I hope that your extended family members enjoyed our Grandparent’s Day celebration.  It was a lovely way to spend a Friday morning.  Grandparents and special guests were able to: join us in prayer, visit and enjoy activities in the classroom, and then they joined us outside to listen to our ocean-themed songs.  They were also able to enjoy some delicious treats.  Thank you to everyone who donated food, drinks, and their time to help Grandparent’s Day be a successful event!

A special thank you to Christine Hanson and Tonya Maxson who once again hosted the Daughter Dance this past Friday.  Did you know that they have been hosting this event since their daughters were in Kindergarten?  We thank them for their service to the school community over their daughters 9 years at St. Jerome.  Since their daughters are both graduating from the school, we will be in need of one or two people to step forward as chair(s) for next year.  If you are interested, please email Mrs. Christner, jchristner@csdo.org who coordinates the Parent Participation Program.  Some of our male students were wondering why there is not a son event.  If you would like to work on a son event for next year, please feel free to contact Mrs. Christner or myself with your ideas.

Have you read your Sign-up Genius invitation to the Parent Appreciation Fiesta?  I hope that all of you will be able to join me on Wednesday, May 29^th from 6:00pm – 7:30pm.  It will be a great opportunity to join together as a community as we wrap up this school year and have a sneak peek into the 2013 – 2014 school year.  Please RSVP by Monday the 27^th so that we can have an accurate count for the caterers.

I look forward to seeing all of you this Sunday.  We will begin the day with Mass at 9:00am led by our 3^rd graders.  The Festival will be from 10:00am – 3:00pm.  It will be a wonderful family day as we raise money for our technology program. There will be games, vendors, presentations, a raffle and delicious food.  Don’t forget to invite your friends and family to join us.

Blessings of Christ’s Peace,

Principal Wilkie

Each student will be bringing home his or her Third Trimester Progress Report this afternoon.  Overall, I am very pleased with the progress that the students are making toward carrying out our Student Learning Expectations.  If your child is in grades 4 – 8, you should be receiving a letter in the mail today or tomorrow from the school.  The letter will describe the process for you to be able to check your child’s grades on-line through PowerSchool.  The parent portal for PowerSchool will open tomorrow, Thursday, May 9^th.  We will use these last few weeks of the school year as a “test run.”  This will give us the opportunity to workout any issues that may come up, then the parent portal will be open next year beginning the first day of school.  This is a great opportunity for parent’s to take an active role in their child’s education.  We hope that each of you is enjoying the opportunity to read about your child’s week and check for reminders on the Teacher Journal webpages.  Don’t forget that homework is posted each day, so that is an easy way for you to help your child stay on top of their assignments.  Mrs. Christner is in charge of attendance, which is now done on PowerSchool, and she is also in charge of the parent portal access.  Should you have any issues related to your username or password, please feel free to send her an email: jchristner@csdo.org.

As we wrap up the school year, we would like to take the opportunity to say thank you for all of the support that you have given to our community throughout the school year.  Please mark your calendars for our first-ever Parent Appreciation Fiesta on Wednesday, May 29, 2013 from 6:00pm – 7:30pm.  We hope that you will join us for this community – building event as we say thank you and also offer a sneak-peak of things to come for next school year!  Childcare will be offered for our students.  Please look out for an invitation from Sign-up Genius in the next couple of days.  It will be important that you RSVP, so that we can prepare the correct amount of food for the adults and the students.  We hope that every family will be able to join us for this celebration! I would like to thank the Sandoval Family for their generosity of sharing their restaurant’s amazing food with our community in support of this wonderful event. 

If you haven’t had the chance to walk through the main hallway lately, we hope you will pop in to see the ocean come to life!  The students are having so much fun learning about the ocean through the MARE program.  We thank you again for your generosity at the Spaghetti Dinner.  The profits from that event have provided us with this learning opportunity through Lawrence Hall of Science.  Way to go St. Jerome supporters!

We hope to see many grandparents visiting us on Friday!  Parents are more than welcome to also join us for Mass at 8:45am in St. Jerome Church.  Please don’t forget that Friday is a noon dismissal, and all students are to be in full uniform.

Lastly, do you enjoy walking and chatting?  I invite each of you to join me on the remaining Wednesday mornings of this school year.  We will leave the campus directly after morning assembly for a half an hour walk around our beautiful neighborhood.  It is important to me to be available to the parents of St. Jerome to answer questions and catch up regarding various activities and events at the school, and I thought that this would be a great way to accomplish that and promote healthy habits at the same time. There is no need to RSVP, and you can join me for 1 or more Wednesdays. I hope you will put on your tennis shoes and join me!

Blessings of Christ’s Peace,

Principal Wilkie

This past Friday, we celebrated our first Multi-cultural Mass, led by our faith-filled 4^th grade class.  They did a lovely job sharing the diversity of our school community through their flag procession, prayer and song.  I would like to thank Mrs. Aguilar and Mrs. Gialis for their hard work preparing the students; great job 4^th grade community!

Following the Mass, we were treated to a multi-cultural snack in Rohan Hall.  It was a great event that showcased foods from around the world thoughtfully prepared by our own St. Jerome families.  Hopefully, your child shared their passport with you that had stamps from all the different countries that they visited!  The children not only enjoyed the snacks, but they also had the opportunity to learn a little bit about each country that they visited.  Thank you to all of the parents who donated and prepared food, created presentation boards, who stayed to serve the food and teach the children about their country, and to all of the parents who stayed to help with the clean-up! It was a successful event because of your participation! 

A very special thank you to Mr. Brathwaite, dad of Avalon and Donovan in 2^nd grade and Maezza in 6^th grade, who came up with the concept of a multi-cultural snack and who coordinated the entire event.  It was a tremendous success, because of his vision and follow-through!  We can’t wait for next year, as we continue to celebrate our school’s diversity!  Keep an eye out on our school website for our Facebook posting; we will post an album of the wonderful events of the day.

Don’t forget that registration packets are due this Friday for your child to receive a free dress pass.  Please be mindful that you fill-out each sheet in the packet.  If your packet is incomplete, your child will not receive a free dress pass. It takes a tremendous amount of effort to process all of the paperwork. Thank you for your cooperation to make it as easy as possible for Mrs. Webster and Mrs. Christner.

Plans are well underway for next school year, and I wanted to make you aware of some personnel changes that will be taking place.  Mrs. Christine Cosbey, our 3^rd grade teacher has decided that she will not be returning.  If you haven’t seen her lately, she is expecting and her baby is due in August.  We thank her for her service to our school, and we wish her and her family the best.  Mrs. Gina Gialis, our 4^th grade teacher, will be leaving the classroom to become our part-time Vice Principal.  She is an excellent teacher with many years of classroom and leadership experience.  She will be a tremendous asset to our school, as she mentors new teachers and helps me with some new projects on the horizon.  At this time, I am interviewing prospective teachers for next year.  Once things are in place, I will let everyone know and the new teachers will send out letters of introduction.

We are also in the process of investigating new enrichment classes for next school year, such as Music, Art, and Shakespearian Drama classes.  In order for us to know how many enrichment classes we can afford to add to our curriculum program, we need to ensure that we have a certain number of students.  Please help us by turning in your registration packet as soon as possible, so that we can effectively plan for next year.

Blessings of Christ’s Peace,

Principal Wilkie

April 24, 2013

We hope that you will be able to join us this Friday for our first Multi-cultural Mass.  Our 4th grade class will lead the Mass.  It will be held at 8:45am and will be followed by a multi-cultural snack time in Rohan Hall.   Everyone is invited to come to school in their ethnic/cultural attire, however tennis shoes should still be worn.  This will be a wonderful way for us to celebrate the diversity of our school, and I hope that you will join us for this community celebration.  If you are one of the families that is providing snack, please remember that nuts are not allowed.

Now that the weather is warming up, I am sure that many students will be coming to school in their uniform shorts.  Please make sure that the shorts are “walking shorts” styled and that they are not too short or tight.  Thank you for helping us maintain the integrity of the school uniform.

I would like to inform you that Marcus Payne our PE teacher has quit as of today.  We wish him well in the future, and we thank him for his service to St. Jerome School.  I am working diligently to find a replacement teacher for the remainder of the school year.

I hope that your child is having fun reading for the read-a-thon! 

Blessings of Christ’s Peace,

Principal Wilkie

April 17, 2013

Alleluia!  Let us rejoice and be glad.  Alleluia and Happy Easter!  We welcome the Risen Christ into our hearts as we celebrate the season of Easter for the next few weeks until the Feast of Pentecost.  It is a beautiful season in the Catholic Church calendar as we celebrate that our God is with us always and that He brings us new life.  If you get the chance, take a look at the butterflies and alleluia banners that the Kindergarten class has displayed on their hallway bulletin boards.  They did a beautiful job showing that they are faith-filled and active learners.

This Friday, each family will receive the registration packet for the 2013 -2014 school year.  Please read through the packet carefully, as you will notice that some things have changed.  It is imperative that we receive every family’s packet back in a timely manner, so that we can accurately plan for next year’s budget. The School Board and I would like to be able to offer additional enrichment classes, but we cannot do so without balancing our budget.  Just like your own household budget, I have to make sure that we are spending our limited budget in a wise manner while also trying to plan for the future.  You will notice that each family is being asked to pay a $50.00 fee for capital improvements.  We know that we have an older school building that will be in need of renovations.  The capital improvement fee money will be set aside in a special account, so that we can plan for the future needs of the school property.

The goal would be for every family to turn-in their registration packet fully completed by Friday, April 26^th.  If you do so, each child in the family will receive a free dress pass for Friday, May 3^rd.  Also, please note that the first half of the registration fee is due Friday, May 17^th and the second half of the payment is due Friday, June 7^th.  The registration fee is collected each year to pay for various per student fees, such as accident insurance and our computer software programs: PowerSchool and Mathletics.  In addition, the fee covers field trips throughout the school year.  Each student benefits from these programs, and it is expected that each student’s registration fee is paid.

Please know that I understand that each family makes a conscious choice to pay for your child’s Catholic School education.  We do our best to offer an excellent academic program, along with providing for the needs of the whole child.  We thank you for choosing St. Jerome Catholic School and supporting our efforts.

The Spring Festival is right around the corner on Sunday, May 19^th.  The Festival is a benefit for our technology program.  The goal is for the school to be able to make a significant purchase for new Apple laptops and/or iPads.  For the school to be able to make this type of purchase, we need every family to participate in the Festival.  If you have not already done so, please make sure that you fill-out your volunteer sheet for your 2-hour time requirement and turn it into the school office.  Also, please make sure that you invite your family and friends to join us for the Festival.  It will be a fun-filled event for the whole family!

Blessings of Christ’s Peace,

Principal Wilkie

Today was our last day of the WCEA/WASC accreditation visit.  I am proud of our students for welcoming the Visiting Team members and modeling what it means to be a St. Jerome Catholic School student.  We are truly blessed to have an amazing Faculty and Staff.  Each of them always puts in so much time and effort into making our school the best. It is with my sincerest gratitude, that I thank each of them for their dedication to St. Jerome Catholic School community!

Our regular Family Newsletter will resume next week.

Thank you for your support and presence here at St. Jerome Catholic School.

Blessings of Christ’s Peace,

Principal Wilkie

March 20, 2013

This coming Monday begins our 3-day WCEA/WASC accreditation visit.  During this time, the Visiting Team will be visiting and observing in the classrooms, and they will be meeting with the faculty/staff and the School Board.  I want to commend my faculty and staff for the tremendous amount of effort and time that they have put into the preparation for this visit.  Each of them has spent many hours helping to write and edit our accreditation book, which is approximately 75 pages all about the fine qualities of our school.  They have also spent many hours preparing the classrooms to shine during the visit.  It has been a bit of a stressful week trying to balance everything during this preparation time; however, I have every confidence that we will do well!  I am truly blessed to work with such a wonderful group of people who truly care about our community.  If you have an extra minute this week or next, I hope you will take the time to say “thank you” to someone on our faculty and staff for their tremendous effort.

As mentioned above, the Visiting Team will be observing the classrooms and the school in general.  It is imperative that each student tries his or her very best next week to be a model St. Jerome Student.  Every student must be on time to school, well groomed, and dressed in full uniform.  As a school, we have been working on minding our manners and following school rules.  We want to show pride in ourselves and in our school.  Please take the time in the morning to double-check that your child is ready for school and remind him or her about their behavior.  Thank you for partnering with us each day.

This year, we will be celebrating a multi-cultural mass led by our 4^th graders on Friday, April 19^th.   This mass will be followed by a multi-cultural snack time for the entire school community.  Ian Brathwaite, a Second and Sixth grade parent, has volunteered to chair this event.  If you would like to help with the planning and execution of the event, please email him: ianbrathwaite@yahoo.com.  We will need parents to sign-up to help with set-up and decorating, food donations, cleanup, and help with coordinating the event.  Further details along with a Sign-up Genius email will be sent out in the near future.   I hope you will join us on that day to celebrate our school’s cultural diversity! 

Blessings of Christ’s Peace,

Principal Wilkie