Peek of the Week

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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 

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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 

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 

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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