St. Jerome School Weekly Newsletter
March 23rd, 2022
"In trial or difficulty I have recourse to Mother Mary, whose glance alone is enough to dissipate every fear."
St. Therese of Lisieux
From Mr. Merrick
Dear St. Jerome Families,
I hope that your week is going well so far. Yesterday, our faculty had a peaceful and reflective retreat day. Sister John Sheila Galligan, IHM, from Immaculata University gave two presentations, and we also attended Mass, Adoration, and had the opportunity for confession. We also had the time to pray for all of you, each other, and all of our special intentions. Sister Sheila was impressed with our faculty and our school as she spent the day with us; the only part that was hard for her was driving on the Boulevard.
I am sending the newsletter earlier in the day today as I have a district meeting at Christ the King School. Every other month, the Catholic school principals in our area meet, and we have been on Zoom up until now. Therefore, we are all very excited to be in-person to be able to share and discuss best practices.
Thursday is a St. Jerome Spirit Wear Day; donations will go to the Archeparchy of Philadelphia of the Ukrainian Catholic Church for relief in Ukraine as well as our other spring service projects. Thank you all for your generosity; through both our school and whole parish community we collected many items that are being sent to help people in need in Ukraine.
Sister Lisa Lettiere, IHM, Principal of St. Lucy School, will be visiting us on Friday. She will be visiting the classrooms to meet our students, teachers, and staff. She is also going to bring some of the assistive technology that her students use. Sister Lisa and I will also be meeting to go over the school calendar, so that we can send that home in the next few weeks. She was going to spend the day, but she now has a funeral to attend in the morning, so she will be with us in the afternoon. She will be back for another visit if we can't get to all the classrooms.
Our students, under the direction of Miss Natalie and Miss Linda, have been preparing diligently for the premier of Aladdin Jr. this week. Please see below for show times and ticket information; I not only can't wait to see the performance but also am grateful to have our school play back!
Today, we kick off our Race for Education for 2022; this is one of our three major fundraisers that allows us to raise funds to make capital improvements to directly benefit our students. At the same time, it is a fun day of togetherness and school pride as we walk together through our neighborhood. More information may be found below as well as in the Wednesday Folder.
Please keep our CORA counselor, Mrs. Leone, and her family in your prayers as her mother passed away.
Registration is ongoing for this summer's Camp Jerome. Please visit the page on the school website for registration forms and more information. If you have any questions, please contact Mrs. Lerlo, Camp Director, at campjerome@sjsphila.org.
Due to a funeral, we need to move our March School Liturgy to next Thursday at 10:00 AM (it was scheduled for Monday). Miss Labovitz's 2nd grade class will be assisting as readers and gift bearers.
Have a great rest of the week; St. Jerome, pray for us!
Race for Education 2022
We are excited to announce that our 17th annual Race for Education will take place on Tuesday, April 26th. This Race serves not only as an important fundraiser, but also as an opportunity for our school community to celebrate our successes through the last two years. St. Jerome was recently named a School of Distinguished Instruction by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, demonstrating school-wide academic growth between 2019 and 2021. Our walking together will be a display of unity and thanksgiving. We continue to be committed to providing excellent spiritual and academic experiences for our students.
With your support and generosity, we hope to raise $20,000! All monies raised directly benefit the children of St. Jerome. We are proud of the improvements that have recently been made to our programs and facilities.
The Race is scheduled for Tuesday, April 26th at 10:00 AM. (Raindate is Friday, 4/29) Our students and faculty will walk a designated route through the Winchester Park neighborhood. Neighbors are encouraged to decorate windows and front yards with messages of encouragement for our walkers. The students will be permitted to wear the school gym uniform that day. More information including the route map will be sent to the parents at a date closer to the event.
Here’s how you can help:
All students are asked to submit 10 email addresses of family members and friends who are likely to sponsor them and support St. Jerome School. Emails can be submitted here: https://forms.gle/LCErSK9YZYhW6LzB7 Each student who completes this form will earn a prize for their participation. Siblings must complete separate forms, but may use the same addresses on each. All email addresses are due by Thursday, March 31st.
Each family is also asked to post the donation St. Jerome School Race for Education link to your social media accounts. You can share the link directly from our school Facebook page “Saint Jerome School.” For those who prefer a paper flyer to distribute to family members, a PDF of the pledge request can be obtained on our school website: https://sjsphila.org/race-for-education.
The suggested fundraising goal per student is $100. Working together we achieve more! We kindly ask that all donations be submitted by Monday, April 25th so that our totals can be tallied.
Donation Payment Information:
Credit Cards and Paypal: St. Jerome School Race for Education
Venmo: @sjsphila (Business)
Cash or checks: Cash or checks made payable to St. Jerome School can be
sent into school with a student, dropped off at the main office, or handed in at the rectory scrip counter.
Aladdin Junior
Spring Apparel Orders (Including Race for Education T-Shirts)
Our Spring St. Jerome Apparel Store (including t-shirts for the Race for Education) is now open through Sixsmith. Online ordering for St. Jerome School ends on Mon, Apr 4, 2022 (11:59 PM EDT).
- Full Zip Sweatshirts can be worn in school.
- Orders will be processed once the store closes. Orders will be delivered to school once they are ready.
- If an item becomes unavailable, we will try to substitute for that item or refund your card.
Protecting God's Children Lessons
In the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, Article 12 calls for all dioceses to establish "safe environment" programs at all grade levels. This ongoing education is presented to the students in the parish and regional elementary schools of the Archdiocese as well as in the Parish Religious Education Programs (PREP or CCD) two times during the instructional year. This is a mandated obligation from the Archdiocese with the two lessons provided for our teachers.
The lessons are available for you to review by visiting http://www.aopcatholicschools.org/about/programs and clicking on Safe Environment.
St. Jerome School will conduct these lessons on Tuesday, March 29th. If you choose to have your child removed from the lesson, please return the form (sent home in the Wednesday folder as well as posted below) by Friday, March 25th. You only need to return the form if you opt your child(ren) out.
St. Jerome Easter Egg Hunt
Disciple Maker Index Survey
The link will be on our Facebook page, Instagram, and the church website beginning March 2nd. All responses are confidential and the parish will only receive information about the community as whole. We will share the link with you a bit closer to the launch of the survey.
We are trying to get the highest response rate possible. This information will be invaluable to Fr. Reilly and our various ministries as we plan for the future and strive to be the best disciples we can be. We will receive the results this spring/summer at which time we will share what we have learned with the entire parish.
If you prefer a paper copy you may pick up a paper copy of the survey in the parish office on or after March 2nd. Printable version of the survey will also be available to print from the church website when the survey opens. To submit the completed paper survey, please drop it off at the rectory or in the basket at church.
Thank you for helping with this important project!