1/9/13

January, 2013



 Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.  Hebrews 11:1



Dear Parents/Guardians,

Happy New Year!!  I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday break.  First of all, thank you for all of the wonderful thoughts and gifts given to my staff and me.  Your generosity, thoughtfulness, and support are overwhelming.    A huge "thank you" to Home and School for providing the book Why Children Matter for each family.  This book came highly recommended, and it is an easy read. I do hope you enjoy it.   

While we were on our holiday break, Todd Close became a father for the second time.  His wife delivered a baby girl who they named Audrey Kate.  Mr. Close will be taking Family Leave this quarter, and his substitute is Mrs. Barbara Haimelin.  She will be using his (Mr. Close's) lesson plans. 

We have two student teachers this quarter.  One is Ms. Julie Worthington, and she will be working with Mrs. Tinney in the 6th grade.  The other is Ms. Telecia Howell, and Mrs. Fox is her mentor teacher in the 1st grade. 

If the first semester is any indication, the second one will be over before we know it.  
We are already in the second week of January, and the calendar for the remainder of the month is quite full.  The students will be receiving their report cards the first day back, January 9th  with the awards presentations for 5th -8th  grades at 2:30 on January 11th

The month is full of basketball games.  The schedules  will be published in the Fanfare as well as on our website.  The Virtue Mass for January is on Friday the 11th, and our monthly $1 Out of Uniform Day is Wednesday, January 16th.  On the 21st of January, we will be out of school for Martin Luther King's Day. 

On Sunday, January 27th, at 10:00 mass we will "kick off" Catholic Schools Week.  We have some fun activities planned, and there will be a schedule on the website as well as the Fanfare. In addition, teachers will be sending information home. The theme of Catholic Schools Week this year is, "Raise the Standards". 

Also, during this month, we are going to be conducting all of our safety drills.  We conduct a fire drill monthly; so, this will not be anything new.  But, this month we will also be conducting our intruder drill and tornado drill.  The latter drills can be a little scary for the younger students, but we will be preparing the children for them.  You may also want to mention them to help make the students feel more comfortable. 

So far there has been no mention of the "white stuff" in our weather forecasts.  But, as a reminder, if we do get inclement weather and have to call off school, you will get a parent alert, and it will be posted on the website.  I will get it on the TV stations also, but sometimes they are slow with those postings.  Although many times we do close when Hamilton County does, there are times when we don't.  The three Catholic Schools work together to make the decision to close or stay open.  Frankly, I hope we don't have to close for weather this year.

As a final note, I wish to extend a warm welcome to the new families enrolled this semester.  We hope you enjoy OLPH.   

Again, Happy New Year to All!

Jeri McInturff