Eagle's Edge
St. Therese Family Newsletter - November 25th
A Time for Giving Thanks
It feels like we blinked once or twice and it's already the end of November and Thanksgiving is here. I'm so grateful for the many blessings in my life, and among those blessings is our St. Therese community.
I've been a part of this community for going on ten years now, and the strength, compassion, and generosity of the families, staff, and parishioners, never ceases to amaze me. The phone calls and emails of encouragement, offers to help, and sweet notes from students buoy our spirits and give us hope for the months to come.
We genuinely miss seeing all of our children here in person, and we appreciate the challenges that accompany this situation; our staff is looking forward to the new year and the hope of a safe return to limited in-person learning. We pray that during this time of increasing case counts throughout the county, you and your families remain safe and healthy - you are always in our prayers.
All of us here at St. Therese School wish you a blessed and happy Thanksgiving holiday.
God bless you all,
Rosemarie El Youssef
Principal, St. Therese School
DCS Teacher Inservice Day December 4th - NO CLASSES
12/4 Special Drive-thru hosted by St. Nicholas himself!
Although we don't have classes on December 4th, teachers will be here working and the office will be open.
We are so excited to see you!
Picture Re-takes December 4th
We encourage you to only come in for a retake if you haven't taken a photo yet. If you have more than one child, just use ONE slot to sign them all up - photos take only 2 minutes.
You may schedule your time by using the signup link below:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0D48A4AF29ABF5C07-picture
How to access your new FACTS account - view grades, attendance, and access important family information!
The password to view the video is: Portal (P must be capitalized)
You will need to use the email address that we have on file for you in order to setup your FACTS Family Portal account.
Many families have a FACTS financial login already for financial aid - this will not work for the family portal. You will need to setup a new login.
The district code is: STS-OR (all caps)
Please give us a call if we can be of assistance!
Portland Rescue Mission - Food and Coat Drive!
Thank you all for your generous donations so far!
St. Therese School is collaborating with the Portland Rescue Mission to collect adult coats, hats, gloves, and scarves for those in need. Please bring your donations to the school anytime during regular office hours, or drop off during our drive-thru supply times on Fridays from 2-4:30.
We are also collecting warm blankets for their emergency shelter downtown.
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 and there are two pieces. You can drop your donations off anytime!
We encourage each middle schooler to purchase two pieces of fleece, but will also be distributing the donated fleece to those interested in participating so they can make more than one. Because of the pause in LIP Learning, each middle school student is invited to participate at home during a live class on Google Meet with Mrs. El Youssef. Our goal is to have blankets made and brought back to the school by the December 11th drive-thru.
Donations needed by December 3rd.
Thank you!
Switching from SchoolSpeak to FACTS Management System
You will be receiving all newsletter communications via FACTS from now on. It may be my name you see as the sender, or it may be FACTS - please continue to check your spam folder in case the smore link flags it as spam (this happened earlier in the school year with SchoolSpeak).
All grade reporting for 5th - 8th grades will be transitioning to FACTS. You will receive an email with instructions for logging in and creating your account.
Thank you for your patience through this transition - it is already a tremendous improvement!
BottleDrop Thursdays - PLEASE BRING BOTTLES ON MONDAY 11/30 AND TUESDAY 12/1!
There is a special matching fundraiser coming up through BottleDrop. From NOW until December 1, BottleDrop will give us a 20% match for every bag of cans/bottles or financial contribution made to our St. Therese Account. This special fundraiser will end on December 1st so please bring us your bags before the end of the school day on Tuesday!
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!
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, December 16, and we will be discussing future fundraisers. The zoom link for that meeting will be sent to you via email on Monday, December 14.
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.
Please see the attachment below for the meeting minutes from 11/18.
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!
SAFE & READY SCHOOLS UPDATE as of 11/25
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.
Our count in Multnomah County has increased since last week, now hovering at 468/100,000. Our two-week case count up 100/100,000 from last week. 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.
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
We have PHONES!
Thank you for your patience!
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