Greetings St. Ignatius Families,

We had a visit from a special guest on Monday as we celebrated the Feast of St. Nicholas this week. The students were so excited to participate in this time honored event! This coming Monday,  December 13th,  students may come to school dressed in their Christmas Sunday Best as classes will be videotaped for our virtual Christmas program. The Christmas program will debut on Thursday, December 16th at 7:00 PM and again on Sunday, December 19th at 2:00 PM. 
 
As report cards are now available on SchoolSpeak, let us take a moment to appreciate the hard 
work of our students and teachers for all of the learning that has taken place so far this school year! 
When you view your child’s report card on SchoolSpeak, please electronically sign it too. If you 
need a hard copy of the report card to view and sign, please reach out to your child’s classroom 
teacher.  
Please note a change to our school calendar from the Archdiocese of Portland Catholic Schools 
Department. As a thank you to all Catholic school staff for their perseverance and dedication to 
Catholic education during these challenging times, Monday, January 3rd has been given to Catholic 
Schools as a day off to show appreciation for all school employees. Therefore, we will resume 
school after winter break on Tuesday, January 4th.    
 
January 31st is the FACTS deadline to apply for tuition assistance for the 2022-2023 school year. If 
your family would like to be considered for tuition assistance in the upcoming school year, please 
update your information in FACTS and apply for financial aid for the 2022-2023 school year.  
At the Feaste of the Nativity on Saturday, our School Advisory Council will host a table. Our SAC 
members will sell two crafts to benefit our playground renovation and gym floor refinishing. The first 
craft is a Christmas tree ornament made from the floorboard wood that was taken out of the gym 
due to water damage from last winter’s storm. Some of our eighth grade students helped to 
decorate those ornaments. Proceeds from the Christmas Tree ornament sale will help to cover the 
cost of refinishing our gym floor including the lines and mascot logo.  Our third grade class made 
adorable snowmen out of the wood rounds from the tree cut down in our prayer garden in 2019. The 
proceeds from the snowmen will benefit our playground renovation project.  
 
There will be a raffle at the Feaste of the Nativity with the top prize of $1000. Only 1,000 tickets will 
be sold for this raffle. Thank you to the many families that sold tickets. An anonymous donor has 
stepped up to match dollar for dollar the amount of raffle tickets we sell. If we were able to sell all 
1,000 tickets, the matching donation would be $10,000! A portion of the proceeds from the raffle 
plus the full matching gift will be donated back to the school to benefit the playground renovation 
project.  On Giving Tuesday, we raised $4,490 dollars for our playground renovation project. Thank 
you to the many families and extended families supporting our school projects!  
Please continue to use the home health screening questions before coming to school each day.  As 
the Christmas holidays are approaching, please adhere to our travel recommendations. As a school, 
we strongly recommend our families follow the CDC guidelines on safe traveling. If you will be 
traveling, through an airport and/or to a heavily populated tourist destination with your children, and 
they are not fully vaccinated, we strongly recommend that you quarantine your unvaccinated child 
for a full seven days upon return and take a rapid COVID test 3-5 days after returning. As a school 
community, we really must work together on the CDC travel guidance, especially over the holiday 
season. Thank you to the families that have partnered with us to keep our school community safe 
from future COVID cases by following this guidance after their recent travels.
 
Cont. 
The Oregon Department of Education is actively working with our local health authority on updating quarantine 
guidance for close contact exposures. We will review the proposed guidelines with our COVID team next week 
and hope to share an update in the beginning of January. Please remember proper masking and maintaining so-
cial 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 are already receiving their second dose of the 
COVID-19 vaccine. If you are looking for possible walk-in clinics for your child, we have compiled a resource list 
for you. 
Please do not drop off restaurant food items for your students during the school day. We have an emergency 
lunch and snack supply to help feed students on those days when lunch or snacks are forgotten, and you are 
unable to bring store bought food items from home. Please remind your students chewing gum is not allowed on 
campus. Let’s keep our campus beautiful! 
 
Our students continue to learn and grow during the month of December. Our preschoolers are making Advent 
wreaths and Christmas trees in addition to cutting shapes developing their fine motor skills. In kindergarten, our 
students are finishing their hallway nativity scene and making their own nativity scenes with empty tissue paper 
rolls. The first graders created a lovely prayer service about the Immaculate Conception of Mary and made beau-
tifully glittered Christmas trees. Our second grade students are learning to tell time on an analog clock and talk-
ing about family traditions. The third graders are crafting strong topic sentences and writing paragraphs. In fourth 
grade, our students are learning long division with remainders. The fifth graders are writing persuasive essays 
about getting a pet. Our sixth grade students are studying plot lines through literature circles.  The seventh grad-
ers are participating in a model United Nations process to discuss an imaginary world issue. Our eighth graders 
continue to learn about force and motion as they engineer balloon-powered planes and baskets. 
May we continue to joyfully prepare our hearts for the coming of our Savior in this third week of Advent. For God 
who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to bring to light the knowledge of the glory of 
God on the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6 
 
Peace be with you, 
Carol Pausz 
Principal