Dear St. Jerome Families,

I hope that you are all having a pleasant week so far. Below, is more information about Catholic Schools Week (the week of January 30th) including the schedule and sign up for the birthday box service project (thank you all for your support so far). We have a full slate of events planned to celebrate Catholic education here at St. Jerome, starting with the Pasta Dinner on Friday, January 27th.

I wanted to review the process for a delayed opening or closing due to weather:

• Two Hour Delay: If the Office of Catholic Education delays the schools in the city, we will open two hours late. That means that drop off will begin at 9:20 AM and classes will begin at 9:35 AM. We will also send out an OptionC email and text alert to notify you.
• Closure: If the Office of Catholic Education closes schools in the city, we will notify you by OptionC email and text as soon as possible. If we only have one or two snow days here and there, we will be closed with not assignment given. For any subsequent snow days, the teachers in 1st-8th grades will post assignments on Google Classroom; the teachers will also post when they will be available on Google Meet if any of their students have a question. The teachers in PreK and K will post optional, suggested activities. By us completing the work for the day (the teachers are mindful of the workload), we are not required to have to take away any school holidays or extend the school year in June. This will also help us keep continuity with instruction should we have extended closure due to weather.

Tomorrow, Thursday, Sister Margaret Rose Adams, IHM, our assistant superintendent, will be here for our annual official school visit. She and I will confer, and then we will tour the school and visit all of the classrooms and teachers.

Also, tomorrow, our Student Council has arranged a STEM challenge for our homerooms to undertake. We look forward to this, and we also greatly appreciate the activities that our Student Council organized for us the day before Christmas break.

It's also not to early to begin to think about summer camp (we still have quite a bit of school to go, but it will be here before we know it). The brochure for Camp Jerome is posted below and here. If you have any questions about our fantastic summer camp program, please email Mrs. Lerlo, camp director, at campjerome@sjsphila.org.

Please remember that there is no school this coming Monday, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Have a great rest of the week; St. Jerome and St. Lucy, pray for us!

We want to make sure that we save seats for our current families and new siblings through the end of January 27th when new student registration will begin. Copies of all of this information are also below. You can also return the Continuous Enrollment form electronically here. Registration fees will be added to your tuition account, so there is no need to send anything back, except for the Continuous Enrollment Form (paper or electronic) at this time.

If you are registering a new sibling, please indicate that on the paper or electronic form. Then, an application will be sent home by Mrs. Bacanskas for you to fill out.

As one of our Catholic Schools Week service projects, each homeroom is going to assemble 2 birthday boxes --- one for a boy and one for a girl age-appropriate to their grade. We will have 2 bakery boxes to put the items inside, and the outside will be decorated by the students

All the birthday boxes will be donated to the Catholic Social Services Family Service Center. These birthday boxes will allow families in need, who come to Catholic Social Services for food and clothing, to provide for a special birthday for their child, especially in these challenging times.

Please click here for more information and the sign up sheet (you can sign up for multiple items and grades if you would like). Please note that all of the grades are on the sign up sheet, but you need to scroll to the bottom for Pre-K3 and Pre-K4. Please bring in all items by Monday, January 30th, so that we can assemble the boxes and deliver them to Catholic Social Services. If we have any extra items, we will assemble additional boxes. Thank you!