We enjoyed meeting with our students and families this week in conferences. Our students are
clearly growing by leaps and bounds this year! We appreciate how our families partner with us in their child’s learning journey. On Monday, we had a socially distanced, masked, outdoor Halloween Festival. Special thanks to Kristin Jost for heading up this fun event for our students! Thank you to Zora and Gavin Sharkey, John and Char Sharkey, Francine Morgan, Dan Dulley, Joey Dulley, Tom Trapold at Trapold Farms, the Lloyd family, and the Collins family for donations to the event. Our teachers will add photos of the event to a photo folder on Google that families may peruse. Our Halloween costume parade took place outside today, and we will create another photo folder to share with families about that event too. We wish all of our students a safe and healthy Halloween. We are blessed to have a supportive, diligent community during this challenging time. As we recently experienced, should a student test positive for COVID-19, the school community will be notified. In addition, we will perform contact tracing protocols and inform the class where close contacts may be identified in an additional information letter. Please remember proper masking and maintaining social distancing are the best ways to keep our community safe both in and out of school. Thank you for all of the ways you support our school community by following COVID safety protocols in and out school. We are continuing to work through our dismissal and arrival procedures and adjustments. Thank you for parking on the church side of 43rd Avenue to decrease the number of students and families crossing the street. We must continue to reduce how many people cross 43rd Avenue during our arrival and dismissal times. The drive up arrival and dismissal lines move quickly and smoothly with no more than a three to five minute wait at any point. If you wish to use the car line with virtually no waiting time, drive through at 8:20 for drop off and 3:20 PM for pick up. The drive up car line is the safest drop-off and pick-up option for our students. Our October “Visit with the Principal” included both a morning date and an evening time this week. Moving forward in November, I will host a morning and evening “Visit with the Principal” on the same day. The “Visit with the Principal” time is designed to be a social, community building time between the parents and the principal to share thoughts and ideas, and ask questions, as we work together to support all within our school community. We are still actively searching for a middle school math teacher. If you know someone who might be interested, please send them our way. In the meantime, we are grateful for all of the hard work our substitute teacher, Megan Olson, is doing to keep our math program including advanced math sections running smoothly. We are looking at some innovative ways to support our middle school advanced math option for students as we move through the year. Thank you for all of the ways you help your students at home! “The grass withers, the flowers wilt, but the word of our God stands forever.” Isaiah 40:8 Peace be with you, Carol Pausz Principal We have successfully wrapped up another week of school. The students are busy learning and growing with each passing day. We look forward to meeting with you via Zoom for our fall conferences next Wednesday and Thursday. Students in grades three through eight attend their fall conference.
Renaissance STAR testing is a nationwide standardized testing program used throughout the Archdiocese of Portland to monitor student learning progress. Students are tested at least three times per year. STAR testing results will be sent home with your student on Monday. Please remember the testing results offer only one small glimpse into your student’s learning progress. Your student’s teacher will review your student’s progress so far this year during your conference time next week. We are continuing to work through our dismissal procedures and adjustments. Thank you for parking on the church side of 43rd Avenue to decrease the number of students and families crossing the street. We must continue to reduce how many people cross 43rd Avenue during our arrival and dismissal times. The drive up dismissal line is moving quickly and smoothly taking no longer than ten minutes from start to finish. If you wish to use the car line with virtually no waiting time, drive through at 3:20 PM. The drive up dismissal line is the safest pick-up option for our students. We are noticing more parents are ‘dropping off’ their students in the morning well before 8:15 AM, however there are no staff outside to supervise students before 8:15 AM. Please keep your child in your car until 8:15 AM when you see staff out on duty. Please use the drop-off car line for the morning. Please remember before school care is now available through Vermont Hills Family Life Center and takes place in Dillon Hall starting at 7:30 AM. We are planning an outdoor Halloween Festival for our students on Monday, October 25th. Game and craft stations will be set up outside and led by our 8th graders. Classes will move through the stations at their designated time of day. Special thanks to Kristin Jost for heading up this fun event for our students! Thank you to Zora and Gavin Sharkey, John and Char Sharkey, Francine Morgan, Dan Dulley, Joey Dulley, Tom Trapold at Trapold Farms, the Lloyd family, and the Collins family for donations to this special event. Please make sure your student has a raincoat on Monday as this festival will take place outside rain or shine. We will have our traditional Halloween parade on Friday, October 29th as an outdoor event socially distanced by class. We will host this event at the time of day when the weather looks the most favorable. Unfortunately, we are not able to invite parents to this event this year as we do not have the capacity to check guests for their proof of vaccination. We will take loads of pictures and share them with you! We are blessed to have a supportive, diligent community during this challenging time. As Halloween approaches, please take a moment to consider safe ways to enjoy this fun-filled tradition. Proper masking and maintaining social distancing are the best ways to keep our community safe both in and out of school. We have follow up information to share for our lead testing results. We followed the guidelines given to us from the Early Learning Division of the State of Oregon, and we replaced the two sink faucets that did not meet the state scale of 15.0 ppm. We have received the new test results, and the two sinks tested at .66 ppm and 3.95 ppm. We are pleased to announce that all of the tested sinks and drinking fountains in the school are now below the state limit. Thank you for all of the ways you help your students at home! “Thus faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.” Romans 10:17 Peace be with you, Carol Pausz Principal We have successfully wrapped up another week of school. The students are busy learning and growing with each passing day.
Our dismissal procedures are working smoothly for the most part. The drive up dismissal line is moving quickly and smoothly taking no longer than ten minutes from start to finish. Cars are easily entering and exiting the parking lot to retrieve their students utilizing the car line. The drive up dismissal line is the safest option, especially for our younger students. Students walking or biking home from school are walking or biking in groups. Students biking home are remembering to walk their bikes to the campus fence before riding home. One area I have been observing is our walk-up dismissal. Parents walking up to retrieve their students from either campus fence are keeping their students safe by walking them to and from their vehicles parked on 43rd Avenue. Some cars are parking in the spaces between the parish offices and Dillon Hall. We need parents to refrain from parking in those spaces as they are reserved for parish office visitors and to safely accommodate the volume of students walking to 43rd Avenue through that parking lot in front of Dillon Hall. Many parents, especially those with middle school students, are parking along both sides of 43rd Avenue and expecting their students to find them in their parked car. Therein lies some safety concerns. Students are often crossing 43rd Avenue to get to their cars parked across the street without looking for oncoming traffic. Some older students are expected to manage younger students while walking along 43rd Avenue looking for their parked car. Sometimes students are waiting for their rides to arrive several minutes after dismissal has ended. These concerns have arisen as an unexpected consequence of allowing for walk-up pick up of students. We need to make some adjustments to our walk-up dismissal procedures to keep our students safe.
We will see how these minor adjustments improve dismissal safety and may possibly make further adjustments as needed. Thank you for your assistance in improving the safety of our dismissal procedures. We are grateful to Vermont Hills Family Life Center for providing before school and after school care for our families beginning on Monday, October 18th. Before school care will begin at 7:30 AM and after school care will extend to 6:00 PM. Both before and after care will take place in Dillon Hall, so you will need to drop off or retrieve your child from there. If your family is in need of this service, please register through Vermont Hills Family Life Center. Families may apply for financial assistance for before school and after school care through Vermont Hills Family Life Center as well. Vermont Hills has previously provided excellent care for St. Ignatius students and is looking forward to the opportunity to work with our current students and families. We are blessed to have a supportive, diligent community during this challenging time. We have had no breakthrough COVID cases at school. We have had one student test positive for COVID, however there is no impact on our school community because our families are so diligent. This student was exposed to COVID from someone outside of our school community on a weekend and learned about the exposure over the same weekend allowing their student to be at home in quarantine when that student eventually tested positive for COVID several days later. The student remained at home for the full course of the necessary quarantine to keep our school community safe. We appreciate the patience and understanding our families have demonstrated as we work together to keep our students safe. As the mornings become colder and the rains return, please send your child to school with a coat every day. We often eat snacks and play outside, even in light rain, so please help your child to be warm by sending them with a coat and sweatshirt. We are planning an outdoor Halloween Festival for our students on Monday, October 25th. Game and craft stations will be set up outside and led by our 8th graders. Classes will move through the stations at a designated time of day. Special thanks to Kristin Jost for heading up this fun event for our students! We will have our traditional Halloween parade on Friday, October 29th as an outdoor event socially distanced by class. Both of these events will take place outdoors rain or shine. As we head further into October, please consider making a donation to our school, especially if your company will match your donation. Some companies are offering double or triple matching funds this year. If you work for Standard Insurance, they are matching at least double the donations given through the end of 2021. We are looking forward to another week full of learning, stretching, and growing! “We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28 Peace be with you, Carol Pausz Principal We have successfully wrapped up another week of school. Our sixth graders prepared an
outstanding outdoor prayer service for us about our foundress, Blessed Mother Marie Rose, and our school’s mission. We are pleased to announce a partnership with Vermont Hills Family Life Center to provide before school and after school care for our families beginning on Monday, October 18th. Before school care will begin at 7:30 AM and after school care will extend to 6:00 PM. If your family is in need of this service, please register through Vermont Hills Family Life Center. Families may apply for financial assistance for before school and after school care through Vermont Hills Family Life Center as well. Vermont Hills has previously provided excellent care for St. Ignatius students and is looking forward to the opportunity to work with our current students and families. Families may attend a “Meet and Greet” event to meet the Vermont HIlls Family Life Center instructors next Thursday, October 14th from 3:30-4:30 in front of Dillon Hall. Before school and after school care will take place in Dillon Hall in the Xavier room and cafeteria. Students in after school care will spend their time enjoying a healthy snack provided by Vermont HIlls Family Life Center, completing homework assignments, playing indoor and outdoor games, and choosing between a variety of educational activities. We are fortunate to have hired a new preschool teacher as well. We will host a “Meet and Greet” for our preschool families at our playground on Thursday, October 14th from 3:30-4:30 to meet both new preschool teachers for this year. We are still searching for a middle school math teacher. We are fortunate to have Megan Olson available to continue to take on this role as a long term substitute. Please pray for us to find an outstanding middle school math teacher. We are blessed to have a supportive community during this challenging time. Along with securing proper fitting masks for your student, please send them to school with extra masks. We appreciate the patience and understanding our families have demonstrated as we work together to keep our students safe. As the mornings become colder and the rains return, please send your child to school with a coat every day. We often eat snacks and play outside, even in light rain, so please help your child to be warm by sending them with a coat and sweatshirt. Non-uniform sweatshirts may be worn outside but not for working in the classrooms. As we ease back into wearing uniforms and following the uniform guidelines, teachers will begin sending uniform reminder emails to families requesting assistance with uniform compliance. Thank you for taking the time to make corrections with your student as needed. As we head further into October, you may be thinking about gift shopping. Please consider using Amazon Smile to place orders as you can select St. Ignatius School to receive support from dollars spent through Amazon Smile throughout the upcoming holiday season. We are looking forward to another week full of learning, stretching, and growing! "Be strong and of good courage; be not frightened, neither be dismayed; for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9 Peace be with you, Carol Pausz Principal We have successfully wrapped up another week of school. Our seventh graders prepared an amazing video prayer service for us about archangels.
Unfortunately, our community received terrible news that our aftercare program, Champions, which was slated to begin on Monday, October 4th, has been unexpectedly delayed. We are actively seeking all possible solutions and alternatives to help our families have access to quality aftercare for their students as soon as possible. We hope to have more information to share soon. To assist us in meeting the greatest needs for our families quickly, please click here to fill out a Google form on the care your family needs. We are blessed to have a supportive community during this challenging time. Along with securing proper fitting masks for your student, please send them to school with extra masks. We appreciate the patience and understanding our families have demonstrated as we work together to keep our students safe. With the rainy, cooler weather beginning, please send your child to school with a coat every day. We will often play outside in light rain, so please help your child to be warm by sending them with a coat and school uniform sweatshirt. Non-uniform sweatshirts may be worn outside but not for working in the classrooms. We have talked as a staff and will ‘pilot’ an additional uniform option. For the remainder of this year, parents may purchase one of two uniform royal blue fleece full zipper coat options- one option is in cobalt blue from Land’s End Uniform or another option will be in royal blue from Dennis Uniform. We prefer the school logo at the left hand corner of the fleece coat. However, due to the current delivery delays across many sectors, we will not require the logo this year. If you have St. Ignatius sweatshirts in good condition but too small for your student, please send them in for the uniform exchange closet. As we ease back into wearing uniforms and following the uniform guidelines, teachers will begin sending uniform reminder emails to families requesting assistance with uniform compliance. Thank you for taking the time to make corrections with your student as needed. Our St. Ignatius School Foundation golf tournament is tomorrow, October 2nd. We look forward to seeing many of our families who have registered to participate in or volunteer for this fun event. We are looking forward to another week full of learning, stretching, and growing! “Now may God himself, our Father, and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we have for you.” - 1 Thessalonians 3:11-12. Peace be with you, Carol Pausz Principal |
Carol Pausz, PrincipalArchives
June 2022
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