St. Jerome School Weekly Newsletter
February 2nd, 2022
“Catholic education is above all a question of communicating Christ, of helping to form Christ in the lives of others…”
Pope St. John Paul II
From Mr. Merrick
Dear St. Jerome Families,
We appreciate your help and contributions as we celebrate faith, excellence, and service during this Catholic Schools Week. Yesterday, we raised 300.00 with our dress down day to benefit Caring for Friends. Today's red, white, and blue dress down day also raised 300.00 to benefit the USO. Tomorrow is a St. Jerome Spirit Day; students may wear their St. Jerome gear for a donation. Today's snack sale and this week's Catholic Schools Week basket raffle go to our school fundraising account that allow us to fund other service projects and allow me to purchase extra materials to benefit our students and staff. One examples was being able to air condition additional classrooms last spring. Finally, the birthday boxes (67 so far and counting!) will be donated to Catholic Social Services.
Last week, we sent out information to Kindergarten to 8th families about our spring musical, Aladdin Jr. Please see the information in the Google Folder here if you are interested. If you have any questions, please reach out to our director, Miss Natalie: natalie.graveley@gmail.com. We look forward to resuming our annual play!
This past Sunday, St. Jerome Parish celebrated our Catholic Schools Week Opening Liturgy with the 9:30 AM Mass. Our students Daniel Poper, Caiden Rivera, and Basia Brady served as readers. In addition, our 8th graders read essays at most of the Masses highlighting the benefits of Catholic education at St. Jerome School. Thank you to Olivia Czapla, Jamie O'Donnell, and Camryn Brescia for sharing your essays with the parish community.
On Monday, we held our annual Religion Bee, where the champions of each classroom's religion bee competed in three rounds (2nd & 3rd; 4th & 5th; and 6th, 7th, & 8th). We are proud of all of our participants: Destenee Fallas-Espinoza, Jordan Twegby, Joseph Barnes, Matthew Ries, Olivia Evans, Kaitlyn Harrigan, Alexandra McCormac, Victor Nyguen, Emily Harmon, Ayden Wallace, Liam Plattowski, Diego Rivera, Caiden Rivera, Colin Schultz, Adrian Manzur, and Hailey Bradley. The standings for each round will be published in next week's newsletter.
On Tuesday, all of our classes competed in a STEM challenge where they had to work together to build a structure. We started with a scripture reading and recalling Fr. Reilly's homily at last week's liturgy about building bridges. Pre-K3 through 2nd grade were given cups that they made into creative structures. 3rd-8th grade each constructed a bridge that we then tested. Our 8th Grade Class of 2022 constructed a bridge that held the most weight, and all of our classes did a respectable job.
Thank you to our Home and School Association for providing treats for Student Appreciation Day.
Tomorrow, we will attend Mass at 10:00 AM for the Feast of St. Blaise. The traditional blessing of the throats will follow the liturgy. The Mass will be live-streamed, and members of the faculty will be reading.
Finally, with this Catholic Schools Week, on behalf of Fr. Reilly, our faculty and staff, I would like to thank you all for entrusting your children to St. Jerome School. Our commitment to faith, excellence, and service is only possible with your support and generosity. As the days start getting longer, and spring gets closer, we look forward to continuing to work together to provide the best possible experience for each one of our students. Thank you too for the efforts of our faculty and staff, we make a great team together!
Have a great rest of the week; St. Jerome, pray for us!
Scholastic Book Fair
As part of our Catholic Schools Week celebration, we will be holding the Scholastic Book Fair in the school library. Visiting the Book Fair is like going to a bookstore set up in our school. Your child will have time during the school day to select books to purchase. The Book Fair Brochure is in the Wednesday folder. It is only a sampling of the many books that are available at the Book Fair.
On the designated shopping day (see homeroom schedule below), children may bring money to shop and purchase books. They can pay cash, check or Scholastic eWallet (see directions below). Checks should be made payable to “St. Jerome School.” Please remember that 8% sales tax will be added to the total. All cash/checks should be brought to school in an envelope labeled with the child’s name.
eWallet Information: As an alternate form of payment, you can set up an eWallet for your child. eWallet is an account that you create through Scholastic to preload an amount of money for your child to spend at the Book Fair. Please go to our Scholastic homepage at https://www.scholastic.com/bf/stjeromeschool for more information and to set up your child’s eWallet before their designated shopping day.
Give the Gift of Reading! There will be a “Teacher Wish List” on display at the Book Fair. You can purchase a book to be donated to the classroom of your choice.
Our Book Fair is also available online through February 10th at: https://www.scholastic.com/bf/stjeromeschool
Thank you for your support and we look forward to a successful Book Fair! Please email Mrs. Carolan with any questions at acarolan@sjsphila.org.
Catholic Schools Week Cash Raffle
Chick fil A Cookie Grams
Share the love this Valentine’s Day with cookie grams!
Cookies: $2.00 Each
Orders Due: Thursday, February 3, 2022
Cookies will be delivered on Monday, February 14th, 2022 and distributed by grade.
If you have any questions about the ingredients, please visit this link:
https://www.chick-fil-a.com/Menu-Items/Chocolate-Chunk-Cookie
Home and School Super Bowl Block Pool
$20 a block
4 winners!
$250- FIRST Quarter
$250- HALF-TIME Score
$250- THIRD Quarter
$250- FINAL Score
Blocks will be sold at the Rectory and through any Home and School Member. There are only 6 block pools to fill so grab your lucky spots! Once block pools are filled, they will be posted to the St. Jerome Home and School Facebook Page!
You can also email us at saintjeromeshomeandschool@gmail.com with your contact information if you would like to purchase a block.
Ways to Save On Your Tuition
St. Jerome Scrip Program
Support St. Jerome on Amazon Smile:
COVID-19 & Catholic Schools Onward Protocol Reminders
Please continue to monitor your children for any symptoms, and have them stay home if unwell, if he or she tests positive for COVID-19, or was exposed to a person who tested positive for COVID-19. Please let us know so that we can help you determine a return date.
We are also ready to switch our students in K-8th over to virtual learning as quickly as possible. Please let us know, and we will prepare your child's books and lend a Chromebook if you need one. Pre-K teachers will work with families on an individual basis with suggested activities so that your child does not fall too far behind.
If a student or staff member who has been in a classroom tests positive for COVID-19, we will work with the Philadelphia Department of Health to determine close contacts and notify them of the need to quarantine. With the latest guidelines and mitigation efforts, quarantines of whole classes and classmates are generally not being recommended. Again, we will let you know their guidance and switch any students who need to quarantine to virtual.
Thank you for your help and support as we work to keep our students and staff safe and healthy while maintaining in-person instruction for our families and providing the best possible spiritual and academic experience for our students.