St. Pius X / St. Leo School Newsletter
August 2, 2019
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OPEN HOUSE
TUESDAY, AUGUST 13TH
We will once again have Open House before school starts. Students will have an opportunity to meet their teachers and find out their homerooms.
Please note the following:
Tuesday, August 13th will be Open House for students in Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 8 from 5:30 - 7:30 pm.
You are all welcome to come for dinner that evening in the cafeteria. Subway sandwiches will be available for you to purchase for dinner (as well as chips and pop). The school will earn a portion from each sandwich sold. Please also know that you are welcome to walk around the entire school. In the gym there will be representatives talking about the
Music in Catholic Schools Band Program, parents selling our school sweatshirts, boys and girls scouts and several other groups.
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SCHOOL THEME
Our school theme for this year aligns with our mission, the vision of our school, who we are as a community, and all that we have planned for the future. Since we are continually growing as a school community and as we grow in the services we provide to all of God's learners, our theme this year is "All are welcome. All belong."
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IMPORTANT TUITION REMINDERS
The 2019-20 ‘pay in full’ tuition option was due August 1. If you have already submitted payment, thank you. If you have not remitted payment yet, please drop off payment to the school office or stop by and enroll in the SMART payment plan. If you have any questions regarding your balance, please call the school office at 402-551-6667.
All outstanding tuition balances from the 18-19 school year must be paid in full prior to August 15. You cannot register your child for the current school year until the balance is paid. Again, please contact the school office if you have any questions 402-551-6667.
Pre-Kindergarten tuition is payable to the school office on a monthly basis. Pre-Kindergarten families remit nine monthly payments, either August through April or September through May.
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St. Pius X / St. Leo School is a diverse community forming students in the Catholic faith to excel in academics and service to others.
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EXTENDED CARE UPDATE
August 15 and 16 are noon dismissal days and extended care is available for children that are registered in the program.
Lunch is NOT served at school on those days, so please make sure your child brings a lunch.
Extended Care only serves a mid-afternoon snack on early dismissal days. August calendars were mailed out on July 26. Your August calendar and payment are due by August 7. If you have not remitted payment yet, please send it as soon as possible. If you did not receive your calendar in the mail or are in need of one, please direct your questions to Cheri Freese at cheri.freese@spsl.net. Mrs. Freese will also be available at Open House on August 13 if you need to register your children for the Extended Care Program. Payment will be needed at that time to complete the registration process. Please note we accept Title 20 if you qualify.
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FUTURE NEWSLETTERS
This newsletter will be the only one emailed before the start of the school year. After school starts, we will email out a school newsletter approximately two times per month.
We do not send home paper copies of the newsletter. Please keep us posted with any email changes.
The newsletter will also be linked on the school website,
www.spsl.net
. As you are partners with us in your child's education and since this is one of the main forms of communication we use, we trust that you will read the newsletter on a consistent basis.
As a school our goal is to utilize email communication more and truly send less paper notes home. Information sent previously via paper can be found on the school website (
www.spsl.net
), including the lunch menu and calendar of events.
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NOTES FROM THE NURSE
All immunization records and physical forms (physical exams required for students entering pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, 7th grade or students transferring from an out-of-state school) were to have been turned in to the school office.
If they have not been turned in yet, you need to do it as soon as possible -
do NOT wait and send them with your child on the first day of school
.
Your child will not be able to attend classes until the records are in the school's office. Thank you for keeping our school in compliance with the Nebraska school laws.
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IMMUNIZATION RULES
Please note the following requirement for 7th grade students. Students entering 7th grade will be required to provide proof of a booster immunization of diphtheria, tetanus, and acellular pertussis (Tdap), given on or after your child's 7th birthday. Please be sure when your child has their 7th grade physical exam that you have the doctor administer the immunization if it is needed. Thank you for your cooperation in keeping your children up-to-date with this immunization requirement.
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THURSDAY, AUGUST 15 is the first day of school. Students in grades K-8 will attend school from 8:15 am until noon. This same schedule will be followed on FRIDAY, AUGUST 16. Beginning MONDAY, AUGUST 19, students will attend school for full days - 8:15 am until 3:25 pm (except for 8th graders who are dismissed at 3:30 pm).
Thursday, August 15 is also a Holy Day of Obligation in the Catholic Church. Students in Grades 5-8 will go to Mass at 8:30 am this day and Grades Kindergarten - 4 will go to Mass at 10:00 am.
NOTE: Five-day and Three-day Pre-Kindergarten students will begin classes Monday, August 19. Two-day Pre-Kindergarten students will begin classes Tuesday, August 20.
Students in grades K-8 will go directly to their classrooms on August 15. All new students will be helped to find their proper locations these first days.
LUNCH WILL NOT BE SERVED THURSDAY AUGUST 15 AND FRIDAY AUGUST 16.
Milk will be available for a morning break for all grades for 60 cents per day. If your child wants milk, please send CASH to pay for milk on August 15 and 16 as milk tickets will not be used until August 19. Students may also bring a snack on these days.
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CALENDAR FEATURE
SPSL has implemented an interactive calendar through our website. Click
here
to see what events are going on at school. If you want to add an event to your personal calendar, click on it and pick your platform. The school calendar is set up to sync with Apple Calendar, Google, Outlook, Outlook.com, and Yahoo.
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SCHOOL TIME
We ask that students not arrive at school before 8:00 am, nor enter the building unless he/she is enrolled in the Extended Care Program or involved in a school-sponsored organized activity or duty. We ask that students who walk or get a car ride to school do not arrive before students are allowed to enter their classrooms. The teachers and administrators are in meetings many mornings and are not able to supervise students before 8:00 am. It is also unfair to those parents who are paying for babysitters or the Extended Care Program before school if some students are dropped off early. It students walk to school they should arrive sometime between 8:00 and 8:15 am. Students will be marked tardy
if they are not sitting at their desk
by 8:15 am.
Please remember that school will dismiss at 3:25 pm (3:30 pm for 8th grade) each day this year, unless otherwise noted on the calendar of events on the school website (
www.spsl.net
). Children need to be picked up on time each day.
If this is not possible, the child(ren) need to be placed in the Extended Care Program.
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FACULTY/STAFF CHANGES
As each school year comes to an end, we say goodbye to many of our faculty and staff. We are so grateful for their sharing of their time, talents, and treasures with our SPSL community and they will be greatly missed. The following faculty and staff left at the end of this past school year or over the summer:
Mrs. Sarah Stratman - 7th grade teacher
Mrs. Gabrielle Dalton - 5th grade teacher
Miss Mary McGuire - 5th grade teacher
Miss Becky Wessling - 4th grade teacher
Mrs. Jenny Howard - Resource teacher
Mrs. Carol Drvol - Music teacher
Larry Stephens - Art teacher
Mrs. Jill Melkus - Teacher assistant
Mrs. Chris Worthy - Teacher assistant
Mr. EJ Karlberg - Maintenance personnel
Mrs. Julie Gallegos - Development Assistant
Mrs. Mary Greiner - Business Manager
Fr. Michel N'Do - Priest in residence
Fr. Jerome Dillon - Sr. Associate Pastor - St. Leo the Great
We are excited to welcome the following new faculty and staff members to the SPSL school community:
Miss Jordan Moser - 4th grade teacher
Mrs. Annie Wise - 5th grade teacher
Dr. Ann Adkins - 5th grade teacher
Mr. Aaron Mason - 7th grade teacher
Mr. Kyle Marugg - 8th grade teacher
Miss Carin Andrew - Resource teacher
Mrs. Allison Wagner - Resource teacher
Miss Natalie McGovern - Special Education teacher (Madonna)
Mrs. Leah Stewart - Special Education teacher (Madonna)
Mrs. Sara Fleming - Music teacher
Miss Janet Drvol - School liturgist
Mrs. Cat Flores - Extended Care Co-Director
Miss Nina Englin - Business/Personnel Coordinator
Mrs. Deanna Canterbury - School nurse
Mrs. Betsy Cowles - Teacher assistant
Mr. Jonta Nivongsa - Maintenance personnel
Fr. Emmanuel Agbo - Associate Pastor - St. Leo the Great
Fr Michael Gadache - Associate Pastor - St. Pius X (mid August)
Ryan Lampe will assume his role as Dean of School/Assistant Principal on a full-time basis and will not teach in 8th grade.
We are very excited for the school year to begin!
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SCHOOL UNIFORMS
School uniforms can be purchased either from Dennis Uniform, located at 726 N 109 Court, or from DiGiorgio's Sportswear, located at 14111 Q Street. Uniform skorts, jumpers, or skirts can also be purchased online from French Toast.
Dennis Uniform's phone number is
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SAFE ENVIRONMENT TRAINING
The Archdiocese of Omaha is committed to a safe, pure, and loving environment for all of our youth. All people attempting first time certification for safe environment training must attend a live training class, acknowledge Archdiocesan code of conduct, and submit a background check. Certification is good for five years and recertification can be done online. More information on Safe Environment can be found
here.
There will be training held on Monday, August 19th at 6:30 pm at St. Leo Church and Saturday, September 28th at 10:00 am at St. Pius X Church. If you are interested in signing up for Safe Environment Training, click
here
.
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DROP-OFF AND PARKING PROCEDURES
You may
drop-off
students in the morning in the following parking lots only:
- Church front parking lot. You must exit this parking lot by turning right on Blondo Street. You may NOT make a left turn from this parking lot onto Blondo Street when you exit.
- Lot east of 69th Street.
- South church parking lot. You may NOT make a left turn from this parking lot onto 69th Street.
The lot west of the north school building is for families who are dropping off Pre-Kindergarten students
ONLY.
Families who have Pre-Kindergarten students may park in the west lot or the north side of the Pre-Kindergarten building. St. Pius X Church rectory visitors also use this lot so please be considerate of the parishioner needs.
You may use the following lots for
parking
if you wish to come in the building in the am:
- Outside area of the lot east of 69th Street.
- Outside area of the south church parking lot by the gym and playground.
Please do not park in the church front (north) parking lot until school has begun at 8:15 am. Then you may use this lot in order to park for our school Masses.
For picking up your children after school, you may park in any of the lots except the church front parking lot and the west parking lot.
At dismissal time we need to keep the church front lot free of cars as all of the students come out of school directly into this lot. Safety is a major concern, therefore, the lot must be free of cars.
The west lot is only for picking up Pre-Kindergarten students.
If you wish to meet your children, you may park in one of the other lots and walk to the front church parking lot to meet your children.
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NOTE TO PARENTS OF 5TH/6TH GRADE STUDENTS
Our 5th and 6th grade musical on November 14 will be "Hairspray, Jr". Auditions are held in the morning before the start of the school day at 7:30 am in the music room. The students
MUST
come to auditions if they want to be considered for a part in the musical. The audition dates and times will be as follows:
SPEAKING AUDITIONS
will be held on the following dates:
- Tuesday, August 20: 5th grade boys
- Wednesday, August 21: 5th grade girls
- Thursday, August 22: 6th grade boys
- Friday, August 23: 6th grade grils
SINGING AUDITIONS
will be held on the following dates:
- Tuesday, August 27: 5th grade boys
- Wednesday, August 28: 5th grade girls
- Thursday, August 29: 6th grade boys
- Friday, August 30: 6th grade grils
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CUB & BOY SCOUTS
If you are interested in joining Cub Scouts Pack 570 or just want some information, please stop by our table in the gym at the Open House on August 13. Adult leaders will be available to talk to you. Cub Scouts is open to all boys in Kindergarten – 5th grades. Scouting is available for boys in Grade 6 and up. Pack 570 has many fun programs planned for the school year, including camping and swimming programs.
For any questions regarding Cub Scouts (Grades K - 5) or If any Kindergarten parent is interested in being a leader or assistant leader for their respective boy's grade, please contact Matt Rusch. Matt can be reached at 402-980-9131 or emailed at
mrusc@eslaw.com
.
For any question regarding Scouting for Grades 6 on up, please email Jim Nelson at nelsonja2014@gmail.com.
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The annual School Fundraiser will be Saturday, October 26, at Creighton Prep.
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"
Journey To A Brighter Tomorrow”
This theme represents our school's trailblazing mission of enriching the
minds
and
faith
of our children,
and future students,
while embracing our
diversity
and
service
to our community.
Brand new this year - Y
ou may bid on "
Bucket List
" trips and travel experiences as an opportunity for you to journey to an exciting destination, with the added bonus of supporting the needs of our school. We call that a win-win vacation!
Have interest in helping? Jump online to the Sign Up Genius
here
.
Stay tuned for more details about this year's exciting fundraiser!
Lori Rusch and Stephanie Basham
2019 Co-Chairs
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ASSIGNMENT NOTEBOOKS
Student assignment notebooks are available for purchase in the school office and will also be available at Open House on August 13. The price for each notebook is $5.00. Students purchasing assignment notebooks on the first day of school should bring their money to their homeroom teacher. Students in grades 4-8 use these assignment notebooks or similar ones.
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SPIRIT WEAR
SPSL Spirit Wear will be available for purchase online, beginning Monday, August 12 through Sunday, August 25, with delivery around September 16. There will be three other sales throughout the school year, one before Christmas, one in early 2020, and one in early April. For more information on spirit wear, click
here
.
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SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM
SPSL School is contracted with Westside Nutrition Services to provide our students lunch. The daily student cost for lunch is $3.50 for the new school year for all grade levels (price includes one milk). Free/Reduced Lunch Applications will be provided to families at Open House.
The cafeteria staff is still in need of volunteers to help serve the lunch. Please contact Mary Jalbert at mary.jalbert@spsl.net if you are interested. It also is a great volunteer opportunity for grandparents.
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SCHOOL BUILDING CHANGES
Once again our maintenance personnel have worked very hard this summer to prepare the learning environment for another school year.
- New partitions were installed in the 5th grade girl's and 8th grade boy's bathrooms.
- We were able to carpet two of the Kindergarten rooms because of a generous donation from Kelly's Carpet. Money raised from last year's school fundraiser was used to pay for carpet in the other two Kindergarten classrooms.
- Updates were made in the PreK rooms, including the building of cubbies and some painting.
- This summer brought the usual cleaning of everything in the rooms along with the cleaning of carpets and waxing of floors by our maintenance staff and cleaning company personnel. They worked very hard to clean everything and fix things as needed. We believe we are in good shape to begin another school year.
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ASBESTOS
As most of you are aware, we removed all of the friable asbestos in our school many years ago. We do have some non-friable asbestos in the floor tiles of a few of our rooms,
most of which are covered with carpet
.
In addition there are two secured and plainly marked heating chases on the second and third floors of the main building.
We also have two cubbyholes with locked doors that have asbestos on the heating coils. These are located on the second and third floors of the main building. We are not required to remove these tiles or the asbestos on the coils but to inform you that we do have a management plan available in our office concerning the care of these tiles and coils if you wish to inspect the plan.
As part of asbestos management plan, the campus buildings are inspected by a certified asbestos abatement service.
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ST. PIUS X PARISH PICNIC
AUGUST 18, 2019
All are welcome to come to the St. Pius X Parish picnic on Sunday, August 18. The picnic will follow the 11:30 am Mass. The parish will provide hamburgers, hot dogs, and drinks. Guests can bring a dessert (last names starting with A-K) or a side dish (last names starting with L-Z). For more information, click
here.
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ST. LEO CHURCH
PARISH FESTIVAL
SEPTEMBER 8, 2019
Mark you calendars for this fun event!
Volunteers are needed for the St. Leo Parish Festival to help with set-up, clean-up, games, inflatables, raffle, ticket sales, bake sale, food, etc. Please click
here to sign up to help. If you have any questions, please contact the St. Leo Church office at 402-397-0407.
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MUSIC IN CATHOLIC SCHOOLS
Parents of 5th - 8th graders should be sure to stop by the Music in Catholic Schools table at Open House, located in the gym, to get information about the band program at SPSL School. Students may try out various instruments to determine which they would like to play. Parents may also register and make their first payments to MCS at Open House.
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IMPORTANT MEDICAL BULLETIN
SPSL School is in compliance with the state mandated “Emergency Response to Life-Threatening Asthma or Systemic Allergic Reactions (Anaphylaxis) Protocol.” The protocol involves the use of an IM EpiPen and nebulized albuterol and calling 911.
The protocol is to be administered by trained responders to ANY student showing life-threatening asthma attacks or other allergic reactions. Responders will be available during the course of regular school hours.
This protocol and its emergency medication is not meant to replace the health care provider's plan for students with a diagnosis of asthma and/or anaphylaxis. The emergency medication (such as inhalers, epinephrine) prescribed for students with known asthma and/or anaphylaxis is provided by the student's parents to the school according to the school's Medication policy.
IF YOU
DO
NOT
WANT YOUR DAUGHTER / SON TO BE TREATED FOR THESE LIFE-THREATENING EMERGENCIES YOU NEED TO SEND CORY SEPICH, PRINCIPAL, WRITTEN NOTIFICATION PRIOR TO THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL.
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Want to learn how the every day things you do – eating, reading, traveling, surfing the web, shopping - can earn money for St. Pius X / St. Leo School? Click here for a list of all our
on-going fundraising efforts
.
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p:402.551.6667
f:402.551.8123
6905 Blondo St, Omaha, NE 68104
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