May 22, 2020
BK Alive
Weekly News and Information from Bishop Kelly
BK Alive is emailed each week on Friday with information for BK Parents. Please read this important information, as it is our primary method of communication with our families.

Welcome to all our new families who have students that will be joining BK next fall!

If you would like to put an announcement in BK Alive, please email communications@bk.org by noon on Thursday for the next day's newsletter.
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Just In Time Information - May 22nd, 2020
Dear BK Parents and Students,

It was wonderful to see so many of our parents and students the past two days during our drop off/pick up days! Thanks to all for making the process work so smoothly, even on that blustery, rainy, and cold Wednesday. Also, thank you for the kind words and messages of appreciation so many of you have sent to us about your experiences these past nearly three months. As one faculty member said today at our faculty/staff end-of-year luncheon, those notes provide fuel to keep going through these challenging times.

As we close out the 2019-20 school year and get ready to celebrate the Class of 2020 at their June 20th graduation , we hope you are all staying safe and healthy. We wanted to thank each of you for all the assistance and feedback you have provided in helping us successfully accomplish the five objectives we set out in mid-March when this all began:
  • Prioritize the health and well being of our faculty, staff, students, and greater community.
  • Continue to provide a great education for all students via virtual learning
  • Maintain the strong sense of community we have here at Bishop Kelly
  • Find ways to acknowledge, appreciate, and celebrate members of our community
  • Deliver effective and timely communication to our entire community

In this BK Alive, you will find information about semester grades, yearbooks, lost and found, an amazing AP Art Show, senior yard sign videos, video messages for the Class of 2020 from BK Alumni, summer boot camps, and an update on our 2020-21 school year plan. There is also one request of our parents - please consider being a BK Parents Association (BKPA) Ambassador for our new BK families.
Summer Academic Boot Camps
We have had many requests from students and families for opportunities over the summer months for academic boot camps. This is especially important given the uneven educational experiences that our incoming students have had, along with many of our normal summer activities being cancelled or postponed.

To fill that need we are working on the following Academic Boot Camps for Bishop Kelly Students:

  • Academic Survival Skills
  • Artistic Creations Camp (Drawing)
  • Coding and Robotics Camp
  • College Application Accelerator
  • Math Foundations LaunchPad
  • Writing LaunchPad

Click here for detailed information about boot camps such as dates, times, and cost per session.

These boot camps will be taught on the BK campus by BK faculty members during the weeks of June 15-18, June 22-25 and August 4-6. We will adhere to strict health and safety guidelines similar to what we have been doing with our partial school opening these past two weeks for students needing assistance.

Stay tuned for information about how to register. Class size will be limited in order to help us maintain social distancing.

Financial Aid is available for families who need assistance.

Registration for Summer Boot Camps will be sent out next week!

Planning for Fall 2020
As mentioned in our last JIT, we are busy working on the instructional plan we will implement for the Fall 2020 semester. We are continuing to collaborate with leading Catholic and public schools nationally who are at the forefront, like we here at BK, of this virtual/hybrid world of learning. Our goal is to have a plan that is built on a set of assumptions and four overriding goals:

Assumptions 
  • There will not be a cure or vaccine for COVID-19 widely available this year.
  • Some social distancing guidelines will remain in place through the fall
  • Some BK students will choose to not enter our buildings next year due to health concerns, either theirs or their families
  • Some BK faculty and staff will choose to not enter our building next year due to health concerns, either theirs or their families
  • There are some best practices in learning that are coming out of this spring semester that will improve our educational practices.
  • We do not know what community spread will look like in August or throughout the year and waves may occur in the late fall/winter timeframe before a vaccine

Goals for the 2020-21 School Year
  • Make the learning experience exceptional for all BK students and faculty & staff
  • Build a plan that provides flexibility, adaptability and options for our students, faculty/staff and our school
  • Keep our students, faculty/staff and community safe and healthy
  • Engage our parents and community as partners to the overall learning experience of our students 

We still plan to share an outline of our most likely 2020-21 school year plan in mid to late June to our faculty, staff, students and parents. Stay tuned. 

Finally, thank you for entrusting your daughters and sons to us for their education and development. We look forward to seeing our rising sophomores, juniors and seniors in August and to celebrating with the Class of 2020 and their parents here at BK on Nick Ysursa Field on June 19th for Baccalaureate Mass and on June 20th for graduation!

Please know you and your families continue to be in our prayers. We hope and pray you have a relaxing, safe and peaceful summer!
Rich Raimondi
President
Mike Caldwell
Principal


Spiritual Reflection, by Father Vance
The Gospel reading for Mass today seems particularly appropriate for the bittersweet emotions that circle the final day of the school year. As part of Jesus’ “Farewell Discourse” from the Gospel of John, Jesus expresses the twin feelings of sorrow at having to leave his friends, yet at the same time the promise of joy and blessing with the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the assurance that when Our Lord goes to the Father, he goes to prepare a place for us to be with him forever. Jesus tells his disciples today that “So you are now in anguish. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.” What a perfect expression of many of our feelings here at BK at seeing this school year end! We are tired, and this ending was not what we signed up for. The usual and accustomed happiness at the prospect of a summer break is enhanced by the exhaustion of the work of the last two months, and it is also tempered with the questions of what will come next for us, both in our time away and in the school year to come. We certainly do not get to say goodbye to our wonderful Senior Class in the ways we most desire to, and yet we will do our level best to celebrate them as they deserve. We are, in short, a mixture of anguish and joy. And yet as it was for the disciples, it is for us today. The ultimate promise is of a joy that no one will take from us! Why? Because it is rooted, not in our own efforts or our own weakness and limitations. The joy Jesus promises is one that has its beginning and its end in God alone. And because it is granted by the divine itself, nothing merely human can take it from us. This is our ultimate hope and faith. In the midst of all the uncertainty and confusion around us, I invite, no, I beg us as a community to remember this promise of Our Lord, to help each other remember it, and to let the power of a joy that can never be taken from us touch our lives as this school year ends. We are the BK family, and individually as well as all together, we are heirs to this promise of Christ. May God bless our summer breaks, our celebrations, and even our goodbyes with a taste of the joy that no one can take from us.
We Need Current Parents to sign up to be Parent Ambassadors!

If you are a parent of a current BK Student, we need your help! The BKPA is looking for Parent Ambassadors to help welcome and onboard our new BK parents. Each Parent Ambassador will be assigned a handful of new BK Families to check in with over the summer. Your job would be to welcome these new parents, and help them find answers to the questions they will inevitably have about things like dress code, bus schedules, lunch accounts, and so much more. Ambassadors will be trained by BK Staff.

Please let us know if you would be interested in being a Parent Ambassador by filling out THIS GOOGLE FORM.

Thank you!
BKPA Officers and Chairs for 2020 - 2021

Volunteering with the BKPA is a FUN way to be involved in your student's high school experience. And you will make your own friends along the way too! If you would like to get involved with the BKPA please let us know by filling out THIS SHORT FORM. We will contact you over the summer.
Dear Parents of Incoming Freshmen and New Students:

Looking for a gift for your graduating 8th grader? Bishop Kelly Spirit Store is open virtually for you!

The Spirit Store has the items pictured above in stock. You can order via email at  bkspiritstore@gmail.com by Sunday, May 24th , and your order will be available for curbside pickup at Bishop Kelly on Tuesday, May 26th , from 9:00am to 12:00pm.

Just send your order request to  bkspiritstore@gmail.com . We will bag your order and collect payment during curbside pickup on May 26th. Your confirmation email will contain a cell phone number that you can text when you are at BK, and someone will bring out your order and take your payment. We will try to have a credit card machine available curbside on the 26th, but cash or check (made out to BK Spirit Store) would be more convenient.

Please email with any questions! Thank you!
Go Knights! #BKStrong !

White long-sleeved t-shirt $20 (indicate size)
Black long-sleeved t-shirt $20 (indicate size)
White baseball hat $20
Black baseball hat $20
Bucket hat $30
BK oval sticker $5
BK lanyard $5
Coffee mug $10
Visor (not pictured) $23

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Congratulations to Daniel Kim, the first ever recipient of the Redinger Family Scholarship. This scholarship, offered through the Bishop Kelly Foundation, is awarded once a year to an incoming senior. The student must plan to remain a varsity athlete their senior year, be involved in a STEM related club or extracurricular activity, and have completed both leadership and spiritual or volunteer activities. Congratulations Daniel on your achievement!
Checking Your Student's Grades
Family Link will be live from May 26 - 29th to check end of semester grades. Beginning May 30th Family Link will be down as we begin to transition to our new School Management System.

Grades will be mailed out the first week of June.

How to check your Student's grades online:

  • Go to  www.bk.org  and scroll to the very bottom of the page. Select the "Schoolmaster" icon which will take you to the Family Link Portal.

  • Login with your Parent access: Username:  firstname.lastname (this is the name of the parent used at registration)

  • Returning Parent Password:  A unique password that you set up previously. If you can't remember, use the password recovery option.

  • New Parent Password: bkknight5 You will be asked to set up a unique password after your first login.
Yearbooks are Here!
Yearbooks were distributed on May 20th and 21st during the designated drop-off days and times. There are still several yearbooks at BK waiting to be picked up. Please come by the school during our Summer Office Hours from 9:00 Am - 1:00 PM to pick up your yearbook. (We are closed this Monday for Memorial Day.) We encourage wearing a mask and using the hand sanitiser inside the main entrance.

Not sure if you've already ordered a yearbook? Check this list. The list is current as of Wednesday, May 13th, so any orders placed after that point are not listed.
You're Invited to the Bishop Kelly Advanced Placement Art Show
The Bishop Kelly Advanced Placement Artists welcome you to their 2020 AP Art Show. These artists were able to complete their work, despite the closure of our school building amid the stay at home requirements during the Covid-19 pandemic. This compilation of their work is something that everyone here at Bishop Kelly is very proud of, and we hope you enjoy it.

2020 AP Artists:
Rebecca Bodine
Anna Connington
Lucas Gabrieli
Avery Hormaechea
Charley Mason
Paul O'Neill
Anika Rubocki
Katie Stevens

Hailey Clark
Juliette Crichton
Kylie Godfrey
Lauren Lowe
Sophia Moylan
Addison Ribordy
Miranda Ruch

Honoring Our Seniors
Bishop Kelly kicked off our Salute to Seniors with personalized yard signs for each Knight in the Class of 2020. The signs were displayed at school this week as students returned to campus on Wednesday and Thursday for drop off day. Please enjoy these videos that showcase the signs. Special thanks to Light Bender Media for the drone footage, and Capitol Copy & Print for printing the signs.

Seniors can pick up their yard signs at BK anytime. (Don't wait, they might disappear!)
And an awesome video from our Alumnknights to the Class of 2020!
Lost and Found
The end of school year lost and found is overflowing!

In addition to the items in the photos below, we also still have several bags of stuff from the locker cleanout this week. If you were unable to come by BK on Wednesday or Thursday, please check with us to see if your student has items that need to be picked up. (Including yearbooks!)

Bishop Kelly's main office will be open from 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM Monday - Friday this summer. (We are closed this Monday for Memorial Day.) Please stop by to claim your items. We encourage wearing a mask and using the hand sanitiser inside the main entrance.
Clothing
Homeless Duck and other Misc. Items
Shoes
Job Openings at Bishop Kelly
Substitute Kitchen Assistant
Activities Bus Driver

Important Links
Contact BK
  • Front Office: 375-6010
  • Fax: 375-3626
  • Business Office Manager: 947-1209
  • BK Development Office: 947-1325
  • BK Foundation Office: 323-4789

To add, remove, or change your email address, or to remove your name from our regular mailing lists, please contact Chrissy at  cbeckner@bk.org .
Bishop Kelly High School | (208) 375-6010 | www.bk.org