Dear SJCS Families,
This week we have our parent conferences for the fall trimester. If you haven’t signed up for a slot yet, and would like to, please visit this link to reserve your time: Fall Conference Signup. We are dismissing students at 11:30am. We do have Learning Center open, but spots are limited so if you have not signed up and intend to use this service, please sign up here: October 21 Learning Center Signup. Learning Center will still close at 5:30pm on Wednesday evening. We ask that all parents adhere to their scheduled time. Our teachers have several conferences back to back and will need to move to the next conference when your scheduled time has completed. Thank you for understanding.
Our Virtual Book Fair starts this week and will run for 2 weeks. We usually have the Scholastic Book Fair during the week of conferences, but due to limiting visitors and mixing of students, we have opted to operate our book fair online only. You can shop by visiting this link: St. John's Virtual Book Fair. We are having a Read-a-Thon in November, so this is a good way to stock up on books for your children before they start reading for the contest! St. John’s also earns rewards with each purchase, and our teachers use these rewards for their classroom libraries. Thank you in advance for your support!
The threat of remote learning still exists and increases daily with cases of COVID-19 rising nationwide. You can find our Plan for Remote Learning and our Weekly Schedule for Remote Learning by visiting the Parent Links 20-21 folder here: SJCS Parent Links 2020-2021. This folder also has our school handbook and the opening presentations from August that we previously shared with you. If you have any questions regarding our remote learning plan or the schedule, please let us know. This was not an easy schedule to formulate due to a variety of factors, including teachers with multiple children at home and trying to decrease the number of virtual meetings in one household at any one time. I assure you we have gone over this many times to try to make it as convenient as possible, but unfortunately with so many moving parts there are several families who may have more than one meeting taking place at one time. In some situations, my own family has three meetings simultaneously. It’s not ideal, but it’s the best we could do with our current situation.
Another factor that will greatly impact remote learning is our ability to secure devices for our students. Currently our students in grades 5-8 have an old Chromebook we can send home for remote learning, but we do not have enough for students in PK-4 until our new order arrives. We continue to press for a delivery date for our new Chromebooks, but the global demand is very high and supply is limited due to many factors associated with the pandemic. We will keep you updated. If you absolutely have no device for your child in grades PK-4 to login to a remote class, please let your teacher know as soon as possible so we can try to devise a solution. Thank you for your patience and flexibility. Again, I’m hoping we will NOT have to use this schedule, but we must be prepared on a moment’s notice.
Another question that has been asked numerous times is whether we will have remote learning on a snow day rather than having the “day off”. Remote learning must be planned, and by this I mean, if we can’t send home materials and Chromebooks in advance – or have a scheduled time for pickup – remote learning will not work. This means that if we have a random snowstorm, or ice that we weren’t expecting to give us hazardous travel, our students will not be prepared for a “remote learning” day. Additionally, many of our families often lose power during winter storms due to high winds and heavy snow, which would make it challenging for students to logon to their scheduled classes. The teachers and I are working on a solution so that we can have a “blizzard bag” or something similar so that we can count some of our snow days as instructional days, but the idea of just popping this remote schedule in “just for the day” is not likely. Because we have been operating in-person, 5 days per week, since August 26, we are already ahead of most public schools in instructional days, and I suspect the State of Maine will continue to provide waivers to the 175 school day minimum (meaning we may not have to make up all of our snow days anyway).
Finally, the ConvenientMD link has been updated and will look a little different tomorrow morning. It was designed to be more convenient, so just be aware that it will have a different look in the morning.
Pie sales are due on Thursday of this week. If you have any questions, please let us know! Have a wonderful week!
God Bless,
Shelly Wheeler
Principal
Monday, October 19
Tuesday, October 20
Mass Uniform for ALL
SJCS School Mass – 8am (No guests, only students and faculty)
Lectors – Grade 6
Cantors – Grade 5
Livestream Available on Facebook: @SJCSBME
Grades 1-8 attend in person
Progress notes will go home electronically, please review before your conference on Wednesday.
NWEA scores will go home on paper
Wednesday, October 21
Early Release – 11:30am
Learning Center available, please sign up here: October 21 Learning Center Signup.
Parent Conferences 12:30pm – 7:00pm (Virtual meetings – links will be sent home by each individual teacher)
Thursday, October 22
Pie Sales Orders Due!
Friday, October 23
Pizza Friday – sign up in ParentWeb
Coming Up:
Oct. 19-Oct. 30 – : St. John’s Virtual Book Fair
Oct. 30 – Last day to wear shorts/knee high socks for the fall season
November 1 – March 31 requires pants for boys and tights/leggings under skirts & jumpers for girls
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. 23-27: NO SCHOOL – THANKSGIVING BREAK
Nov. 20-Nov. 29: Midcoast Tree Festival Fundraiser (SJCS/All Saints Parish, SMCC, Spectrum Generations)
Dec. 22 – Early Release, 11:30am, NO LEARNING CENTER AVAILABLE
Dec. 23 – Jan 3: NO SCHOOL – CHRISTMAS BREAK
