Everyone is looking forward to the costume parade and Trunk or Treating here tomorrow. There is no doubt about what season this is. Pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns are everywhere, especially in the pre-k and kindergarten hallway!

Trunk or Treat is tomorrow night, Oct. 30th, 5:30 - 7:30 pm, and there are still spaces available if you haven’t signed up. *Please note location change to the church parking lot.

Click Here to Sign Up to Receive Treats or Click Here for Trunk Sign up

The end of October is another milestone for us here at St. Michael: We have safely completed 20% of our school days this year. Scott County is seeing an uptick in positive COVID-19 cases, and more students are needing to quarantine because of family members coming into contact with COVID-19 or experiencing symptoms. Please see the decision tree reminder below, and let’s stay vigilant!

The HEPA air purifiers we ordered for building A arrived this week and were placed in each Pre-k through fifth grade classroom. The air purifiers provide medical grade H13 True HEPA 3-stage filtration with dual air intake and ionizer, and are rated to completely pass all the air in the room every 12 minutes (5 times per hour). H13 True HEPA filtration removes 99.9% of particles down to 0.1 microns! The units are designed for quiet operation with 4 fan speeds.

I need to brag about our middle school students a little bit. They have really adjusted well and have remained positive during these trying times. I love stopping by their classrooms and seeing them in action. I have seen 7th graders learning about cell membranes with hands-on science activities carried out in a regular classroom instead of the well equipped science lab; sixth graders factoring numbers on white boards at a safe social distance; and all of them eating lunch at their desks while carrying on discussions that include everyone in the room on topics such as mattress sizes and Ms. Power’s promotion. They are taking turns at lockers in the hallway, figuring out how to organize their supplies in their desk space, and going along with requests to wash hands (again) and to clear their desktops for sanitizing (again). These are such great kids - thank you for sharing them with us!

Tomorrow night the Golden Gophers face the Maryland Terrapins after a tough loss to Michigan last week. Watch for Goldy’s costume changes, they never disappoint! God bless your families this weekend, happy Halloween, and go Blues, go Gophers!

Mrs. Kerr

We have shared this before, and will keep sending reminders about when to stay home. We follow the decision tree developed by MDH.

Please note:

This decision tree is part of our mitigation efforts. We are trying our best to avoid the spread of COVID-19 at St. Michael. We are trying to stay open for in person learning, 5 days/week, for the full 2020-21 school year. It is a pain in the neck wearing masks, trying to keep the kids at a safe distance from one another, hand washing and sanitizing constantly, maintaining learning cohorts, monitoring symptoms, and rethinking so many of our routines. We are all experiencing fatigue around these efforts. However, it is ALL worth it if we can keep our kids in school where they belong. Please hang in there with us, be vigilant, keep up the mitigation efforts and stay home if necessary. Do it for the kids!

When: Friday, October 30

Time: 5:30-7:30 p.m. (setup starts at 4:30 p.m.)

Where: St. Michael Catholic Church - Parking Lot

We are looking for trunks to help make our 2^nd annual Trunk ‘r Treat fun and special for our kids! Please sign your trunk up and plan to hand out a pre-packaged (no homemade) treat to pass out to the Treaters!

·       612-396-1800 (call or text)

·       Elmm1315@gmail.com

Our classroom parties will definitely look different this year. In order to make it special the K-4 teachers, along with Mrs. Kerr, have agreed to a Halloween Costume Parade that will take place at 1:00 pm on October 30th (during our scheduled party). We will walk the block around school, weather permitting of course! Because we aren't able to invite parents into the school for classroom parties, parents are welcome to park around the school or block to see their child participate in the Costume Parade.

Please contact your child's teacher if you have questions.

All students, Preschool through 8^th grade, may invite Veterans to Mass at the Church at 7:50 AM on Wednesday, November 11^th. Please RSVP using the attached form and return it to Mr. Olson and Mrs. Roseen as soon as possible, but no later than Monday, November 2^nd. There will also be forms available in the office.

The 6^th-8^th graders and all Veterans will be the only ones able to attend Mass. This is due to limited spacing at church. Parents and family members will not be able to attend in person but will be invited to attend virtually using St. Michael Catholic Church YouTube channel. Sorry for any inconvenience. Preschool through 5^th grade students will attend this special Mass virtually from the classroom.

Please let us know if your child(ren) will need Wednesday Early Dismissal Care (12:15 - 2:15) in December by completing this form as soon as possible, and no later than Sunday, November 15, 2020. We are offering this for families who do not have other options available for Wednesday afternoons. If you are able to have your child come home at 12:15, please do so, as the teachers are finding the Wednesday afternoon planning especially necessary this year.

*REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. Please complete one form per student. In order to ensure proper staffing and the safety of all students we request no late enrollment.

With the pandemic, rules and restrictions around gatherings and how many people venues can hold, we will be having a Virtual Gala.

We need volunteers to make this event successful. The more volunteers, the lighter the workload and the bigger the success.

Plus this is a great way to connect with our parent community!

For questions please contact, Brandi McColm Director of Advancement mccolm@saintmpl.org

LUNCH AND RECESS VOLUNTEERS NEEDED:

All volunteers must be up to date on Virtus training. See section below for more information. Please visit virtusonline.org to log in or to create an account and complete the required steps to be a volunteer.

RaiseRight is simply the right way to fundraise for our organization. Shop gift cards from more than 750 top brands to earn on your daily purchases—right from your phone.

Purchased Scrip online before? Pick up right where you left off. Sign in with your same ShopWithScrip username and password. Access your gift cards right away. And check out with payment information already saved to your account.

New to Scrip? Visit https://saintmpl.org/give for all the information you’ll need to get started.

Get the app: https://www.raiseright.com/

For more information or to apply please contact Sue Kerr at (952)447-2124 or kerr@saintmpl.org

Full job description available by contacting our Preschool Director Ashely Lind. To apply, please send your resume to ashleylind@saintmpl.org

By popular demand, Academy of Holy Angels is scheduling an evening Open House on Thursday, November 13. Our two October Open Houses are filled to our capacity. We are registering families for 4 sessions at 4:30 PM, 5:00 PM, 5:30 PM, and 6:00 PM. Each session will be one hour in length. We want to keep everyone safe, yet share the excitement and energy of AHA and all that we offer! You can register on our website at academyofholyangels.org (click Open House). Welcome to our future STARS in our Class of 2025!!

Questions: Please email Meg Angevine, mangevine@ahastars.org.