Dear St. Therese families,

Thank you to everyone who helped us make our 2023 Back to School Night a great success. It was a great night for parents to meet teachers and learn more about what school looks like for their kids this year. It was also a nice occasion for us all to get together as a community! We have been working on building that and look forward to more opportunities for events like that!

If you were unable to make it, please check in with your child's homeroom teacher. If they haven't already, they should be able to send you the information specific to their classroom and your child.

To recap very briefly, please keep working on getting those Jog-A-Thon Pledges! If every student can hit their goal of $250, we will hit our goal of $50,000!! This year, all Jog-A-Thon proceeds go directly back to students, in the form of tech upgrades! Super exciting!

Both Athletic Board and the Parents Club are looking for volunteers! There are plenty of opportunities. Please ask in the office and we will very happily connect you with the right people from each committee!

We received so much positive feedback! Parents commented on how excited they are for this year, and how there is a renewed positive energy this year. We couldn't agree more! Thank you all who came last night. Thank you, everyone, who is a part of this beautiful community. You make St. Therese what it is!

Have a great weekend.

All the best,

Principal Schoning

mtsmaxie@gmail.com

503-961-0734

“There was so much drama last year”

-Anonymous Student

Although the word, “more” wasn’t placed in between “much” and “drama”, I took this to say that the social turmoil (aka, “drama”) amongst students has reduced, thus far. In comparison to the end of last year…things are much quieter on this front. I’m thankful for that. If not just a natural part of the beginning school year, this has occurred because of no one else except students making decisions about their own social lives.

I am incredibly proud of the work that students are doing to keep their own mental health in check to the best of their inexperienced ability. If this current dip in social turmoil ends up changing in the future, we will regroup, re-evaluate, re-approach, and keep working at it. But, in the meantime, a huge thank you to all of the kids who are making decisions to limit their involvement in what can be a toxic mess of emotions, if they allow it too much power. I was glad to be here, last year, and I am maybe a little more glad to be here, this year.

• Gum is not allowed at school. Ever. Please remind your middle school children at home. If it continues, we'll start scheduling detentions. The kids have been told dozens of times.

• Mr. Schoning is inexplicably triggered by all the clothing, water bottles, and lunchboxes orphaned every day on the playground. There are starving children in New Jersey who have to walk to school uphill in the snow both ways, who could really use that water bottle. Think globally, act locally.

• The weather is going to change. That's a problem because the current weather is just about perfect.

• Wednesday September 27th - Feast of St. Therese celebrated in school mass at 8:30 a.m.
• Thursday September 28th - C.A.S.E. Training at 6 p.m. in the PSC for all volunteers, parents, coaches, who want to volunteer at school.
• Friday September 29th - Free dress with $2 or 2 cans of food.
• Friday September 29th @ 1p.m. - School wide assembly: Virtues Award Ceremony, Student Council Speeches and Voting.
  
• Thursday October 5th - Jog-A-Thon!!!!!!!! We are doing great! Keep getting those pledges! Share on social media. Ask neighbors, friends, and ask mom and dad to share on social media!
• Friday October 6th, no school. Teacher inservice day.

All Catholic children from 4th grade through 8th grade who have made their Holy Communion are invited to altar serve at St. Therese Catholic Church. We have one final training this Sunday, 9/24 (11:30 AM - 1:00 PM). Click here to sign up for only one of the two trainings.

* Returning altar servers are required to attend in order to serve for the 2023/2024 school year.

If there is a conflict and your child cannot attend the training on Sunday, please contact Ms. Campos at gcampos@stthereseschool.org.

• A note on free dress this year: St. Therese students get free dress on the last Friday of the month, at minimum, as well as on a few other special days. We are asking students to chip in either $2, or 2 cans of food or a non-perishable item. The money will go to a charity and we will send the food to St. Vincent de Paul. When we all give just a little bit, we can make a real difference in the lives of others. That is important for us this year, as we return to service work with St. T. students.

• Kids have been great about bringing water bottles every day, which means that you folks at home have been great about sending them with water bottles. As a reminder, there are no more cups in the office. Students who don't have their own water bottles can get one in the office for $1.

• NO soda pop allowed in lunches, or at school. Water is best. Juice is ok. Thanks.

• Lost & Found is still way out of hand. We will be sorting clothes, washing and giving them away to charity.

• Jog-A-Thon is coming up! In order to for each student to get their t-shirt, they must register for the event. So far, about 70% of students are registered. Help close the gap, and make sure your child is registered. The Jog-A-Thon is our primary fundraiser and we need the support of the whole community to make it successful.

On Wednesday, our 7th and 8th grade students got to spend the day attending presentations from Central Catholic, De La Salle North, St. Mary's Academy, Jesuit, and La Salle Catholic. It was great to get our 7th graders thinking about their future, and a good nudge to our 8th graders who have to make those decisions pretty soon!

We will have our assembly for Virtues next Friday, Sept. 29 at 1 p.m. Feel free to join us. This month our virtue is Faith!

• Wanted: Laundry help! Want a way to get some Fair Share Hours, but don't have a lot of time to spend at school? We need folks who can take home uniform items, wash them, and return them to school. Pretty easy and a great way to help out! Contact the office and barnetta@stthereseschool.org.

• Wanted: Apple TV: Remember a few years ago when we all purchased the Apple TV hardware in order to watch Ted Lasso, before smart tv companies willingly accepted Apple TV as a native app? Now those clunky silver boxes are about as useful as book-ends because of the rapid pace of change in technology, but they are still incredibly useful in classrooms. We could use a few more. If you have one in a junk drawer or collecting dust in an old closet, and are willing to donate it, we'd be forever grateful.

• Wanted: handy person and painter. If you are looking for a way to get those Fair Share Hours, please contact the main office, barnetta@stthereseschool.org. We have endless projects, so don't be shy.

• Wanted: Volunteers for Athletics. Contact our athletic directors, athletics@stthereseschool.org, if you can help run concessions, work the doors at tournaments, keep score, etc. Really fun way to help out, especially for the sports fan. Applies towards Fair Share Hours also.

4th Grade students discussed how to be a good friend and came up with over 20 important ways. In class, they highlight and discuss one each week.

As always, please reach out if you have any questions or concerns. Mrs. Barnett, our registrar and office manager knows all! Call, email, or drop by and just say hello.