SSMJ EOY Newsletter 2008

Pastor:

Fr. Maciej J. Mankowski

Mission Statement

SSMJ builds

excellent academic foundations

through faith and family for the future.

Kay A. Suzelis

Principal

“Foundations

in Faith

for the Future.”

Offer Them Up

Last week we had several special events at school surrounding National Missing Children’s Day, which was commemorated on Friday, May 23, 2008.

You may have noted on the local and national news that our school grounds were the center of a mock abduction on Saturday, May 17th. There were law enforcement agencies here from all around the state. We were honored that our school was utilized for this very special training.

On Thursday, May 22nd, we had Mr. L. & officers from Newton Township present assemblies to our children on safe practices so that they never become a missing child. They provided kits for each child that were sent home. These kits contained a Styrofoam tray for the purpose of collecting dental impressions and DNA in the event of an abduction. We would certainly hope to never have to use them.

Finally, on Friday, we planned a very special service for our children at 1:00. We had a short prayer time and reflective movement to pray for all missing children and his/her families. The 8th grade students wore T-shirts with the faces of missing children on them and the 8th grade boys wore shirts donated by Wanda & Adam Sabol that commemorated Missing Children’s Day.

Bethany Hudek and her father, Joseph Hudek, performed a song entitled, “Offer them Up”, while the 8th grade girls did a liturgical movement. The song is a prayer inviting all people to offer these children & families to God in prayer.

We were especially thrilled to work with so many different people on this special event and to coordinate our balloon launch at the end of the service with the students from Newton Falls Elementary School.

Thank you to Mr. L. (Luonuansuu), who initiated and planned our involvement with this special day.

Above is a picture of a young girl named Cherrie Mahan, who has been missing since February 22, 1985. Cherrie grew up near my home in Pennsylvania. She was an 8-year-old second grader, who got off the bus with other children, but never made it home. The song, “Offer Them Up”, is a song I wrote for her.

Her story has touched thousands of lives, including mine. I knew her mom’s family very well. They were very good friends with my parents. The area she was abducted from was an area I often frequented as a child. I played there with my cousins often wandering the woods playing hide and seek or taking walks down the road. This is a place, much like here, where the thought of this happening was and is unthinkable. But it did indeed happen and the lives of many people will never be the same.

Hopefully, our children learned something about protecting themselves and we become aware of how much we need to be diligent in protecting our children and praying for those whose lives are devastated by such a great loss.

End of the Year

· End of the Year Field Trips are schedule for Wednesday, May 28th. This is a day for the entire classroom to spend in community with one another. Even if it is an activity that is not your child’s favorite thing to do –it is important that the final moments of the school year are celebrated together. If there are concerns specific to families, I would invite you to call me. If there are financial considerations, please contact me.

· PAC will be providing Lunch for Field Day. Wanda Sabol & Jim Luonuansuu will be putting together a simple picnic lunch for the kids and volunteers for field day. Remember that there is no hot lunch for students the last week.

· Snacks & Pop Machine will be removed from the lunchroom for next year. Any snacks that will be sold must be healthy and meet the requirements of our Wellness policy and the government guidelines. Currently, the only drink permitted in schools is water. I expect we will see companies coming up with drinks that fit the guidelines established by the government. But right now, there is nothing else available.

· Uniform Companies for next year are FrenchToast, which is an internet based company and Schoolbelles. Both have things available on line. Remember that Nick’s in Struthers has closed so uniforms will have to be purchased elsewhere.

· Graduation is an event for the whole school family to celebrate. It will be May 30th at 6:00 at St. Mary & St. Joseph Church with a reception immediately following. 7th grade families are in charge of the reception.

· Summer Tutoring Forms were sent home in the May newsletter. Please return them ASAP.

· Covelli Scholarship Forms are still available. The deadline is June 3rd. Please make sure you turn that information in on time. Mr. Covelli has helped many of our families.

· FACT Scholarship Forms, which are the forms for assistance at our local level are also available at school or directions were sent home for filling out the information on line. Anyone and everyone needing assistance must fill out this information and submit it to FACTS. The deadline is June 15, 2008.

Fund Raising

Thank you to all who ordered Sausage. Orders were picked up on Tuesday, May 20th. The profits from those funds will help us get through the summer months.

Scrapper Vouchers were sent home for a summer-time school community event and to help raise some funds. The SSMJ Family Night is scheduled for July 12th. The Vouchers you received can be used at any time or upgraded for better seats; however, we would like as many of our school families as possible to gather for an SSMJ night on the 12th. We do have Scrapper schedules available in the office for anyone that would like to check out the summer schedule or check out www.myscrappers.com.

Tuition Raffle is once again underway. The cost of a ticket is $35.00, which is for one child’s tuition for the 2008-2009 school year. The tickets are available through Windi Kresic (330-307-8860; 330-980-9384) or at school. The winner will be drawn at Open House for the school in September.

This is a great idea for grandparents to support the school by purchasing a ticket for their grandchildren.

Summer Stuff

Louttit is taking over the 4th of July Parade. There is a flyer going home with this brown envelope if you would like to sign up to be on the SSMJ float. It is a return form where you can also sign up to donate candy.

PAC (Parent Advisory Council) would like to sponsor a booth at the Carnival. It would include information about the school and also a Chinese Auction. If you can volunteer to work the booth, please fill out the form and send it back to school. We will only have a booth if we get enough people to staff it.

Work Day for SSMJ is scheduled for Saturday, June 21st from 8:30 to around noon This is a day where we have jobs for everyone. Usually, our dads tackle some of the key maintenance jobs we need done over the summer and the moms do everything from cleaning to painting.

Please fill out the form if you can help out. We will send a general reminder through Parent Broadcast to remind everyone. If you don’t sign up and then find you are available-please come. We can use everyone’s help.

Just a reminder that the Parish is having a Cemetery Clean Up Day on Saturday, June 14th from 9-12 noon. They also would appreciate any help.

Option C Program

I can’t wait to tell you about an exciting program for next year. Thanks to the generosity of PAC, we will be instituting a school management system next year that is web-based. There are many different components to this program that will beneficial to our school families and greatly enhance our communication between school and home.

Next year, each student will have an account to be accessed by the parents to check on grades and missing work. It will provide information from the teacher’s gradebook that includes the assignments, the grade and any missing work. The teachers may also add notes for each assignment. This will be a means for you to check on each child’s progress at any time.

This system also has the capabilities of tying in with our regular web site . We can then make available school forms such as lunch orders, medication forms or virtually any document that we send home.

Teachers can also use it for the posting and explanation of assignments. (We have to figure out whether to post homework as we do now or to have it posted by subject). Teachers will also be able to post documents. This could include project outlines, study guides, etc.

There are many other features that we can utilize. We can include accounts for individuals for things such as fees, milk money, field trips and even tuition, which you could then check on line.

Our attendance can be taken on this system as well. This along with our grades can then be used to generate report cards. We will be using a new report card next year that has been drafted by the Diocese. Parents will be able to receive their report cards via the internet. We can also post our newsletters in the same form we publish them, including graphics.

Teachers can use the program for their lesson plans. There are state and Diocesan reports that can not be completed on line and use information that is already entered into the system.

This program has the capability of saving time, resources and money and will make our communication between school and home even stronger. Thank you so much to PAC for seeing the value and moving things forward with technology.

Miscellaneous

· Parish Verification Forms need to be on file for all families that expect to receive the Parish rate. For St. Mary & St. Joseph Church, school families are required to meet with Father Matthew. If you have not made your appointment with Father, please do so. There was a deadline for responding to the letter by May 25, 2008 but Father is willing to meet with each family at a time when it’s convenient for both him and the family. Because of Father’s busy schedule, families that do not call soon, may have to wait until the beginning of July to meet with Father.

There may have been some confusion concerning the Parish Verification Form. Only people who attend St. Mary &St. Joseph Church in Newton Falls or St. Catherine in Lake Milton & St. James in North Jackson must have a signed form on file to receive the parish discount.

Some families may have been under the impression that you had to have a Parish Verification Form to attend SSMJ. That is NOT the case. All of our NON-Parishioner families are not required to have the form. You have a different rate of tuition because your church does not financially support the school.

If you are confused or have questions about the Parish Forms, please call the school or parish and we will clarify any misunderstandings.

Tuition Options

In the last newsletter, some information went home regarding Prepaid Tuition. This is an option for next year and one that we as a school encourage.

Another option is to pay the tuition on a 12 month basis. This would be from July to July.

Tuition may also be paid for the year in one lump payment. There is a percentage discount for paying your tuition up front.

You may still make monthly payments or set up an individual tuition payment schedule but I want to stress the importance of making it a consistent payment. If you have a financial situation that has made it difficult to keep up with your payments to the school, I do suggest taking out the loan with DOY . This would take the financial stress away from the school. The interest rate for this loan is extremely reasonable.

Finally, I hope to have a payment contract to send home where you will indicate how the tuition is to be paid. Tuition rates for next year are included in this brown envelope. The tuition rate went up only $5.00 per month for the 1 child parish rate paying in ten (10) installments.

Principal:

Kay A. Suzelis