January, 2011

Dear St. Catharine Families,

Best wishes for a blessed New Year!  Hopefully this Christmas season provided a time for some rest and time with family.  Our Advent season ended with a wonderful program for Grades 1 - 4 that spoke to the meaning of the Christmas season.  In addition, our HEART groups gather to make blankets for the Griffin Center…..providing our students with time for their classmates in their HEART groups and an opportunity to share our time and talent with those who need our help within the community. 

January is a busy month for us….

• The end of second quarter, Friday, January 14
• Registration for our incoming kindergarten class and preschool program (procedures and applications to be mailed to our families in January)
• Catholic Schools Week Celebration that begins on Monday, January 31 (information on daily events/ programs will be posted on our website and sent home with students in January)
• We will host an Open House on Sunday, January 30 from 12 – 2:00 for interested parishioners and an incoming kindergarten meeting (12:30). 

A special “thank you” for the Home and School Association who generously provided our classroom and special programs with materials that were on their “wish list”.  All of our students will benefit from their generosity.

Please note the FACTS information flyer that is included in this packet.  The deadline is the deadline for this application.  If you wish to be considered for a Level II tuition grant, the FACTS application must be completed on-line by the deadline date (no exceptions).

Finally, we have been generously awarded a sizeable donation of $50,000 for our Partners in Education fund and $50,000 for our tuition assistance fund from the Scion Farms Foundation.  In working with Mrs. Stuckey, we felt that both of these programs would have the greatest benefit to our school children and families.  These funds have been placed in an endowment that will help to stabilize and build our school programs.  As you know, the Partners in Education fund assists all our children with opportunities for enrichment (field trip admissions, author visits to the school, arts/ music programs etc).  By building an endowment for Partners in Education, we can plan programs into the future with the continued donations and support of our own community on a yearly basis.  The tuition assistance fund endowment is an area that the Advisory Board continues to develop to that financial assistance will continue to be available to those who wish for a Catholic education.  Again, we thank the Scion Farms Foundation and promise to be wise stewards of this money.

As always, feel free to call if there are any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

Janet L. Weisner, Principal