I hope you and your family experienced a wonderful Christmas season as we celebrated the Birth of Christ.  Please pray that the second semester will be a safe, happy, and productive experience for all of us.

Appreciation

We are grateful for all the gifts that you shared with us for Christmas.  Some were given without names so we were unable to send a thank you card, but you were thanked by a prayerful remembrance. 

Gratitude/PTO Gift

On behalf of the faculty, staff and myself, a special thank you to the PTO for our Christmas gifts. You helped us spread the joy of Christmas to our families and friends.  May God bless you for your hard work and generosity!

Registration

•Registration for students returning to CKCS will take place from January 30 to February 3.  To secure a place for your child/children for next year, return the enclosed Tuition Agreement no later than February 3.  If you need an extension on the time for payment, please call me.  If you are moving out of town or transferring to another school, please send a letter and let us know so we can give that place to another child. 

•If you have upcoming Kindergarten children, be sure to include their name on the Tuition Agreement.  You must also fill out an Application for Admission - which we will send you after receiving your Tuition Agreement.  This year it will not be necessary for siblings to come on the “Open Applications” date.  I would like to meet with you and your Kindergarten child but will call you to schedule an appointment once we have received your application.

Open Applications

New student applications will be received on February 14 for Kindergarten and on February 15 for Grades 1-8.  If you have family or friends who are interested in their children attending CKCS, please remind them of these dates.

Finances/Tuition

School Board policy: "All past due tuition and fees for the previous year must be paid before a child is registered for the next year. All payments for the current year must be completed before a child is withdrawn from the school.”  Please remember that in order to receive the contributing Catholic rate, all donations should have been made by December 31.  Christ the King Church subsidizes Christ the King Catholic School and McGill Toolen Catholic High School.   

NCEA ACRE

On January 9-20 CKCS will administer the National Catholic Education Association Assessment of Cathecheis/Religious Education or ACRE to students in grades 5 and 8.  This assessment is designed to give us information for evaluating and planning our religious education programs.  The results of the ACRE will provide an overall picture of the catechetical/religious education effort of CKCS. 

The primary use of the ACRE is to study how our students as a whole responded to questions about the church’s teachings, and to gain a portrait of their personal beliefs, attitudes, practices and perceptions.  Student responses will be kept confidential.  The results will be used by our religious education staff to review and improve our program.  Once the results have been returned to us, we will make available a summary of the report and would be pleased to discuss the results with any interested parent upon request.

Geography Bee

Our classroom winners will compete in the all-school bee on January 12 at 10:30 a.m. in the Gym.  Prizes and certificates will be awarded to 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place winners.

Catholic Schools Week Schedule

We will celebrate Catholic School’s Week January 29 – February 3.  Mark your calendar now for the Pot Luck Dinner/Bingo Night on January 31 and the all-school Mass on February 3.

Report Cards

The second report card is going home with your child today, in a sealed envelope.  The second parent teacher conference will be held on March 15.  You may request a conference with the teacher(s) at any time. 

December Outreach

We certainly appreciate the many toys you donated to Catholic Social Services in Robertsdale during our December outreach.  May God bless you for your generous giving to help others.  

Library Book Fair

Our 2011 Book Fair was very successful.  We had total sales of $8,535.12 and a profit of $1,957.48, plus we received $352.60 in book credits with Scholastic.  Thank you to Mrs. Coate, all the volunteers and all parents for your generous support!  With the money we will be able to purchase many new books to enhance our collection, the AR tests for most of these books, and supplies to process and maintain our collection. 

If your child wants to read and take an AR test for a book we don’t have in our library, they can bring the book to Mrs. Coate and she will see if there is a test available.  Tests can be purchased for $3.00 or, if you are willing to donate the book and it is suitable for our library, we may be able to wave the test fee.
 

If you have gently used hardback books your children are no longer reading, please consider donating them to our library.  If we can’t use them, we will donate to the Children’s & Women’s Hospital. 

Early School Care

Students arriving before 7:30 AM are required to go to the gym.  We have a staff member there at 7 AM for early drop off.  We are continuing to monitor the use of this service.

Health

As we return to school this month, we are entering the cold and flu season.  Please do not send your child to school when they are sick.  Call the school office and let us know if your child has an infectious disease so we can take every measure of prevention for the illness spreading.  Before a student returns to school from an illness, the following criteria should be met:

·         Student should be free of fever above 100 degrees for 24 hours and without medication for 24 hours prior to returning to school.

·         Student should be free of vomiting and/or diarrhea for 24 hours and without medication for 24 hours prior to returning to school.

·         Students with excessive coughing, sneezing, or nasal drainage should remain at home.

Donations for December - $600.00       

SEEDS’ Grant - $4,444.00

Free Money – BoxTops - $1,350.20                   

Scrip Profit YTD - $1,610.50

Thanks to all who volunteered 299 hours during the month of December. 

Thank you for sharing your children with us.  I am amazed by their kindness to each other and their generosity in sharing with those in need.

Sincerely,

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