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Hello St. Catharine Families:

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. We are officially five days away from Thanksgiving Break and 20 days from Christmas Break. To put things in perspective, the first Friday of December will mark the approximate halfway point of the 2nd Quarter. I don't know about you, but this year feels like it is moving along very quickly.

We are getting closer to a more "normal" school experience and we are prepared to "weather" the next few weeks and months. Please know that we are doing everything we can to minimize any risks to health and safety and keeping our students in school as much as possible.

Just a few reminders and updates...

The Nationwide Children’s Hospital COVID Pediatric Vaccine Clinic for our St. Catharine, Bexley, and CSG students ages 5-11 on Thursday November 18th from 415PM - 8PM. It will be held at the Cassingham Complex Cafeteria and Community Room. Please enter through the middle school doors to the cafeteria for sign in. The second dose will be December 9th.

If you missed the opportunity to shop at our Scholastic Book Fair, you can still shop online using this link until November 21st. 

25% of all sales will benefit St. Catharine School.

In the case of inclement weather to which school will be closed for that particular day, parents will be notified in several ways:

As a reminder, a Snow Day is NOT a remote learning day.

This 35-minute recorded informational session takes a deeper look into standards-based grading to help parents develop a better understanding of the "how" and "why" of K-8 grading.

Click on the video below to watch the presentation:

The scholarship recipient will receive a $1,000 payable to the school, on behalf of the student, to be applied to the student's school tuition. This application must be completed by the student and parent(s) and turned into the school office on or before November 23, 2021. The winner will be notified on December 15, 2021.

Our Virtue for this week is Respect. Respect is one of the related virtues of Justice.

Respect is speaking and acting according to our own and others' rights, statue, and circumstances.

During our Monday Morning Meeting, we spoke about a few specific points:

November 15th: St. Albert the Great

November 16th: St. Margaret of Scotland

November 17th: St. Elizabeth of Hungary

November 18th: Dedication of the Churches of Peter and Paul

May God Bless all of you and your families during this time.

Yours in Christ,

Mark Watts

Thanks to the USDA Free Lunch Program, school lunches have been free of charge, regardless of income status for families. It is unclear if this program will continue for the 2022-2023 school year.

Title I is a federal program authorized by ESSA to benefit all public and private schools with supplemental academic assistance in Reading and Math. Funding for each school is dependent on the financial eligibility of families independent of the academic eligibility of students.

Our funding is determined by the Free and Reduced Lunch applications we receive. Students that are academically eligible for Title I Math or Reading Tutoring directly benefit from the Free & Reduced Lunch Applications even if their family income doesn't qualify them.

Even students who are not academically eligible benefit from Free & Reduced Lunch applications due to staff-student ratios and smaller groups during WIN periods.

The amount of Title I tutoring hours and resources are a direct result of these applications.

Below we are including links to the Free and Reduced Lunch Application. Even though all students are receiving a free hot lunch this school year as part of the USDA National School Lunch program, we still need the lunch forms to be completed by eligible families. These funds are VERY IMPORTANT to our school.

In the future, we are hoping that income information through FACTS will be an acceptable form of income verification for Title I eligibility. In the meantime, please click on the links below.

If anyone in your household would have a Positive COVID-19 test result, or if any student has knowingly been in close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, you must notify Mr. Watts by calling or texting (614) 949-7713 as soon as possible, 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

We are required to post positive cases of students and staff on our website weekly. Currently, we have 0 active cases and

2 cumulative cases with students and staff for the current school year.

One of the factors the Diocese is monitoring is the 7-Day Average Case Rate in Franklin County per 100,000. As of now, we are at 181. Once that number gets below 100 (like it was before school started), the Diocesan task force will make a decision on how to move forward.

Once a decision is made from the Diocese, our School Task Force will meet to see how to implement the recommendations. No decisions on masks or any other protocols will be considered until that point. Thank you for your patience and willingness to keep our students safe.

Parent Alert is the program that we use to send text messages to families. We use this system for reminders but also in case of emergencies, such as Monday. If you did not receive a text alert on Monday, please email info@stcathschool.com with your cell phone number.

Contact Emily McFadden with questions or to purchase any additional items at emilymarieklein@gmail.com or 614-207-5449.

St Catharines ID: 168A39F61LL94

You can also save with Kroger Community Rewards. Use organization #:81633 to register

E-gift cards and Reloads can be done at any time through the website or app (RaiseRight).

We need your help to ensure the Build Back Better Act does not effectively exclude Catholic schools from child care and pre-K programs, thereby severely limiting options for families.

The USCCB has raised these concerns with Congress. The letter USCCB sent Congress that can be accessed here. But it is vital that Congress hear from you directly.

Volunteers are an invaluable group of individuals who provide a sense of community for the many parish and school activities at St. Catharine. It is the expectation of the St. Catharine Advisory Board that each parish family fulfills their obligation to actively support and participate in the parish and school. In addition, it is expected that parents volunteer their time and talent in helping with church and school-sponsored activities and programs. Such involvement is not only necessary for financial stability, but parents can provide a valuable service to the school and to the children by their dedication and support. In order that tuition rates may be kept at a reasonable level, parents are asked to volunteer for a minimum of 50 hours. per family

St Catharine School presents

A great way to serve our community and receive all your family's necessary volunteer hours is to help with our Diocesan Youth Recreation program. We are currently looking for commissioners in the following sports:

Girls Lacrosse

Boys Football

Boys Baseball

Please contact Paul Keiffer at 614-668-0134 or pkeiffer@gmail.com if you are interested in finding out more about these positions.

Sunday 8:30a - 11:00a - 5:00p

6:00a - 9:00p daily except Saturday

Saturday 6:00a -4:00p