Blue Jay Flyer
December 9, 2020
From the Principal's Desk...
Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
Dear Parent and Guardians,
It is very good to see your daughters and sons in person this week. I know
that our faculty and staff are excited to be back. This week has been the first week
in quite some time when we have not had any substitute teachers in the building. I
am very grateful to our faculty and staff for all of their personal efforts to stay safe
and healthy over our Thanksgiving Break.
We have only one week left before our Christmas Break. I’m sure that our
students are looking forward to being at home; enjoying the holidays and not sitting
in front of their computer. I am grateful for the good work that almost all of our
students have done to be faithful to the distance learning.
It is our intention to return to five days per week of in person instruction after
our Christmas Break. I want to encourage everyone to exercise caution and follow
all of the recommended protocols during this time. If we follow these things, we will
have a much better chance of returning in person.
I am very pleased to be able to report to everyone that our second annual St.
John’s School Spectacular has netted $61,000. We had about half of the previous
year’s in person guests, but we had 350 remote participants. The success of this
critically important event will help us to keep our tuition as low as possible. Special
thanks to our chairperson, Mary Beth Salyers, our expert caterer, Roger Hollstegge,
and our dedicated committee.
In today’s Gospel (MT 11:28-30), we hear Jesus’ words. “Jesus said to the
crowds: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you
rest.” The Lord continues to invite us in the midst of this pandemic and especially
during this Holy Season to turn to Him. May we all find comfort and rest in our Lord.
Peace,
Dan Minelli
Calendar of Events
School News
Shopping Cents Out of Uniform Pass
Order forms were sent home Tuesday in your youngest student's backpack. Also, attached below is the Christmas Version of the order form which includes some additional $5 and $10 Starbucks, Panera, Amazon, and Target gift cards (found underneath the limited time offers).
Gift cards are available in various increments ranging from $5.00-$100.00. There is no minimum requirement to earn an out of uniform pass.
To order online, simply download the Raise Right app and create an account. If you have the old MyScripWallet app, it is being replaced with the Raise Right app.
Enrollment Code: A1EFFA5L1L12
**Orders will also be filled next week on Tuesday, the 15th, instead of Thursday**
Shopping Cents generic gift certificates are a great teacher gift and available in $5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 denominations. They can be used to purchase any gift certificates offered through the program.
As a reminder, you can also purchase cards before or after all weekend masses at St. John the Baptist. Last day to place a special order with guaranteed delivery before Christmas break is this Thursday, 12/10. Special orders placed after this Thursday will need to be picked up at a weekend mass.
Any questions, please contact Amy Roetting at amyroetting@hotmail.com.
Winter Coat Drive Ends Dec. 14
St. John the Baptist Parish and School are collecting new and/or gently used winter coats, hats, and gloves for St. Vincent de Paul. Please send any coats to school with your student(s) and they will be placed in one of our donation bins.
Thank you in advance for sharing the warmth with those less fortunate.
A Spectacular Thank You
Thanks to the generosity of so many donors, bidders and sponsors, the second St. John School Spectacular was a huge success. While the event was extremely limited to in person attendees due to Covid safety precautions, over 350 of you participated in donating, online bidding and purchasing raffle tickets.
The profits from this event benefit every family who has children in our school by holding tuition increases low. The registration fee stayed the same last year and the tuition increase was only $75, a 5 year low. And last year’s profits also enabled the purchase of tablets for the 4th to 8th graders to assist with distance learning resulting from our current pandemic. It is the goal of the Spectacular to keep the faith-based education of our school as affordable as possible for all our families.
To all of you who donated items, bought raffle tickets, donated so generously and volunteered in planning and executing the event, we say thank you! And to every school family who donated to the first ever basket raffles, a huge thank you! Preliminary numbers show an event profit of about $65,000 which will go a long way in keeping tuition costs stable again this year.
A special thank you to all the sponsors listed below and especially to Rumpke Waste & Recycling who for the second year was our presenting sponsor.
Debbie & Ken Schneider Destinys Catering
Mary Beth Monter Salyers Gary Even
Murphy Supply Company Waltek & Glenwood Energy
Braun Heating & Air Conditioning Catholic Order of Foresters Court 1513
Faculty & Staff of St John’s School Deanne & Dave Gruelich
MWH Service Enterprises, Inc Printcraft
Bill Reinert Scarlet & Gray Facility Services, Inc
Wellman & Associates Jaco Waterproofing
Kaldi’s Catering Rose Wolterman Putnick/Star One
Springdale Title St John’s PTO
Stehlin’s Meat Market Sweet Heart Café
Erika & Jason Tonne
Inclement Weather Policy
Morning preschool and half day kindergarten will be cancelled for a two hour delay. Please refer to page 19 of your Student Handbook (accessible on the school website under the Parent tab) for further information.
Shop Amazon Smile
Our school earns .5% of all Amazon orders provided that you shop through the Amazon Smile link, http://smile.amazon.com, and select St. John the Baptist Catholic School Cincinnati as your charity.
It really is that simple. If you have Amazon Prime, all of your benefits remain the same when using Amazon Smile.
Shopping through the Amazon app on your phone???
Go to Settings. Click on AmazonSmile and assign your St. John's as your charity. All purchases made through the app will earn money for St. John's unless you go back in and change it.
Shutterfly Orders Earn 8% For St. John's
Click here to order and St. John's will earn an 8% commission on the net total of your order. All special offers and coupon promo codes will still apply to your order. Please share the link below with friends and family to maximize our fundraising.
Covid Testing Protocol
If you, your child, or someone in your household is being tested for COVID-19, please keep your child or children home from school while waiting for the results.
Please notify the school that this is the reason for their absence on the attendance line.
Blue Jay Gallery
St. Nick Surprise
Letters to Santa
Lunch Time
Smiles Behind the Masks
PTO News
Santa Shop
In hopes of spreading cheer and not COVID 19
Santa Shop is going to be somewhat lean
We have 375 perishable items to sell
They will make you feel good and smell swell
Our special shoppers have been bargain hunting all year
So we can always bring out more gifts if needed for cheer
Thank you for understanding; we appreciate your grace
We hope this Christmas brings a smile to your face.
Santa Shop is off to a great start this week! On Tuesday, our 4 year old preschoolers, kindergarten, 3rd grade, and 6th grade students shopped for gifts for their families.
Remaining grades will shop on Thursday and Friday of this week during lunch on their designated day.
o Thursday, Dec 10th: Pre K, 1st, 4th and 7th grades will shop.
o Friday, Dec 11th: 2nd, 5th and 8th grades will shop.
*Gifts range in price from $1.00-$10.00
*The majority of the gifts are bath and body items such as hand lotion, chapstick, hand sanitizer, bath bombs and food items such as hot sauce and candy.
*Additional items will be brought out to purchase if needed.
*Since it is a scaled down shop this year we are asking students to limit their purchases to two gifts for their family/friends.
If your student(s) are planning to shop, please send payment (cash or check made payable to St. Johns PTO). Change will be sent home if your check amount is more than the amount purchased.
Thank you for your support. All proceeds go to the PTO which directly benefits our children!