April 19, 2020 * Comet Newsletter
Happy Easter! Welcome Back, Comets!!
From Our Principal
I'd like to wish everyone a joyful and blessed Easter! "He is risen as He said, Alleluia!" One beautiful Catholic tradition during the Easter season is the chanting of the Regina Caeli. It is an easy-to-learn chant that would be beautiful to do as a family during the Easter season. A simple version can be found  here .


NEW! #Comets*Care for Local Nursing Home Residents THIS WEEK!
Families, we need your help for a very special local concern this week. We are asking all of our students, faculty and families to take a few minutes to raise the spirits of nursing home residents at Beaufont Health and Rehabilitation Center. This nursing home would love to receive cards, pictures and notes from our families for their 62 full-time residents, who - due to Covid-19 - have been very isolated and alone for weeks now. Our nursing homes are extremely vulnerable to the Coronavirus and so our letters, sending words of Easter joy and love, will brighten their days and let them know that they are NOT ALONE and that WE are keeping THEM in OUR hearts and prayers right now. Thank you for participating in this very important corporal and spiritual work of mercy...(visiting the sick ((through our cards)) and comforting the afflicted).

So here's what we are counting on each of our Comet families to do:
  1. Draw a beautiful picture or make a card (best effort!). Keep your message generic and uplifting (ex. "You are in my prayers!" - "God Bless You!" - "God Loves You and I am Praying for You" - "Happy Easter!", "My Family is Including You in Our Rosary/Nightime Prayers" etc.)
  2. Let Mrs. Ridgely know how many cards you mailed by emailing her at admissions@saintbenedictschool.org (we want to send at least 62 - one for each resident)! Also, be sure to take a picture of your card/picture and post it on our Facebook post that will come out on Monday OR email it to Mrs. Ridgely (and she will post it for you.) The House with the most cards mailed wins points!
  3. Put each picture or card in its OWN envelope and mail it BY THIS FRIDAY (4/24) to:
Beaufont Health & Rehab Center
Attn: Isabel, Activities Director (For Residents)
200 Hioaks Rd.
Richmond, VA 23225

St. Benedict Virtual Book Club
In an effort to use this challenge to build a stronger St. Benedict community, we have created a Virtual Book Club for our parents . For our first selection, we are reading  The Screwtape Letters  by C.S. Lewis, a book that our 8th graders are also reading. Using Lewis's always engaging style and imagination,  The Screwtape Letters  offers us a view of how our souls might be tempted to evil with the goal of helping us create a plan for living a life of holiness. The Virtual Book Club can be found at  https://saintbenedictbookclub.blogspot.com/ . The blog site contains a timeline for reading and offers discussion questions for you to comment about.  It's not too late to join! We're only one week in, and the reading load is light. If we get enough people involved we'll schedule a Book Club meeting via Zoom.
Comet Classwork for Week 4
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


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! We'll have special guests, play games and catch up! Encourage your child to participate in their upcoming lunchroom below!

7TH & 8TH - MONDAY at 12pm
(Fun and games with our Special Guest: Armando!!)
5TH & 6TH - TUESDAY at 12pm
(Fun and games with our Special Guest: Armando!!)
3RD & 4TH - WEDNESDAY at 12pm
(We'll have Favorite Book/Board Game Show and Tell!)
1ST & 2ND - THURSDAY at 12pm
(We'll have Favorite Pet/Stuffed Animal Show and Tell!)
JK & K - FRIDAY at 12pm
(We'll have Favorite Toy Show and Tell!)

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!
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!!
Support Our 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!
This Week on Social Media...
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!

This week! Show us your cards and pictures for our friends at Beaufont nursing home!
Let's show our community that #Comets-Care