Friday Thoughts January 12 2018
Posted on Jan 12, 2018
Happy New Year,
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and that the New Year brings many blessings of happy and healthy days to you and your families.
Thank you for your generous gifts to all of us. We are forever grateful and very spoiled by your generosity.
The new year brings lots of new opportunities to make this academic year the best ever. The faculty is reviewing the School Improvement Plan that was the product of last year’s AdvancEd visit while also analyzing other areas of the curriculum.
The new year is also the time to plan enrollment and registration for next year. Families who are currently enrolled at Fisher will have the first opportunity to register for next year’s pre-school programs. Registration papers will be sent home with our current preschoolers on Tuesday. If you have another child in the family now ready for preschool, please let us know so that we can send home a registration packet. Please return those papers with a $50.00 registration fee to secure your spot in this very popular program. We will again offer both full and part time options for preschool.
Registration for families new to the school will open January 28. As part of our celebration of Catholic Schools Week, we will have a Family Mass and an Open House on that day. The preschool and kindergarten rooms will open early (at 9:00a.m.) so that families can tour the preschool rooms before the crowds stroll the halls after Mass. Please inform neighbors and friends who might be interested in our school that they are most welcome to come for Mass and Open House.
We are very excited about the new partnership we have with the nursing school at St. Xavier University. The nurse supervisors who are here from Tuesday-Friday each day are very used to dealing with children of all ages and have created a comforting environment for the children who are not feeling well. Please also remember that they are available for sports physicals and for the physicals required for new students and students who will be entering sixth or ninth grade next September. (How nice to be able to have that completed so you will not have to worry about it this summer.) Look for a letter in the next few weeks about scheduling an appointment.
Because the program is staffed by registered professionals, the protocol will be similar to that in public schools fortunate enough to have a full time nurse. Students will be seen and parents contacted by the nurse who will have access to their medical records. The nurse will call the first person on the emergency card if it is determined the child needs to go home or if simple medications are indicated (Tylenol, etc.)
Yesterday was an exciting day for our seventh graders who, as part of their study of world religions visited a mosque and spent the day with new friends from both the mosque and a Jewish school. We are so grateful for this opportunity for the students who are really enjoying it and learning so much at the same time. Our seventh graders even became television stars because Channel 2 News did a feature on the program yesterday.
We continue to work out the details for ordering lunch. As of today, the 19th through the 31st of January is still open for ordering. The system will close out 6 days prior to ordering for Country House to be able to order supplies needed. Also, please remember that a milk is included with the lunch. No need to select the milk only option if you are ordering a lunch.
Tuition Statements have been emailed out on Monday. If you have not seen your January statement, please contact the school. Since we emailed them out later than usual because of our break, we have extended the due date to January 20th.
Looking ahead, be sure to mark your calendars for some important events. Monday is a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King. There will be no school on Monday.
Next Saturday, all are welcome for a day of great volleyball competition and the annual Pack the House event in the gym.
As mentioned above, January 28, is the beginning of Catholic Schools Week. Please plan to come to the Family Mass and then stay to tour the school. The week promises to be great fun with lots of special activities.
As you know from media reports, the flu is rampant throughout the city. We continue to do our best to sanitize the building every night, but rely on your help to contain any possible new outbreaks. Even though we now have nurses available, please keep your children home if they are not feeling well. Please also have a reliable person on your emergency card who is available to come for your child in case he or she gets sick at school.
The media is packed with ideas to set and achieve new goals and resolutions. Ours at school is to continue to provide all that is necessary to fulfill our vision of helping each student at school become “competent, curious, and compassionate.” I see evidence of growth every day but also realize that no day is perfect for any of us and that an important part of growing up is to discover how to recover from a mistake. Thank you for helping provide the environment for your children that allows them to become their best selves. Thank you for the opportunity to work with you to foster that growth inch by inch…
Have a very blessed new year!