BK Alive
News and Information for BK Families
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THIS NEWSLETTER CONTAINS A LOT OF INFORMATION, AND THE LENGTH OF THE NEWSLETTER CAUSES IT TO BE TRUNCATED.
LOOK FOR THE BLUE LINK AT THE BOTTOM OF THE EMAIL THAT SAYS "VIEW ENTIRE MESSAGE" TO EXPAND THE EMAIL, OR CLICK HERE TO SEE ARCHIVED COMMUNICATIONS FROM BK.
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Next Week
Monday 10/25 - Periods 1-4
8:30 AM Start, 3:00 PM Release
Tuesday 10/26 - Periods 5-7
9:00 AM Start, 2:45 - 3:15 PM Office Hours
Wednesday 10/27 - Straight 7
8:30 AM Start, 3:05 PM Release
Thursday 10/28 - Periods 1-3
9:00 AM Start, 2:45 - 3:15 PM Office Hours
Friday 10/29 - Periods 4-7
8:30 AM Start, 3:00 PM Release
Important Upcoming Dates
Sunday, October 24th - BK Partnership Mass at St. John's Cathedral, 5:00 PM Mass
Wednesday, October 27th - Parent/Teacher Student Progress Conferences, online from 4:00 - 5:30 PM, and 6:00 - 7:30 PM
Thursday, October 28th - Parent/Teacher Student Progress Conferences, online from 3:30 - 5:00 PM. and 5:30 - 7:00 PM
October 28th - 31st - Bishop Kelly Fall Play, Dracula (See below for showtimes and tickets.)
Thursday, November 4th - All School Mass
Saturday, November 6th - Bishop Kelly Foundation Winner's Choice Dinner and Auction
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A Note from Rich and Mike |
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Dear BK Families,
It has been a very busy week here at BK with so much happening on top of our normal school days - BK fall sports competing in district and state competitions and getting ready for playoffs, our fall play “Dracula” in final rehearsals before opening night next Thursday, October 28th, preparing for Student Progress Conferences, and our October All School Mass yesterday. Thank you all for your support of our students and our staff.
In this BK Alive letter, we will provide our weekly COVID-19 update and share two examples of the BK Way value of Generosity in action.
COVID-19 at BK
We are continuing to track and publish our school data on BK.org daily. As of today, 10/22/21, we have had 50 positive student and 9 staff cases since the start of school nine weeks ago, with 4 student and 0 staff member cases added this week. None of the cases to date have been due to spread within our school to our knowledge. We currently have five students or staff members out in quarantine. Student attendance remains strong at 95+% and staff absences for illness have been very low this week.
In our COVID assessment meeting this week, we discussed the overall progress we have made in our internal metrics cited above and the external metrics in our community - number of cases/100,000, situation in our local hospitals, vaccination rates, and positivity rates. There are positive trends in Ada County for most all these metrics. Incidence rates for Ada County have started to come down from the high of 662.19 cases/100,000 the week of October 8th to 502.30 cases/100,000 this week. Positivity rates have been dropping one percentage point per week to now below 10%. Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 have declined 27% but are still above previous records in the third wave last winter. But hospitals are unable to expand surgical cases due to the extremely high ICU census mostly filled with unvaccinated COVID-19 patients. And there are still very tired and stressed healthcare workers that exist at all hospitals and clinics in our valley.
Should these positive trends in our internal metrics continue, and the external environment for COVID-19 continue to improve, we are hopeful and have begun planning for the relaxation of our mitigation measures in two weeks. We are looking at going back to how we started the school year with masks optional but encouraged. We believe this is possible with our high vaccination rates and natural immunity here at BK, the Delta variant less present in our communities, and other mitigation factors we have and will keep in place. However, we are not yet ready to commit until we see two more weeks of progress and have more time to plan and communicate the changes. Thus, we have made the decision that we will continue with mandatory masking while indoors in BK buildings for the next two weeks.
In the meantime, let’s continue to work together to prevent the spread of COVID-19, keeping our families safe and our kids in school for face-to-face learning and playing sports, and helping our health care systems. Please maintain your efforts on proper indoor mask wearing outside of school, staying home when sick, considering being vaccinated if you/your child are not already, discouraging sleepovers, movie nights, and car pools, and being kind, civil, understanding and respectful to our BK team and to each other. We all want the same thing - our kids in school for face-to-face learning. Every day. Safely. And the better we can do all these things working together, we stand the best chance of making this happen, potentially with optional masks as early as two weeks from now.
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Generosity in Action
Last week we highlighted three exceptional BKPA volunteers who have given their time and talent to our school leading our BK Spirit Store - Dianne Schlafer, Kris Codina, and Sarah Li. But we did not have a photo of them to share with you - here they are:
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Yesterday morning, our BK faculty and staff made over 500 sandwiches for Corpus Christi and Interfaith Sanctuary. We had a lot of fun helping provide food for those people and families in need. Here is a photo of the BK team at work! |
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One reminder - parents, please take advantage of our Student Progress Conferences this coming Wednesday and Thursday. For more details on logistics and tips outlined click on this link to the October 20th Just in Time communication on Student Progress Conferences.
We continue to be grateful for our community and the efforts we have all put in together - students, teachers, staff and parents - to make this such a successful start to the school year. Thank you for your support, understanding, feedback, and trust.
God bless,
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Mike Caldwell
Principal
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Our Chaplain, Fr. Vance, will be celebrating Mass once a month at local area parishes.
On October 24th
Father Vance will be celebrating Mass at
St. John's Cathedral
at the 5:00 PM Sunday Mass
St. John's Bishop Kelly students and families are invited to attend the Mass. Students are encouraged to wear Bishop Kelly Spirit Wear. Let's represent BK!
Following Mass, there will be an opportunity for parishioners to talk with Fr. Vance and Bishop Kelly Student leaders.
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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!
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Mrs. Lisa Cooper and Mr. Mark Peters
along with the Bishop Kelly Band, Choir, and Orchestra!
This week's Knights of the Week are Lisa Cooper and Mark Peters, and all of our exceptionally talented musicians in the Band, Choir, and Orchestra.
Mrs. Cooper and Mr. Peters run our music program at Bishop Kelly and they do an amazing job. They held their fall music concert on Monday and it was an incredible performance. Thank you, Mrs. Cooper and Mr. Peters, for your talent and dedication to our music program. And thank you to our Band, Choir, and Orchestra for all of your hard work to put on such a wonderful performance. Thank you for sharing your gifts with Bishop Kelly!
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Student Progress Conferences |
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This year, Student Progress Conferences will be held virtually, via Zoom, with pre-scheduled 8 minute time slots with teachers.
Time Blocks for Conferences are are:
Wednesday October 27th
4:00- 5:30 PM
6:00- 7:30 pm
Thursday October 28th
3:30- 5:00 PM
5:30- 7:00 PM
Everything you need to know about how to sign up and virtually participate in Student Progress Conferences can be found HERE. Please take advantage of this opportunity to check in with your student's teachers! |
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Bishop Kelly Theatre Arts Presents
DRACULA
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Lucy is suffering from a strange illness. When Count Dracula pays a call, Dr. Seward and his colleague, Professor Van Helsing, suspect the horrible truth. Then, it is a desperate race to save Lucy and others from Dracula's evil clutches.
Family friendly with a few spooky scenes.
MASKS REQUIRED for audience members and at all times indoors at Bishop Kelly.
Tickets: $7.50 General Admission,
$6.50 for those under age 6 and over age 65
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How do you get into National Honor Society at Bishop Kelly?
NHS considers four areas in accepting members: character, leadership, scholarship, and service. Students have two chances for acceptance into NHS at BK: after the first semester of junior year and at the start of senior year.
To be scholastically eligible for NHS in junior year, a student needs to have a cumulative GPA of 3.75 on the 5 point weighted scale or above. The same scholastic criteria are applied to first semester seniors. To those who have met the scholastic requirement, the advisor will send and students will complete, an information form to enlighten the faculty council to all demonstrated character, leadership and service. Students also ask adults to respond to two recommendation forms, one of which must be completed by a Bishop Kelly employee, to the advisor. Family members cannot serve as recommenders. The information form and recommendations will be returned to the advisor.
The names of those scholastically eligible and their information are then shared with the faculty council. The faculty council consists of five to ten teachers who have wide experience with students. The NHS advisor, a counselor and one administrator also may meet with the council but have no vote in selecting members. The faculty council decides whether candidates have demonstrated sufficient character, leadership and service for acceptance into NHS. Remember scholastic eligibility is already established.
Candidate’s contributions to the community are considered, but since this is a school organization, involvement at school is emphasized in the council’s considerations. There is no limit to the number of students that may be accepted into NHS at BK. All who have demonstrated sufficiently the four characteristics of NHS, in the judgment of the faculty council, may be accepted. All materials used in the selection process are destroyed upon completion of the process by the advisor to ensure the privacy of students.
Students are notified by email about their acceptance or rejection for NHS membership. Often it takes 2-3 weeks for the council to complete their work. No notifications are made until ALL candidates have been evaluated.
Students may be dropped from NHS if they cease to demonstrate the characteristics of membership.
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Volunteer Opportunities
for BK Parent Ambassadors
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Kitchen/Cafeteria Help
The BK Kitchen is in need of volunteer support to help with daily lunch prep, serving, and clean up. We are hoping to identify volunteers in shifts: Monday-Friday from 10:00-11:30 AM (Shift 1) and 11:30 - 1:00 PM (Shift 2). You are able to volunteer your time and talents for one shift, or multiple shifts/days, please email Tommy Steiner at tsteiner@bk.org or call at 208.947.1325.
Thank you for your support of BK and our students!
YOU would be a Great Pasta Festa Chairperson!
BK is in need of a volunteer to lead our annual Pasta Festa! The event is scheduled for Sunday, January 23. This is a great community building event and an opportunity to "break bread" and share a traditional Italian dinner with our Bishop Kelly family and friends.
The Chairperson would form a volunteer committee of parents and/or student volunteer groups to coordinate this event.
To volunteer and/or ask further questions, please contact: Tommy Steiner, VP of Philanthropy and Community Engagement at: 208.947.1325 or email: tsteiner@bk.org
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2021 Winner's Choice Dinner & Auction
Golden Tickets & Auction Item Donations
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The 2021 Winner's Choice Dinner and Auction is only 15 days away! The last day to purchase tickets for the event is Sunday, October 31st. Remember, all proceeds go directly to Bishop Kelly High School for school operations and scholarships.
We are still in need of volunteers to help us with event set up on Friday and Saturday at the Boise Centre (tasks include helping with the silent auction set up, dining table decor set up, centerpiece making, and more. We could also use 3 more people to help the night of the event at registration/check out and elsewhere. Please consider joining in on the auction fun especially if you were not planning on attending. Reach out to Suzy Stride at sstride@bk.org or on her cell phone at 208-921-4447 if interested. Thank you for your support!
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10/27 @ 12:00-12:45 Georgetown University
10/28 @11:10-11:45 Hillsdale College
10/29 @ 11:25-12:00 University of Redlands
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!
Virtual College Tours
Student-driven virtual college tours
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Employment Opportunities at BK |
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Bishop Kelly is currently taking applications for the following positions for the 2021-2022 academic school year.
Kitchen Assistant
Activities Bus Driver
Substitute Teacher
For more information and to apply, please visit the Employment Page on BK.org. |
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Our website at www.bk.org is a wealth of information for parents and students alike!
Check out some of the cool tools that are just a few clicks away:
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- Front Office: 375-6010
- Fax: 375-3626
- Business Office Manager: 947-1209
- BK Development Office: 947-1325
- BK Foundation Office: 323-4789
To add, remove, or change your email address, or to remove your name from our regular mailing lists, please contact Chrissy at cbeckner@bk.org.
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Bishop Kelly High School | (208) 375-6010 | www.bk.org |
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