Today was a day to celebrate. We started the day with prayer and followed with the drawing for the SpringFree Trampoline. Congratulations to Mimi and Nash R. our SpringFree Trampoline raffle drawing winners. I do very much appreciate how deeply our families care about the St. John community. This is clearly reflected in your generous support of Jog-a-thon – thank you! We had another record-breaking year, with over $108,000 raised, and we joyously celebrated with students today. The Kupyers, Tice, and Arruela homerooms led the way with the most running laps completed at the Jog-a-Thon, and the entire third grade, our top fundraisers, gleefully and thoroughly soaked the principals. Raffle drawings, free dress, Cash Grabbin’ geckos, and water balloons made it a celebration for all!
I would also like to thank our families for your continued support and cooperation as we strive to keep the in-person modality available to as many students as possible. Since last week’s report of three confirmed cases and 10 close contacts, I am pleased to share we feel confident there were zero cases of on-campus transmission at St. John. Quarantining, testing, masking, social distancing, and good hygiene practice – it bears repeating – mitigation strategies work. Let’s keep it at zero!
In other good news, I am happy to announce Mr. Ted Metcalf as the new teaching assistant for second grade. A St. John parent and a long-time volunteer for PE and other areas, we are excited to welcome Mr. Metcalf as a member of our faculty. Mr. Metcalf and the rest of the faculty will be at in-service tomorrow, which will focus on Christ in the Classroom curriculum. Thank you to eighth-grade families for our coffee treats during in-service.
While celebrating the news above, we must also turn our attention to that of being good neighbors. On any given day, administration receives communication like the one below. Some days, it’s multiple iterations of such communication arriving by phone, email, and standard mail. Read on, please.
Hi Mr. Kelley-
I’m a parent of a couple of kiddos who walk along 1st Ave. to our neighborhood public school. Our family, and others, have noticed an uptick in frantic drop-off and pick-up behavior by St. John’s families.
While as a neighbor to St. John’s, we appreciate you being in our community, as a parent with children walking near your school mornings and afternoons, I’m not impressed. St. John families disregard signage, speed limits, crosswalks and basically any pedestrians using the “Safe Street” in their attempt to get kids to school on time.
I get it! Mornings are crazy hectic! But this is a neighborhood with a designated Safe Street that is not safe when your families are out.
Please remind your families that this is a neighborhood with small children, dog walkers and people who live in this community – your community!
Many people live here, work here, walk here. Please be considerate; if you’re running so late that you’re putting my children in danger, leave a little earlier!
Thank you for your time and sorry for the rant. I tried to let it go, but it’s become unacceptable!
Best,
(name retracted by school admininistration)
St. John is known for its generous, welcoming community; it saddens and disappoints me when traffic misbehavior–in the neighborhood, on Greenwood Ave., on 80th St.–chips away at our reputation and all the good work we have done. My job is to support our teachers and students. My job is not to police traffic infractions, so I ask you, parents, guardians and caretakers, to be considerate as you drop off and pick up–leave a little earlier, drive a little slower, park a little further, and be more mindful of modeling good citizenship to our children. I thank the many, many families who follow the traffic guidelines, carpool, walk and bike to school, and help protect our community. I ask all families to care for our neighbors the way we care for one another.
Enjoy your three day weekend,
Bernadette O’Leary
