Hello Ram families!

Well winter finally arrived! After hardly any signs of winter all season, it made up for it this week. I hope that everyone was able to enjoy time in the snow and family time together. I want to assure you that calling off for school is not an easy decision to make. I know that it may cause a lot of inconvenience for families, but ultimately, yours and our teachers' safety are of utmost importance. That being said, I always think about how exciting it was as a kid to turn on the TV or radio and wait and listen for my school to be read, as well as the disappointment when it wasn't.

This week, albeit short, was a productive week. One of my highlights was going in the 2nd grade room while they were voting on whether or not the groundhog would see his shadow. the adults were wrong and the kids were right! This was part of an informational text and table making activity.

• Thank you to the families and students who attended the masses last Sunday kicking off Catholic Schools Week. The 9am mass was truly inspirational. It was so well received we are in discussions to do more of the same type of participation throughout the year.
• Miss Kacer has been coaching students getting ready for the Spell Bowl. It was postponed on Wednesday. When I get the new date, I will be sure to pass it along.
• Catholic Schools week is next week activities were cut short last week. We will resume the missed days on Thursday and Friday of next week.
• Father Beechem Backyard Bingo dress down days begin on Monday. Remember, if you pay $5 on Monday, you will receive 7 dress down days. That deal begins and ends on Monday. After next week, it is $1 each Monday to dress down. It is an optional dress down day, but it supports a great cause.
• Thank you to all of the parents that attended the virtual PFO meeting on Wednesday night. I am so thankful for this group. Many different ideas were discussed. If you missed the meeting, but are interested in learning more, please contact me. We are always looking for new members.
• Please help me welcome Mrs. Claudia Yamout to our staff. She will be teaching some Spanish courses as well as helping out in our ENL department.
• WIDA testing is going well for our English Language Learners.
• High school acceptance letters for our 8th graders who are attending Bishop Chatard are starting to be delivered.
• No confirmed positive Covid cases and no quarantined students this week.

And many more exciting things are happening at St. Lawrence!

Please mark your calendars for Saturday, April 23rd at 6PM for the Father Beechem Backyard Bingo. This is an amazing fundraising event for the parish which benefits our school tremendously. Each year, thousands of dollars of scholarships from this event are awarded to families to help offset the cost of tuition. More information will be coming in the coming weeks and months.

The first announcement has to do with the return of the Father Beechem dress down days. These days will be on Mondays from February 7- Monday March 21, the exception being February 22nd which is the Tuesday after President's Day. There are 8 total dress down Mondays. Students may participate in these dress down days in two different ways. First, students may pay a $5 upfront payment which will cover all 8 days. $5 must be paid by January 31st. Second, a student can participate by paying $1 for each week on the day they want to dress down (total of $8). The first option is the best value, 8 dress down days for the price of 5!

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SPRING SPORTS SIGN UPS ARE OPEN - go to orgsonline.com to register by February 28th

SOCCER - grades 5-8 boys and girls

KICKBALL - grades 3-8 girls only

TRACK - for boys and girls grades 4-8

BASEBALL - boys grades 6-8

Any questions contact Mr. Minch at minchkeith@sbcglobal.net

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There have been some changes made to the Family Handbook. Your child will be bringing home a copy of the amendments for you to include with the handbook you received at registration, or the Back to School Bash. Please be sure to read these new policies and procedures as they will change some of the existing practices at our school. Click the link to download the digital file. They will also be available on the St. Lawrence School website. If at any point you have any questions about the handbook or amendments, please feel free to contact me. The new policies are effective immediately.

Please do not send food and snacks with your children to school outside of a prearranged plan with your child's teacher or as your child's lunch. This has become a huge problem. Students have been bringing all types of food, drinks, and snacks to school and it creates some major issues when they eat it throughout the day.

1. It goes against the school wellness policy.

2. As the weather has gotten colder and students store food in their locker, it attracts mice and other critters that are certainly not welcome, which creates health and cleanliness issues inside the school.

3. Food and snacks during class create major distractions at times to the learning environment.

I do not believe that the majority of food brought into the school is done with their parent's knowledge and consent, but we would appreciate your support in helping to prevent this practice.

PFO has organized a school night fundraiser with the Pacers. The packets went home last week for tickets. The game night is Wednesday, Feb. 16th vs. the Washington Wizards.

Our school day starts at 7:25 am and ends at 3:15 pm. During this time, instruction is taking place. Tardiness and early pick up, although at times necessary, interfere with the required instruction time for your child. Consistent tardiness or early departure greatly hinders your child's ability to learn and become proficient in the required standards set forth by the state of Indiana. Please be supportive of our family handbook and honor the arrival and pick up times to ensure that your child receives the very best education possible.

A note to this. If you are late arriving on a Wednesday or Friday, which are our scheduled school mass days, please take your child to the church prior to 9:15 am. Mass is a special opportunity to spend time twice a week with Jesus in worship. It is a part of our school day and one of the truly special opportunities that students enrolled in a Catholic school get to participate in that they would not be able to otherwise. This is considered part of our curriculum. Please make every effort to ensure that your child is in school to be able to be a part of this time.

In an attempt to provide even more transparency about how the school is interacting with Covid-19 in the school, I will start to include numbers school wide for the past week. I will continue to send communication through Jupiter as I have done all along as it pertains to your child and their class. However, this will be a general count for the entire school. I will only include the numbers of cases that apply to our students or quarantine information based on exposure from the school. For example, if a student is on quarantine because a family member, or a person outside of the school, identified them as a close contact, that information will not be offered. If a student is on quarantine based on exposure to a fellow student or teacher at St. Lawrence who has tested positive, that will be included.

For the week of January 29-February 4:

Confirmed Positive Results: 0

Quarantined students: 0

The governor passed an executive order stating that close contacts who have been exposed to a positive Covid-19 case at school will only need to quarantine if they are experiencing symptoms.

School meal programs nationwide are experiencing many of the same supply chain issues that have impacted restaurants and grocery stores throughout the pandemic. Our school nutrition team is committed to ensuring students have access to healthy meals each school day. Just as families had to make substitutions on grocery lists last year, St. Lawrence may have to make some last-minute changes to our regular menus, based on availability. We hope parents and students will be patient as we sort through these supply chain issues, particularly with breakfast items such as cereal. PBJ Uncrustables are not available either. The upside? Ingredients for our many scratch prepared foods are more readily available and we've been trying new recipes weekly. We remain committed to providing nutritious and delicious meals so that students are ready to learn!