Eagle's Edge
St. Therese Family Newsletter - January 28 (a day late)
Living in Crazytown!
It's like deja-vu all over again...
Cleaning, sorting, organizing, moving desks around, planning new curriculum, figuring out technology - it's like the beginning of the school year, but not. Here we are, halfway through, starting over and loving every minute of it.
The building is BUZZING with energy and excitement as we plan for the students to return. We hope you are feeling the same excitement.
Not all of our eagles will be learning in person with us, and that's ok! We hope that as the case rates continue to drop and families begin to feel more confident and safe more students will join us. Remember, we are assuming that your students are learning in-person with us unless you tell us otherwise. Please be sure to complete the survey so we know where you are in your planning.
THANK YOU for attending our informational sessions, sending your questions via email, or calling the school. We truly are here to support you so please don't hesitate to let us know how.
While it feels like Crazytown, PDX right now, we will all be nothing but calm, cool, and collected by Monday morning as we welcome our first wave of learners:
Kindergarten
1st Grade
3rd Grade
5th Grade
8th Grade
Monday, February 8th we will be welcoming:
EVERYONE!
We need the first week to work through some kinks in the system so we can be ready for all of our Eagles to come home.
Take care and please continue hold your St. Therese community in prayer.
Warmly,
Rosemarie El Youssef
Principal, St. Therese School
What we know as we plan our return to in-person learning...
There are many things we are still working on, but here is what we know for sure at this time:
- In-person learning will occur Monday through Thursday from 8:20 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
- Fridays will be a virtual learning day for all students with noon dismissal.
- Kindergarten, 1st grade, 3rd grade, 5th grade, and 8th grade return on February 1st.
- 2nd grade, 4th grade, 6th grade, and 7th grade will join them on February 8th.
- Students will be required to attend in uniform, both in person and virtually for consistency.
- Students will be required to bring a sack lunch from home – we will not have hot lunch service for the remainder of the school year.
- Health checks will continue in the morning at drop-off as they did during Limited In-Person (LIP) Learning, with some improvements.
- Each student will have 35 square feet of space in the classroom.
- Face masks are required.
Below you will find a copy of the email I sent to families on Monday, January 11th.
Updated Case Rates 1/23/21
We will watch the data and keep you informed as things change.
Re-enrollment/Registration Portal OPEN
The earlier you enroll, the better prepared we are to discuss next year's budget and make plans for school staffing. You can pay your $200 registration fee now, or just wait and pay before May 1, 2021.
Please give us a call if we can help you in any way!
FACTS Financial Aid - APPLY NOW!
https://online.factsmgt.com/SignIn.aspx
Our school may be eligible for additional financial aid from outside grants, but only based on the applications submitted by Monday, February 1st. PLEASE complete your application prior to that date.
The deadline for completing financial aid applications is March 1, 2021 in order to be considered for financial aid.
Virtual Open House, Jan. 31st from 1-3 p.m.
The Virtual Open House is a way for families to get a glimpse at what we have to offer and ask questions about our school. We will schedule in-person tours ANYTIME!
Photo Release Authorization - REMINDER
Thank you to all who have filled out this form so far!
We would love to include photos of our students on our website, newsletter, and on social media. Please complete the photo release letting us know if this is OK or NOT OK. We will keep these permissions on file for the rest of the school year and renew each fall. Please know that this also includes the YEARBOOK - we need your permission for students to be pictured there as well.
Look for our school in the Catholic Schools edition of the Sentinel - we are so proud of our community!
Click here to complete the Photo Release Authorization Form for 2020-2021 school year.
Catholic Schools Week, January 31st - February 6th
If you would like to attend mass, please call the parish office at 503-256-5850 or email info@stthereseor.org to sign up. Parish office hours are Monday - Friday, 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. and if you call outside of business hours, Colleen, our lovely receptionist, will call you back to confirm your sign-up. There is only one mass on Sundays, so spaces fill up quickly!
Mrs. El Youssef will have a special treat for those students who attend! Stay tuned for more information about virtual open house and other activities we are planning for that week.
St. Vincent de Paul - UPDATES
Our item of the month for February is FRESH POTATOES! Eagle Student Leadership is collecting food for St. Vincent de Paul for Catholic Schools Week and that is our greatest need. You can bring bags of potatoes by the school ANYTIME and our ES Leadership kiddos will deliver to the pantry.
Volunteer opportunity: St Vincent de Paul is in need of delivery drivers. We need substitute drivers for Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Drivers on a rotating basis are needed for Saturday morning. Usual start time is around 9 am and shifts are 1 1//2 to 2 hours. Training provided. Must be able to carry 25 pound boxes up stairs. Please call Shasta Hatter at 503-253-7566 for more information or to volunteer.
If you or someone you know is in need of assistance, please contact Shasta Hatter at the SVdP office 503-253-7566.
Catholic High Schools - Recommendations and Records
Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.
Friday, January 29th - Asynchronous Learning Day
Teachers will prepare work for your students to do independently that day. We realize that there are several "no school" days in February, so we wouldn't be taking this time if we didn't need it! We want to be sure that everything is ready for our Eagles when they arrive Feb. 1st and Feb. 8th.
Special Drive-thru to practice drop-off and pick-up, January 29th from 2-6 p.m.
Even if your student doesn't start in-person learning on February 1st, it's really important to swing in - it's the last drive-thru event we will be hosting!
If you can't make it during that time, please let us know and we can schedule a time to walk you through the process to be sure you understand how it's going to work.
Catholic Schools Week - UPDATE!
If students are NOT participating in the dress up days, they should wear their uniform.
Sunday 1/31: Celebrating Your Parish
* Come join us at mass!
Monday 2/1: Celebrating Your Community
* Wear your Distance Learning shirt to school
* Any pants are ok - just not sweats
* Food collection for St. Vincent de Paul
Tuesday 2/2: Celebrating Your Students
* Surprise fun activity!
* Disney Day
Wednesday 2/3: Celebrating the Nation
* Show and tell - share photos of your family in different parts of the city, state, country
* Red, White, & Blue Day - or souvenir day. Wear something from somewhere around the United States (maybe a sweatshirt from the University of Portland? Seaside? Yellowstone Park?)
Thursday 2/4: Celebrating Vocations
* Make special cards to send to our parish priests!
* Career Day! Dress up like your future career.
Friday 2/5: Celebrating Faculty, Staff, and Volunteers
* Special treats for our staff to enjoy during our Faith Formation Day (no school)
* Please consider making a card to thank a St. Therese staff member!
* NO SCHOOL - take the day off :)
Saturday 2/6: Celebrating Families
* Do something special as a family - enjoy a family tradition, or have a family game night
What about the kids coming Feb. 8th? WELCOME BACK WEEK!
Monday 2/8 - Distance Learning t-shirt (any pants, no sweats)
Tuesday 2/9 - Crazy hair and hat day (wear your uniform)
Wednesday 2/10 - College Day!
Thursday 2/11 - Sports Day!
Friday 2/12 - Free Dress (you're learning at home, anyway!)
Remember, if your student isn't participating they should just wear a uniform.
Go Eagles!
BottleDrop Thursdays
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, February 10 (CHANGE - 2/17 is Ash Wednesday).
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! Our next PC meeting on January 20th will be focused on brainstorming ideas for fundraisers.
School Office Hours 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
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