September 3, 2021
BK Alive
News and Information for BK Families
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.
**Next Week**
Monday 9/6 - Labor Day
NO SCHOOL

Tuesday 9/7 - Late Start Straight 7 Schedule
9:00 AM Start, 3:00 PM Release

Wednesday 9/8 - Straight 7 Schedule
8:30 AM Start, 3:05 PM Release

Thursday 9/9 - Periods 1-3
9:00 AM Start, 2:45 - 3:15 PM Office Hours
SENIOR OUT TO LUNCH

Friday 9/10 - Periods 4-7
8:30 AM Start, 3:00 PM Release

**Please note that this is a Short Week Schedule**


Important Upcoming Dates

Monday, September 6th - Labor Day, NO SCHOOL

Wednesday, September 22nd - Freshman Parent Night in the LIbrary at 6:30 PM

Thursday, September 23rd - All School Mass

September 27th - October 2nd - Homecoming Week

Friday, October 1st - Faculty/Staff In Service, NO SCHOOL

Friday, October 1st - Alumknight and Friends "Homecoming" Golf Scramble at Quail Hollow Golf Course

Saturday, October 2nd - Homecoming Dance


A Note from Rich and Mike
Dear Bishop Kelly Families,

What a great week last week was for strengthening a sense of community and school spirit. It was terrific to see so many of you at the Welcome Back BBQ, at the Dedication and Blessing of the beautiful new Ysursa Field Guest Services Building and Lachiondo Family Plaza, and at the football game that followed against Eagle High School. Our Knights came so close to a huge upset against a perennial 5A power!

In this BK Alive we will provide a detailed update on our mask policy and our thinking behind our weekly meetings and decisions, and a thank you and reminder to watch our Virtual Back-to-School Night if you have not already.
Update on BK Mask Policy
We continue to monitor weekly the metrics that help determine if any further adjustments should be made to our mask policy. As evidenced in the surveys we took of parents, faculty, and staff, and the emails we receive, there is no consensus in our community on if we should make masks required in indoor settings at Bishop Kelly. 
 
Recently, as cases have risen in the state and our region, and hospitals are close to crisis standards of care, we are often asked what we are looking at to make the determination if we should impose a mask mandate at our school. In the continued spirit of transparency and open communication, we wanted to share with you the results of this week's BK Leadership team's COVID assessment meeting.
 
We reviewed the status of the metrics we monitor, with particular focus on what is happening in our school, along with our broader community. We also discussed the final results from our parent and faculty/staff Start of School Surveys. Finally, we reviewed and tweaked some of the BK fall activities protocols and discussed possible revisions to our indoor mask protocols.
 
Having looked at all that, we asked ourselves if we should make any changes to our Instructional and Operational Plan, especially around requiring masks. We decided to not make changes at this time for the following reasons:

  • Our primary goal for this school year - as it was last year - is on-campus learning in a face to face model and to safely have all students on campus all day. With on-campus learning being our primary goal, our secondary focus is around strengthening a sense of belonging and community. In an effort to achieve all of our objectives, we must consider a number of factors to keep students in school, safely while also building community and relationships. Mask expectations is one mitigation strategy that is being evaluated regularly. The three metrics we most carefully watch - and which would cause us to change course should they move in the wrong direction - are 1) Number of cases and spread within our school; 2) Attendance rates (including # of students in quarantine); and, 3) Percentage of staff out. We also watch carefully and are concerned about what is happening in our community in terms of Ada and Canyon County incidence rates, other school districts, positivity rates, COVID hospitalizations and capacity, especially ICUs. Here is our analysis of each for this week:
  • 1) Number of cases and spread within our school - while we are concerned we have had 12 new cases this week, all of the students who are positive from COVID can track their exposure to an infected parent or sibling or friend interaction outside of school. We have had no spread within the school to date that we are aware of. None of the BK students who quarantined as a result of being named a close contact here at school have exhibited symptoms or tested positive for COVID. Fortunately, many of our students who were identified as close contacts have been vaccinated. Per CDC guidelines, those fully vaccinated students can stay in school. They must wear a mask for 14 days and watch for any symptoms. Unvaccinated close contacts can get tested at five days and return on the 8th day if they have a negative test. We currently have 15 students and one staff member out in quarantine and 31 fully vaccinated close contacts so far this year who have been able to stay at school wearing masks.
  •  2) Attendance rates - our weekly attendance has dropped slightly from 98.7% last week to 97.3% this past week. Total absences include the15 students out for quarantine as well as for all other typical reasons that students miss school including non-Covid related illness, family trips, etc. We will continue to monitor this rate and reasons for absences closely. 
  • 3) Faculty/ Staff absenteeism - we currently have only one teacher out who is positive for COVID and one staff member in quarantine We have no other faculty or staff sick or in quarantine.
  • Community factors - these are the most concerning. Record number of Covid patients in hospitals and ICU units. Positivity rates in the 10-15% range. High incidence case rates per 100,000 in Ada and Canyon counties but they have dropped the past few weeks.
  • In the end, we felt we did not have sufficient internal data to warrant a change in our mask policy. There are clearly external reasons to move to mandatory masks but, until our internal metrics start to move, such as a high # of cases and spread in our school, significant drops in attendance rates, or a large number of staff out, we will stay the course and continue to tweak our policies as we have done to mitigate risks.  
  • Finally, as mentioned above, there are significant benefits to our objectives around belonging and strengthening a sense of community by having masks be optional. Students can see and get to know each other and their teachers.

We would strongly encourage each of us to do our part to lower the possibility of transmitting COVID-19 here at BK and in our community. Here are several suggestions to further protect your children and family and provide a safer environment at our school and in our community: 
  • Continue to encourage your children to wear masks, especially if they are unvaccinated and/or in crowded spaces. We will continue to encourage faculty, staff and students to do so as well.
  • Have your children vaccinated and encourage your friends to have their children vaccinated. Don’t wait. This protects your children, those around them, and also keeps them from having to quarantine at home should they be a close contact.
  • We are seeing some transmission among friend groups who are doing things outside of school. Please discourage sleepovers, movie nights, etc. especially this three day weekend. Any prolonged exposure indoors to other children, especially those not vaccinated, significantly increases the risk of transmission. We have yet to see any transmission inside our school building.
  • Keep your child home should they exhibit any symptoms - cough, sore throat, fever, stuffiness, etc. Wait 24 hours to see if the symptoms persist and then have them tested for COVID-19 if your medical provider recommends it. 

Finally, please know we will not hesitate to take additional measures to ensure we meet our primary goal for this school year - on-campus learning in a face to face model. All students on campus all day every day. Safely. If that means mandatory masks, we will do that. If we can work together to safely navigate our way through this period of high transmission in our region without mandating masks, that would be ideal. But it is up to us. Thank you for your support, understanding, feedback and trust.
Virtual Back-to-School Night
Thank you to the over 300 of you who have watched the Virtual Back-to-School Night which was broadcast “live” Wednesday evening. It is still available for those who have not been able to watch it.

In particular, we encourage you to watch the 3 to 5 minute teacher introduction videos. They are informative, fun and give you a good feel for the outstanding faculty we have, how much they love what they do, and how much they care about your children

In closing, thank you for choosing to send your children to BK and for your partnership in their educational experience! Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!
God bless,
Rich Raimondi
President
Mike Caldwell
Principal

Adoration at BK
Beginning in October, we will be offering weekly Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament every Wednesday that school is in session. It is our hope to provide students with the opportunity to encounter Christ in the Blessed Sacrament and to cover our faculty, staff and families of Bishop Kelly in prayer each week.

In order to do this, we need at least 21 adorers willing to commit to one hour of prayer EACH WEEK between the hours of 8:15 am-3pm every Wednesday. We are hoping to have at least 3-4 committed adorers per hour to ensure that there is always someone present with our beloved Lord.

If you would like to sign up for one of the 21+ spots, please fill out this form. If you have any questions, please contact Lorissa Horn at LHorn@BK.org. 

School Photos and Ordering a Yearbook
School Photos
Student pictures from Registration Day were distributed this past week through your child's English teacher. Portrait retakes will be on Thursday, October 14th from 8:00-9:00 a.m. If you would like to have your child's picture taken again, please sign up on THIS FORM.

Also, you'll need to bring in the original picture packet on that day.

Additionally, if your student missed Registration Day or enrolled after that day, please sign up to have their picture taken on the same form.

This is the only retake day that will be offered!

Senior Yearbook Photos
If you would like to have your senior's tux/drape picture taken on campus on Wednesday, October 13th, please sign up on THIS FORM by October 1st. Students will be notified of their time slot for their photo after sign ups.

Parker Portraits does provide the tux and the drape. It is recommended that gentlemen wear a plain white t-shirt under the tux shirt, but it not required. Ladies should wear a longer cami/tank top so the straps can be pulled down under the drape. Simple, nice jewelry can also be worn.

If you have any questions, please contact Mrs. Bainbridge at dbainbridge@bk.org

Seniors should give this specification sheet to their photographer if they are submitting their own Tux and Drape Photo.

Ordering a Yearbook
Order your student’s yearbook before October 8th for the best price – $68.00. Prices increase throughout the school year, so order now and check it off of your to-do list.

Order Online at JostensYearbooks.com or call 1(877) 767-5217.

2021 Winner's Choice Dinner & Auction
Sponsorship Opportunities
Sponsorship opportunities are now available for our upcoming auction, Knights on the Range! (November 6, 2021 at the Boise Centre on the Grove.) Please consider becoming a sponsor for this year's event while at the same time marketing your business to our 940+ families along with our 600+ auction attendees. 

Becoming a Winner's Choice sponsor helps ensure that we have a successful auction and meet our mission to provide funding and support to Bishop Kelly High School with our annual operational and scholarship grant to the school. Remember all proceeds from the auction go directly back to the school which helps keep our tuition rates among some of the lowest in the Northwest. Please reach out to Kim Malvick, the Executive Director of the Bishop Kelly Foundation, to learn more about these various sponsorship levels and benefits of each.  
Action Item for Student Lunch Accounts
We need your help! If you are a returning family who uses MyPaymentsPlus to deposit money into your student's account online, please follow these steps as soon as you can. You will not be able to successfully deposit fund online unless you complete these steps. This only applies to returning families that used MyPaymentsPlus before August of this year.

1) Log into mypaymentsplus.com
2) You may not see any students, but click on "My Account" in the top menu.
3) Then choose Manage Students.
4) You need to click the "Delete" button to the right of each student.
5) Now you need to add the students back by clicking "Add Student" in the upper right of this screen. This process is the same as it was before, you need your student's ID number and last name to add them back to your account.

Please either contact the school or email helpdesk@bk.org if you need help completing this process.

Joe Wilsey | IT Specialist
BK Activities
Fall Sports Information
Did you know that you can purchase tickets for BK Home Sporting Events online this year?







Ticket Prices:
General Admission - $6.00
BK Students with Activity Card - Free!
Non BK Students with Activity Card - $4.00
Senior Citizens - $3.00
Grade School Students - $3.00

Please remember that no outside food or drinks are allowed in Nick Ysursa Stadium or the Carley Athletic Center.

Students - Please remember that there is no re-entry into Nick Ysursa Stadium during football games.

Fans - Please maintain 3 feet of separation between family groups in the Carley Center Stands. If you cannot maintain 3 feet, please wear a mask.
International Travel Opportunities for BK Students
Bishop Kelly has several Spring Break trips planned for 2022!

Spring Break in Paris 2022
French students who are in French 2 and above are welcome to travel with Madame Ysursa to Paris during Spring Break. With an excellent tour guide, we will be visiting the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Arc-de Triomphe, Sacre Coeur and Montmartre, plus much more. Breakfast and dinner are included as well as lodging and transportation (flight, metro, bus). Let Madame Ysursa, room 111, know of your plans to travel or email gysursa@gmail.com. Still only $2999. Adults are invited as well.

For more information check out cityoflightstravel.com where you can sign up today !

Peru Spring Break 2022 Trip
We will be traveling to Lima, Machu Picchu, Cuzco, and Lake Titicaca. If visiting Machu Picchu is on your bucket list we are taking parents also. This trip is available for all current freshmen, sophomores, and juniors. If you are interested please stop by my room 113 or any Spanish teacher to get a recommendation form. You will need two recommendations from two different teachers.

Students (travelers under the age of 23): $3,703 Adults (age 23 and over): $4,188 
Please visit our website to see more details.

Battlefields of Europe Spring Break 2022 Trip
Is traveling to Europe with Mr. Crump and Mr. Grant on your bucket list? Now is your chance! Mr. Crump’s Band of Brothers class is coming back in 2021-22 and with it another trip to Europe. See Amsterdam and Paris as well as several notable World War I and II sites like Verdun, Bastogne, and Omaha Beach with history teachers Mr. Crump (BK) and Mr. Grant (St. Joes). The tour is open to the first twenty-five students and families who want this unique experience. Send an email to Mr. Crump to get your name on the preliminary list, and check out This Explorica Webpage for more information and to register.

Japan Spring Break 2022 Trip - FULL! Can't wait to share our photos in April.
paris_at_night.jpg
BK Parent Ambassadors
THANK YOU to all the parents who volunteered their time to help at the Welcome Back BBQ! We couldn't have done it without our amazingly supportive parents here at BK.

If you are a FRESHMAN Family, or a family that is NEW to BK this year, and you didn't get your BK license plate frame at the Welcome Back BBQ, please have your student go to the Main Office to see Mrs. Kelly Shockey and collect your gift from the BK Parent Ambassadors.
College and Career
Scholarship Opportunities:
The Heisman High School Scholarship, presented by Acceptance Insurance, extends the Heisman prestige to our nation’s most esteemed male and female high school seniors by recognizing and rewarding outstanding scholar-athletes who understand that the most important victories not only happen on the field, but in their schools and communities.

Elk Mountain Tents is looking to help out a stellar individual with an appreciation for the great outdoors who captures the adventurous spirit that has come to embody the Elk Mountain Tents brand. If that sounds like you, please apply! Or, if that sounds like someone you know, please share this opportunity with them!

College Visits with BK 
9/7@ 11:10-11:45 Vanderbilt University (Virtual Visit) 
9/13 11:25-12:00 University of Idaho 
9/17 @11:10-11:45 Whitman College 
9/20 @ 11:25-12:00 Willamette University 
9/22 @ 12:00- 12:35 University of Miami (Virtual Visit) 
9/24 @ 11:10-11:45 Oregon State University 
9/27 @ 11:25-12:00 Occidental College 
9/28 @ 11:10-11:45 University of Chicago 
9/29 @12:12-35 Lewis - Clark State College 
9/30 @ 11:10-11:45 Washington State University 

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 
Upcoming Catholic Community Events
Beloved Women of Idaho! 
You are invited to the Idaho Catholic Women’s Conference themed "Beloved". Join hundreds of women from across the diocese on Saturday, September 11 from 8 am to 4 pm at the Boise Centre. Our keynotes are national speakers Leah Darrow, Coleen Kelly Mast, and Sr. Mary Eucharista. We will also have Mass with Bishop Peter, Reconciliation, Adoration, a relic of St. Rita, a Mothers' Room for nursing infants, and a Catholic Market Place. Host homes and shuttles are available this year. Don't miss it! For more information and to register go to IdahoCatholicWomen.com or by phone at 208-484-0898.

Service Hours Opportunity
The Idaho Catholic Women's Conference organizers need young men to volunteer and help with registration that morning. (They are asking for young men to volunteer so young women can attend the conference!)

Be part of a TV studio audience!
The public is invited to attend live tapings of Dr. Ray Guarendi’s nationally syndicated EWTN television show, “Living Right With Dr. Ray”. The show is aired in 145 different countries and is coming to Boise. Guarendi is a clinical psychologist, author, speaker, parenting expert, and media host. The programs will be taped at Our Lady of the Rosary in Boise and will include special interview guests from Idaho. Tapings are at 5PM & 7PM on Tuesday, September 28, and Wednesday, September 29. Reserve your FREE seat at saltandlightradio.com or call 208-344-4774.
Important Links
Contact BK
  • 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.
Bishop Kelly High School | (208) 375-6010 | www.bk.org