Monday Morning Memo

We look forward to the return of your children tomorrow and hope that you have enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving break. We are in meetings today on curriculum mapping and differentiation of instruction, as well as spending time planning instruction for the next few, important weeks.

Our Middle School Christmas Program will be held in the church this Thursday, Dec. 1 at 7:00 p.m. There will a reception following the performance in the Parish Hall.

This Friday is the deadline for preferential status on the waiting list for siblings and members of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. After that, all applicants will be considered without preference so, if you fall into one of these categories or know someone who does, have them contact Miriam Zavagnin, our Admissions Director, before Dec. 3^rd. Thanks!

Please encourage your child to wear red for our Chiefs Red Friday Pep Rally onTuesday, Dec. 6. (We do know that Tuesday is not a Friday, but apparently the event will be filmed and then televised on Red Friday.) All students are encouraged to wear red but only kindergarten through eighth graders will attend the pep rally, due to our half day program, limitations on space, and the amount of noise generated, which is hard on our youngest students.

Journey T. U., one of our fifth graders, is performing in the Coterie Theatre’s production of “Seussical”. Journey will be in the productions on Nov. 29, Dec. 2, 4, 8, 11, 16 (7:00 p.m.), 17, 20, 26, and 29. Tuesday through Friday performances are at 10 a.m. and 12 noon; Saturday performances are at 2:00 and 4:00; and Sunday performances are at 2:00. Congratulations to another budding star!

Monday Morning Memo

What a wonderful week we enjoyed last week – with tremendous support for the Food Drive; a successful, entertaining first grade Bear Play; a step back in time to the days of the Oregon Trail with the third graders; scientific PowerPoint presentations by our fourth graders; and a Wax Museum of Revolutionary heroes and heroines with the seventh graders! We began on Monday evening with an event at Stuff to benefit our school in Haiti and the faculty and staff were treated to delicious pumpkin bread as part of Teacher Appreciation. Your presence as parents and partners with us was felt each day as you helped make the events happen, were delightful audiences, and cooked and cared for your children and the staff. We are so grateful for this partnership and all you do to make our school thrive!

Joanna Posten was inadvertently left off of the Book Fair thank you’s that I extended last week and I do apologize! As a new parent to the school, Joanna’s willingness to jump right in and be so helpful was most appreciated, too!

Richard Scarritt, the volunteer leader of our church pantry, shared his reaction to seeing just part of the food delivery from the school: “…as I rounded the corner, the wondrous sight smacked me right in the face !! I almost teared up … The great bounty of the SPEDS community approaching Thanksgiving is so amazing! Please know how grateful the Pantry folks are for the great generosity of the School community and how proud we are to be the beneficiaries!! Please convey our appreciation to all involved. Thank you from your friends at the north end of the parking lot.” (Below is Richard’s picture, taken after the first of MANY deliveries last week.)

By the way, thanks to your incredible generosity, the final total of collected items for the pantry was a record-breaking 27,362 items! What an amazing contribution! Thank you to Chaplain Nolan and Mrs. Willets for their leadership, along with the members of Student Council who helped out each day, the students who helped haul all this product to the pantry, and for all of the generosity exhibited by this community!

This is the last week in which we are surveying our parents, students and teachers on their satisfaction level of our school lunch program. Students in 3^rd-8^th grade will complete the surveys at school. Please take a few moments to complete the following parent survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/983SG3J

Time is expiring to submit sibling and St. Paul's Church member applications for preferential status on the waitlist for the 2012-2013 school year! Also, please contact the admissions office with names and addresses of any families who may be interested in attending our annual Open House on Sat., January 7th. Siblings of current St. Paul's students and active St. Paul's church members receive admissions priority until the first Friday of December (Dec. 2nd).

Tuition aid processing for the 2012/2013 academic school year is underway. To apply, please visit www.factstuitionaid.com online. You will want to have your 2010 federal income tax return and basic information regarding your household income and expenses handy when you visit the website. Deadline for completion of the process is January 17, 2012. Keep in mind that timely application will receive priority for available funds. If you have any questions about the process, please contact Daniel Pennington, Finance Director, at 816-268-6531.

Great quantities of delicious pumpkin bread were artfully wrapped and given to all faculty and staff last week and each was thoroughly enjoyed, or preserved to share with family this week. Thank you so much to those of you who baked for us during this very busy time of the year. We so appreciate your thoughtfulness to us!

Classes will dismiss at the end of the day on Tuesday (tomorrow) for the Thanksgiving holiday. Faculty and staff return on Monday, Nov. 28 for professional development and classes resume for students on Tuesday, Nov. 29. If you are in need of care for your children on Monday, please contact Christina Lenon at clenon@speds.org today to schedule that care, in order to ensure that she has enough coverage for the students.

HAVE A HAPPY, SAFE, LOVING AND GRATEFUL THANKSGIVING!

Monday Morning Memo

	St. Paul’s 2011-2012 Annual Fund The 2011-2012 Annual Fund has nearly reached the half-way point toward our goal of $240,000. We are trailing last year’s total at this time and really need to rally the troops to ensure a successful drive. While we would like to reach our goal in gifts and pledges by the end of the year, you will have until June 30, 2012 to honor the pledge. You can make your pledge and set up a payment schedule on our website. Please take a moment now to do so.

Thanks to your tremendous support of the book fair, the library will be getting a lot of new books in the near future! Thank you to the set-up crew, the cashiers, the bakers and to all of those who visited the book fair. We recorded almost 500 transactions and sold about 1,500 books, including over 110 wish books that were specially selected by the faculty and staff to add to the library. In addition, the students met and exceeded the challenge to read 50,000 pages in 5 days raising another $5,000 for the library! There are 40 participants enrolled in the birthday book club which you can join at any time during the year (see Mr. Nerstheimer for details). Many thanks to Ann Long, Beth Chu, Betsy Fountain for leading this very successful effort. You’ll notice that some of the birds have migrated south but there is a flock hovering in the hallway to remind us all to..... Let your imagination soar: Read!!

Science Olympiad preliminary competitions began on Saturday, November 12^th, at Shawnee Mission South High School. Sixteen B division middle schools and 19 C division high schools participated. The large high school was packed with excited and brilliant science students. St. Paul’s was well represented by seventh graders Philip B., Meg B., Elyse C., Clayton F., Edward G., Lilly H., Meghan L., Lilly L., Monty L., Claire M., Drake R., Annie S., Danny T., Lily W. and Sydney W. Starting for the eighth grade was Tucker B., Kit F., Samantha H., Jack K., Veronica L., Chris M., Ethan M., Elliot P., Sophie P., Ellison R., Tommy S., Max S., Kippy T., Dominic T., Aidan V., Gregory W. and Philip W. Medals and ribbons were won in the following events: Anatomy, Awesome Aquifer, Bottle Rocket, Compute This, Experimental Design, Food Science, Forestry, Keep the Heat, Mission Possible, Meteorology, Microbe Mission, Reach for the Stars, and Rocks & Minerals. That covers a multitude of science processes. St. Paul’s received third place in the award ceremony. Congratulations to all of these students who worked all day Saturday and did so well. Our next preliminary competition will be on Saturday, December 3^rd at Pembroke Hill.

We are in our second round interviews with three candidates for Mr. Held’s position. These candidates were selected to return for a full day at the school to interview with a team of teachers, teach a couple of Mr. Held’s classes, get a tour of the whole school, and discover what a day at St. Paul’s School entails – while we have a chance to better evaluate the talents and fit for this position. The third candidate returns on Nov. 30, and we hope to offer a contract by Dec. 2^nd.

Our fall ingathering for the pantry continues and, as always, we are amazed and so pleased with the support of our church pantry! Our halls were filled on Friday so students carried mounds of toilet paper, peanut butter, canned food, and other non-perishables to the pantry that afternoon. But we are still collecting all this week and hope you will continue to help, as the needs are great this year.

Now is the time to submit sibling and St. Paul's Church member applications for the 2012-2013 school year! Please contact the admissions office with names and addresses of families that may be interested in attending our annual Open House on Sat., January 7th. Siblings of current St. Paul's students and active St. Paul's church members receive admissions priority until the first Friday of December (Dec. 2nd).

Basketball practices begin today. You can find the practice schedule on the website or on Mr. Kurt’s Blog. Basketball games will begin after Thanksgiving Break.

Ms. Erika Gibbs, our prekindergarten associate teacher and current second grade student teacher, has been selected by her university to represent them as The Most Promising Student Teacher! She has been invited to a statewide recognition banquet at which she will be a candidate for Kansas’ Most Promising Student Teacher! We are thrilled, but not surprised because of the skills and warmth of this special teacher.

This week we are surveying our parents, students and teachers on their satisfaction level of our school lunch program. Students in 3^rd-8^th grade will complete the surveys at school. Please take a few moments to complete the following parent survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/983SG3J

The Community Blood Center is in desperate need of donations right now, and mainly platelet donations, because they’re not able to meet the needs of hospitals. If you are willing to donate platelets, used often for cancer patients, you should plan on spending about 90 minutes for that donation, with whole blood donations taking about half that time. They take their last appointment at 5:30.

In the month of November, all St. Paul's Frames from the St. Paul's Spirit Store are $5 off. (Regular Price $15 each, Sale Price $10 each). We offer both vertical and horizontal designs. You can email our store chair, Casey Simmons, at casey@pursuegoodstuff.com to place an order. We accept cash, check and all major credit cards. Order now while supplies last.

Fundraising Party for St. Paul's mission school in Ravine a l'Anse, Haiti on November 14, 2011 - 6:00 to 8:00 pm. The link to our calendar of events is, http://www.pursuegoodstuff.com/calendar.htm You are invited to check out this link (http://stpaulskcmo.org/serve/haiti) on our event calendar page to read more about this mission of St. Paul’s Church that the school supports with donations each spring. Fifteen percent off all sales from this event will go to support this cause. The party is open to the public and we encourage everyone to feel welcome.

The Kansas City Chiefs are pleased to announce St. Paul’s as their Chiefs Red Friday Spirit School winner for the week of December 5^th! We were selected as one of their 16 Spirit Schools. We are being recognized for displaying the PLAY 60 ideals of eating right and staying fit. We will have a congratulatory assembly led by members of the “Chiefs Community Caring Team,” focusing on the Chiefs PLAY 60 message on Tuesday, December 6^th at 2:30pm. During this visit, “Chiefs Community Caring Team” will have a surprise presentation for the school. Our congratulatory assembly will help remind the students to stay active and fit by eating right and getting at least 60 minutes of play or activity a day. Chiefs Insider Josh Looney will Emcee the event and will bring along a surprise Chiefs player and KC Wolf. Children should plan to wear red on that day!

Monday Morning Memo

It’s here – our annual Book Fair! It opened yesterday with family time and extends through Tuesday of this week. Your children will have an opportunity to explore the collection and we sincerely hope that you’ll come, too. Wish Books and Birthday Book Club selections are available in support of our library. We’ve almost met our 50,000 page goal for the student read-a-thon and tonight’s the last night to make those pages count. The Book Fair will be open during school hours on Monday and Tuesday. Let your imagination soar – READ!

The Parents’ Guild meeting for this month will be held on Wednesday 11/9, 8:30 am in the Garden Room . All families are part of the Parents’ Guild so we hope you’ll come join us to see what’s happening and learn ways in which you can support the school with your time.

“Camelot”, formerly known as the “King Arthur Feast”, will take place from 12:15 – 1:15 on Friday in the MS Commons. This culminating activity for the sixth graders is an integrated thematic unit that is both informative and fun for the students. Parents are welcome to join us!

Our annual Food Drive to benefit the church pantry begins this Wednesday and goes through Nov. 18. There is a greater need than ever for our assistance in stocking the pantry as Harvesters has had to withdraw much of its support, due to reduced funding, and the number of people served continues to grow. Attached at the end of this blog are the guidelines/requests from the pantry. Thank you so much for your support of this important effort.

Our girls’ volleyball and boys’ soccer seasons have now ended but the spirit, determination, athletic prowess, and sportsmanship demonstrated by our students will live on! There were exciting wins, tough losses, and formidable opponents throughout the season and consistent effort, even in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds, was evident at each game. These athletes are a great source of pride for our school and we know that they, and their parents, will welcome the brief respite before basketball season arrives!

The school is interested in having a wheelchair at the school to be available for use for the occasional minor medical emergency. We would be delighted to have one donated to the school to become part of our medical inventory. If you happen to have a wheelchair unit in good working order that is no longer needed, please let us know! We can provide a gift-in-kind tax donation letter if you want one.

Did you know? Café Sebastian, The Farmhouse, Eden Alley, Café Europa, Blue Bird Bistro, Westside Local, Succotash, Julian, Unforked …..these are just a few of the restaurants that are locally owned in Kansas City that use fresh, local and seasonal food! You have a chance to win a gift certificate to these wonderful restaurants by coming to see FOOD, INC on Thursday, November 10^th at 6:30 p.m. followed by a panel discussion with our community experts! Don’t forget to RSVP through Evite! We hope to see you there! Look at Tuesday’s newspaper for news on this presentation.

Needed: Pre-Season Walk-Ons! Drafting Host Couples for the Auction Kick-Off Party! GAME ON! We need Walk-On couples to sign on to be hosts for the evening! The event will be held January 28th at Krista & Dave Peterson's home! Walk-on couples are asked to provide appetizers for 50 people and a $100 cash donation in January to get the season going!
Hurry, there is only room for 24 walk-on couples! (Individual hosts welcome, too!)
Please contact Mandy Burditt if you can play! 816-333-2243 or mmburditt@gmail.com

Faith and the Biosciences: One Scientists Perspective: St. Paul's Episcopal Church Women invite you to a meeting on Tuesday, November 8 at 7:00 p.m. where Dr. Vikki Weake, a member of St. Paul's and a Senior Research Associate at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, will be speaking about her life as a Christian and a scientist. RSVP to stpauls@stpaulskcmo.org.

St. Paul’s Episcopal Day School’s Annual Food Drive

to support the Church food pantry

November 9-November 18

• Each day, Student Council representatives will receive donations in the front hallway of the school. Each student’s class will earn points for their offerings.
• The class that collects the most will win a prize.
• In addition to non-perishable food, students are encouraged to bring personal hygiene items. Especially needed items are bar soap, feminine hygiene products, and disposable diapers in sizes 3, 4, 5, and 6.
• While all items will be received each day, BONUS POINTS will be given for selected items on selected days.

Paper and plastic sacks are appreciated and needed!

Double points will be given for BULK ITEMS EVERYDAY except Wednesday, Nov. 9

Wednesday, Nov. 9: Triple points for bulk items (except diapers)

Thursday, Nov. 10: Double points for peanut butter or canned fish or meats

Friday, Nov. 11: Double points for toilet paper

Monday, Nov. 14: Double points for personal hygiene items

Tuesday, Nov. 15: Double points for dry beans, rice, crackers, and Mac & Cheese

Wednesday, Nov. 16: 20 points for each multi-load bottle or box of laundry detergent

Thursday, Nov. 17: Double points for disposable diapers sizes 3, 4, 5, and 6, and adult Depends (we will count each diaper in the package)

Friday, Nov. 18: To be announced.