BINGO Thank You!
Thank you to our Home and School Association (particularly event chair Mrs. Miller) for hosting BINGO for kids in the cafeteria last night so parents could attend the special presentations taking place upstairs in the gym.
Online Safety Presentation and School Report
A huge thank you to all the parents who came out last night for the 2019 State of the School Address. Support from our parent community is one of the many reasons why SJS continues to be THE largest Catholic elementary/middle school in the Archdiocese of Hartford. We are grateful to have so much positive news to share with our families.
Definitely the highlight of last night was the presentation from State Police Officer Kate Cummings. It was quite eye-opening!
As a school resource officer, Trooper Cummings is with middle and high school kids on a daily basis and has had the opportunity to gather information through her work that even our most tech savvy parents among us were not aware of (never mind the rest of us). For those that couldn’t make it, we found this web article from NBC that gives just a small snippet of what Trooper Cummings shared with us last night (understandably they did not want us to video the presentation so there could be open discussion, etc.).
Also joining us last night was Sargent Krawec from the Manchester Police. Sargent Krawec specializes in technology-related and internet crimes right here in town. We are very grateful to both Trooper Cummings and Sargent Krawec for volunteering their time last night to help us help our parents be more informed.
Please Vote: SJS Scarecrow
The Saint James School Scarecrow is up on Main Street! Please help us win the Viewers Choice and Facebook Favorite competitions by
1) Clicking this link and liking the picture our our scarecrow on the town’s Scarecrow Facebook Page.
2) Vote for our Scarecrow at any of the designated voting locations around town (in-person voting starts later this week and will include the Mary Cheney Library).
Online Safety Presentation & School Report Tonight
Attention parents:
We have two very informative speakers joining us this evening to talk about online safety and talking to your kids about social media. This presentation is something we felt could benefit every family right now and we are excited to be able to offer this for our school parents.
We will be running the state of the school presentation first at 6:00pm, followed by the presentation from State Police Officer Kate Cummings and Manchester Police Sargent Christina Krawec. We hope to see you there!
Last Call: Cheerleading Forms
Unfortunately, we do not seem to have enough interest in Cheerleading to hold this extracurricular activity this year. If your daughter is interested in cheering but did not get the form in, please do so by tomorrow morning. We will make a determination about the club if we see if there is any additional interest tomorrow.
Cheerleading is open to girls in grades 4 – 8. The first practice will be Wednesday, October 16th from 5:45pm – 6:45pm in the school cafeteria. Practices will be on Wednesday evenings (5:45pm – 6:45pm) through early March. Cheerleaders will cheer at selected JV and Varsity games throughout the season (home and away).
In order to participate, students must submit the following to the school by October 15th:
2019-2020 Athletics Health Permission Form (signed by their doctor)
Progress Reports (Grades 4-8)
Midterm progress checks were completed on Friday. Any student in grades 4 – 8 whose grade is below a 70 in any subject will receive a notice home that needs to be signed and returned to the teacher.
If your child is above a 70 in all subjects, no Midterm Progress Report will come home. Please use our GRADES ONLINE program if you wish to see a full report of their grades. You can find the link for Grades Online in our SJS App or at the bottom of our school’s website homepage.
Children’s Mass Thank You
Thank you to everyone who came out for our SJS Children’s Mass on Sunday – what a great turnout!! It was so nice to see so many families at Mass and downstairs socializing after.
Special thanks to all our student volunteers who served as greeters, gift bearers, altar servers, and of course our reader – Amelia who did a wonderful job. The choir also sounded great in their first performance of the year.
If any other students in grades 2 and up would like to assist at the Monthly Mass (as a greeter or gift bearer), please reach out to parent volunteer coordinator Maria Modugno at modugnomc@cox.net.
Cross Country Update
Congratulations to our Cross Country team on a strong performance at the Wickham Invitational this past weekend. Our top runners earned medals: Evan Ansaldi – who came in 40th out of 328 runners in the boys race, and Maya Fisher, who placed 25th out of 272 runners for the girls.
The team will practice after school today Tuesday, October 15th and will race at VCMS tomorrow Wednesday, October 16th.
This Saturday, October 19th, selected runners will be participating in the McGee Invitational at Sage Park in Berlin. Runners should arrive at 8:00am to walk the course with Coach O’Neill and stretch.
Race Times: Grade 6 Girls 9:15am, Grade 6 Boys 9:45am (race length is 1.7 miles); Grade 7 Girls 10:15am, Grade 7 Boys 11:15am, Grade 8 Girls 11:15am, Grade 8 Boys 11:45am (race length is 2.2 miles).
Awards Presentation is at 12:30pm. Good luck Sabers!
Support SJS When Purchasing Through Shutterfly
With Lifetouch Pictures, your child’s school portrait can also be used to create fun photo gifts via Shutterfly.
If you chose to get photo gifts made, or if you are just ordering through Shutterfly in general (Christmas Cards, Memory Books, etc.) please use this special link and 8% of the sale price will be donated back to Saint James School! http://saintjamesmanchester.shutterflystorefront.com/
(This link can be used to support SJS on ALL purchases through Shutterfly all year long, not just school-picture related gifts).
No School This Monday
As a reminder, there is no school this coming Monday, October 14th, for the Columbus Day Holiday. We also have 12:05pm dismissal days scheduled for October 23rd (parent/teacher conferences), October 24th (parent/teacher conferences), and October 25th (Grandparents’ & Special Persons’ Day).
