Greetings St. Ignatius Families,

Thank you to our amazing, generous families for the overflowing Advent gift bags for Community Transition School. What a wonderful way to support children experiencing homelessness in our community. 

We have begun the second window of STAR testing which will continue through next week. Please help your child(ren) to eat a healthy breakfast and get plenty of sleep. STAR testing results will be sent home before Christmas break. 
 
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, please update your information in FACTS and apply for financial aid for the 2022-2023 school year.  

As the Feaste of the Nativity approaches on December 11th, our School Advisory Council will host a table at this outdoor event. If your family chooses to attend this event, you may find the SAC table and choose to purchase either of two crafts available. 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. We have sent home raffle tickets to sell, if you so choose, as part of your fairshare commitment. Thank you to the many families that have sold those tickets and requested more. An anonymous donor has stepped up to match dollar for dollar the amount of raffle tickets we sell. If we are able to sell all 1,000 tickets, the matching donation would be $10,000! Therefore, please return any unsold tickets as soon as possible, so they may be given to another family in need of more tickets to sell. Proceeds from the raffle will be donated back to the school to benefit  the playground renovation project .  We hope to have final numbers from Giving Tuesday to share in next week’s Ignatian. 

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.  

The Oregon Department of Education is actively working with various local health authorities on updating quarantine guidance for close contact exposures. We will review the proposed guidelines with our COVID team in the coming weeks and hope to share an update in the beginning of January. 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. 

Our students continue to learn and grow during the month of December.  Our preschoolers are painting snowflakes, filling Christmas stockings, and writing or drawing Christmas cards. In kindergarten, our students are coloring Advent candles for their wreaths and working on their letter sounds. The first graders continued a long tradition this week as they tied a small bell to one shoe plus crafted their Advent chains. Our second grade students studied The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie dePaola and made poinsettia art in addition to their Advent wreaths. The third graders are learning their multiplication tables through familiar tunes such as Jingle Bell 3’s and Old MacDonald 4’s. In fourth grade, our students are making billboard advertisements for the High Desert region of Oregon as they study the regions of the state. The fifth graders are computing and comparing decimals. Our sixth grade students are creating silly stories based on a family or school rule modeling their writing off of the book The Secret Knowledge of Grown-Ups. The seventh graders are writing a reflection about their own saints. Our eighth graders are studying about the Vatican and ecumenical councils.  
 
May we continue to prepare our hearts for the coming of our Savior in this second week of Advent. 

“The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” John 1:9 

​Peace be with you, 
Carol Pausz 
Principal