March 29, 2020 * Comet Newsletter
#CometsTogether
From Our Principal
3rd Quarter Honor Roll
Congratulations to our First Honors and Second Honors students!
Keep up the great work and let's finish this year strong!

Comet Classwork for Week 3
Just click on your child's grade below to get your teacher's lesson plan for the week. All referenced attachments/worksheets will still be found in Parent's Web and/or Google Classroom (if the teacher is using Google Classroom). We also have this posted on our website. We know many families are not able to print materials, so our teachers are working to limit the need to print as much as possible and rely instead on students to use their own paper at home to write down their answers.

Also, parents - if you have been invited by one of your children's teachers to join Google Classroom - please do so this week . Parents in Google Classroom are "guardians" and can follow their student's progress on Google Classroom. Very helpful!






Marylou Carter ( mcarter@saintbenedictschool.org )


Barbara Young ( byoung@saintbenedictschool.org )








MIDDLE SCHOOL:



Michelle Cisik ( mcisik@saintbenedictschool.org ) - English
Michele Barlow ( mbarlow@saintbenedictschool.org ) - Math
Rick Clary ( rclary@saintbenedictschool.org ) - Science
Teresa Lehmann ( tlehmann@saintbenedictschool.org ) - History
Jeff Cronheim ( jcronheim@saintbenedictschool.org ) - Latin/Religion


GENERAL ASSISTANCE

Principal - Sean Cruess (scruess@saintbenedictschool.org)
Administrative - Pam Autry (pautry@saintbenedictschool.org)
Financial/Technical - Elizabeth Hanson (ehanson@saintbenedictschool.org)
Technical Support - Ash Tabrizi (atabrizi@saintbenedictschool.org)
Communications & Social Media/Admissions/Development - Gretchen Ridgely (gridgely@saintbenedictschool.org)
Lunchtime on Zoom at The Comet Cafe!
Grab a sandwich and your device and connect with your classmates for a 30 minute virtual lunchroom on Zoom! This was a lot of fun this past week as we launched our lunchroom. We visited, had a special Guest Host (Armando!!), shared some jokes, were challenged by some riddles (thank you Armando!) and played Trivial Pursuit. Encourage your child to participate in their upcoming lunchroom below!

3rd Grade - MONDAY at 12pm
1st & 2nd - TUESDAY at 12pm
JK & K - WEDNESDAY at 12pm
4th & 5th - THURSDAY at 12pm
MIDDLE SCHOOL - FRIDAY at 12pm

CLICK HERE to access your grade's Comet Cafe:

Make sure to have your device set up correctly with audio/video working before lunchtime starts at 12pm. Mrs. Ridgely will be on lunch duty this week!
House Day - This Friday, April 3rd
This Friday, April 3 will be a House Day for our students! We encourage them to wear their House t-shirt at home and try some "Minute to Win It" games. Some game ideas can be found at:

We'll be posting lots of videos and photos of you guys that day - so be sure to share your own posts and make our virtual House Day a great time!
From Our Finance Office
FACTS Payments: Please be advised that FACTS is experiencing a heavier than normal call volume. If you need to adjust a payment date you have the following options:
1. Log into FACTS and
-- for payments on the tuition plan, move the payment up to 10 days yourself
-- for payments on the incidental plan, you can turn off automatic payments
2. Email  ehanson@saintbenedictschool.org . You will normally get a response within 3 hours, but you should allow 24 hours. Be as specific as you can with your request.
(Please be advised, that if you call FACTS, the first thing they will ask is if you have reached out to the school.)

Service Hours Waived - Spring PTO Service Hours requirement has been waived. Thank you to all of our wonderful volunteers!!

Enrollment Update: Given the uncertainty that everyone is experiencing we are extending the contract cancellation deadline for 2020-21 from April 20, 2020 to June 3, 2020.
As a reminder, tuition assistance offers are made based on the retrospective financial information provided in FACTS.  Families with a recent change in circumstances can work with Elizabeth Hanson at ehanson@saintbenedictschool.org for temporary assistance, which will be reviewed quarterly. We love our Comet Family and are here for
Important School-Away-from-School Notes:
Helpful reminders to keep our communications lines OPEN while we are distance learning!

  • Please respond to our emails/surveys in a timely manner. If we are reaching out to you, to support your family and your student, please be sure to get back to us promptly.

  • Read the newsletter EVERY WEEK when it comes out. Links to everything you need to know is right here!

  • If you are experiencing any technology issues email Ash Tabrizi at atabrizi@saintbenedictschool.org or Dr. Hanson immediately at ehanson@saintbenedictschool.org. We are happy to help troubleshoot any issues and make sure your student stays connected.

  • Keep doing your best! We do expect our students to be doing their assigned work in a reasonable timeframe. We are grading work. All teachers are available by email and phone to assist your child throughout the week. Some teachers will also be offering virtual study halls through Zoom. If your child is unable to complete their work within the week, we need you or your student to let your teacher know as soon as possible. You don't want your student to fall behind - and neither do we - so please keep communication lines open with your teachers regularly.

  • #COMETSTOGETHER Get on Facebook (at least for right now), help your child connect on Zoom Conference calls (like the Zoom Cafe!) and STAY CONNECTED. As the days and weeks of being home settle in for our children, staying connected to their classmates will become more and more important. Please help your child stay connected with them and us online, and join us as we stay #cometstogether!!
Distance Learning Support For Your Family
Please take some time to review this helpful information provided as part of St. Benedict's Distance Learning Information for Parents and Students . It provides helpful information about accessing support at the school, suggestions for scheduling your child's day of learning, our technology policy and more.
Community is KEY...Check out our most recent posts on social media - NOW on our website!
To help support our distance learning AND our social media connections we have updated our school website to provide easy access to our weekly newsletter and FACEBOOK! Check out our most recent posts HERE ! (But you still have to login to Facebook to post or comment and we hope you will!

Coming up on social media in the next few weeks.... Virtual Easter Egg Hunt. ....Show us your Easter Egg Decorations....and Share Your Favorite Easter Recipe!
From Our Librarian, Mrs. Clark
Students, you are an impressive reading community. Since this school year began, grades JK through 5 have checked out a total of 4,238 books! That is a LOT of reading and learning going on. What a wonderful use of our library resources!

Many of you have school library books at home right now. Read them and enjoy them, and please take good care of them. We want to be able to share them with many more students in the near future. 

The library page on the school website has information for you, including a link for digitally submitting your Reading Challenge results. Send an email to Mrs. Clark if you would like to know more about your library account, or if you want to tell me about a great book you are reading now. mclark@saintbenedictschool.org

Also be sure to keep an eye out for Mrs. Clark's incredible story times on our Facebook page!