Greetings St. Ignatius Families,

Thank you for your tremendous partnership with us in providing a faith-based education for your children. Please help us to manage Valentine’s Day during a COVID year by sending in only the Valentines without candy attached. Students may choose to wear school appropriate clothing in Valentine’s Day colors of red, white, or purple on Monday, or students may wear their uniform. Jeans, slacks, or joggers are ok, but please refrain from wearing leggings as pants. Thank you for helping your student to choose school appropriate clothing. 

A heartfelt thank you to all of the families that have donated for our “Love In Deed” baskets!  There will be many wonderful options to bid on during the silent auction leading up to our live event. Have you considered hosting a watch party among your school family friends or with your extended family? Watch parties can provide a fun way to participate in this interactive live virtual fundraising event. There will be an opportunity to play a watch and win game or two during the live event on Saturday, February 26th at 7:00 PM. Please register to participate in the silent auction and live event. Classes that have 75% or more families register for the event by Wednesday, February 23rd will have a class free dress day on Friday, February 25th!
 
Well, in the ever changing landscape of COVID, we heard this week about many states, including Oregon dropping mask mandates and returning those decisions to the local level. For schools, the Oregon Department of Education and our Local Health Authority will likely make recommendations for best practice in schools just 
as they have for social distancing, which has not been a mandate since the beginning of this year. Our school’s COVID team will meet next week to discuss current recommendations from ODE and our LPHA to determine the safest way for our school to proceed through the spring. We can see our many layers of mitigation have kept our school community safe throughout this school year so far. We still recommend students wear a KN95 or N95 or surgical mask while at school. Please let us know if we can help your family meet this masking expectation. It is a good idea to send your student to school with two or three masks, so they may change masks as needed after recess or PE. Please remember proper masking in and out of school and maintaining social distancing are the best ways to keep our school community safe. 

Next week, we will share news about how we will safely return to school Masses and prayer services in the church beginning on Ash Wednesday.  We are excited to announce a return to providing meals once a week for Transition Projects. We will take on this endeavor as an ongoing whole school  service project. A separate letter will go home today with more details on how families may participate in this important service project tradition.  

​May you take time this weekend to enjoy God’s many blessings. ”Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, his mercy endures forever.” Psalm 118:1. 
 
Carol Pausz 
Principal