OCTOBER 9, 2020
Happy Friday St. Louis Families!
We ended our week with an early release today and look forward to a restful long weekend. Teachers are using this afternoon to delve into the data generated by Scantron and HMH to assist them in their planning for instruction as they work in grade level teams. We are continuing to make adjustments as necessary to instruction, daily work and homework assignments. Our technology gave us a run for the money this week as we moved from the regular cable internet over to fiber optics---it did force the teachers to make last minute adjustments to daily tasks and Zoom schedules due to some firewall issues blocking all of our instructional tools. We are working with our IT support to resolve this as quickly as possible. Thank you for sticking with us on this piece—we are hoping that we find our groove soon with technology!
We are officially halfway through the first trimester! This means that interim reports are coming home with some students Thursday for the White Team and Friday for the Blue Team/All virtual students. If a student is earning below an 80% or struggling with some content area or behavior, an interim will be sent home—it needs to be signed and returned to the teacher. If your child is learning all virtual, it will be sent via email. Please remember that St. Louis uses Power School as the online portal for parents to view academic progress for grades 3-8 so if you have any questions about the interim, check the portal first and then reach back out to the teacher. Interims are intended to be a snapshot of the child’s progress; teachers continually update the portal to keep it accurate, and we use the halfway point to alert parents to any potential struggles so we have adequate time to improve and grow.
If you are having difficulty helping or knowing what tasks your student needs to complete on virtual days, don’t forget that current daily schedules, daily classwork, weekly Zoom schedules, and other pertinent information for the week can be found on each grade level page which is linked to your child’s classroom teacher located on the school website. Additionally, the Resource team has helpful videos and tips for students and parents on their own page. Next week, we shift our Specials class schedule. Please refer to your child’s grade level page for a list of which Specials classes he/she will have for the remainder of the trimester.
Our school staff today mourns the loss of a dearly loved friend and former staff member, Mrs. Adeline (Nina) McDonald. Mrs. McDonald was our bookkeeper for seven years and retired in August. Prior to her role as bookkeeper, Mrs. McDonald served as PTO Vice-President many years ago and her two sons graduated from St. Louis in 2011, 2012. She was a champion of St. Louis Catholic School and many knew her for her feisty spirit and genuine love of everyone. We will miss her dearly! Please pray for the repose of her soul and for peace and comfort for her family.
Know that I am particularly grateful for each of our St. Louis families—I pray you have a peaceful weekend and enjoy the extra family time!
God Bless,
Anne M. Dyke
