BK Alive - December 3, 2021

December 3, 2021

BK Alive

News and Information for BK Families

THIS NEWSLETTER CONTAINS A LOT OF INFORMATION, AND THE LENGTH OF THE NEWSLETTER CAUSES IT TO BE TRUNCATED.

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NEXT WEEK AT A GLANCE

Monday 12/6- Periods 1-4

8:30 AM Start, 3:00 PM Release

Tuesday 12/7 - Periods 5-7

9:00 AM Start, 2:45 - 3:15 PM Office Hours

Wednesday 12/8 - All School Mass, Straight 7

8:30 AM Start, 3:02 PM Release

Thursday 12/9 - Periods 1-3

9:00 AM Start, 2:45 - 3:15 PM Office Hours

Friday 12/10 - Periods 4-7

8:30 AM Start, 3:00 PM Release

Important Upcoming Dates

Saturday, December 4 - Junior High Rally in the Reg

Monday, December 6th - Music Concert in the Reg at 7:30 PM

Wednesday, December 8 - Feast of the Immaculate Conception, All School Mass

Tuesday, December 14th - Senior Out to Lunch

Wednesday, December 15 - Parent Book Club in the Library at 7:00 PM

December 17 - 22 - Finals

December 23 - January 7 - Christmas Vacation

January 10th - First Day of 2nd Semester

Winter Sports Schedules are at BKAtletics.org

School Calendars Can Be Found Here

Bell Schedules Can be Found Here

Fall Semester Final Exam Schedule

Friday December 17th

1st Period: 8:30-10:00

2nd Period: 10:15-11:45

Saturday December 18th

Alternative Final Exam Period - 8:00- 2:00 pm

Monday December 20th

3rd Period: 8:30-10:00

4th Period: 10:15-11:45

Tuesday December 21st

5th Period: 8:30-10:00

6th Period: 10:15-11:45

Wednesday December 22nd

7th Period: 8:30-10:00

A Note from Rich and Mike

Hello BK Community,

It is hard to fathom that we have less than three weeks left in the fall semester. Thank you once again for all you have done in partnership with us to make the first 16 weeks of the 2021-22 school year so successful in most every way. And we hope you all had a restful and happy Thanksgiving break.

In this BK Aive letter, we will share with you some of the exciting things happening here at BK during this most special Advent season and provide an update on COVID-19 here at Bishop Kelly.

We are very blessed and grateful to have this incredible community, amazing students, engaged and supportive families, a caring and dedicated faculty and staff, and a loving God, working all together to realize the results cited above.

Advent at Bishop Kelly

We have had an amazing first week of Advent here at our school. Advent is a sacred season where we are called to prepare our lives for the birth of the Savior.

The week began with Advent wreaths placed in every classroom, and the daily lighting of the “hope” candle this week. Each week of Advent we will begin the school day by lighting the advent wreaths. We will celebrate the four weeks of Advent, with candles representing the themes of hope, peace, love and joy.

This week also brought the conclusion of our Frassati Food Drive. Our students brought in a total of 33,840 points (or over 20,000 pounds) of food. This means that everyone gets to wear sweats during finals week. The juniors, in a massive upset and for the first time ever, beat out the seniors for the Ice Cream party by the narrowest of margins (.3%). However, the real winners in this food drive are the thousands of people and families within our community that will be blessed during these winter months. Because of the Frassati food drive, our amazing BK community has brought in tens of thousands of diapers, hundreds of containers of baby formula, 10 tons of food, and over 1,000 coats and backpacks that all will benefit the five local food banks, the Diaper Warehouse and the Corpus Christi House.

As Fr. Vance discusses below, we have just completed two days of reconciliation services. This year each student, spent time with a priest to pray with them, ask for a blessing, or receive the sacrament of reconciliation. Finally, our All School Mass next Wednesday will celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception. This is a time to celebrate the great joy of God’s gift to humanity in Mary, and to recognize with greater clarity, the truth that each and every human being has been created by God to fulfill a particular mission that he and only he can fulfill.

Many thanks to our Theology Department, our Campus Ministry team, led by Lorissa Horn, Fr. Vance and our area priests, and our students for their outstanding efforts this Advent season.

COVID-19 at BK

We are now four weeks into our move back to encouraging - not requiring - masks and we continue to be very pleased with the results. The feedback from students and staff has been positive and all seem to be respectful of choices students and staff are making as to whether to wear a mask or not. In our COVID-19 assessment meeting this week, we made the decision to continue with optional masks for the remainder of the semester based on the metrics we follow.

Speaking of those metrics, we are continuing to track and publish our school data on BK.org daily. The news continues to be positive. For the entire month of November, we have only had two positive cases reported, with no cases in the final two weeks of the month or the first three days of December. We currently have no students or staff members out in quarantine. Student attendance remains strong at around 94% and we had no staff absences for illness this week.

Externally, while we are still in a pandemic, local hospitals are out of crisis standards of care and their numbers for hospitalizations and ICU patients have dropped significantly. Case rates per 100,000 are one-fourth of what they were six weeks ago and positivity rates for Ada County are approaching the key 5% threshold in Ada County.

Final Thoughts

We continue to feel very blessed and grateful to have this incredible community, amazing students, engaged and supportive families, a caring and dedicated faculty and staff, and a loving God, working all together to realize the results cited above. Let’s work together to finish the semester strongly!

God Bless!

Rich Raimondi

President

Mike Caldwell

Principal

Reflections from Father Vance

“What are you giving up for Advent?” This is the question I began my classes with this past Monday, the first Monday of Advent. On cue, just as I had planned that it would happen, a couple of kids (the ones who actually listen to me when I say something) replied with: “Isn’t that Lent, not Advent?”

They are right, of course. The tradition of the season of Lent is that we give something up as a way for appreciating the power and grace of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ at Easter. But there are telltale signs that the season of Advent has a lot in common with the season of Lent. Here are merely a few of these signs:

LITURGICAL COLOR: Both Advent and Lent share the color of violet or purple. 25 years ago, when I was first ordained a Priest, the color of navy blue was sometimes worn during Advent, but that tradition seems to have fallen by the wayside. Violet is a “penitential” color in the Catholic tradition, meaning that when you see it, you should take it as an invitation to focus on your own need for God’s healing and forgiving grace in your life. That color is also reflected in the Advent Wreath that many of us use to mark the time during this season. This liturgical color leads directly into the next sign of connection between Advent and Lent.
FOCUS ON CONFESSION: The Church asks us to seek the grace of sacramental reconciliation, or to go to Confession, at least twice per year -- you guessed it -- during the seasons of Advent and Lent. Parishes will host reconciliation services with the opportunity for individual Confessions in order to make this as easy as possible for us. Here at BK, we have just completed two days of reconciliation services(on Thursday and Friday, December 2 and 3), and this year, we have asked that each student, whether he or she goes to Confession or not, take just a few moments of their day to approach a Priest and pray with him. What a great blessing for our school, and many thanks go to the generous Priests who gave of their time to come and assist us in these services!
CHARITY TOWARD OUR NEIGHBORS: Our Frassati Food Drive, one of the largest food drives in the state, always happens at BK during the beginning of Advent. This effort will positively impact the lives of those families who struggle with poverty and need during the coming year. In Lent, we participate in things like “Rice Bowl” through Catholic Relief Services, to help us be thankful for our plenty, and to help us be generous with those in our world who don’t enjoy the same plenty.
ANTICIPATING JOY: Both Advent and Lent are the preparatory seasons for the most joyful times in Church life, Christmas and Easter respectively. What better way to experience the deep joy and gratitude of these two celebrations than taking some time to slow down, be quiet, and focus on how dearly we need God in our lives? Both Advent and Lent are like annual retreats in the Church, where our tradition invites us to just a little more prayer, reflection, and insight into the power of God’s saving action in the world, through the Incarnation at Christmas, and through the Paschal Mystery at Easter. During both seasons, while the secularized culture surrounding us speeds up and stresses out, our Faith calls us to the deep waters of our own souls, to reflect and pray from that depth about our utter (and ultimate) dependence on God for life and salvation.

See? Advent really is a lot like Lent in its focus and philosophy. So, perhaps to help us toward a greater appreciation of this, a good question might be: “what are you giving up for Advent?”

Advent Reconciliation Service

This week, all students in their theology classes had the opportunity to participate in our Bishop Kelly Advent Reconciliation Service. We were very grateful to the 14 area priests along with our BK chaplain, Fr. Vance, for making it possible for our students to experience the grace and healing from this Sacrament.

Frassati Food Drive

Once again, our Bishop Kelly student body brought in a record breaking 33,840 points worth of food that adds up to more than 20,000 pounds of food. The annual BK Frassati Food Drive is one of the largest Catholic Food Drives in the state of Idaho and provides food for five(5) area parish food banks. We have also provided hundreds of boxes of diapers for the Diaper Warehouse and thousands of winter coats and backpacks for the Corpus Christi. We are so proud of our students, faculty and staff for joining together in this great effort to make a massive impact in our local community during these winter months.

Knights of the Week

Each week Bishop Kelly faculty and staff nominate students, and students nominate faculty and staff, who have demonstrated the BK Way attributes of Faith, Safe and Caring Place, Academic Excellence, Activities, Honor, Generosity, Community, and Partnership.

Congratulations to this week's Knights of the Week!

Ruby Pulver

Generosity

This week Ruby really pushed students and teachers to get food in. She inspired me to give more and to be better! She also decided to bake a cake for a faculty member who was celebrating a birthday this week without her family. How many students would do that?

Derrick Pasternak

Academic Excellence

Derrick is a rock star this year! He works hard every day, and is committed to his studies. He is a great addition to our class!

Philip Janquart

Academic Excellence

Even at the end of the day when students all around him are distracting and eager to leave, Philip stays focused. He is mature, attentive, and responsible. Not only is Philip a great student, he is involved in our most demanding sports.

BK Staff of the Week

Mr. Chad Barker

Generosity/Community, Academic Excellence

He is a very nice teacher. He is also willing to help you with any assignment that you need help on. Also, he is very kind to everyone.
Mr. Barker is so nice and funny, and he makes learning enjoyable. I can always count on him for help, and a nice dad joke.
Mr. Barker is awesome. He makes learning fun and I never get bored in his class. He's so nice and makes us all laugh.
I am nominating Mr.barker because he is the best math teacher and he always makes everyone laugh.
Mr. Barker always helps people with any math. He is super nice and funny.
Mr. Barker is a cool and fun teacher to learn with.
Mr. Barker is my personal favorite teacher. He is caring, helpful, and really funny. Even when he is stuck at home, he still zooms in to us.
He is always welcoming in the class. He makes class worth being there. I actually want to go to class if he is teaching.
I am nominating this BK staff member because I feel safe and I feel a sense of community in his classroom. Mr. Barker has a very welcoming personality and he has made my experience at BK so far amazing in his classroom.

Select Your Pose for Senior Tux and Drape Photos in the Yearbook

Seniors who took their tux/drape photo on campus with Parker Portraits in October received a piece of paper with instructions on viewing and ordering pictures. There is no place to select which photo seniors want in the yearbook, so we've created a form where you can indicate your choice. Regardless of whether or not you ordered pictures or plan to order pictures, PLEASE INDICATE YOUR PHOTO CHOICE ON THIS FORM.

If you or your child don't select a photo, Parker Portraits will choose one. If you don't have the instructions anymore, please contact Parker Portraits directly by email at PARKERPORTRAITS@msn.com or (208) 345-0807. BK doesn't have access to the codes.

Photos must be selected by Friday, December 10th, or one will be selected for you.

Spirit Store Holiday Hours

New BK Gear on your students Christmas wish list? The BK Spirit Store will be open extra hours during the month of December. Please find the following days and times we are open:

12/11/21 SATURDAY 10-12noon
12/13/21 Monday during lunch hour (11:25am-12pm)
12/16/21 Thursday EVENING 5:30pm to 7pm
12/20/21 Monday during lunch hour (11:25am-12pm)

The BK Spirit Store is now permanently located out at the football field.

Come fill your stockings with BK Gear!

Silent Knight T-Shirts

Limited Quantity Silent Knight T-Shirts will be sold during lunch hours the following days:

Monday 12/6/21
Thursday 12/9/21
Friday 12/10/21 and at the game if still available.

The Spirit Store will have a pop up shop outside of the Cafeteria during the lunch hour.

Silent Knight T-Shirts Cost $15 with a portion of profits going to the BK Pep Club.

Let’s have the most Silent White Out yet! GO KNIGHTS!

NEW - Parent Book Club at BK!

Who Gets In and Why - by Jeffrey Selingo

Join the BK Counseling Department for a 3 part parent book club discussing New York Times best-selling author, Jeffrey Selingo’s Who Gets In And Why

Dec 15 7pm-8pm Library

Part Two Winter: Reading Season

Jan. 19 7pm-8pm Library

Part Three Spring: Decision Season

For questions email Julie Klover, College and Career Counselor

jklover@bk.org

Volunteer Opportunities

What: Holy Apostles Welcome Dinner

When: Saturday, December 4th – 5:00-9:00

Where: Holy Apostles

Info: Volunteers are needed for set-up, serving, and clean-up at Holy Apostles for a dinner welcoming new parishioners.

Contact: Don Petersik at sea1dxp@comcast.net if you’d like to help!

What: Child care and helping with stations in a Nurturing Skills Group

When: On-going starting in January. Monday nights, 6:30-9:00.

Where: St. Mark’s

Info: There are positions for babysitting infants ages 0-3, or helping the children in the program learn and practice skill they’ve learned. Training will be provided before volunteering begins. Volunteers will be under adult supervision. For a more complete description of the positions, email Mrs. Colleran at jcolleran@bk.org or stop by room 412.

College and Career

College Visits with BK

College visits are done for first semester, check back soon for second semester visits.

To attend, sign up using SCOIR or come to the Counseling Center

College & Career Fairs

Registration for the NACAC Virtual College Fairs are now open!

NACAC Fall Virtual College Fairs

Virtual College Tours

The College Tour

Student-driven virtual college tours

Campus Reel

Catholic Community Events

Saint Mary's Candy Cane Crawl, Saturday December 4th

Kick off your holiday festivities with St. Mary's 1 mile family fun run! The course will be 3 laps around Lowell Elementary field. We will have three separate races. All proceeds will benefit St. Mary's School, so crawl on out to join us for a great time!

Registration is now open!

The Idaho Catholic Men’s Conference will take place on Saturday, January 29, 2022 at St. Paul's in Nampa and online. The conference theme is "Chosen For Such A Time As This" and will feature dynamic national speakers including Fr. Don Calloway, Deacon Adam Curtis, and Matt Harte. Bishop Peter Christensen will be celebrating the opening Mass. The early bird registration fee is just $49 before January 16 and online is $29. For all the details and to register go to www.IdahoCatholicMen.org or call 208-484-0898.