Eagle's Edge
St. Therese Weekly Newsletter - November 11, 2020
A Prayer of Kindness and Love on Veterans Day
What better way to show kindness than to pray for our brothers and sisters? Please join me in saying this prayer today for our Veterans and for all those who need the protection and light of Christ.
St. Patrick’s Breastplate
May the strength of God guide me this day, and may his power preserve me.
May the wisdom of God instruct me; the eye of God watch over me; the ear of God hear me; the word of God give sweetness to my speech; the hand of God defend me; and may I follow the way of God.
Christ be with me, Christ before me,
Christ be after me, Christ within me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ at my right hand, Christ at my left,
Christ in the fort, Christ in the chariot,
Christ in the ship,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks to me.
Christ in every eye that sees me.
Christ in every ear that hears me.
May we all be surrounded by and filled with Christ so that we may be Christ for all we meet.
God bless you all,
Rosemarie El Youssef
Principal, St. Therese School
This version of the St. Patrick's Breastplate prayer can be found here:
https://www.milarch.org/prayers-for-the-military/
The prayer in its entirety can be found here:
https://www.ourcatholicprayers.com/st-patricks-breastplate.html
Reminder: NO LIP LEARNING THURSDAY 11/12
We can't wait to have our regular rotation back on Monday, November 16th.
We have PHONES!
Please do not continue to use your teacher's personal phone for communication. In this time of distance learning, it is difficult to separate work from school, and I would appreciate your help in supporting our teachers and staff this way. They LOVE helping you and your children, but as their principal it's my duty to help them - I am grateful for your assistance with this.
If we accidentally hang up on you, or transfer you to the wrong extension, please be patient with us and call back - it's a VERY new system. While we are grateful, we are learning!
School Mass, Friday 11/13 at 10 am
The link for the mass livestream will be shared in each teacher's Google Classroom. Please help your student log in and watch together as a family! Teachers and staff will be in attendance.
Auction Liquidation Sale, Last Chance Purchases this Friday 2-5 p.m.
Items are in the gym and will be available for purchase from 2-5 p.m. on Friday ONLY. Cash, check, and credit all accepted!
Kindness Week UPDATE
Students have been invited to participate in Kindness Week activities in a special smore link that was sent out on Monday. We shared compliments and appreciations via Flipgrid...stay tuned for. a special read-aloud by Mrs. El Youssef and a few more challenges!
Be kind to everyone you meet - you'll never look into the eyes of someone that God does not love.
Food and Coat Drive UPDATE
Thank you all for your generous donations so far!
We would like to continue our community service project by collecting food and coats for families in need this holiday season. Right now, we are collaborating with local agencies to gather sizes, and specific food items that are most needed. The lists will be shared in next week's newsletter, along with where and how to donate.
God calls us to love and serve our neighbors and there are many in need. I know that our community can come together and be the hands and heart of Jesus for them.
Coats for Kids. Drivers are needed to deliver coats to families in our parish boundary. Driving will start at 10 am Saturday, Nov 14th. Please call Shasta Hatter at 503-253-7566 to volunteer or for more information- or just show up at the PSC.
If you, or someone you know, is in need of food assistance, please call Shasta Hatter at the SVDP office 503-253-7566.
Middle School Service: No-Sew Blanket Making Project
You can go to any fabric or craft store and purchase a 2-yard length of fleece. You can even purchase pre-cut sets. Any color, any pattern, as long as it is no pill fleece.
You can drop your donations off anytime - we encourage each middle schoolers to bring two pieces to make one blanket.
Donations needed by November 30th.
Thank you!
Congratulations, St. Therese Confirmandi!
May the Holy Spirit light your path, and may God bless you all your days. We are very proud of you all!
Conferences November 23rd and 24th
Thank you to all who have signed up for a conference time!
Look for a link to sign-up for conferences in your emails on Monday - you can schedule a virtual conference, or an in-person conference. Thank you for your patience in this digital world!
BottleDrop Thursdays - UPDATE!
There is a special matching fundraiser coming up through BottleDrop. Starting on November 15th, BottleDrop will give us a 20% for every bag of cans/bottles or financial contribution made to our St. Therese Account. This special fundraiser will continue through December 1st.
If you usually take your own cans/bottles, consider donating them to us during this time. Eagle Student Leaders will use the extra funds raised from 11/15-12/1 to purchase perishable items for food boxes.
We are so grateful for your generosity! With your donations we purchased a Distance Learning T-shirt for each student and staff member to wear on Fridays, prizes for spirit week, and the pumpkins for our St. Therese Pumpkin Patch. We recently purchased an eagle mascot costume and our new mascot will soon be visiting classrooms to learn what it means to be a St. Therese Eagle!
The school budget is tight this year, but there are some things that we believe students shouldn't go without - your can and bottle donations make this happen!
Parent Obligations for the Year - Fair Share and Fundraising
If we all work together, we can make this happen!
Rather than having MANY events with specific obligations, we have one financial obligation for each family.
Dual-parent household - $500 (fundraised or donated)
Single-parent household - $300 (fundraised or donated)
This replaces the auction basket obligation, auction project obligation, jog-a-thon, and raffle.
If we make our goal of $36,000 and everyone pitches in, there is no reason to bill people for what they aren't able to fundraise.
Our goal is to have one BIG fundraiser in the spring - if we can generate enough money to fulfill our obligation to the school our tuition won't go up. Jog-a-thon seems doable with the changing of the metrics and there are MANY ways we can get creative to make it happen.
The key to making this happen is ALL of us working together!
You are not expected to figure out how to fundraise on your own - but come to Parents' Club meetings and share your ideas. We are always better together!
Parents' Club Corner
Here is the Parents' Club schedule of meetings for the rest of the school year. We will meet on the 3rd Wednesday of the month from 6-7pm via Zoom. Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, November 18th. Look for the Zoom link in your email on Monday, 11/16.
Here is the agenda for the 11/18 meeting:
- Auction Liquidation was a success!
- Guest speaker Tom Burns, Knights of Columbus
- Knights support of the school
- Long time commitment to Catholic Education
- Catholic Service Essay Awards
- Open floor
11/18
12/16
1/20
2/17
3/17
4/21
5/19
Please contact Melanie Reyna at 503-467-1805 or via email at melanie.reyna@usbank.com with any questions.
SAFE & READY SCHOOLS UPDATE as of 11/11
The governor released new metrics, but what does this mean for our school?
Just as a reminder, all Catholic schools are required to follow the metrics and guidelines set forth by the state of Oregon and the Oregon Department of Education. There are no exceptions.
Unfortunately for those of us in Multnomah County, the return to school isn't likely to happen before the end of this school year. Here are the new metrics:
- Exception to bring students K-3 back to school sooner has widened to include K-6
- Case count / 100,000 in the population needed to utilize the K-6 exception was increased from 30/100,000 to 50/100,000
- The time period required to maintain that count decreased from 3 weeks to 2 weeks
Our count in Multnomah County has almost doubled since last week, now hovering at 245.2/100,000. Our two week case count was going up and down, and now it seems to only be going up. We need to be at 100 or less in order to reopen for K-6 students. In the image below, this is the yellow section of the chart. We need to be at 50 or less in order to return as a whole school, K-8. In the image below, this is the green section of the chart.
Governor Brown has issued a TWO WEEK PAUSE beginning today, November 11th. Please see the specifics below.
We will continue to offer limited in person learning opportunities, and a robust comprehensive distance learning program. Our Return to School Committee will continue to work on safety plans so that the MOMENT we meet our metrics we can bring our kiddos back to school.
We know that not all families will be comfortable sending their students back to school when the time comes for us to return - we are working to make those accommodations now so they are ready when the time comes.
Thank you for your continued patience, and your partnership through this challenging time. The best we can do is keep our community healthy, and do our part to bring the case count down in our county. And keep the prayers coming!
ODE’s Ready Schools Safe Learners Page
School Office Hours - changes in procedure due to COVID-19 safety measures
Effective Monday, August 31st please call ahead if:
* You need to meet with a staff member (Rosemarie, Penny, teachers, etc.)
* You need to pick something up, or drop something off (materials, payment, etc.)
If you are in the parking lot, please just call us from your cell phone, if you can and we will accommodate you if we can safely do so. We will do our very best to meet your needs and appreciate your cooperation as we work to keep our students and staff safe.
St. Therese Catholic School
Email: elyoussefr@stthereseschool.org
Website: stthereseschool.org
Location: 1260 Northeast 132nd Avenue, Portland, OR, USA
Phone: (503) 253-9400
Facebook: Facebook.com/StThereseSchoolPortlandOrFamilyPage
Twitter: @sttherese_pdx