The October HSA evening meeting will be held tonight (10/2) at 7:00pm in the school library. A morning meeting will be held Friday (10/5) at 8am in the lower church hall. Please attend whichever meeting best suits your schedule. There is lots to plan for upcoming events! We strongly encourage you to attend and thank you for your participation!
Please note instrumental music dates have been swapped for this week:
Grades 6-8 will have lessons and band on Thursday, October 4th
Grades 4 & 5 will have lessons and band. on Friday October 5th
The 27th Annual McGee Middle School Cross Country Invitational (October 13th) has been added to the list of meets for middle school XC runners. Please refer to the XC Calendar for arrival times and information.
This year, Saint James School will once again participate in the annual Szopka Krakowska Contest sponsored by the Polish Cultural Club in Hartford, CT. SJS has been part of this special tradition for many years and the members of the Polish Cultural Club really look forward to viewing our submissions each year.
The making of these “Nativity Castles” will be offered as an optional after school activity for students in grades 4 – 8 under the guidance of middle school teacher Ms. Oleasz (Room 207). If your child is interested, please send a note to their homeroom teacher by this coming Tuesday – Oct. 9th so that we may get a count of participants. Depending upon the number of interested students, those in grades 6-8 will be given first preference for participation.
Sessions will begin Tuesday, October 16th in Ms. O’s classroom. Students will need to stay after school to work on their castle at least a few days each week to ensure completion in time for the contest on November 24th & 25th. Many supplies will be provided by Ms. O, although students are welcome to bring materials from home to further enhance their creation.
After the judging, which takes place the weekend after Thanksgiving, the Szopka are brought back to our school where they will be displayed until Christmas. Prizes are awarded to the 1st – 3rd place winners.
We hope to see many of our students join in the creative fun! (Below are pictures of SJS students with their castles at last year’s event).
Saint James School had a fantastic meet yesterday at Elizabeth Park.
Competing against four other area middle school teams, the Saint James XC Girls placed 1st with an amazing 19 points, followed by St. Tim’s with 54 points, and Two Rivers, with 92 points. SJS Girls took 9 of the top 14 spots with 7th Grader Shea Boyle taking 1st overall (with a time of 11:16), Abby Ray (8th Grade) taking 3rd, Kaitlyn Nyberg (8th grade) taking 4th, place Sarah Christina (7th grade) taking 5th place, and rounding out the top point earners – Maya Fisher (6th grade) taking 6th place overall.
For the boys, SJS took 4th place out of 6 teams running. The first place finisher from SJS boy the boys was 7th grader Evan Ansaldi in 13th place (out of 54 runners) with a time of 11:48. Also scoring points for our team was Michael Creamer (7th grade) in 21st, Alejandro Oyewole (7th grade) in 24th, Danny Chomick (6th grade) in 26th and Erik Ansaldi (7th grade) in 28th.
Way to go SABERS!!
Our Cross Country team will have a meet tomorrow at Elizabeth Park in Hartford/West Hartford. Mrs. O’Neill asks that runners meet at the Ana Grace Love Wins Playground on the corner of Whitney Street and Elizabeth Street. The official address of the playground is 178-202 Elizabeth St, Hartford, CT. Please arrive at 3:00pm to walk the course, race begins at 4:00pm.
Good luck Sabers!
Congratulations and Thank You to our 2018-2019 Saint James School volunteers of the year: Mr. Bill Creamer, Mr. Keith Levin, and Mr. Ken Sarpu. All three individuals were honored last night at the 41st HOPES Dinner at the Aqua Turf in Southington where they, along with other outstanding volunteers the Archdiocese, received the St. John Newmann Award for Volunteer Service.
For those of you who don’t know Bill, Keith, and Ken, these three gentlemen have played a pivotal role in organizing our school’s basketball program (which typically has 10+ different teams each season). All three have actively coached countless teams over the years in addition to volunteering in numerous other aspects of the school community. We are very blessed to have so many dedicated individuals in our school community – thank you again to Bill, Keith, and Ken for their dedication to making SJS such a great place for our kids to grow and learn!!
Basketball Open Gym sessions (for boys and girls in grades 4 – 8 that are interested in playing basketball this year) will begin the first week of October. We are asking that all students who are interested in playing basketball submit their Athletics Health Form 2018-2019 (signed by their doctor) to the office by September 28th. No students will be able to participate in the Open Gyms or any tryouts/ practices without this form on file.
Also, please don’t submit any money at this time…program fees, forms, and additional program details are being finalized and will be communicated over the next few weeks.
If you were unable to attend our Scholastic Book Fair (or simply want to get additional books for your child), you can visit our ONLINE Shopping link HERE. The online store is open to us through Friday, September 28th. Our school will still receive 50% credit for your purchase and orders will be shipped for free and delivered to your child at SJS.
If you are still planning to purchase mums through this fundraiser, please send your order and money in before this Friday for optimal selection. After this weekend, the farm cannot guarantee availability. Thank you to everyone who purchased – we have sold 288 plants so far!
Mums cost $4.50 each (for 9″ pots) and you can pay by cash or check payable to St. James School HSA.
Just like our prior flower/wreath sales:
1. place your order using this link
2. print the confirmation email and send it to school in an envelope with your payment
Upon receipt of your payment, we will send home vouchers with your child. Simply take the vouchers to Botticello Farms and pick out your mums/colors.
Any questions, please contact Jackie Smith: jacqmsmith@gmail.com.