November 29, 2020
Dear SJCS Families,
“Advent returns us to the horizon of hope. A hope that does not disappoint, because it is founded on the Word of God.” ~ Pope Francis
Today marks the first day of Advent, a season of prayer and anticipation. Traditionally at St. John’s we would be busy planning and practicing for our Annual Christmas Pageant. Unfortunately, that event has had to be cancelled due to the number of people that would be inside the church at any one time. However, we are thrilled to announce that we will be performing a Drive-Thru Live Nativity presentation on December 16, 2020. Our teachers are busy preparing what our new event will entail, so stay tuned for details. This means that we are requesting all students (PK-8) to be prepared to participate in our Live Nativity on the evening of December 16. Students may stay after school and attend Learning Center – as we anticipate our event will be held from 5:00-6:00pm to accommodate working parents, but also to finish up before it gets too cold and late. We hope you are as excited for this event as we are! We will need parent volunteers to help pull this together, so if you’re interested in helping with this event, please let us know.
We have more exciting news to announce…..our new Chromebooks were delivered last week! We are SO EXCITED to finally have them at our school. It will take some time to prepare them so that they are functional as St. John’s computers for our students – so don’t be surprised if your child doesn’t have access to it this week. A timeline on when we will be rolling them out will be forthcoming. This means that we now have enough Chromebooks to be 1-1 with all of our students PK-8. This is a very big moment for St. John’s! [Thank you to those of you who purchased devices for your children, this helped immensely with our ability e to purchase enough devices for all students – in addition to the significant donations from The Knights of Columbus in Brunswick and Bath!]
The Read-a-Thon starts tomorrow, so make sure to login and get your child’s account setup! Poinsettia orders are due tomorrow, so please remember to send them in with your student – they will be delivered on Tuesday, December 8 – so please plan to pick them up on that day (you can pick them up at Learning Center). We will be rolling out another fundraiser this week, so stay tuned for how to earn our school money with the purchase of Hibernate Bed Sheets! (It sounds weird, but I’ve been told they’re a wonderful product, and something we all need!)
Finally, the Diocese of Portland has put some Advent Resources together for our families. I’ve attached some ideas for celebrating Advent with your family, but you can follow this link for more ideas: Diocese of Portland Advent Resources.
Peace in Christ,
Shelly Wheeler
Principal
Monday, November 30
Read-a-Thon begins
Poinsettia Orders due
Tuesday, December 1
SJCS School Mass – 8am (No guests, only students and faculty)
Lectors – Grades 6/7
Cantors – Grade 5
Livestream Available on Facebook: @SJCSBME
Grades 1-4 attend via Livestream
Grades 6-8 attend in person
Wednesday, December 3
Thursday, December 4
Friday, December 5
Coming Up:
Dec. 8 – Poinsettia Pick-Up
Dec. 8 – PTA Meeting, 6:30pm (NEW TIME) – Virtual
Dec. 16 – Drive-Thru Live Nativity, 5:00-6:00pm
Dec. 17 – Drive-Thru Life Nativity SNOW DATE (or cold date) 5:00-6:00pm
Dec. 22 – Early Release, 11:30am, NO LEARNING CENTER AVAILABLE
Dec. 23 – Jan 3: NO SCHOOL – CHRISTMAS BREAK
November 15, 2020
Dear SJCS Families,
With a little summer planning, a lot of God’s grace, and some extra cleaning throughout the school each day, we made it to the last week of the trimester with in-person instruction! I can’t thank you all enough for continuing to monitor your children and your families and not sending them to school when they have symptoms. We’ve made it through an entire trimester (we hope!). This week will be filled with tests for the upper grades and finishing up projects in the lower grades so make sure your child is getting plenty of rest and a good breakfast each morning.
Due to the rising number of cases of COVID-19 in the State of Maine, the Midcoast Tree Festival Committee has made the difficult decision to cancel the event for this year. We do have another event that we’ll be announcing later this week – so stay tuned! You can follow us on Facebook for updates by clicking this link: Midcoast Tree Festival.
The Diocese of Portland has sent out their travel guidelines for families who are choosing to travel for Thanksgiving, you can also find them attached to this email. Note that the only states that are permissible to return from without a negative COVID test in the State of Maine are New Hampshire and Vermont. Massachusetts was eliminated from the travel list last Friday and this is NOT reflected in the attached document. We ask that you be safe with your families and if you are concerned with your child attending the week after Thanksgiving for any reason, please let us know.
Should any updates arise regarding the need for remote learning state-wide, we will keep you updated. Unfortunately, our Chromebooks are still on back order and the most recent check with our vendor resulted in a date that could be as late as January. We apologize for this delay – the Chromebook purchase agreements for schools world-wide exploded during the pandemic and factories just haven’t been able to keep up with the demand across the globe.
The read-a-thon will start November 30, please return your child’s permission slip by tomorrow if you intend for your child to participate. We do not have school next week, but you can expect a short newsletter to keep you updated with any new information in regard to the school and the pandemic. Have a blessed week.
Peace in Christ,
Shelly Wheeler
Principal
Monday, November 16
Read-a-Thon papers due
Tuesday, November 17
Mass Uniform for ALL
SJCS School Mass – 8am (No guests, only students and faculty)
Lectors – Mrs. Zinni’s Class
Cantors – Grades 6/7
Livestream Available on Facebook: @SJCSBME
Grades 5-8 attend via livestream
Grades 1-4 attend in person
Wednesday, November 18
Pie order pick up day!
Please plan to pick up all pies either in car line or at Learning Center on this day. We cannot hold pies overnight!
Thursday, November 19
Friday, November 20
Dress down day! $2/child or $5/family – proceeds go to fund new gym equipment
Hoodies are allowed! (No ripped jeans, no leggings without a dress over them)
Pizza Friday – sign up in ParentWeb
End of Trimester 1 – Report cards will go out next week
Coming Up:
Nov. 21-22 – Midcoast Tree Festival (SJCC) – CANCELLED
Nov. 23-27: NO SCHOOL – THANKSGIVING BREAK
Nov. 24 – First Trimester Report Cards (emailed home)
Nov. 27-28 – Midcoast Tree Festival – CANCELLED
Nov. 30 – Read-a-Thon starts!
Dec. 22 – Early Release, 11:30am, NO LEARNING CENTER AVAILABLE
Dec. 23 – Jan 3: NO SCHOOL – CHRISTMAS BREAK
November 8, 2020
Dear SJCS Families,
The weather this weekend was glorious! I hope you were all able to get out and enjoy the sun for a few more days as we know what’s headed our way over the next few months. We continue to be vigilant with our COVID protocols, including the daily screenings, hand hygiene, sanitizing the bathrooms, and taking other various measures each day for school safety. Please make sure your child’s mask is clean each day. We’ve been open for 50 days this year and continue to pray for low numbers around our specific school community so that we can continue in-person instruction. We believe there is no substitute for being in-person with our students, but we know the possibility is still very likely that we’ll have to operate remotely in the near future. We pray daily for the health of our families, our community and for those world-wide who have been affected by this virus.
It has been increasingly common over the past few weeks for some of our students and families to arrive after 7:45am. The second bell rings at 7:45am and morning prayer starts shortly thereafter. Every time Mrs. Snow has to let in a student child after 7:45am, the morning prayer is interrupted. This can be very distressing to the students as they try to unpack while listening to the prayer, and knowing that they’re walking into their classroom late. In order to avoid interrupting the school’s prayer each day, we will be asking students who arrive AFTER 7:45am to remain outside until the prayer is finished. Mornings can be hard, as a mother of 3 children, I understand! We ask that you do your best to get your children there before 7:45am, but if you don’t, please understand that they will be asked to wait before marching into their classrooms during the morning prayer. It usually takes 2 minutes or less for us to complete the morning prayer routine. Thank you for your understanding.
Unfortunately, we will be cutting our Mass numbers back to 50 this week. This means that our first-grade class will not be able to attend Mass until the group gatherings within a building move back up to 100 per the Governor’s orders. Grades 5-8 will attend Mass in person this week, and Grades 2-4 will attend Mass in person next week.
Here are a few highlights of things to remember:
- Despite this week’s expected nice weather, we know that it can be very cold during the month of November and our students should be prepared. We are outside for morning care, morning recess, lunch recess, and learning center each day when the temperature and/or wind chill is above 15ºF. Please make sure your child has a warm coat, hat, and mittens or gloves.
- Even though this week will be warm, shorts are no longer acceptable for daily wear. Students legs must be covered from November 1 – March 31. This means our young ladies should have tights or leggings on underneath their skirts and jumpers. We understand that it may be warm this week but dealing with exceptions is so much more challenging than staying the course. Thank you in advance for your attention to this.
- If you ordered pies from our fundraiser, the pies will be delivered on Wednesday, November 18. You can pick them up in car line or at learning center – but you must bring them home that evening.
God Bless,
Shelly Wheeler
Principal
Monday, November 9
Tuesday, November 10
Mass Uniform for ALL
SJCS School Mass – 8am (No guests, only students and faculty)
Lectors – Grade 8
Cantors – Grade 5
Livestream Available on Facebook: @SJCSBME
Grades 5-8 attend in person
Grades 1-4 attend via livestream
Photo Retake Day –
If you intend on having your child’s photo retaken, please send your package back in to school. If you have not had your photo taken yet, please plan to do so on Tuesday even if you are not ordering a package. All students need to have their photo taken for our school yearbook. Please order online at MyLifetouch using Picture ID EVTVPVWCD
Wednesday, November 11
No School – Veteran’s Day
Thank you to all of our Veterans within the SJCS family! We appreciate your service to protect our country!
Thursday, November 12
PTA Meeting, 6pm – Virtual – Link will be sent via email on Thursday afternoon.
Friday, November 13
Pizza Friday – sign up in ParentWeb
Coming Up:
Nov. 18 – Pie order pickup
Nov. 20 – End of First Trimester
Nov. 21-22 – Midcoast Tree Festival (SJCC) – Status TBD
Nov. 23-27: NO SCHOOL – THANKSGIVING BREAK
Nov. 24 – First Trimester Report Cards (emailed home)
Nov. 27-28 – Midcoast Tree Festival – Status TBD
Nov. 30 – Read-a-thon starts!
Dec. 22 – Early Release, 11:30am, NO LEARNING CENTER AVAILABLE
Dec. 23 – Jan 3: NO SCHOOL – CHRISTMAS BREAK
November 1, 2020
Dear SJCS Families,
November is here! That means that winter is almost here as well…a few reminders as we enter the coldest season of the year:
- We are outside for morning care, morning recess, lunch recess, and learning center each day when the temperature and/or wind chill is above 15ºF. Please make sure your child has a warm coat, hat, and mittens or gloves. Friday’s weather took us by surprise, and we had many children who didn’t have some of these items. Additionally, physical education will continue to take place outside as long as the snow isn’t covering the field. Students need to be prepared to be outside for phys ed class each week.
- Shorts are no longer acceptable for daily wear. Students legs must be covered from November 1 – March 31. This also means our young ladies should have tights or leggings on underneath their skirts and jumpers.
- Our virtual Scholastic Book Fair ends today – if you want to order please get your orders in tonight.
- November Fridays will include bacon pizza as an option – please make sure you’re ordering pizza on ParentWeb each week.
- If you ordered pies from our fundraiser, the pies will be delivered on Wednesday, November 18. You can pick them up in car line or at learning center – but you must bring them home that evening .
Today we observe All Saints’ Day, where we honor the saints that have come before us and have attained heaven. Tomorrow, the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls’ Day), we remember the faithfully departed and pray for the souls in purgatory. Both of these days in the Catholic church are a reminder that we are here to know, love, and serve God, and to prepare for everlasting life with Him in heaven. In this time of political unrest, may we remember the small acts each day that show God’s love is very much present in our daily lives. My time of prayer each day includes praying for our St. John’s community, that we may rise to new challenges each day and that our school may assist our families in building a solid foundation in faith (with excellent academics) for our students. I pray that God continues to have His hand in our lives and on our school community.
God Bless,
Shelly Wheeler
Principal
Monday, November 2
Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed
(All Souls’ Day)
Tuesday, November 3
Election Day – don’t forget to vote if you haven’t already!
Mass Uniform for ALL
SJCS School Mass – 8am (No guests, only students and faculty)
Lectors – Grade 4
Cantors – Grade 5
Livestream Available on Facebook: @SJCSBME
Grades 1-8 attend in person
Wednesday, November 4
Protecting God’s Children Class – 6pm; Sign up with Mrs. Snow in the office (9 spaces left)
Thursday, November 5
Friday, November 6
Pizza Friday – sign up in ParentWeb
Coming Up:
Nov. 10 – Lifetouch Picture Retakes (Bring back the other photos you ordered)
Nov. 11 – Veterans Day – No School
Nov. 12 – PTA Meeting, 6pm, Virtual
Nov. 20 – End of First Trimester
Nov. 21-22 – Midcoast Tree Festival (SJCC)
Nov. 23-27: NO SCHOOL – THANKSGIVING BREAK
Nov. 24 – First Trimester Report Cards (emailed home)
Nov. 27-28 – Midcoast Tree Festival
Dec. 22 – Early Release, 11:30am, NO LEARNING CENTER AVAILABLE
Dec. 23 – Jan 3: NO SCHOOL – CHRISTMAS BREAK
October 25, 2020
Dear SJCS Families,
The weeks keep on passing and I’m so thankful for all of our families who continue to support our efforts to keep our school and students safe. We have been blessed to complete 40 days of in-person learning! The next several weeks will be very interesting as new outbreaks develop, and we’ll monitor closely. Due to our new protocols for student and staff safety, we will not be able to celebrate Halloween as we have in the past. Things will likely be very different for the Christmas season as well. We will keep you updated on developments as they arise.
Your child should have received a “Halloween Costume” guideline for you to review. We are allowing Halloween costumes to be worn to school on Friday, October 30 – but please read through the guide so you are aware of the expectations.
Our virtual book fair is still running, every purchase helps our teachers purchase books for their classroom libraries! As the weeks continue to pass, I continue to be amazed at how our students and faculty have adjusted to the “new normal” within our classrooms. It almost feels as though things are back to normal – students are happy and they’re learning, teachers are working diligently to reach each child’s needs, and God is providing us with His grace each day. Thank you for choosing St. John’s, and thank you for allowing us to be on this journey with your family. We are thankful for each and every one of our students as they bring so much life to our classrooms each day!
Thank you to all of you who sold pies this year – we sold 250 pies!
God Bless,
Shelly Wheeler
Principal
Monday, October 26
Tuesday, October 27
Mass Uniform for ALL
SJCS School Mass – 8am (No guests, only students and faculty)
Lectors – Grade 5
Cantors – Grade 5
Livestream Available on Facebook: @SJCSBME
Grades 1-8 attend in person
Wednesday, October 28
Thursday, October 29
Friday, October 30
Pizza Friday – sign up in ParentWeb
Halloween Costumes or Uniform Holiday –
Please refer to guidelines for what is acceptable on this day.
Last day to wear shorts and/or bare legs under a jumper/skirt for the winter!
Coming Up:
Nov. 4 – Protecting God’s Children, 6pm (virtual) – please sign up with Mrs. Snow
Nov. 10 – Lifetouch Picture Retakes (Bring back the other photos you ordered)
Nov. 11 – Veterans Day – No School
Nov. 12 – PTA Meeting, 6pm, Virtual
Nov. 20 – End of First Trimester
Nov. 21-22 – Midcoast Tree Festival (SJCC)
Nov. 24 – First Trimester Report Cards (emailed home)
Nov. 27-28 – Midcoast Tree Festival
Nov. 23-27: NO SCHOOL – THANKSGIVING BREAK
Dec. 22 – Early Release, 11:30am, NO LEARNING CENTER AVAILABLE
Dec. 23 – Jan 3: NO SCHOOL – CHRISTMAS BREAK
