Catholic Schools Week - Jan. 29, 2023 | |
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Parents - Your 23-24 Re-enrollment Contract(s) were sent home with your youngest student on Friday. Please be sure to return your contract and deposit by Feb. 10th to hold your child's place in their class for this fall. Thank you!
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Sunday, January 29 - Catholic Schools Week kicks off!
CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK: DRESS UP DAYS:
Parents, if your student is not dressing up in the spirit of the day, they need to wear their regular uniform (or they won't be allowed to participate in the other fun dress up days). This is not a free tag day. Thank you for your help!
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Monday 1/30 - Decades Day (dress from a decade before 2000)
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Tuesday 1/31 - Dress Like a Teacher (and teachers can dress like a student or other teachers :)
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Wednesday 2/1- Career Day (dress like what you want to be when you grow up)
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Thursday 2/2 - Spirit Day (wear blue and gold)
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Friday 2/3 - Dress Uniform (wear your school uniform for Mass)
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Friday, February 3 - PTO Cookie Day!
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Tuesday, February 7 - Parents in Prayer (8:15am - St. Anselm)
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Friday, February 10 - Re-enrollment Contracts Due.
PLANNING AHEAD:
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Friday, February 17 - NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS; Parent-Teacher Conferences (details coming soon!); 3rd Quarter Interims
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Monday, February 20 - President's Day Holiday - NO SCHOOL
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Wednesday, February 22 - ASH WEDNESDAY - Lent Begins; Day of Fasting & Abstinence; School Mass 8:30am
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Thursday, February 23 - PTO Special Feature Presentation on Protecting Our Children on the Internet AND Gala Meeting. 6pm - St. Anselm
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March 1: Financial Aid - 1st Round Deadline. See info below.
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A New Playground!
As you may now know, St. Benedict is pleased to announce we have received enough donations, including some substantial anonymous support, to allow us to move forward with our playground renovation this summer! Through the wonderful generosity of our Comet Community, we look forward to building our new playground for our students and teachers to begin enjoying this fall and for years to come! This would not have been possible without the many parents, grandparents, alumni, teachers and staff who have given to St. Benedict to help make this dream a reality. If you haven't already made your gift, please know that every little bit continues to support our school and this worthy project.
A Heart for Others
We are grateful for the opportunity to partner with Commonwealth Catholic Charities (CCC) during Catholic Schools week and throughout the school year. Commonwealth Catholic Charities is the social services arm of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond and is one of the largest and oldest social services providers in Virginia. CCC offers more than 30 programs from Central and Tidewater to Southwest Virginia, including pregnancy counseling, food pantries, refugee resettlement, foster care, adoption, and homeless services. Partnering with CCC nurtures the spiritual and religious development of our students, helping to instill in them a commitment to serving others by living our Catholic values.
Helping others is a foundation of Catholic social teachings and is a core principle of our faith. By supporting CCC, our students can show compassion to those experiencing homelessness, pregnant moms who need support, refugee families fleeing violence, and other children in need of a loving home right here in our community. To encourage discussion, our students will be creating hearts depicting acts of service, modeled on the Gospel example of the Good Samaritan. The proceeds from our Tag Day on February 14 will go to support the service activities of Commonwealth Catholic Charities.
To learn more about Commonwealth Catholic Charities, its services and how to lend your support, please click here.
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Comet Shop Needs Volunteers!
Unfortunately, your PTO has had to keep the Comet Shop closed to shoppers because we haven't had any volunteers to run it the last few weeks. If you can help out on Friday's during lunch, please click on the link below to sign up! Thank you!
PTO Hour Reporting
Families - please remember that we all SHARE a responsibility for contributing to the life of our children's school. If you have earned volunteer hours, please be sure to ENTER THEM IN PARENTSWEB BEFORE FEB. 1ST. The PTO will be sending out notices in February. Please remember, all families are asked to contribute 25 volunteer hours throughout the course of the year and there are MANY, varied ways to do so. Click below NOW to do your part in helping out this Spring with volunteer needs, and remember, if you didn't help at FallFest, you are expected to help out with our upcoming Gala. This is a very important fundraiser for our school and many hands are needed in a variety of ways to make light work.
Thank you for contributing to our Comet Community!
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Highlight on Ms. Howell & Our 3rd Grade! | |
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Did you know that our 3rd Graders begin taking notes and manage a weekly/daily planner? This is an important, lifelong skill that begins in Ms. Howell's 3rd grade class and builds, so that by the time our students begin middle school, they will have had 3 years of note taking and scheduling - and by high school - 6 years! This is critical as our students are learning how to keep track of multiple subjects - and then in middle school, multiple subjects and teachers! So every morning, Ms. Howell stamps her students' planners to make sure they are taking down their class notes and keeping track of their homework and upcoming tests, quizzes and school events in their planners! This week's stamp is Winnie the Pooh (it changes every week)!
Getting to Know Our Wonderful,
Ms. Dini Howell!
What I love about teaching at SBCS...the small, close-knit community; being able to teach siblings through the years, and; sharing my love for various subjects with the students and seeing their awe and wonder in return!
Ms. Howell was a Comet! I attended SBCS from K-8 grades and have been a teacher of both 3rd & 4th grades since 1996!
Ms. Howell has been a teacher with us for 26 years and her background includes a Masters of Education degree with a BA in Literature from VCU (Go Rams!).
A few things you might not know about Ms. Howell... She loves her bunny rabbit named Flora and enjoys vintage things, reading English mysteries, caring for plants (and THE BEATLES)!
St. Benedict is very blessed to have as one of our amazing teachers, Ms. Dini Howell!
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Families - your PTO needs volunteers to serve on the following committees to support the success of this year's Gala - to take place at the Science Museum of Richmond on Saturday, May 13th. If you did not volunteer for the PTO's FallFest, you are expected to support the Gala in one of these capacities. For more informaiton and to sign up please contact Georgia Riccobono or click on the Volunteer Opportunities above. THANK YOU! | |
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Calling all 5th - 8th grade students for Drama Club in spring semester!
Comets Drama Company will be reconvening for the spring semester, starting on Monday, January 30th. And practicing for the performance of
Shakespeare’s A Comedy of Errors
to be held in May 2023 (date TBA).
We will rehearse in the library on Mondays and Thursdays from 3:00 - 4:30pm starting Monday, January 30th. In order to give focused instruction to actors, there will be rehearsals just for specific actor groups. A schedule for these focused rehearsals will be handed out the first week of drama meetings and reminders will be sent each week. (Due to casting needs participation will be limited to 5th - 8th graders.)
We are asking for a $25 fee per participant to be paid through FACTS and will cover various program needs each semester.
Register HERE.
Looking forward to meeting all budding actors!
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1st Round Financial Aid Applications Due March 1st | |
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Tuition Assistance - All returning families, seeking to apply for financial aid for the 23-24 school year, without significant business/self-employment income must apply for tuition assistance no later than March 1st. Those with significant business/self-employment income have until June 1st. That being said, the sooner you complete your application, the sooner you will hear from us. You will have two weeks after receiving the tuition assistance decision to cancel your contract and receive your deposit back. Please know that because the tuition assistance model assumes that the only change on your tax return is your W2 income, in years with a lot of changes in your life the model struggles to be accurate; therefore, we may reach out to you and discuss waiting for your 2022 return to be complete before making a final decision. That being said this does not change the deadlines for applying.
- March 1st Deadline:
- Returning Families with W-2 income and without significant business self/employment income (2021/2022 Return and 2022 W2s)
- Returning Families who do not file taxes - March 1 - other documentation of income
- June 1st Deadline:
- Returning Families without W-2 income who file a tax return (2022 Tax Return)
- Returning Families with W-2 income and significant business/self employment income (2022 Tax Return)
Contact Brian Wingfield, Director of Finance if you have a unique situation, or questions
about the process (bwingfield@saintbenedictschool.org or 804-254-8810 x 110).
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Good news! We just added 90 new books to the library. Students are finding new books throughout the nonfiction section of the library: cookbooks, sports books, history books, and more.
Our library friends, the Aldi family, donated four books from our wish list and dedicated each book "for book lovers everywhere." Thank you, Aldi family! You can also be a friend of the library and keep our collection fresh. Information and a link is on the library page of the school website.
Augustine House is leading the Reading Challenge, but readers from all houses are still working toward the goal. Which house will have the most Challenge Finishers by the end of April? We will soon find out.
Take good care of your library books. Happy reading!
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Middle School Youth Group | |
Our next St. Benedict Middle School Youth Group will be on Wednesday, February 8 at 6:30pm in St. Anselm Hall. | |
Substitute Teachers for 22-23 School Year! | |
Saint Benedict School is looking for substitute teachers for the 2022-2023 academic year. Applicants should have their college degree and will have a background check performed as part of the application process. Please contact Sean Cruess or Pam Autry at 804-254-8850 if you are interested. Thank you! | |
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High School Info
(Click on image for more details)
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For the Health of Our Community | | | | |
