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Dear Parents-
We ended Catholic Schools Week celebrating the Feast of St. Blaise with the blessing of throats. Fr. Tom connected his homily to the feast by mentioning our obligation to respect the Holy Name of Jesus by honoring God in everything we do. We call on St. Blaise to intercede on our behalf for protection from every physical ailment of the throat, but we should also ask for protection against any spiritual ailment of the throat including using the Lord’s name in vain, gossip, bullying and unkind words. The Feast of St. Blaise is a good time to reflect on our verbal and written interactions, and whether those actually build our relationship with Christ. We closed out the week with school-wide bingo that was great fun for all, and at Sunday Masses, SJS students spoke about their experiences at SJS and the reasons they are thankful for their Catholic education.
We were also thrilled last week to welcome back Ms. Barbara Glakas, local author who wrote Hidden History of Herndon. On Thursday, Ms. Glakas spoke with students in 4th grade and shared a broad overview of “how things came to be” in Herndon. She spoke of our own SJS/SJC history, including pictures of the old church, and growth of the school. Many thanks to Ms. Glakas for her engaging presentation, as she helps us embrace the history of this wonderful town.
Tickets will go on sale TODAY for the spring fling.. our Shaken, Not Stirred fund-raising event! In addition to simply enjoying the camaraderie of our community, SJS has set three goals for our fundraising, including upgrades to our school security; upgrades to our outdoor classroom and environmental sciences curriculum, and upgrades to our music department adding musical instruments such as drums, and other percussion instruments that are easily shared among students. Hope to see you there!!
Teachers are hard at work creating one-of-a-kind priceless activities as part of the silent auction. Imagine how excited your child will be to spend time with a favorite teacher!
A great big Saint’s thank you to all parents who volunteer to support lunch, recess and classroom activities. The need for volunteers is ongoing. In keeping with expectations for parents at our sister Diocesan schools, St. Joseph Catholic School will implement a 12-hour family service requirement, effective with the 2023-2024 school year. All families are encouraged to participate, and many opportunities exist to volunteer time, talent, or treasure, including class field trips, parties or other classroom help, cafeteria, recess and hands-on activities such as art or outdoor classroom activities. The PTO also has numerous opportunities such as the auction, Donut Sundays, etc.
All volunteers must be Virtus compliant if they will have substantial contact with students. Families that do not participate in the service program will be charged a $120.00 fee, or partial fee of $10 per hour for hours not volunteered.
Tuition for 2023-2024 has been published to the SJS website. Please note that the annual tech fee now applies to students at all grade levels, and reflects the cost of licenses and other tech fees generated at every grade level.
As always, if you have any questions, or if I can be of any assistance, please let me know.
Refreshed, revived and renewed by "faith, love and hope." (1Thess. 1:2-3)
Denise Rutledge
Principal
Building Wisdom and Faith Through Service to God
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