Tomorrow, Wednesday, January 17th, is the 7th Grade Science Fair at Saint James School. SJS parents and other guests are welcome to visit between the hours of 8:30am – 12:00pm to view the various projects and chat with the presenters. Please enter through the main doors and check in at the SJS Main Office before going down to the Gym.
If there is no school tomorrow due to the expected snow, the Science Fair will be held on Monday, January 22nd.
Yesterday, a few of our parents and students traveled to Prospect, Connecticut to record commercials/testimonials on behalf of Saint James School for the Archdiocese of Hartford’s radio station WJMJ. Many thanks to Andrea Piotrowski and her children William (4th grade) and Alejandra (3rd grade), Vidhya Thiagarajan and her son Rishi (2nd grade), and Kaitlyn Duran (3rd Grade) for volunteering to record testimonials for our school. All recorded spots will play on WJMJ (88.9 FM – Hartford; 93.1 FM – Hamden; 107.1 FM – New Haven; 91.1 Fairfield) during the last week of January – which is Catholic Schools Week.
All commercials/testimonials were written by the students themselves and it was so heartwarming to hear their sweet messages. A huge thank you to these parents and students for their time and commitment to our school! We hope to have a audio copies of the finished products to share once they are edited, but here are a few pictures and footage of Kaitlyn recording her testimonial on why she loves SJS.
Kaitlyn’s testimonial (Click This Link to Play)
Yesterday, the Book & Art Club enjoyed a fun afternoon with a prehistoric friend (see pictures)! The group also read the books Dinosaurs Go To School and All Aboard the Dino Train and made their own Dinosaur Fossils out of Model Magic. There were Fossil Rubbings and and each student took home a special dinosaur viewer. As always, special thanks to Mrs. Sabatella and Mrs. Carpenter for volunteering their time to this fun group and sending in some cute pics!!
We are very excited for the new 2018 Saint James School Soirée (which will replace our traditional Gala event this year). The Soirée is scheduled for Saturday, March 24 so be sure to mark your calendar and book a babysitter so you don’t miss out on this fun event! This will be a casual night with cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, and mix of favorite traditions from the Annual Gala along with some fun new ideas. The committee is hard at work planning for the event and it is sure to be a great time for SJS parents, grandparents, and other friends of the school. Formal invitations will be sent home shortly and we will let you know when to look for them.
The next Soirée committee meeting will be held on Thursday, January 11th at 7:00pm. As you know, many parent volunteers are needed to help make this event a success. Please let event chair Erin Daley (erindaley6416@gmail.com) know if you will be attending the meeting or would like to help work the evening of the event.
Extended Day billing statements for the month of December are now available. If you utilize the extended day program, please make sure you grab yours from Ms. Jean at pick-up this afternoon or morning drop-off tomorrow.
A couple of quick changes to the lunch calendar for tomorrow – Friday: Wednesday and Thursday are switched (Wednesday is a Beefburger, etc./Thursday is Breaded Chicken); Friday is Pizza Rounds – Cheese or Pepperoni.
Thank you to all the Saint James School families, alumni, past parents, staff, parishioners, and other friends of the school who donated to our 2017 Annual Fund Campaign!! We had numerous donations come in during the past few weeks and we are very appreciative for the additional end-of-year (calendar year) support towards achieving our goal. We are so grateful and inspired by the ongoing generosity of the Saint James Community!!
Donations to our Annual Fund Campaign are instrumental in supporting the ongoing capital improvement projects at the school (these projects are not covered by tuition funds or supported by the SJS Foundation so your support is key). Annual Fund dollars, as well as several generous bequests, have helped support the replacement of the school’s new roofs and windows over the past several years, along with other capital improvement projects such as new boilers in the school. With the recent bout of freezing temperatures, we can certainly appreciate these recent improvements more than ever!
An update on the 2017 Annual Fund can be found HERE (names in bold were donations at the Honor Roll level and above, received after the publication of our recent Community Newsletter).
Thank you again to everyone who supported us at all giving levels! The next Annual Fund Campaign for our school will launch in the Spring.
Our basketball season is under way! The SJS concession stand is going to be up and running this year and we need your help.
We need parents to be present at the concession stand and oversee the student volunteers. At least one adult is needed to be at concessions while it is open. 7th & 8th grade student volunteers can work at the stand and receive volunteer hours for their time. Please consider coming in for an hour or so with your student in order to help them complete their hours and help the school at the same time. The stand cannot run without an adult present. You do not need to have a student playing in the basketball program in order to volunteer. All of the profit from the proceeds go directly to SJS.
Currently we need volunteers for Saturday, January 13 at the following times:
11:30-12:30
12:30-1:30
1:30-2:30
2:30-3:30
3:30-4:30
If you or your student are interested in volunteering, please email Andrea Piotrowski at ampiotrowski@yahoo.com. Thank you!
Box tops for the next dress down contest will be counted on January 10th. Please be sure to send in any box tops you have accumulated to help your child’s grade win!
As always, we appreciate your support of Saint James School!
There will be a St. James Parish Mass held this evening for Father Burns at 7:00pm at Saint James Church, calling hours will also be at the church from 6:00pm – 7:00pm. His Funeral is planned for tomorrow (Thursday) at 10:00am at Saint James Church. If school is in session tomorrow (and not closed due to the impending snow), our 6th – 8th grade students will attend his funeral. These are the students that would have known Father Burns well. Please make sure your 6th – 8th grader is in their regular school uniform tomorrow.
Any other parents that would like their student to attend the funeral may pick their child/ren up at school at 10:00 in the main office. Please send a note to the teacher so that we know they will be leaving school for the funeral.