most parents will check grades, but it is the emotional development milestones that they don’t hear about as often. Parents will love your school if you ask every teacher to send a short email to the parents just saying something like, “I wanted to let you know what a pleasure it is to have Alex in my class. He is such a good helper and is always being a friend to the other kids.” You better believe that is going to be the topic of conversation in the home that night!
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Please remember that the DIGICOPY portal contains a great deal of templates for you to use for flyers, newsletters, etc. If you need assistance in creating them, please contact
Lori Paul.
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The Sophia Institute has once again secured a grant to have two offerings of faith formation for teachers in the Diocese of Green Bay. We have secured June 10 and 11. The topics will be Proclaiming the Kingdom (Missionary Discipleship) and Behold Your Mother (Mary). The location will be at the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help.
Share this information with teachers so they can save the date! Registration will come out at a later date.
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Mental Health First Aid for Faith Leaders
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Faith and community leaders are often the first point of contact when individuals and families face mental health problems or traumatic events. In fact, in times of crisis, many will turn to trusted leaders in their communities before they turn to mental health professionals. Will you know how to respond?
Join other faith leaders to learn how to identify, understand, and respond to signs of addictions and mental illnesses.
Part 1: February 5 or 6 and Part 2: February 12 or 13
For more information, click on the button:
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Rural Life Essay or Drawing Contest
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For students in Grades 1-8: Create a picture or write an essay (200 words of less) on the topic:
"How does faith impact the work of farmers?"
Include student's name, address, grade and school/parish on back of an 8.5X11 drawing or essay. One entry per person. Deadline to enter February 14th.
Winners receive a Culver's gift card and entries published in the Rural Life issue of the Compass.
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Just a reminder that if you need to use the IT help desk, submit a request on-line at
gbhelpdesk@gbdioc.org
. The tickets are tracked and a report given to Deacon Conrad, IT Director, each week on what issues schools and parishes are having. If you email a staff person, Deacon Conrad will not see that and cannot track frequency of issues.
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Haven't Had Enough Yet?
There's More!
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NCEA webinars cover trending and need-to-know topics relevant to your career in Catholic education. All participants will receive the recorded webinar and presentation files for reference and inclusion among other professional learning resources.
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And more . . .
Click on icon below to read the latest issue of
Catholic School Matters
Newsletter from NCEA and Dr. Tim Uhl.
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Office of Catholic Schools
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