May 24, 2021

Dear Families,

It is hard to believe how quickly the school year has passed. As we come to the end of the year, I would like to thank you for your trust, faith, and commitment to the mission of Corpus Christi Catholic School. With your support, we were able to find success returning to school in August in the midst of a pandemic. Through that continued support, we have successfully made it to the last week! We have had an amazing school year, and I know that it is due to the wonderful parents we have who unite with us as partners in education.

As many of you know, last week Archbishop Rodi announced the retirement of Father Zoghby and Father Boudreaux. It is hard to express the gratitude that I know many parishioners and school families have for these two priests who have served the Corpus Christi Catholic Church and School community for 33 years. They will be remembered for leading the parish and school with love and faithfulness through those years. Their devotion to the Lord and their service to others is an inspiration to all within the Corpus Christi community. We pray that God will continue to bless them in their retirement!

As we look ahead to the new school year, we look forward to welcoming our new pastor, Father Pat Arensberg, and our Parochial Vicar *Father Alex Crow. (*Deacon Alex Crow will be ordained to the priesthood on June 5.) They will begin their time of service at Corpus Christi Parish on June 25.

On behalf of all of our faculty and staff at Corpus Christi Catholic School, I want to wish all of our families a blessed and safe summer!

Sincerely,

Our Bible verse focus for the month of May is Proverbs 3:6

Our prayer focus is the Hail Mary:

Our summer packet that includes book and supply lists and uniform information was shared with parents last week. Our books can be purchased from two vendors, M & M Books and More or The Campus Bookstore. Contact information for both vendors is provided in the summer packet. However, the language arts books must be ordered through the school. The order form is in the packet as well. Lastly, since the majority of our textbooks are consumable, the only books that can be resold or passed along to others are the 3-8 grade Social Studies books as well as the 8th-grade Algebra textbook.

Corpus Christi offers the Edukit program as a convenient option for busy families to order school supplies for the 2021 – 2022 year. Edukits include the supplies approved by our school.

Your student’s order will be in their classroom on the first day of school.

Go to www.edukitinc.com by JUNE 20, 2021 for best pricing and free shipping.

Extended ordering is available June 21 – July 21 for an additional fee and will be delivered to your home shortly before school begins.

Please consider donating to help support deserving students in our school community. Donations can be added to your order online.

Contact Aimee Meyers at ameyers@southalabama.edu if you have questions.

We are so thankful for the support given to our PTO's Tickets for Tuition Fundraiser. Thanks to our wonderful families and friends, $11,021 was raised to be used in our classrooms. Our PTO will be dividing this amount to be evenly split among our classroom and specialty area teachers.

This afternoon, we welcomed all graduating seniors from the Class of 2021 who are alumni of Corpus Christi to our annual “Cougar Walk.” We are so proud of these former students and loved cheering them on!

Our 8th-grade Class of 2021 will be honored with a graduation luncheon on May 26, at 11:00 in the Banquet Hall. A graduation completion Mass will be held at 6:30 that evening. We wish our graduates the best of luck in all that they do!

There are several out of uniform days this week:

We will be using a different lunch provider next school year, and more information will be shared with parents before the new school year begins. Upon the end of this current school year, if you have a credit with Lexington, a refund will be distributed to you over the summer.

4th quarter report cards will be posted in student portals beginning Friday, June 4. Report cards will not be mailed home. You may print your child’s report card at home by accessing their eLocker in the parent portals. Please follow these steps:

Students receiving quarterly academic awards will be recognized after one of our first school masses in August.

Our school office tends to be very busy, especially this time of the year. As we near the end of the school year, we understand that parents may make arrangements to exchange books and uniforms. However, please do not leave items in the office to be picked up by others, or ask our office staff to distribute these items for you. Thank you for understanding that we are not able to be responsible for the exchange of personal items and belongings.

We have had more students earn Cougar Character awards. Students can build Cougar Character by being:

Compassionate

Honest

Attentive

Respectful

Agreeable

Considerate

Trustworthy

Enthusiastic

Reliable

Students earn “paw points” when these character traits are displayed. Once a set number of paw points are earned, students receive a certificate along with a few other incentives. Congratulations to the following students who recently earned a Cougar Character award:

Josh Quina

Rafaela Silva

Wilson Finch

Lendon Smith

Colton Seale

Rosie Schwarz

Isabelle Nguyen

Shianne Goodwin

Katie DeVilbiss

Demetrius Davis

As shared in January, we will be utilizing a new tuition management program for the 21-22 school year, FACTS. This program is used by many local Catholic and private schools and over 7,000 schools nationwide. The program will add more flexibility for our families to pay for tuition and incidentals while providing security in payments. You can read more about the FACTS program in the attached documents.

This is a reminder that all families have been asked to create an account with FACTS by May 15. To create an account, you will need to access the following site: https://online.factsmgt.com/signin/3VJLH

Please note, if you have used the FACTS program previously to apply for financial assistance, you may use the same login information. Please contact the school office if you have any questions.

We have established an account with AmazonSmile! AmazonSmile is a simple way for you to support our school every time you shop, at no cost to you. AmazonSmile is available on your web browser and can be activated in the Amazon Shopping app for iOS and Android phones. When you shop at AmazonSmile, you’ll find the exact same low prices, vast selection, and convenient shopping experience as Amazon.com, with the added benefit that AmazonSmile will donate 0.5% of your eligible purchases to the charitable organization of your choice. Below is the link to our charity page where you can begin your shopping!

The complete May calendar can be found HERE.

May 25

A is for Africa

May 26

8th Grade Luncheon (11:00)

8th Grade Completion Mass (6:30)

May 27

Out of Uniform for all students

May 28

Last Day of School

Out of Uniform for all

Noon Dismissal

Saturday Vigil Mass : 5:30 p.m.

Sunday Morning Masses: 7 a.m., 9 a.m., 11 a.m.

Sunday Mass is also available on the parish website and YouTube channel. Each Sunday, Mass is posted at 6 a.m. and is available for viewing anytime, any day, along with all previous online Masses.

Weekday Mass:

6:30 a.m. Monday - Friday (please sit on the left side of the church)

8:15 a.m. Monday - Saturday (please sit on the right side of the church)

Next weekend, May 29-30, all Covid-19 Archdiocesan regulations regarding parish Masses will be discounted, including the general dispensation from the obligation to attend Sunday Mass.

Of course, as usual, anyone can always be excused from the obligation to attend Mass for reasons of illness or disability, or when caring for someone whose health may be in danger or because of other necessities making it impractical to fulfill the obligation.

The archdiocesan directive acknowledges that the pandemic is not over, and pastors at each parish can therefore use good judgment to continue precautions they deem appropriate.

At Corpus Christi, we will continue to provide hand sanitizers at the church and will continue to encourage communicants to receive Communion in the hand, and we will not immediately resume the option of receiving Communion from the Cup.

YOU do!

Altar Server training

is scheduled for

Saturday, May 29 and/or Saturday, June 12 from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the church. Interested 2nd through 8th Graders are invited to attend. Contact Mike Martin at 251-391-8666 if you have any questions.

Due to a scheduling conflict, the decision was made to postpone VBS to later in the summer. The new dates will be July 12 - 16 from 8:30 - noon. We hope your kids can join us for the best week of the Summer! Online registration will be available soon.

Gather each Thursday at 3:00 p.m. Via ZOOM to reflect on the Sunday Gospel and pray together. All are welcome.

Contact Sister Deborah Kennedy, R.S.M. 251-753-4872

Thursday morning women's bible study is held 9:15 - 10:45 in the conference room, on the 2nd floor of the community center. All will safely distance and wear a mask. Nursery will NOT be provided. All women are invited to share this journey of faith and fellowship. Please contact Patti Hughes at 251-401-9623 or pm.hughes@comcast.net for more information.

Join the meeting in person or by phone.

Dial in: 251-665-2515. Conference ID: 102102#

Contact Jay Cox at 401-6070 or Auburn50@hotmail.com for more information.

6:30 p.m., Tuesdays in the Parish House. Contact Dave Burchette, 367-6660 or davebur1955@gmail.com for more information.

Join us in service, grow in spirituality, and open your heart in friendship to neighbors in need. The St. Vincent de Paul Society responds to local individuals and families with food, clothing and emergency financial assistance. Your help will feed children, prevent evictions and so much more. Financial donations can be placed in the brass poor box in the church vestibule, and clothing and food donations can be left at the St. Vincent de Paul Society table. If you are in need of assistance, call 251-366-6443. To find out how to join us, contact Ann Mackie at annmackie10.am@gmail.com. For more info go to www.svdpccc.org or follow St. Vincent de Paul Corpus Christi Conference on Facebook.