Hello Saint Kateri School families ~

Welcome to 2021 and a happy "Little Christmas" as we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany today. I hope that you had a restful and joy filled Christmas season! It was definitely disappointing to cut our time short before Christmas Break, for our teachers and our students. But we were given added time as we returned on Monday to continue the Christmas celebrations, to continue the missed birthday celebrations and begin our learning together once again. God is good!

Even as we continue to be in a pandemic, it continues to be necessary to take student attendance, documenting student absences and tardiness. Attendance information is a legal document and something that can be used in court cases and is contained in every student's permanent school record. Since we have changed our arrival system to accommodate COVID guidelines, it has been difficult to end car line arrivals and Daily Health checks after the 8:30am school bell has rung as there continues to be an ongoing line right up until 8:30 and after. We will begin placing the orange cones behind the last car in line when the 8:30 school bell rings. If you arrive after that time, you will need to drive around to the front of the building and sign your child into school with the Main Office. We appreciate how understanding and accommodating our families have been throughout the many, many changes and updates to procedures and guidelines and know this will be no different. If you have any questions, please contact me directly.

Tomorrow our students will begin the Mid-Year I-Ready diagnostic. These diagnostic assessments are done online and will be administered with the help of the AIS team. Teachers use the information gained through these online assessments as a tool to help them create small groups for math and reading and to identify areas of target learning for the students in their class. I-Ready diagnostic results are used only by AIS teachers and classroom teachers to create student learning paths, and are not reflected on report cards. Please contact your child's teacher if you have any questions.

So many seniors were touched by our Christmas Tea goodie bags ~ enjoy the pictures below. Some of you may recognize a familiar Principal! We continue to receive Thank You from those that were touched by our service. These small acts of kindness created a large amount of Christmas spirit, that otherwise may not have been experienced. #Christforothers

God bless you all!

Mrs. Terri L. Morgan, Principal

Email: Terri.Morgan@dor.org

Phone: (585) 467-8730

• Daily Health Checks have been going very well! Thank you for having them done by 7:30 each morning ~ this will avoid the phone calls
• This year we have had to close down our drinking fountains because of COVID. Be sure your child has a water bottle each day.
• Remember to put into PUP ~ late, absent or early dismissal notifications

January:

• 1/6: Parent's Association re-scheduled for 1/13
• 1/6: February Hot Lunch ordering opens
• 1/6: Milk Ordering is opened for the 2nd half of the year
• 1/12: Quiet Mass 4th/1st
• 1/15 Peace Prayer Service
• 1/15: February Hot Lunch ordering closes at 9:30am
• 1/18: NO SCHOOL Martin Luther King, Jr Day
• 1/19: Quiet Mass at 9:00 3rd/K
• 1/26: Quiet Mass at 9:00 5th/2nd
• 1/31-2/6: Catholic Schools Week!

Attention Amazon shoppers! We are continuing to use the AmazonSmile program for our school and church community. It’s very easy and of no cost to you. When you shop at smile.amazon.com, our school community will receive a portion of the proceeds from each eligible purchase as a donation from Amazon.

Simply search for “Saint Kateri Tekakwitha Roman Catholic Parish in Irondequoit, NY” and select it as your charity. Then shop as usual! Amazon will remember your charity when it is time to check out and our community will receive a portion of your eligible purchases! Thank you for participating and happy shopping! Feel free to pass this information on to family members and friends looking to help out our school!

Thank you for continuing to be diligent in following our COVID guidelines ~ you have sent in water bottles every day because we have needed to close drinking fountains, your children have worn masks every single day of this school year and you have packed extras in their back pack, you have kept your children home from school when they have cold symptoms and made sure you received an "All Clear" note from the doctor so your child could return to school, you have sent in individually packed, store bought treats for special occasions ~ not an inexpensive task, you have missed out on times in our school with your children and your beloved teachers. You have done so much and sacrificed so much in order to help us continue to learn together, day to day. We appreciate it more than words can express! Thank you and keep doing what you are doing ~ we are committed to staying the course together!

Our school continues to be in a Yellow Zone, and as part of a Yellow Zone was required to conduct on site COVID testing for 20% of our population in order to remain open. That requirement was met on November 18th and resulted in all 32 tests being negative. Since our positivity rate was less that our Yellow Zone area at the time, we were no longer required to conduct testing. This week we received a recommendation from the Monroe County Department of Health to test 5% of our school population each week (which would bring us to 20% testing in a four week period) As we consider this, along with guidance from our Department of Catholic Schools, we will keep you informed regarding next steps and if/when testing will resume.

There are also guidelines coming soon regarding students return to physical activity (P.E. class, sports, etc.) after receiving a positive COVID test. We will share out more information when details are given to us.

Please share your love of Saint Kateri School in the upcoming weeks as we begin our enrollment process for next school year. We have already begun to get phone calls for tours which is great BUT...you are our biggest marketing tool.

• Reach out to family and friends who are looking for a school for their children next year
• Post on your social media accounts
• Share our school posts
• Comment on local Irondequoit groups your recommendations about attending SKS