St. Theresa School

Dear STS Family,

            Amen!  Alleluia!  We are half-way through the month of October!  It seems almost comical, but in these days of Covid-19, every milestone we can celebrate is just that: something to celebrate!

Pumpkin Sale Postponed (due to weather):  As we go through this upcoming week, there is a lot going on… and the weather, which before this past week has been wonderful,  is not exactly cooperating with us.  As you know, our LifeTouch Picture Day has been postponed to Thursday, October 29.  Now we find, due to the weather, that we need to postpone our Pumpkin Sale until next Tuesday, October 20^th. 

“Paperless”, “Cashless” School:  By the way, we are continuing to move forward as a “paperless”, “cashless” school.  Please Click Here to order your pumpkin.  Thank you.  Hopefully, we will have this set-up for any/all payments very soon.  If you have already sent pumpkin money into your child’s class, that is fine… as I said, we are moving forward (but not totally there yet).

Progress Reports:  Tomorrow you should be receiving your child(ren)’s Progress Report (K-8).  This is a means of communicating to you your child’s progress mid-Trimester.  Some of you will be pleased; some of you may need to have a chat with your child.  Either way, it is not the end of the world; it is simply a way of knowing where your child is “at”.  Any questions, please email your child’s teacher directly.  After you receive the Progress Report, it needs to be signed and returned to school.  There are different ways to do this: 1 – sign the form electronically and send it back to school; 2 – print out the Report, sign, scan and return to school; 3 – simply send an email to your child’s homeroom teacher acknowledging that you have received the Progress Report for the first Trimester; or 4 – Print out the Report, sign, and send hard-copy back to school (this, of course, is the least preferred method).  As mentioned in our Orientation Meetings last August, you will see that there is no grade for Music or Spanish: Music, because it is a restricted activity in our Covid-19 environment; Spanish because we opted to offer PE two times per week in lieu of Spanish, in order to give the children more opportunity for movement.  This, of course, will change as we – God-willing – move from into a less-restrictive learning environment, but, in the meantime, your child will be receiving N/A for these two subjects.

MapGrowth Testing:  is continuing and going well, as are make-up testing and remote testing.  Thank you for your cooperation and helping your child(ren) be prepared for this assessment by having a good night’s rest and a sustaining breakfast.

World Mission Day:  As you know from my daily Good Morning Assemblies, each Friday I remind our children to go to Church over the weekend to thank God for his great goodness to each and all of us.  (They already probably think I’m a “broken record”… even if they don’t know what that expression means).  This is an essential element of being in a Christian, Catholic, Salesian School, and I would be remiss if I didn’t remind them of this.
This particular Sunday is World Mission Day… a day to pray for the works of our Church in mission lands, and also to recall our own call to be missionaries of God’s love to those around us.

Next Week’s School Schedule:   As you know, we had a “calendar change” this month and didn’t take Columbus Day as a school holiday.  We did this because our Tricky Tray is being held on the 24^th and we need to take the 23^rd  as a “set-up” day for this.  It is not a remote learning day; it is, in fact, being taken as a “holiday.”  So our school schedule next week is:  Monday-Tuesday, regular instruction days; Wednesday, remote learning day; Thursday, in-service day for teachers; Thursday & Friday, days off for students.  Any questions, please let me know.

Remote Learning:  Next Monday (10/26) I will be sending out a form for anyone who wants to CHANGE their learning platform (moving from in-person to remote, or moving from remote to in-person) for the month of November.  ONLY THOSE STUDENTS WHO ARE “CHANGING” FROM ONE PLATFORM TO THE OTHER NEED TO RESPOND.  If your child(ren) is staying with what they have been doing in October, there will be no need to respond.
Reminder: Unless you have opted for remote instruction for your child(ren), this is only offered on Wednesday’s unless your child is absent for more than three (days).  Believe it or not, it is very difficult for our teachers to switch between in-person and remote instruction;  when you have a full class in front of you and need to be cognizant of those who are present on the monitor is difficult.  The teachers are doing this as gracefully and responsibly as is humanly possible, and when the students are signed up monthly, they are able to get into the “groove” of things, but when the faces on the screen change on a daily basis it becomes exceptionally challenging to keep track of.  Thank you for your understanding.

Halloween:  Thank you for all those who have begun to send in candy for our school-wide, modified Trick-or-Treating.  We still need some more, so whatever you can do is greatly appreciated.

Tricky Tray:  A BIG thanks, in advance, to Alex Infante and her Committee for working so hard to get our Tricky Tray up and running!  If you haven’t bought tickets yet, or if you’re able to help out with set-up, the event itself, or clean-up, please contact Alex Infante at Alex (lexa94@aol.com).  Hope to see you there!

            So, another L-O-N-G letter!  But I’m going to stand by the need to communicate, communicate, communicate!  And, as always, any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to contact me at (908)276-7220 or louann.fantauzza@mysts.org.  Thanks and have a blessed week!

God bless!

Sr. Lou Ann Fantauzza, fma
Principal