May 10, 2020 * Comet Newsletter
From Our Principal
New! End of Day Announcements & Prayer with Mr. Cruess! We invite all of our students, parents and faculty to join us M-Th at 3pm on Zoom for some brief afternoon announcements, a little fun, and a chance to close our school day in prayer... just as we always did when we were together at school!
Here's the link:
Meeting ID: 733 8405 0889
Password: 2AmUTv

Middle School and Rising Middle School Assembly with Mr. Cruess in Monday's Comet Cafe! Attention Parents , tomorrow, Monday, May 11, we are asking ALL students in grades 5-8 to join Mr. Cruess in our Zoom lunchroom at 12pm. He'll have some important information to share with our middle school students as we near the end of the school year, and parents are welcome to attend as well if you are available. Please make sure your 5th-8th grader is on Monday's call at 12pm. Thank you!
Here's the link:
Meeting ID: 725 5370 4401
Password: 0MYnJA

Coffee With Mr. Cruess
Thank you to our JK-2 parents and faculty who joined us for our first Virtual Coffee with Mr. Cruess! It was a great way to connect and share! This Wednesday we look forward to seeing our parents of GRADES 3 & 4 at 9AM AND our parents of GRADE 5 at 9:30AM (so we can talk about our rising middle schoolers)! Mr. Cruess and your teachers will provide updates and answer any questions you might have. A zoom link will be emailed to families in the grades listed below the day before their zoom call. Another way we are making sure that our Comet community stays connected!
Here's the upcoming schedule:

May 13 Upper Elementary (3-4) 9am -9:30am
May 13 Rising Middle (5) 9:30am - 10am
May 20 6th & 7th Grades 9am -9:30am
May 27 8th Grade 9am -9:30am

Service Project of the Week
For this week's service project, we want to reach out and thank our health care workers. If you know a health care worker, send them a letter of encouragement and thanks. If you're not sure where to send a letter, VCU Health is accepting letters, and they can be mailed to:
VCU Medical Center- Main Hospital
Attn: Nathan Cunningham
1200 East Marshal Street
P.O. Box 989143
Richmond, VA 23298
Comet Classwork for Week 8
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 . Parents - please reach out to your teachers for support. They are here for YOU!






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

Specials :
Lauren Bykowski ( lbykowski@saintbenedictschool.org ) - Art
Liz Williams ( lwilliams@saintbenedictschool.org ) - Music
Kristen Treadwell ( ktreadwell@saintbenedictschool.org ) - P.E.
Michelle Clark ( mclark@saintbenedictschool.org ) - Library


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!
The following will be the Zoom schedule for the month of May (with the exception of Memorial Day) ! We will not have The Comet Cafe open on Fridays to reserve that day for your family. So grab a sandwich and your device and connect with your classmates for a 30 minute virtual lunchroom on Zoom! We'll have special guests, play games and catch up! Encourage your child to participate in their upcoming lunchroom below!



MIDDLE SCHOOL (and Rising Middle) (Grades 5-6-7-8) - MONDAY at 12pm
SPECIAL for this week! Middle School and Rising Middle School Assembly with Mr. Cruess in Monday's Comet Cafe! All 5th-8th graders are expected to participate .

3rd - 4th - TUESDAY at 12pm
It's Show and Tell time!....Let's go online with our parents and find a place we'd like to visit...
Is it Mars? The African safari? Mount Everest? The Vatican?
Wherever it is, let's share a picture of that place and why we want to go!!

1st & 2nd - WEDNESDAY at 12pm
Playdough creations with Ms. Bykowski!!
Just have some playdough or make your own salt dough and you'll be ready to go!

JK & K - THURSDAY at 12pm
Music time with Ms. Williams! Get ready to have fun!

CLICK HERE to access your grade's Comet Cafe:

Meeting ID: 725 5370 4401
Password: 0MYnJA

Virtus Training Has Gone Online!
This is a great opportunity!
While not required, we encourage parents, who regularly and routinely join virtual meet ups with their children, to take the one hour online training. Please email  virtus@richmonddiocese.org  to be given access to the training.

Take VIRTUS online NOW and get family service hour credit for next school year. All volunteers who work with or around children MUST have a current background check and completed VIRTUS training.

In order to keep your status active with VIRTUS you should read your monthly email bulletins and answer the 1 multiple choice question until you get it right.

Thank you for all you do and for helping keep our children safe.
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 you!
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!! You can also see what we are posting on Facebook on our website at http://www.saintbenedictschool.org/about/facebook.cfm
Support Your School....with words!
Can you help us with a testimonial or recommendation that we can post online about St. Benedict? With school being closed, we can no longer give tours or host Open Houses, which means we have to take our admissions online. Your recommendations for our school means so much! So, if you have a chance and can write a few sentences down about what you value about our school and can email it to admissions@saintbenedictschool.org or post it directly on Facebook (being sure to use the word "recommendation" in your post) we would be VERY grateful. Thanks for building up our Comet community and supporting our school!