We
have some news on the personnel front to share.
First, our losses: Kate Hamlin’s
fiancé was assigned to Orlando, FL for his residency so we will lose our second
grade associate for next year; and Erika Gibbs, our prekindergarten associate,
has decided to stay home with her new baby for a while before further pursuing
her career. We will miss both of them
but wish them well. Further changes are
these:
Abby Crady will become a lead
teacher in kindergarten after serving three years as an associate teacher
Kathleen Wiedeman will return to
kindergarten as the other lead teacher after serving as an associate teacher
there and a lead teacher in first grade
Sara Waller will become the other
first grade lead teacher after serving two years as an associate teacher there
Jenny Wyllie has been hired to be the
first grade associate working with Ms. Fate.
She was an outside candidate for the kindergarten lead position who so
impressed all of us that we knew we needed her here at St. Paul’s!
Hunter Ward, the long-term
substitute for Mrs. Jones in fifth grade, will be our Middle School Spanish and
Language Arts teacher next year.
We are
excited that we can provide new opportunities for our teachers who seek them,
while providing continuity for the programs in which they work.
Our
much anticipated and twice postponed Fifth Grade Showcase will be this Tuesday
night at 7:00
p.m. in the north wing multipurpose room – unless, of course, it snows
again! Come see all that this talented
group has prepared for you, under the direction of Mrs. Everly.
Middle
School Transition Night will be this Thursday at 6:00 p.m.
This year we will be discussing the introduction of our 1:1 program so
we hope all families will attend. Good
changes are coming to the middle school and we want you to be informed and part
of those changes!
What
a weekend is ahead of us: Science
Olympiad State Competition in Columbia, the MCTM math contest at Barstow, and
the Fifty and Fabulous Auction Gala! We wish our science competitors and their
leaders, Mrs. Gruss and Mr. Stewart, and our math competitors under the
leadership of Mrs. McMullen and Mrs. Glass, the best of luck and much fun in
their efforts. We’ll be behind them all
the way – even while preparing for our special celebration of St. Paul’s First
Fifty Years!
Have you made your reservations for the
auction? Tonight at midnight is
the deadline and you won’t want to miss this great event. It’s not too late to sign up but be sure to
do so today so there’ll be a place for you to eat, drink, be merry, and support
the school through the incredible work of Ann Long and Mandy Burditt, and their
legion of volunteers, who’ll make this special event so memorable. Come join us! Sign up at https://stpeds.ejoinme.org/tickets
Look for
daily updates from the auction chairs this week and for your catalog to come
home at the end of the week.
Brio
sponsor days are here Monday, April 1st –Thursday, April 4th. Stop in or get take out for lunch or dinner
and mention that you are with St.
Paul’s. We will receive 20% of all proceeds. Pasta, salads, bruschetta and
other Tuscan specialties – yum! Let Brio
do the cooking and the clean-up! Now
that’s fabulous!
Our
all-school church service will be a bit different this week, due to the
celebration of our Easter Eucharist with third through eighth graders.
Toddlers through second graders will have chapel in the church on
Thursday, April 4th, and third through eighth graders will celebrate
the Eucharist service on Friday. Please
know you are welcome to join us at either service (or both) and there’ll be
much more room for parents and guests at these two services!
As
always, we are welcoming new families to St. Paul’s for the 2013-14 school year, and will need Host Buddy
Families for each of them. (We especially need ECC families!) If you are
interested in helping a new family become familiar with St. Paul’s, please
contact Jill McGee in the Admissions Office at jmcgee@speds.org.
Our Host Buddy Families are asked to 1) welcome their new family with a
brief outing (ice cream, play date in the park, etc.), 2) join their buddy
family at the New Family Welcome party in early June, and 3) be available to
anticipate and answer questions throughout the 2013-14 school year on various
school and Parents’ Guild activities (Open House, Buddy Run, Curriculum Night,
Auction, etc.). The awesome New Family committee chairs, along with the
Director of Admissions, provide training for Host Buddy Families, and are available
all year to help with any transition questions that might arise throughout the
year. We hope you will consider helping a new St. Paul’s family
transition into their new school family!
Standardized
testing for grades 3 – 7 will take place the week of April 15 – 18. Students will spend
approximately 2 hours each morning completing different sections of the
test. We are using the newest version of the Stanford Achievement Test,
the SAT-10. Parents can be helpful to their child in many ways:
·
- Please
arrange for doctor appointments or other time away from school during the
afternoons of that week, if necessary. Missing test sessions puts a
strain on your child when alternative class time is used for make-ups.
·
-- Provide
your child with a balanced breakfast each morning, including protein.
Send an extra healthy snack for the afternoon.
· --
See
that your child gets a full night’s sleep.
· --
Encourage
your child to do his/her best, just like every day! But also remind him/her that there are
questions that are meant to be easy and some meant to be very difficult, so
perfection is not expected.
If you
have any questions regarding the test or schedule, please contact Gingie Watt
or Ted van Thullenar.
