ST. PETER CATHOLIC SCHOOL Principal s Weekly Newsletter

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1 November 9, 2016 ST. PETER CATHOLIC SCHOOL Principal s Weekly Newsletter Dear St. Peter Families, We are so excited for our Green and Blue Gala this Friday evening. Great company, great music, great food and great auction items are all made possible by great volunteers. Events such as our Gala are very critical for our school improvements. I hope you have noticed recent improvements to our school playgrounds, fencing, and gardens. Beginning within the next two weeks through the Christmas break, we will continue to emphasize the beautification of our campus. We will be repaving our parking around campus to eliminate gravel and improve drainage, specifically around the pavilion, cafeteria and main school building. Along with our new fencing, we believe this project will provide a beautiful and clean campus for our school and community. We constantly receive requests to improve our instructional technology programs and devices. We have needs in our lower elementary classrooms to update devices to allow true student learning centers. We have many requests for Elmo devices in the classrooms for better instructional interaction during lessons. Requests such as these quickly add up to thousands of dollars that are not accounted for in our normal operating budget. As an important part of our Catholic identity, ten percent of all of our fundraising goes to tuition assistance, helping make Catholic education possible for more families. Again, I hope you will join us on Friday night knowing that your donations and money spent help make St. Peter an even greater place for learning and growing in our faith. God alone, Michael Kraus Do you love children of all ages? We are in need of substitute teachers! Please Janice Bardy at jbardy@stpetercov.org if you are interested. November 2016 November 10 (Thurs) November 11 (Fri) November 14 (Mon) November 15 (Tues) November 17 (Thurs) November 18 (Fri) November (Mon-Fri) December 2016 December 2 ( Fri) December 5 (Mon) December 6 (Tues) Outreach Covington Food Bank GALA Set-up NO AFTERCARE Advisory Board Meeting, 7:00 pm CANCELED St. Peter GALA A Night at the Oscars! 11:30 dismissal, No Bus, No Aftercare for the GAL Veterans Day Program (note: new date) Colonial Day for 5 th Grade Romaguera Picture Retakes All School Mass for Thanksgiving, 9:30 am 4 th grade class Thanksgiving Feast 7 th grade departs for Washington, DC Thanksgiving Break Grandparents Club Bake Sale at recess Advent Reconciliation for 3 rd 7 th grade Feast of St. Nicholas

2 Academic Accolades Suzanne Roth, Dean of Academics Dear Parents, I just had to share one of my favorite things this year Monday mornings are very special! Our 4 th - 7 th grade students dismiss from the pavilion early to go to their homeroom to have homeroom Virtue 360s! Our Key Cottage students walk over and join our Pre-K- 3 rd grade students for our Monday Morning ECC Assembly! It has quickly become my favorite part of my week. Students from each of the grade levels have been taking turns leading us in our decade of the Rosary and have been doing a great job. We also have a little time to talk, Bosco Time, about our Virtue of the Month and the Gospel from Sunday s Mass! The students are so smart and are able to answer all of my questions. The children have also learned and sung songs about our Bosco Time Topics I ve Got that Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy Down in my Heart, Oh When the Saints Go Marching In, and If I Were a Butterfly. I am thankful for our 3 rd graders who have been our leaders in helping the younger students to practice and sing the songs even if they think the songs are a little too young for them. We would love to have you join us any morning for our assemblies! Blessings, Suzanne Roth Dean of Academics Officer Lehman with the Covington Police Department teaches the 5th grade students about D.A.R.E. Mrs. Blanchard s 1 st grade class held their own election yesterday! They voted for their favorite ice cream and the winner was CHOCOLATE! Mrs. Ryals, Principal of St. Alphonsus Catholic School and mother of our 2nd grade teacher, Ms. Katie Ryals, taught our 2nd grade students about astronauts living in space. Mrs. Ryals also spoke at our morning assembly where she thanked our students and faculty for the prayers and support for her school that was flooded in August.

3 Extra Recess for mastering XtraMath Students have been hard at work practicing their math facts using the web-based program, XtraMath. Last Friday, students were treated to an extra recess for mastering parts of the program. 9 x 5 = = 12

4 Faith Happenings Clint Goss, Coordinator of Religious Education In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 This month we reflect on the virtue of THANKFUL- NESS. The above-mentioned Scripture is challenging. We have much for which to be THANKFUL. God, in his goodness, is constantly giving to us. He gives us life, grace, mercy, forgiveness, the Church, faith, family, friends, material necessities, and much more. It is easy to give God a shout out for these obvious good gifts, but what about the crosses? What about the trials he sends our way? What about the suffering we experience? What about the problems that just won t seem to go away? Have we THANKED God for these? One of the many lessons I learned in college came from one of the guys that lived in my dorm at Franciscan University. His name was Damien a great man of God that had moved to the States from Ireland. He even had the Irish brogue when he talked. One evening he was hanging out with me, and he could tell I was distressed. There was much weighing on me at the time family issues, the stress of my studies, and if I remember correctly, I was dealing with a broken heart. In the midst of all that, after I bemoaned all my struggles, he rather directly said, Brother, you need to thank God for these trials. You need to praise God for all this. I am sure I had a stunned look on my face. Up to that point in my life, I don t think anyone had ever told me or even encouraged me to THANK God for sufferings and trials. So I immediately realized he was right, and I did what he said. And you know what? It was liberating to be able to do that! Admittedly, it does not feel good to give THANKS for things that cause you such grief, yet the feeling ultimately is not what matters. It s the fact that one chooses to give THANKS despite the feeling. This makes all the difference. Giving THANKS for the sufferings of life is God s will for us, as the Scripture says. It is through these difficulties that God is doing something beautiful in us, though we often do not perceive it. What trials and sufferings of your life is God asking you to be THANKFUL for today? Father, we THANK you for all of your blessings, especially the blessings that come disguised as a cross. Peace and blessings to you and your family, Clint Goss Coordinator of Religious Education

5 Family Virtues in Action The Menesses Family We are the Menesses family: Eric, Keri, Jack (4) and Ella (1). We are extremely grateful to be part of St. Peter School and Parish. We were so fortunate to be able to attend Catholic school throughout our childhood and so thankful our children can experience the same blessing. Like so many other families these days with two working parents, it can become difficult at times to strike a balance between family, faith, and work commitments. We pray for the diligence to always place God and family first in our lives. Discussing Jesus and Mary often with Jack and asking him what they would do in certain situations has proven helpful in keeping all of us focused on applying our faith daily. Though our children are still young, we also try to instill the value of hard work as it applies to helping others. Talking to Jack about what we learned at Mass and what he learned at school and how we can improve through Christ is important to us. During nightly prayer, we take turns naming what we are thankful for as well as admitting the mistakes we made that day and seeking God's forgiveness. Above all, we strive to remember God throughout the day in our thoughts and actions and so we begin each morning with the following prayer: Thank you God for keeping us safe and warm throughout the night and waking us with the morning light. Help us to follow your way throughout the day. This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad! Happy Cafeteria Worker Appreciation Week! Dr. C presented our wonderful cafeteria workers with flowers and a certificate at our assembly this morning.

6 Student Life Dr. Kathleen Crouchet, Dean of Students and Student Life ROMAGUERA PICTURE RETAKES & Key Cottage 2 Day Class Picture Day Thursday, November 17th A Shout Out for Good Behavior for the week of October Mrs. Lahey s 5th grade Mrs. Nastasi s 5th grade Mrs. Ferran s 6th grade Mr. Gernon s 6th grade Shout Out to the following Moms who helped with the Rock Shop on Friday: Mrs. Lahey celebrating the CUBS winning the World Series last week on Team Spirit Day! Michelle Kraus Ann Perry Wendy Bowers Paula Nolan Jeanne Kavanaugh Donna Gauthier Shop at Amazon Smile smile.amazon.com/ch/ for your holiday gifts and Amazon will donate a portion of your sale to St. Peter Catholic School. St. Peter Fan Shirt Sale ~$12 each ***Limited sizes available*** Tanya Montour at tmontour@stpetercov.org to check availability. Sizes available: Adult M, L, XL Sizes available: Adult M & XL

7 Advancement Activities Karen Van Zandt, Advancement Director A Star - Studded Cast No Paparazzi, Please St. Peter Angels - Integrity 1st Painters Sawyer Orthodontics C. M. Combs Construction Reagan and Reagan, CPA Lights, Camera, Action...And the Winner is. Miller Lite The Gangster Squad Red Carpet Ready The Governor s Ball Dear St. Peter Families, If weather forecasts at this time are correct for Friday evening, it will be a lovely night to spend with friends AT THE OSCARS! So very many people have dedicated countless hours and resources to the success of this event. We are eternally grateful and pray God s abundant blessings on each of you who have shared so much with our school. Be on the lookout for a transformed pavilion when you come through carline this Friday! You will not even recognize it. See you at the grand event, Karen Van Zandt Advancement Director Get some Christmas shopping done and help St. Peter School at our Learning Express Fundraiser on Thursday, November 17th from 9:30 am to 6:00 pm. Let them know you are with St. Peter School and 20% of your entire purchase will be donated back to us. Click here for more information. Celebrate the sweetness of the season with a stop by Cupcake Concept on Saturday, November the 19th and mention our school. The class with the most visitors will win a delicious cupcake party. St. Peter School will also receive a portion of sales on that day.