Greetings St. Ignatius Families,

Next week, we will have a food drive for St. Vincent DePaul.  Please send non-perishable food to school with your student Monday-Wednesday, November 15th-17th. On November 17th, we will celebrate as a school, in a safe, socially distanced, and cohorted way, the food brought in by all of our students. In  addition to the typical pastas and canned goods, please  consider including cooking oil, boxed milk, sugar, flour, spices, and coffee/tea.  

We are blessed to have a supportive, diligent community during this challenging time. Please continue to use the home health screening questions before coming to school each day.  As the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are quickly approaching, we have travel recommendations to share with you. As a school, we recommend our families follow the CDC guidelines on safe traveling. If you will be traveling with family members that are not fully vaccinated, we recommend that you quarantine the unvaccinated student for a full seven days upon return and take a rapid COVID test 3-5 days after returning. We have been informed that the rapid home test from Ellume has been recalled. Please remember proper masking and maintaining social distancing are the best ways to keep our community safe both in and out of school. We are beyond thrilled to hear how excited our younger students are as many of them have already had their first vaccination shot. If you are looking for possible walk-in clinics for your child, we have compiled a resource list for you. 

Please send your child to school with a uniform sweatshirt in addition to a raincoat. Our boiler is currently working at a limited capacity while we await parts to fix the issue. Since we open the windows for ventilation as much as possible, the classrooms can sometimes be a bit chilly when the heat is not on full capacity. Students are allowed to wear their sweatshirts and coats in the classrooms while the heat is not running at full capacity.  Our students continue to learn and grow. Our pre-K students continue to develop their skills through sculpting, painting, drawing, and coloring, including turkey feathers. Our kindergarten students are learning their addition facts through pictures and manipulatives such as small erasers. Our first grade students are busy learning to count by fives with tally marks and developing their place value concept for ones and tens. The second graders are learning about storms and identifying the main idea and details along with decoding consonant blends. The third grade students continue to write and revise their own stories and study about the saints.Our fourth graders are diving into long division in math and continuing novel studies in reading. The fifth graders are studying saltwater and freshwater in our world and the challenges surrounding water on our planet. The  sixth grade students are in a novel study of the Newberry Award winning novel, The Giver. Our seventh graders chose a saint role model to study and actively look for ways to perform loving deeds of kindness throughout the week. The eighth graders are studying the Earth’s gravitational acceleration and the effects of free fall. 

As we continue the search for a permanent middle school math teacher, we seek interim assistance for math for the remainder of this school year. Maybe you know a retired math teacher who may be able to lend a hand for math support a couple of days a week? If so, please direct them to our school office.  

May we take time to thank our Lord for all of the many blessings in our lives. As we hear in the first book of Chronicles, chapter 16, verse 34, “Give thanks to the Lord, who is good, whose love endures forever.”  

​Peace be with you, 
Carol Pausz 
Principal