Monday Morning Memo

MONDAY MORNING MEMO

December 10, 2012

Two wonderful Christmas programs began our season last week!  The third through fifth graders put on a beautiful show to an overflow crowd in the church under the direction of Mrs. Tamara Everly on Thursday night.  The students performed like pros and the partisan crowd was ecstatic.  Then our very youngest performers – our toddlers and preschoolers – put on a much different but thoroughly enjoyable program for their families and friends on Friday morning under the direction of Mrs. Missy Haskamp.  These charming angels and gentle animal types touched our hearts in very different but magical ways.

Two more of these programs will happen this week: 

Our middle school students (all sixth graders and our drama/performing arts electives 7^th and 8^th grade students) will perform in the church on Thursday evening at 7:00 p.m. under the direction of Mrs. Everly and Mrs. Rousey.

Our prekindergarten and kindergarten students will perform on Friday morning at 9:15 a.m. in the north wing multipurpose room under the direction of Mrs. Haskamp.

These programs help put the Christmas back into this busy season by giving us time to pause and enjoy our talented children.

There is a correction to the calendar that was in our newsletter last week – Classes resume after Christmas on Monday, January 7.  This is the date that has always been on our calendar and website but the error appeared in the newsletter.

Three of our teachers who have given many years and much devoted service to our school have announced that they will be retiring at the end of this school year.  We will sorely miss Beverly House (kindergarten), Donna Reynolds (MS Spanish, English and Speech), and Deborah Bottoni (MS French and elective foreign languages) – all of whom have contributed so much to the children of our school over their many years with us.  We will recognize them at a reception on Friday, May 17, after all-school chapel.  In the meantime, we will take advantage of their many gifts and talents!

A Message from the Health Office:  We are making every effort to minimize the number of illnesses at St. Paul’s this winter and we ask that parents help us in our efforts by considering the following guidelines before sending their children to school.

•  Sick children need to be home until they are well for a 24 hour length of time.
•  “Sick” is a fever of greater than 100 degrees (student must be fever free without the aid
   of fever reducing medicine for 24 hours).
• “Sick” is continuing to have a persistent cough even with cough medicine.
• “Sick” is vomiting and/or diarrhea within the past 24 hours.
• “Sick” is a sore throat that doesn't go away with over-the-counter pain medication.

This flu season is already a very active one and we can significantly impact the spreading of germs by frequent hand washing and containing the spread of illness by staying home when not feeling well.  If there are any questions that our nurse, Mrs. Kuhls, can answer, please don’t hesitate to contact her by phone or e-mail.  Thank you for your efforts to keep our community healthy. 

Congratulations to the forty students who gave their Saturday for Science.  These 7^th and 8^th grade students worked together as a team to take second place out of 23 teams at the Pembroke Invitational Science Olympiad Tournament.

Seventh Grade:                                              

Zach J.             Roy W.                 Layne S.

Adam K.          Oliver C.              Grace C.

Ben S.              Jensen P.               John R.

Natalie K.        Caroline S.           Daisy B.

Ella L.              Anna Louise S.    Will P. 

Carol Ann G.   Sydney H.            Caroline R.

Zach T.            Catherine H.         Jonah W.

Connor T.        Max M.

Eighth Grade:

Liily L.          Monty L.

Ashley B.      Meghan L.

Drake R.        Elyse C.

Claire M.       Sydney W.

Lilly H.          Annie S.

Clayton F.      Taylor N.

A’starr M.      William L.

Cora M.         Danny T.

Congratulations to these students who placed in the individual events:

Cora M., second in Anatomy and Heredity; Meghan L., first in Crime Busters and second in Disease Detectives, Dynamic Planet, and Water Quality; Lilly L, second in Disease Detectives; Elyse C., second in Water Quality and fourth in Experimental Design; Claire M., third in Meteorology, fourth in Experimental Design, and fifth in Keep the Heat; Natalie K, Daisy B. and Jensen P., third in Mission Possible; Natalie K, second in Food Science; Taylor N. and William L., third in Mousetrap Vehicle;  Carol Ann G. and Caroline R., first in Sounds of Music; Ella L. and Caroline S., fourth in Write it Do It.  Very special thanks to Mrs. Gruss and Mr. Stewart for their help, kindness and coaching of our Olympian Team.  Well done, ALL!

MMM 11/12/12

MONDAY MORNING MEMO

November 12, 2012

Attention Pre-Kindergarten Families:  We would like to invite you to come preview Kindergarten on *Tuesday, November 13^th from 8:30-9:30am.  We will meet in the North MPR for a short presentation by Mrs. Abio and then visit the kindergarten classrooms.  *The master school calendar indicated that this event would take place on Nov. 6^th. 

The sixth grade students will participate in the culminating unit of study known as the King Arthur Feast this Friday, Nov. 16 at 12:15 p.m. in the MS Commons.  The Lords and Ladies of the sixth grade will enjoy a knighting ceremony (yes, the ladies, too!) and a feast, and will perform a song and dance for their visitors.  Come enter another era and enjoy!

Many, many thanks to Joanna Posten and Janet Greaves and the wonderful volunteers from whom they garnered support in making our Book Fair such a success!  The gym was a lively center of reading and shopping from its opening on Wednesday through Friday and it appeared that a good time was being had by all!  Thanks, too, to our Librarian, Mr. Nerstheimer, for his hard work, sage advice, and lively reading to each group of students.  We are proud to be a school where reading is still such an enjoyable, shared activity.

Thirty-three seventh and eighth grade students met this weekend at Shawnee Mission South for our first preliminary Science Olympiad tournament. They all worked together as an outstanding team to take second place overall in the tournament. Seventh graders Ben S, Ella L, Jonah W, Jensen P, Daisy B, Layne S, Roy W, Anna Louise S, Oliver C, Max M, Adam K, Natalie K, Catherine H, Caroline S, Zach T, Grace C, John R, Will P, Caroline R, Sydney H, along with the leadership of our eighth graders, Lilly L, Monty L, Claire Mc, Meg B, Ashley B, A’starr M, Elyse C, Meghan L, Cora M, Drake R, Lilly H, Clayton F, Taylor N and Danny T were fun and fabulous to spend the day with. The student’s behavior, willingness to work hard, individual responsibility and determination were all outstanding. Individual winners were: Drake R 6th in Forestry , Drake R and Roy W 5th in Road Scholar, Ashley B and Monty L 3rd in Heredity, Meghan L 1st in Crime Busters, 2nd in Water Quality and 2nd in Dynamic Planet, Monty L 3rd in Meteorology, Connor T 5th in Reach for the Stars, Connor T and Zach T 3rd in Experimental Design, Elyse C 1st in Food Science, Claire Mc 5th in Keep the Heat, Lilly L 3rd Shock Value, Carol Ann G and Caroline R 1st in Sound of Music, A'starr M 4th in Boomilever, Mission Possible medal awarded to Layne S and Sydney H. 

This afternoon in their Science Olympiad Elective and on Thursday morning at 7:15 they will be back to work preparing for the next preliminary tournament on December 8th at Pembroke Hill. Congratulations to all of these students and to the St. Paul’s community for their excellent representation!

Pantry Drive Update:  As of Friday, we have received a stunning total of 6754 items and are looking forward to amazing contributions this week.  Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this effort, including our generous donors, wonderful STUCO workers, our teacher promoters, and our pantry item haulers!  For this week, please remember that double points are given for bulk items every day. The daily featured items are listed below but please know that all non-perishable items are welcome on any of these days. 

St. Paul’s Episcopal Day School’s

Annual Food Drive

To support St. Paul’s Church’s food pantry

When:  November 7-16

Where:  Main entrance/hallway of both buildings

Double points will be given for BULK ITEMS every day except Wednesday, November 7

Wednesday, November 7:  Triple points for bulk items (except           

                                            diapers)

Thursday, November 8:     Double points for peanut butter or

                                            canned fish or meats

Friday, November 9:          Double points for toilet paper

Monday, November 12:     Double points for personal hygiene

                                            items

Tuesday, November 13:      Double points for dry beans, rice,

                                             crackers and Mac and Cheese

Wednesday, November 14:  Laundry detergent (20 points for     

                                              multiple-load bottle or box     

                                              detergent)

Thursday, November 15:    Double points for disposable diapers

                                             sizes 3, 4, 5 and 6 as well as Adult

                                             Depends. (We will count each

                                             Diaper in the package)

Friday, November 16:         To be announced

The pencil donation project for South Sudanese students concluded with TERRIFIC results.  The total number of pencils donated as of Thursday, Nov. 8, was 12,652!  This was a huge step toward second grade student Atem Akuei’s big goal of taking 20,000 pencils to students in South Sudan.  We are so proud of the boys and girls who reached out with their hearts and grateful to the parents who, through their generosity, accomplished so much.  Thank you to everyone for your support of this special project. 

Reminder:  Parents’ Guild Book Club will be held on Thursday, November 15th at 8:15am in the Garden Room.  The book to be discussed is American Dervish by Ayad Akhtar.  Refreshments will be served.  RSVP to Joanne Reardon at reardonjoanne@att.net.

The 2011-12 Annual Report is now available on line at http://www.speds.org/support/annual-report/.   Thanks to everyone for all the support of the various fundraising efforts -- Annual Fund, Buddy Run, Auction, and of course, the Endowment Campaign.  You enhance our program offerings, provide the future for our school through the endowment campaign, engage our parents and students – all while keeping our tuition level well below the national average.  Every effort has been made to ensure that the information presented is accurate and complete.  Please let Jane Pennington, our Director of Development, know if we have erred on any of the information presented in this report.

DID YOU KNOW?  2012-2013 Annual Fund Call Week is now until November 14^th!  We are calling on all parents for 100% participation.  Make your gift today and direct it toward Academic Programs, Financial Aid, Faculty Support or Daily Needs.  Thank you for your support! 

Donate Now (http://www.diamondmindinc.com/spedsog.html)

Pledge Now (http://go.speds.org/pledgenow)

Looking for some good exercise and a good cause to support on Thanksgiving Day?  The  Thanksgiving Day 5K Stroll and Kids Fun Run will be held on the Sprint campus.  The Kids Fun Run will be in honor of Tom Murphy, and proceeds from that run will provide a scholarship at Rockhurst High School.

We have noticed a couple of empty-looking cars driving through our parking lot.  If you need a new St. Paul’s car decal, pick one up at the front desk anytime.  We love seeing the stickers all around Kansas City!

Journey U, one of our sixth graders, has a very important role in “Nuncrackers:  The Nunsense Christmas Musical” at American Heartland Theater!  She appears in an article about the production in the November/December edition of KC Studio.  There are two sets of student actors for the production and Journey appears in the following ones:

Nov. 10^th - Sat. 2pm & 8pm; Nov. 13^th - Tues. 7:30; Nov. 15^th - Thurs. 7:30; Nov. 20^th - Tues. 7:30; Nov. 21^st -  Wed. 7:30; Nov. 24^th - Sat. 4pm & 8 pm; Nov. 27^th - Tues. 7:30; Nov. 28^th - Wed.  1pm & 7:30; Nov. 29^th - Thurs. 7:30; Dec. 4^th - Tues. 7:30pm; Dec. 5^th -  Wed. 1pm & 7:30pm; Dec. 8^th - Sat. 4pm & 8pm; Dec. 11^th - Tues. 7:30pm; Dec. 12^th - Wed. 7:30pm.; Dec. 13^th - Thursday 7:30pm; Dec. 14^th - Friday 8pm; Dec. 18^th - Tues. 7:30pm; Dec. 19^th - Wed. 7:30pm; and Dec. 22nd Sat. 4pm & 8pm.  Congratulations, Journey!

As you are reading this, I will be part of an accrediting team at Notre Dame Preparatory and Marist Academy in Detroit, MI.  Those of you who were here for our visit in 2009 will remember the team of teachers and administrators from other ISACS (Independent Schools Association of the Central States – our accrediting agency) schools visiting our campus to determine if the self-study we wrote over the course of a year accurately reflected our school.  These visits are great opportunities to learn more about how other schools function and, at the same time, to contribute to the work of our accrediting agency.  From this visit, I will go to Baltimore to attend the National Association of Episcopal Schools Biennial Conference through Saturday morning.  I will be checking in periodically but am confident that the people here can handle any needs/concerns you might have in my absence.

Monday Morning Memo

I am SO proud of our students, our teachers, and our parents! What an incredible week we had last week:

- Thanks to great preparation by the Watt family and by the teachers, the 50^th picture went off without a hitch. We had an excellent practice on Monday, and a flawless experience with the picture on Tuesday, in spite of a chill in the air. It was amazing to see more than 515 people from age 3 on up work so well together.

- The sixth graders performed a lively international show on Thursday night with great enthusiasm and joy, under the direction of Mrs. Fatu. We were all thoroughly entertained – in several languages, in song, and in dance.

- On Friday we had a Eucharist service for our third through eighth graders which, once again, was handled so well by our students. They were respectful, thoroughly engaged and so well behaved. Our younger children enjoyed a visit from the Easter bunny in a service led by Chaplain Bauer-Nolan as they explored the sacred and secular sides of Easter.

- On Saturday our Science Olympiad team competed admirably in Columbia at the State level of competition. [See more news about this below.] Their hard work to get to this event and the diligence with which they approached each aspect of the competition was a source of pride for all of us.

- And on Saturday night, we enjoyed the party of the year with delightful camaraderie among the adults of our community at the “Game On” auction. While the bottom line financially is still being tallied, the event was a HUGE success because of the warm feelings, good food and drink, and festive atmosphere created by Amy Holewinski, Sarah Telford, and their many amazing volunteers. Many thanks also to the eighth graders and their parents for returning to help with clean-up on Sunday and to ALL the parents who came to support this great event!

It was an outstanding week that celebrated the very best of St. Paul’s – our work, worship and play together in the name of and for the benefit of our children! Thank you, All, for making it such a memorable, successful week!

St. Paul’s Episcopal Science Olympiad team received 6^th place ranking out of the 32 teams at State this year! Jesse Hall at the University of MO was packed with both middle school and high school teams as the medals, ribbons, and MU scholarships were presented on stage and freebies from the university were hurled into the mass of students. Very exciting! Most of the storms passing through were avoided but two outside events, Bottle Rockets and Storm the Castle were cancelled. The students were very stoic about this disappointment. Congratulations to team members Tucker, Samantha, Kit, Veronica, Chris, George, Ellison, Sophie, Max, Philip, Elyse, Meghan, Lilly, Claire, Lily and Drake. Team members placing in their events were: Ellison and Sophie awarded 5^th in Compute This; Sophie, Ellison and Veronica awarded 5^th in Experimental Design; Samantha and Max awarded 5^th place in Road Scholar; Meghan and Elyse awarded 2^nd place in Water Quality; and Sophie and Ellison awarded 3^rd place in Write It/Do It.

Mr. Stewart and Ms. Twyman enjoyed traveling with this wonderful group of scholars very much and the team members, Mr. Stewart and Ms. Twyman want to acknowledge the love and support of the parents who traveled with the team and made the trip possible, safe and lots of fun: Mrs. Haistings, Mrs. Rooney, Dr. Chinnock, Mrs. Prochnow and Mr. McCann. The team is also grateful to the team parents this year, Mrs. & Mrs. Woolley and Mrs. Jeanine Haistings.

It's time to order school supplies for next year! You may pre-purchase a school supply pack for next fall. The packets are ordered through Innisbrook School Supplies and are priced at the school’s cost. This opportunity is offered as a convenience for St. Paul’s families. Parents are free to choose the supply pack or shop on their own. Order dates: 4/16/12 - 5/4/12. There are two ways to place your order:

1) Order online at www.ordermypack.com, select “Buy School Supplies”, and enter our school number: 120688. Pay with a credit card at checkout. A convenience charge of $1.50 per pack will be added to all online orders.

2) Complete and return an order form to the school front desk. Charges will be billed to your school account in August.

The order form and school supply lists are available on the St. Paul's website.. If you are unable to print what you need, please contact Linda van Thullenar and she will send them to you. All supply packets will be delivered directly to school and distributed to students at Open House on Wednesday, August 15.

Attention ECC Parents and Guardians! We are offering two free sessions of a newly released Love and Logic Webinar specifically for parents and guardians of young children. You are invited to attend one or both of the offered sessions. Topics to be addressed include: Taming tantrums and meltdowns, ending morning madness, easing separation anxiety, calming bedtime battles, wiping out potty training problems, and dealing with misbehavior in public.

We will include a brief discussion following each Webinar. Two of our St. Paul’s teachers, Mrs. Williams and Mrs. Rempel, who have been trained as Love and Logic facilitators will be available as well to help answer any specific questions.

Love and Logic Session I

When: Monday, April 23^rd

Time: 2:00 – 3:30 PM

Location: North Wing MPR

AND

Love and Logic Session II

When: Thursday, April 26^th

Time 4:00 – 5:30 PM

Location: North Wing MPR

Please RSVP to Linda van Thullenar by email at lvan@speds.org no later than Friday, April 20^th, to let her know which sessions you will be attending. We hope you will take advantage of this opportunity.

PLEASE JOIN US:

What: ECC/LOWER SCHOOL TRANSITION NIGHT OPEN HOUSE

(Parent/Guardian Only Event for current Toddler – 4^th grade students)

Date: Thursday April 19th

Time: 6:00 – 7:00 PM

The ECC and Lower School Division teachers and staff invite you to visit the grade level your child will be entering in the next school year. This is a casual and informal opportunity for you to meet the teachers, walk through the classrooms and see examples of current student work and projects. We hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to learn more about what’s to come in the next school year.

Three candidates for our part-time Diversity Coordinator will be coming to visit for half a day this week, as they have made it through the first round interviews. We look forward to getting to know each better, and having others in the community get to know them, in order to determine the best fit for our school.

TGIF Fun in Extended Day: This Friday, April 20, the extended day staff will host a Fiber Craft Fun Day! We will work on small knitting, beadwork and latch hook projects. No need to pre-register - just come join us when the bell rings. See you then!

Calling all bakers: We are having our second annual Cyber bake sale. This one will benefit Harveyville, Kansas as they start to recover from the tornado that destroyed half of their town. If you would like to donate a baked item (and we hope you will!), please e-mail Pam at pbauer@speds.org. Be specific about what you are offering. The items will need to be turned in by Tuesday, April 24. Last year we had a wonderful variety of cinnamon rolls, cookies, cakes and pies. We welcome everything. In next Monday's MMM, we will provide a link to the list of baked items. You may then e-mail me your choice: first come, first served. Items will be distributed to your child's class no later than Wednesday.

Service Club: We will be meeting after school on Tuesday, April 24 to support the cyber bake-salel, distributing items and writing thank you notes. Please e-mail Chaplain Nolan if you plan on attending: pbauer@speds.org. Remember, Service Club requires a parent's participation for those students who are in fifth grade or younger.

Auction Lost and Found: Did you leave the auction without your umbrella? If so, check at the ECC reception desk. You can check with Sarah Telford about anything else you might have lost.

Stay up to date on the latest happenings with our school calendar. Bookmark the calendar page on our website and check back often to see what is going on at St. Paul's.