St. Jerome School Weekly Newsletter
December 2nd, 2020
“Advent is a journey towards Bethlehem. May we let ourselves be drawn by the light of God made man.”
Pope Francis
From Mr. Merrick
Dear St. Jerome Families,
Congratulations to our Students of the Month for November who were recognized for living the virtue of stewardship: Nicholas Halbherr, Lily Banas, Destenee Fallas-Espinoza, Erin Cannon, Noah O'Brien, Rachel Wise, William Rodriguez, Samantha Hand, Christopher Parker, Isabella Jenkins, and Isabella Bringhurst.
An updated calendar is posted below; please note that we will be dismissing at 12:00 PM on Tuesday, December 22nd for Christmas vacation. I apologize, but I mistyped that as the 23rd on the previous calendar. Classes will resume from Christmas vacation on Monday, January 4th.
The first trimester ends this Friday; report cards will be posted to OptionC on Monday, December 14th. Please contact Mr. Dooley (tdooley@sjsphila.org) if you need help accessing OptionC.
With the end of the trimester, I ask that any families who have been virtual this trimester and would like to switch to in-person to please email me (rmerrick@sjsphila.org) to set a return date for you. Thank you!
With the present circumstances, we are going to have a make-up picture day for anyone who was not able to be photographed in November on Friday, January 15th. We will have time that day for both in-person and virtual students to have their picture taken.
Friday, December 11th and Friday, December 18th will be St. Jerome Spirit Wear Days. For a donation, the students may wear their gym uniform and any St. Jerome shirt or a Christmas themed shirt.
I wanted to update you on our school's technology improvements. We have three sets of Chromebooks on order, which will allow us to be 1:1 in 3rd-8th grade and have an additional set of Chromebooks for 1st and 2nd grade to share. We expect them to arrive in January (though we could be surprised with them in December); unfortunately, they have been in such high demand and are on backorder, even though we ordered them in August.
Also, we received additional funding through the CARES Act that we can use for distance learning. We are using some of the funds to upgrade the projectors and sound systems in the classrooms. This will benefit our in-person students as well as our virtual students and also make it easier for our teachers to teach from home. We appreciate the funding and are working to get this new equipment as soon as possible; the process, however, has to go through the School District of Philadelphia and therefore has taken a lot of time.
Thank you for your help by reporting and keeping your children home for potential exposures to COVID-19 as well as for positive tests. We are working to keep you informed and make the safest and best decisions possible using guidance from the Philadelphia Department of Health. It is inconvenient and disruptive to have to dismiss a cohort (I have been through this first hand now having to work from home last week and this week myself), but we appreciate your help in keeping our students and staff healthy.
Have a great rest of the week; St. Jerome, pray for us!
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 School will conduct these lessons on Thursday, December 10th. 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 Monday, December 7th. You only need to return the form if you opt your child(ren) out.
Toys for Tots
Home and School 50/50 Raffle
St. Jerome Night at Cafe Carmela
Christmas Cookie Kits
Virtue of the Month for December: Generosity
Giving without counting the cost.
St. Jerome Scrip Program
Support St. Jerome on Amazon Smile:
Race for Education
April 2021
We are still taking donations to reach our goal of 20,000; remember that all proceeds will directly benefit the students of St. Jerome School.
Donations
- Here’s how you can help:
- Share the donation link: St. Jerome School Race for Education
- Credit Cards and Paypal: St. Jerome School Race for Education
- 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.
Student Health Reminders
Our reopening plan calls on every member of the school community to support our values of mutual respect, integrity, willingness to sacrifice for the common good and foster community bonds across generations. Commitment to the policies will assist in protecting the health and welfare of all members of our school community.
In an effort to keep all children safe, we ask that Parents monitor their children’s Health daily. Below are the expectations related to the health monitoring.
I attest to :
Fever of 100.4 or above,
chills,
Cough,
Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing,
Fatigue,
Muscle or body aches,
Headache,
New loss of taste or smell,
Sore throat,
Congestion or runny nose,
Nausea or vomiting,
Diarrhea,
My child has not had any contact with anyone with COVID
My child has not traveled a location designated as a “Hot Spot
I am following all CDC recommended guidelines and limiting my/my child’s exposure to risks such as above
If any of these symptoms present, please keep your child from school and contact the school. If the symptoms are serious please seek immediate medical attention. Always call before visiting your doctor or health facility.
We will keep you informed if the list of symptoms, listed above, changes in any way.