Dear St. Jerome Families,

Lion Week is well underway, and we will be ending the week with our Opening of School Liturgy for the Feast of St. Jerome at 10:00 AM on Friday. Parents are welcome to attend (we usually have plenty of room in the side pews, toward the back), and we will live-stream the liturgy on the St. Jerome School Facebook page as well. Over the past week, Fr. Reilly has offered each class (3rd-8th) the opportunity to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation, which will also be offered in December and April.

Festival t-shirts that were pre-ordered are being delivered to the classrooms today and should go home today or tomorrow. If you ordered any additional items, they will be sent home at a later date (they should be in soon, but they always rush the festival shirts to make sure they are here in time). Additional Festival t-shirts and other school apparel items are on sale on the school office.

Registration for the St. Jerome Stingrays Swim Team is this evening from 6:00 PM-8:00 PM on the Parish Green (next to the Rectory). Please see the flyer below for more information.

Tomorrow, Thursday, is a St. Jerome Spirit Wear Day. For a donation, students in 1st-8th grades may wear their gym uniform or any St. Jerome t-shirt (they may also wear the grey spirit wear sweatpants if they have them as well). Students in Pre-K3, Pre-K4, and Kindergarten should follow their teachers' directions. All proceeds raised will go toward funding our service projects that we will be completing as a student body. Donations may be sent in Thursday morning as cash or check or sent via Venmo (@sjsphila).

We have an action-packed weekend planned for St. Jerome! Please join us on Friday evening at 6:30 PM for Movie Night along with a preview of our raffle baskets. Snacks and drinks will also be available for purchase.

On Saturday, students from Villanova University will be here at St. Jerome as part of their university's day of service. They will be helping us with festival set-up as well as cleaning up and organizing our supply closet and the area in the School Hall behind the stage. We are grateful for their giving of their time to help our school.

Finally, Sunday is the Festival: rain or shine! Please join us in praying for great weather this weekend. We will send out directives if we have to relocate any of the attractions into the School Hall. Our festival committee has been working hard over these last few months to make for an outstanding day of family fun! Thank you as well to all who have signed up as volunteers, bakers, or to donate soda or water. The sign up sheet links are below, and it is not too late to get involved!

Our parish Director of Faith Formation, Janet Fiatoa, is available to help with students who have not yet been baptized or have not received their other sacraments with their classmates. Please fill out the form here if you are interested in learning more about having your child baptized. Please contact her (dff@stjeromechurchphila.org) with any questions.

Have a great week; St. Jerome and St. Lucy, pray for us!

I am very excited to be part of the Saint Jerome Community. This is my 24th year teaching Mathematics in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. I have taught Honors Mathematics, as well as grades five through eight in the regular classroom settings. I appreciate the opportunity given to me by Father Reilly and Mr. Merrick to guide your children over the course of this school year.

This year I will be teaching Honors Math, and also facilitating the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades as they are instructed remotely. The purposes of the Honors Math Program are to accelerate the pace of learning, as well as mastering the content. We will be incorporating a great deal of technology into our learning, including Khan Academy and Google Classroom. I look forward to having a wonderful school year.