SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT MEMO

Everything You Wanted To Know

Week of February 13, 2012

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

-1 Corinthians 13:13-

The Southwest Portland neighborhood is sure feeling the love for St. John Fisher School!  Registration for 2012-13 looks to be a huge success!  Not only did we have a tremendous turnout for our Kindergarten Round Up and Open House, our applications are coming in record numbers.  Thanks to all for getting your paperwork in on time.  At present, we will be full in grades 7 and 8 with limited openings in K through 6.  If you know of any folks who are interested in learning more about our school community, have them give me a call and I would be happy to give them a tour/discuss our programs with them.  Thanks for being our ambassadors!

Looking ahead on the calendar, we have a number of events coming up between now and spring break I wanted to bring to your attention:

• Wednesday, February 22^nd Ash Wednesday: This marks the official start of our lent season.  We will celebrate as a school community with a Mass at 8:30am. 

• Sunday, March 4^th Spaghetti Dinner: From 3-7pm, our Italian cooks will be serving up the best spaghetti this side of Italy.  An e-mail blast was sent home earlier this week regarding class theme baskets for the raffle and items need to be returned by Wednesday, February 29^th.  Advanced ticket sales for the dinner can be purchased through Chris Vancil beginning Thursday, Feb. 23rd or after Saturday/Sunday Masses.   Additionally, you can purchase tickets at the door that evening and take-out is available too.  See you there!

• Wednesday, March 7^th PTC General Meeting: Social begins at 6pm and the meeting will begin at 6:30.  Topics for the meeting include jog-a-thon and the 2012-13 school budget.

• Friday, March 9^th End of Second Trimester: Believe it or not…summer is coming sooner than we think!  Students will be bringing home their report cards on Thursday, March 15^th and the final trimester countdown begins.

• Thursday, March 22^nd Science Fair: Our students are busily preparing projects and presentations for this fun family event from 6:30-7:30pm. 

Have a wonderful three day weekend as we recognize the great leaders of our country on Monday with Presidents’ Day.

Merrit Holub

Principal

Week of January 27, 2012 

A special thanks to our Student Board and faculty special events team for organizing a fun filled National Catholic Schools Week.  The week’s festivities were a tremendous hit with a spelling bee, family group spiritual activity, community service project, and calumniated with hundreds of guests for our Grandparents/Special Persons Day.  The halls look beautiful with the student’s artwork.  Come take a peek at the displays and admire their fine art!  Tomorrow the faculty wraps up the week by taking some time for spiritual fulfillment as we participate in workshops centered on analyzing the Lord’s Prayer. 

One other highlight of the week was welcoming over 35 potential new families during our kindergarten round up and K-8 open house.  Registrations and tours are being given daily.  If you know any interested families, have them give me a call and I would be happy to meet with them and discuss all that SJF has to offer.  Thanks for being our ambassadors!

Have a wonderful 3 day weekend!

                                                        SPECIAL BULLETIN

Calling all registration forms!  Friday, February 3^rd is the last day of our Open Registration period for the 2012-13 academic year.  To help us maintain accurate records, please make sure you have turned in a registration form for each of your children.  You can find the form in your SchoolSpeak account under “forms.”

Week of January 23, 2012

This upcoming week is National Catholic Schools Week.  As a school community, we will celebrate the theme of Faith, Academics and Service with some special events:

• Sunday, January 29^th:

• Kindergarten Round Up for perspective kindergarten families at 10am in our kindergarten classroom.

• Monday, January 30^th:

• Celebrating Academics with a spelling bee from 12:45-1:45 in our cafeteria

• Open House for perspective families at 6:30pm in our school library. 

  • Please share the date with family and friends who may be interested in attending our school.

• Tuesday, January 31^st:

• Celebrating Faith with a prayer sharing family group activity from 2:30-3:00

• Wednesday, February 1st:

• Celebrating Service with classes doing individual service projects

• Thursday, February 2nd:

• Celebrating our community with Grandparents/Special Friends Day.  Mass will begin at 10am followed by lunch, our book fair and the art fair

Come join in the fun and thank you for your commitment to Catholic education!

Week of January 16, 2012

 Next week we will be participating in the American Heart Association’s annual Jump Rope for Heart (grades K-4) and Hoops for Heart (grades 5-8) fundraiser to help fight cardiovascular disease and stroke.  Students were sent home with fundraiser packets earlier this month and Mrs. Gray would like to have all materials collected by Wednesday, January 25^th.  If you have any questions regarding this fundraiser, please feel free to contact your child’s homeroom teacher and/or Mrs. Gray directly.

On Tuesday I am looking forward to taking the night off of cooking and supporting our school by picking up Pizzicato in Hillsdale where they will be giving 20% of all proceeds from the day to our school community.  Last October we received over $780 from Pizzicato…let’s see if we can top that!  Thanks for supporting this easy fundraiser for our school. 

As we look to later this month, National Catholic Schools Week is from January 29^th through February 3^rd.  We will be celebrating the theme of Faith, Academics and Service with some special events:

Sunday, January 29^th:

• Kindergarten Round Up for perspective kindergarten families at 10:00 am in our kindergarten classroom.

Monday, January 30^th:

• Celebrating Academics with a spelling bee from 12:45-1:45 in our cafeteria

• Open House for perspective families at 6:30pm in our school library. 

• Please share the date with family and friends who may be interested in attending our school.  A flyer for the Open House is attached to this week’s SAM.

Tuesday, February 1^st:

• Celebrating Faith with a prayer sharing family group activity from 2:30-3:00

 Wednesday, February 2^nd:

• Celebrating Service with classes doing individual service projects

Thursday, February 3^rd:

• Celebrating our community with Grandparents/Special Friends Day.  Mass will begin at 10am followed by lunch, our book fair and the art fair

Week of Jan. 9th 

Old man winter has entered the halls of St. John Fisher School!  As we look ahead to next week with a forecast of possible snow, I wanted to remind everyone of our inclement weather policy:

• We will post closure notification on our website and via SchoolSpeak

• If Portland Public Schools (PPS) are closed, we are closed

• We are considered a “west side” school if they separate east/west

• If PPS has a late opening, we will open at 10am (classes begin at 10:15) and there will be no morning extended care

• We also reserve the right to make an independent decision regarding closure (such as our plumbing issue earlier this year) and if that happens we will contact local radio/television stations

Wednesday night we have a PTC general meeting.  This meeting, sponsored by our Men’s Club, will feature Rosemary Schwimmer, the Parent Education Coordinator for Oregon Partnership, a non-profit organization dedicated to the prevention of substance abuse and suicide.  She will present “The Power of Parents.”  This insightful presentation will provide you with tangible tools to teach your children decision-making skills in a world where peer pressure can easily lead them astray.  The presentation covers a variety of risky teen behavior and concrete strategies for parents to use in managing and preventing those behaviors, including drug and alcohol abuse and internet/technology safety.  The session will conclude with a Q&A.  We will have a social time at 6:00pm and her presentation will begin at 6:30pm.  See you there!

As we get ready to celebrate the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday this Monday, let’s all remember his great message of hope and justice.  He was a great example of determination and equality for all.  Enjoy the three day weekend and we will see you Tuesday!