Thank you for braving the weather last weekend and attending Oktoberfest in support of the endowment! The event was a great success and testament to all that epitomizes St. John – Laura Bulkley’s moving account of her experiences as a student and her success as a result of her time here at St. John School, the willingness of the many volunteers who helped, and the spirit of community and giving during the evening. On behalf of those who enjoyed a great party and of the future St. John students who will benefit, I extend heartfelt gratitude and a huge shout-out to Michele Thornquist and her team for the countless weeks, day and hours they committed to this success.
The eighth grade, under the leadership of Mrs. Mari Halley and the Youth Group are also volunteering hours for the Halloween Carnival and Haunted House tomorrow! The spooky fun begins and 6:00pm and lasts until the scary hour of 7:30pm.
Today, we joined the Great Shake Out and practiced the Disaster Drill.
Accreditation News We have completed the initial draft of the Self-Study, Improving Student Learning and we presented it to Fr. Crispin. At the School Commission meeting last night, we paged through the document which is our guide to ongoing school improvement and a focal point for the accreditation visit. Now we will send it on to Kristin Dixon, Superintendent of Catholic Schools and then to the Chair of the visiting team. They will read it and let us know if it is in need of any further revision. We will publish it following presentation to the visiting team.
Central to our school’s Catholic identity are the Schoolwide Learning Expectations (SLEs) which we revised during the self-study. You will hear about how your children are achieving the SLEs at the conferences next week. Teachers are recognizing students and ‘catching them’ when they are Christ-centered Active Learners and Empowered Disciples, giving them a “ticket.” The children turn in the tickets to the school office (they look like business cards!) and each week at prayer and announcements we pull a ticket and read the name of the awardee to the entire school, of the student receiving the Soaring Eagle Award for the week. We offer up the awards at our all school Mass and recently, Fr. Crispin read off so many names and had the students stand. We had quite the celebration of student achievement of the SLEs.
See you at conferences! Take some time to chat with your children. The students have been thinking about what is going well and setting goals for themselves. Remember also that the teachers have many conferences to get through so be on time!
God Bless,
Bernadette
