2013-2014 Newsletter #3 February 2, 2014
 
Hello all…
 
I apologize that you have not seen a newsletter in awhile.  We have been trying to resolve the limitations of our current email delivery system which prohibits us from using attachments and a Publisher-like document.  Additionally, our entire staff has been immersed in preparing for our Middle States visit (more on that below), and some things have taken a back seat to that process.  But, much has been happening, so starting today you will again see a regular newsletter!  Enjoy!
 
Help….
Thank you for your timely response to our Middle States survey.  You will shortly be receiving some additional surveys that will be just as short, and your assistance in completing them is appreciated.   (It really did take less than a minute, didn’t it?)
 
Important Changes..
2014-2015 Tuition - The pastoral board has approved the tuition for the upcoming school year.  We have tried to keep the tuition increases to a minimum, but understand the impact it has on our families.  PLEASE consider using our confidential scholarship program if this becomes a burden for you.
 
Each year as I plan the upcoming year’s calendar, I hold two days in reserve for potential snow days.  If we have a mild winter, these days are eventually added as teacher in-service days in the spring.  This year we face the opposite problem, where we will most likely have more days off due to inclement weather than we can accommodate.  Since we have already used the two days held in reserve, and the day given to us by our new Secretary of Education, we will have to make up any additional days we miss.  With our upcoming Middle States visit, we will definitely keep the in-service days of February 17 and March 7.  However, for your planning purposes, please know that it may be necessary to be in school on February 14 if the forecast does not cooperate.
 
Thanks to the success of our Annual Fund Drive last year, we are about to implement a major security enhancement.  We have a school-check-in system on order that will require you to have your license on hand when you enter the building.  Your license will be scanned and checked against a national list of registered sex offenders before you will be issued a visitor badge that includes your picture.  Volunteers and employees who have all their clearances will be marked as certified and will check in via a separate process.  We will let you know once the system is up and running, which will most likely be in about two weeks.
 
Look What We Did…..
Congratulations to three of our eighth grade students who have been awarded scholarships to their respective high schools.  Ryan D. received an Augustinian Scholarship to Malvern Prep in the amount of $5,000 for each school year; Julianne C. received a Principal’s Scholarship to PJPII in the amount of $3,500 a year for four years; and Krislyn M. received a Pope John Paul II Scholarship to PJPII in the amount of $2,500 per year for four years.  We are proud of these and all of our eighth grade students!

A BIG round of applause goes to three of our eighth graders who gave up their Saturday to participate in the Chester County-wide MathCounts competition that Holy Family has participated in since 1999.  Emma C, Julianne C, and Keith G arrived at school on February 1 at 8am to spend the day competing against approximately 200 students from 24 schools.  While they all admitted to brain freeze by the end of the day, each enjoyed the challenge and the experience.  You can go to the national MathCounts site at http://mathcounts.org/ to challenge your student with the problem of the week.

Did you hear that six of our staff appeared as the half-time entertainment at the girls’ varsity basketball game two weeks ago?  Kristin Abell, Deanna Cunningham, Bonnie Delciotto, Corinne Martino, Cary McDaniel, and I were challenged by the St. Mary’s teachers to a series of relay events.  The HFS team lost by a cup, but all of the students enjoyed seeing their teachers participating in the Friday Night Lights event!

Thanks to your generosity with our Annual Appeal last year, our students in grades pre-K to six are beginning to enjoy a classroom set of iPads that we were able to purchase this fall.  Each class will sign out the set to use for various assignments.

Again thanks to your generosity and the help of St. Monica’s parish, our computer lab was upgraded over the Christmas and the Martin Luther King breaks to a client server system.  This state of the art approach to network computing saved us thousands of dollars and allowed us to update computers that were beginning to age-out.  St. Monica’s school had closed and they no longer needed the equipment, so we received a significant discount on the purchase.

With funds we received from our Annual Appeal last year we were able to enhance our foreign language curriculum for our middle school students.   Our sixth through eighth graders each have their own Rosetta Stone license to practice their skills and improve their competency at their own pace.  Mr. McCarthy is already seeing the payoff in the classroom.  If the program is successful, and assuming we receive enough funding support this year, we will consider expanding this program to more grades.

Our Catholic Schools Week events this past week were a smashing success!  During Monday’s focus on service, our entire student body created cards which will be sent to the shut-ins in our parishes.  On Tuesday after our school-wide Liturgy, our Prayer Partners met to read together and celebrate our faith community.  Wednesday’s event included a teacher appreciation lunch and a crazy hat and sock day for our students.  Thursday brought us both Quote day and Celebrate Your Family day.  Hopefully you received a thank you from your children and asked them about the quotes they and their classmates were wearing. 
 
Finally Friday brought us a time to Celebrate Our Students.  Each student received an ice cream pass for a future Wednesday, each grade participated in an academic challenge, and the entire school enjoyed a talent show.  Our talent show culminated in the seventh grade performing a glow-in-the-dark stickman dance routine, the eighth grade performing a song they wrote themselves celebrating their time here at HFS, and our staff performing a tribute to the eighth grade with lyrics written by our own Mark McDonnell to the tune of Phillip Phillip’s Gone, Gone, Gone. Hopefully Mrs. Cunningham will have the show posted to our website shortly.
 
Come See Us…..
Mark your calendar for our Home and School Meeting on Wednesday night.  Want to know more about what is going on at school, make some new friends, air your concerns or give feedback to me?  I hope to see you Wednesday!
 
You may have heard your child talking about the spelling bees that have been held in their classroom and their grades over the past few weeks.  The Rotary Club of Phoenixville, a community service organization, is once again sponsoring a spelling bee for local elementary and middle school age students. Students from Holy Family and several other local schools have been invited to participate. The spelling bee will be held on February 15 ^th and admission is $3.00 per person on the day of the spelling bee with participants admitted free of charge. There will be food items for purchase at the concession stand.  Please come out and support our students!
 
There will be four different divisions to the spelling bee event with 10 students competing from each school in each division: Division I – grades 1 and 2; Division II – grades 3 and 4; Division III – grades 5 and 6; and Division IV – grades 7 and 8.  Divisions I and II will compete between 9 a.m. and noon. Divisions III and IV will compete between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.  Prizes awarded for the top three winners in each Division will be as follows: 1st Place – Gold medal and a $50 gift card to Town Books in the Providence Town Center in Collegeville; 2nd Place – Silver medal; 3rd Place – Bronze medal.  All participants will receive a Certificate of Participation. 
 
Annual Fund Drive Update
As of January 31, 13% of our families and 75% of our teachers have contributed to our Annual Appeal, bringing our total to $14,475.  If you are one of the 87% who have not yet donated, please consider doing so now by following this link to make a donation.  Please consider a matching gift, which occurs when your employer matches the amount donated, and think about forwarding this information to the same people you would have asked to purchase wrapping paper or cookie dough.  We are grateful to those families who are listed on the website on the Annual Appeal Page, and we pray for all our benefactors every day.
 
Scholarships – Significant Money is Available
I STRONGLY encourage you to apply for scholarship money if you need it.  Please do not let tuition be the reason you leave our school.  For further instructions and to obtain the necessary forms please go to our website .  This year you may complete the entire application online.  Remember that applications must be submitted by April 15 ^th.
 
Marketing
Please continue to encourage your neighbors to come and see who we are, as no class is yet closed.  We could especially use the help in marketing our kindergarten. Please tell anyone who has a kindergarten-aged child that our full day kindergarten has certified teachers all day long, and the students will remain in the classroom, not move to a trailer.  We would love to give a personal tour to anyone who is interested.  Remember, more students keep our tuition costs down!
 
FYI…
Did you know I do not make the school delay or closing decisions?  Since the majority of our students arrive via Phoenixville buses, we always follow the Phoenixville School District decisions regarding inclement weather.  Please recognize that if we were to open or stay open when their buses will not be in operation, every parent would have to transport their child to school. 
 
Alternately, we will remain open and/or open on time regardless of what the other school districts have decided, as we recognize that in these cases, the majority of our students will be in session.  We respect the right of the parents of students in the other districts to decide whether they will transport their child to school in that situation.  When your student’s school district is closed or opening late, your child is not penalized for their late arrival or absence.
 
This year we have had some extremely cold days, both in terms of temperature and wind chill.  While our boys, and a few of our girls, are wearing pants, most of our girls are not.  We recognize that the severe weather presents a challenge for our girls waiting at bus stops, so please know that your students may always arrive at school with their gym sweatpants under their skirts.  Additionally, although we feel that the school building is sufficiently warm, anytime the temperature or the wind chill is predicted to be in the single digits, the students may keep the sweatpants on under their skirts during the day. 
 
You have heard the term “Middle States” several times now.  Once every seven years, our school receives accreditation from an independent organization known as Middle States Commissions on Elementary and Secondary Schools.  Volunteers from Middle States will be visiting our school March 9-12 to gain insight into how we operate. 
 
In advance of the visit, we have been performing a self-study, correcting many of the issues we uncovered.  For example, within the next few weeks you will see the handbook we updated online, and I have already mentioned some of the other improvements we have been working on this year.  The self study process requires we choose two areas of school-wide focus for improvement, and we have chosen to focus on enhancing security and our writing program.  The study results, along with our improvement plans, are complied in an approximately 130-page document that will be finalized this week.  We will continue to work on preparing for the visit, correcting as many outstanding issues as possible, and looking to you for feedback to compare any issues you raise with the ones we are currently addressing. 

 Ann Marie
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Mrs. Ann Marie Braca
Principal
Holy Family School
Christ Centered...Student Focused... Family Driven
221 Third Avenue
Phoenixville, PA 19460
610-933-7562 (school office)
610-933-8823 (fax)
abraca@myholyfamilyschool.org
www.myholyfamilyschool.or