Greetings St. Ignatius Families,

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.  
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• Please refrain from parking in the parking lot in front of Dillon Hall. 
• Park on the church side of 43rd Avenue to minimize the number of students and  families crossing the street. 
• If you are picking up any students younger than sixth grade, please walk up to  the parking area in front of Dillon Hall to meet your students, or use the drive up  lanes at dismissal. 
• If you are picking up a middle school student from 43rd Avenue, and you would like them to walk to your parked car, turn in a signed walk/bike permission slip and park on 43rd Avenue closest to the school where your student will not need to cross the street. 

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