This weekend, at the Endowment Dinner, we celebrate Mr. Tice and his very effective teaching. Make sure you have a ticket.
The event also supports the St. John Endowment fund. Thanks to the direction and hard work of Michele Thornquist and the support of parents, friends and alumni, the Endowment Fund has grown to $1,100,000. This permanent endowment is held with other schools’ funds at the Archdiocese, invested with Mercer, and managed here. Our finance team determined that before we use it, we grow the fund to $1M. Now it generates an ongoing source of income for the school’s operating budget. Each year, a percentage of the growth is transferred to the operating budget while the capital continues to build through further donations and investment growth. Over eighty percent of our operating budget is made up of teachers’ salaries and benefits. Your gift to the endowment will not only support teachers this year, but will benefit teachers in years to come. If you can’t make it this weekend, consider making a donation to this worthy cause.
Progress reports for students in grades 3 – 8 will be sent home today. Celebrate your children’s successes and discuss areas for growth with them. You will be meeting with the teachers for conferences very soon. This is a great time to prepare for the conversation.
Pablo and I meet with the construction team each week and we are lucky enough to see the progress. We are learning so much. Yesterday, I told the STEM team I wished I could bring the students in to show them the trenches and have an engineer explain to them about seismic upgrades and shear walls. For safety’s sake, photos will have to do for now! Thank you for your patience with the construction traffic and date changes. We are very excited about all that is happening at St. John.
Bernadette O’Leary
