From the Desk of Mrs. Tiezzi

Dear St. Rita Parents and Guardians,

Thank you to all our school families for your generosity with our Lenten Service Project. With your assistance we are able to donate $6,000 to the students at Sacred Hearts School in Lahania, Hawaii. The monies will be used to help the students at the school which was devastated during the wildfires last August. Congratulations and thank you to our top class, Mrs. Riley’s kindergarten class, who raised $739.69, our second place class, Mrs. Hamling’s sixth grade class, who raised $682.38 and from the office staff and friends who brought in $636.47. Sometime in May we will have a luau celebration to thank all our students for their hard work.

I have recently reached out to the school principal from Sacred Hearts School and she shared the following message with me -“Thank you for reaching out and supporting our efforts to help our school community. Please relay my sincere gratitude to your school and parish community for their love and prayers. We truly feel a sense of ‘Ohana (family) within our faith and Catholic schools. Please continue to keep us in your prayers, especially those in our school community who have lost much in the fire. Wishing you and everyone at St. Rita’s a spiritually fulfilling Easter Season.”

We are so blessed to have three priests shepherding us here at St. Paul VI Parish and are grateful for their support. To honor them and all members of the clergy, Monday, April 22, has been designated “Uplift Your Priest Day,” to inspire the laity to support, thank, and encourage our priests. It will be celebrated here at St. Paul VI Parish with a special Eucharistic Adoration for the special intention of an increase in priestly and religious vocations. Adoration will take place on Monday, April 22 from 8:30 A.M. to 4 PM. at St. Rita and from 6 P.M. to 7 P.M. at Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Our students have already made Spiritual Bouquets for the priests but I’d encourage our parents to reach out and participate as well.

Our outdoor classroom space, created a number of years ago, has 10 planting beds which, over the past few years, have been planted and maintained by members of our parish community. The vegetables raised were donated to the parish food pantry to help feed those community members suffering from food scarcity. Unfortunately, the parishioner who had been spearheading this endeavor is unable to continue and we are in need of some members of our school community to step forward to plant, maintain, and harvest the gardens during the growing season. This is a great opportunity for families to get involved and teach our children how to share their time and talent to benefit those in need. Please contact me if you would be interested in overseeing this project.

It is amazing how fast the school year has flown by. Today is day 139, which means we only have 41 more days until the 2023-2024 school year ends. Below, please find a list of upcoming important dates. We will continue to update this list, so be sure to check it regularly.

Update Coming Dates

Spring Break - April 15-19

Uplift your Priest Day - Monday, April 22

Earth Day - Monday, April 22

Administrative Professional’s Day - Wednesday, April 24

Principal Appreciation Day - Wednesday, May 1

MAP Testing - Wednesday, April 24; Wednesday, May 1

and Thursday, May 2

HSA On-line Auction - Monday, April 29 - Monday, May 6

Changeover to Summer Uniform - week of April 29-May 3

Teacher Appreciation Day -Tuesday, May 7

School Nurse’s Day - Wednesday, May 8

May Crowning - Friday, May 3 after the 9:00 A.M. Mass and Awards

Shred Day - Saturday, May 4 9:00 A.M. -12:00

Golf Tournament - Monday, May 6

First Communion Parent Meeting - Tuesday, May 7 @ 5:30 P.M.

Plant Sale - Wednesday, May 8 and Thursday, May 9

Ascension Thursday - May 9 - Mass TBD

Mother-Son Event - Friday, May 10

First Communion - Saturday, May 11 @ 9:30 A.M.

Play - Thursday, May 16, Friday, May 17, and Saturday, May 18

Early Dismissal - Friday, May 24 - No Aftercare

Memorial Day - May 27 - No School

Spring Concert - Tuesday, June 4 @ 1:15 P.M.

Graduation - Friday, June 7 @ 6:00 P.M.

HSA Family Ice Cream Social - Monday, June 10 @ TBD

PreKindergarten 4 Celebration - Tuesday, June 11 @TBD

Last Day for hot lunch and aftercare - Tuesday, June 11

Last Day for Prekindergarten 3 - Wednesday, June 12

Early Dismissal Day - Wednesday, June 12 @12:00 Noon

Kindergarten Celebration - Thursday, June 13 @ TBD

Early Dismissal Day - Thursday, June 13 @12:00 Noon

End of School Year Mass - Friday, June 14 @ 9:00 A.M.

Last Day of School - Friday, June 14 @ 12:00 Noon

After a number of extremely difficult years of supply chain issues with our uniform company, we have decided to end our relationship with Dennis Uniform Company at the end of this school year. We are currently in negotiations with a new vendor and over the next few weeks I will share the exciting details with you. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

School will be closed for Spring break next week. If you are traveling or just staying home relaxing, please share your adventures with Mrs. Bruno by sending her a photo which we will share on our social media. Thank you for entrusting your child/ren to our care. Best wishing for a joyful and safe Spring break.

God Bless,

Mrs. Tiezzi

Parents - Pre-K 3 and Pre-K 4 classes are approaching capacity and will close soon.

If you would like to enroll a NEW student

please access the application using the

FACTS Family Portal.

Recycle your Eclipse Glasses!

Please send in your eclipse glasses - we will collect them and send them to a company in Utah who will distribute them to schools in Central and South America for their upcoming eclipse on October 2, 2024.

Financial Aid for the

2024-2025 School Year

The financial aid portal is now open for the next school year. To apply, please sign in to your FACTS Family Portal, then click on FINANCIAL in the left-hand menu, then on APPLY FOR GRANT & AID.

Please note that you must be current on this year's tuition, and re-enrolled for the next school year in order to begin the application.

Re-Registration for 2024-2025

If you haven't done so already, please visit FACTSMGT.COM to set up your Family Portal for the

2024-2025 school year.

Instructions were sent to each family.



Re-enrollment will take place online

through the FACTS Family Portal.

We are currently accepting new enrollments for the upcoming 2024-2025 school year. If you know of a family who is interested in learning more about St. Rita School, please have them contact Mrs. Bruno, our admissions director, to set up a tour or learn more about our wonderful school. Our parent referral program is now open and details on how to receive a $250 referral tuition credit for the upcoming school year can be found on our website.

Visit our Family Referral page for more information:

 https://www.stritaschool.org/Referral-Program

HSA

Home/School Association

Deadline for Plant Sale Pre-Orders Extended!

The deadline for Pre-orders for the Mother's Day Plant Sale is now Thursday, April 11th. 

Please submit your order with payment to the school office by tomorrow, April 11. 

Any questions, please contact Meghan Burns at srsplantsale@gmail.com.

Thank you!

Donations for St. Rita School

Online Auction!

We are holding our annual online auction to raise money for St. Rita School starting on Mon April 29th, 2024 @ 6:00 AM EDT and ending on Mon May 6th, 2024 @ 9:00 PM EDT.

If you or someone you know would like to donate an item or service to the auction, have them follow this link:

https://yourcharityauction.com/item_donation.php?a=3429 

If you have any questions, email us at hsasrs.stritaschool@gmail.com by 4/27/2024.

Please forward this email to anyone you know that may be interested in helping!

Your generosity and assistance is what keeps St. Rita School thriving. We hope that you will participate in the auction! Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,

St. Rita HSA

Saturday, May 4

9:00 am to 12 noon

Nurse's Corner

Hamden Public Schools and St. Rita School will now be following the new respiratory virus guidelines set forth by the CDC and our local health department.

COVID will now fall into the same category as the flu and RSV as a respiratory virus.

If your child develops symptoms of a respiratory virus (cough, fever, runny nose , congestion, fatigue), they should stay home until they are fever free for 24 hours without the use of medication and their symptoms are improving. They can return to school and we would encourage the use of a mask for 5 days. 

Reminder:

Required physicals for PreK , Kindergarten and Grade 7:

Please remember to send in your child's physical if they are entering grade 7, PreK, and/or Kindergarten .These are required for entry into school in August. 

Medication reminder: as allergy season approaches:

Please do not send medication into school with your child. This includes any Over The Counter medication (Advil, Tylenol, Midol, cold medicine, allergy medicine, etc). Medication that needs to be taken during school hours must be brought into school by an adult along with a medication order from the physician. 

If you wish to have cough drops available to your child please send them into school with a note. The nurse will keep them in her office and administer them to your child as needed. 

Thank you for your cooperation 

Please pray for all the deceased members of our

St. Rita Community.