Dear Parents:
Thank you to all who attended our back to school meeting.
Congratulations to the Paraiso family in kindergarten who won the raffle
for $500 towards their tuition. It pays to be on time! As we mentioned
at the meeting, we are looking forward to completing our gym by building
out the stage area. The initial budget for this project is set at
$425,000, however, once we meet with stage lighting and sound suppliers,
this number may change. We’ll keep you posted on any updates. In the
meantime, please keep in mind our ‘Buy a Brick’ fundraiser. This is your
chance to leave your mark on STM. We are hoping to raise at least
$80,000 through this program. More information will be sent home soon.
We hope to see everyone this Sunday, September 9th,
for one of the most important celebrations of the school year. Please
join us for our Back-to-School Mass at 10:00. Come and share in the
celebration as we begin a new year together at St. Thomas More School
and Utopia Preschool. Sunday’s second collection will directly support the school.
We are sending home offertory envelopes for you to use when the
collection is taken up. The school receives the money contributed
through these envelopes. We’ll have extra envelopes available at the
Mass. Thank you in advance for your support.
Following the Back to School Mass, beginning at 11:30am, all STM families are invited to join together for a free Back to School Family Picnic at Buri Buri Park in South San Francisco. The 5th and 6th
grade families are sponsoring this picnic and will serve burgers,
hotdogs and salads. Donations of water, fruits and desserts are greatly
appreciated. Please contact Mylee Bernardo at myleeb@gmail.com if you
can help.
As we mentioned last week, our first service project of the year will be
the collection of personal items/toiletries for our nation’s military
personnel. From now through October 4th, we will be
collecting the following travel size items: Powder - Gold Bond, foot and
baby powder, baby wipes, hand sanitizer, Lip Balm/SPF, sunscreen,
dental floss, toothbrushes, toothpaste, eye drops, shower gel, shampoo,
deodorant, lotion, Q-tips, disposable razors, hand and foot warmers, and
batteries (preferably AA). This is a great way to donate any unused
travel size products you may have collected over the summer. Thank you
to those who have already brought in donations; please keep them coming.
SANDWICHES-FOR-THE-NEEDY: Our first sandwiches-for-the-needy collection will be next Friday, September 14th
with the first and eighth graders taking the lead. We encourage all of
you to consider making an extra sandwich and/or lunch and sending it to
the office on that day. Sandwiches will be delivered to the Martin de Porres House of Hospitality
on Potrero Ave. Their mission is to serve in the spirit of compassion,
understanding and love and they provide breakfast and lunch during the
week and brunch on Sunday to those in need in the community. Please
visit their website, martindeporres.org for more information. Here are a
few guidelines to help with the distribution of sandwiches - Please
individually wrap the sandwiches (ziplock sandwich bags) and label what
is included. This helps people with allergies and dietary restrictions.
Are you available to deliver sandwiches to the
Martin de Porres House of Hospitality? Sandwiches will be collected
every second Friday and need to be delivered by 11am. Please contact the
school office if you can help.
TUITION AND FEES: Families who elected to pay
their tuition according to the quarterly schedule are reminded your next
payment is due by September 15th. Also, if you have not yet
paid your Cultural/Disaster fee ($75 per child), and/or Parents’ Club
dues ($40 per family), please send them to the school office now.
SCRIP:
As part of your financial obligations to STM, each family is required
to meet the mandatory scrip requirement to generate a minimum profit
of $100 by participating in the electronic scrip programs authorized by
the school (shopwithscrip.com and/or escrip.com). If you are unsure how
to sign up for these scrip programs, please stop by the office and
Melody will be happy to help you get started.
PM EXTENDED CARE: In case you are wondering why
you haven't received your invoice from Extended Care for August, please
recall that Extended Care combines August-September into one bill that
will arrive the first week of October.
CATALOG FUNDRAISER: How is the catalog fundraiser coming? The deadline for returning your orders is Wednesday, September 19th. Thank you to Christy Ramos (mom of Sean, 8th grade and Ethan, 5th grade), who has volunteered to help tabulate the orders this year.
PIZZA SALE: Today the students enjoyed the first Pizza Sale of the year. Thank you to Marivic Vila (mom of Ademir, 8th grade and Ricardo, 7th
grade) who has volunteered to tally the orders once again this year. We
are in need of parents to help distribute the pizza on sale days
throughout the year. If you are available, please let the office know.
COOKIE SALE: The cookie sale scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday, September 6th has been rescheduled to next Thursday, September 13th.
ALTAR SERVING: Students in grades 4-8 are
invited to be Altar Servers for St. Thomas More Church. Please complete
the flyer you are receiving today if you are interested.
ST. MARY'S CATHEDRAL CHOIR: The Cathedral Choir
of Boys and Girls is open to children in grades 3 through 8 by audition.
This is a free program and prior experience is not necessary.
Interested? Check out the flyer you are receiving in today’s envelope.
USF COUNSELING: As you know, again this year,
we are working with the USF Center for Child and Family Development to
offer a school-based Family Counseling Program. This service is designed
to meet the counseling needs of individual students and families as
well as the consultation needs of teachers and school staff. The goal of
the program is to support our students’ social, emotional and academic
needs and thereby afford them increased opportunity for success at
school. This year we welcome Vanessa Gamache, the counselor assigned to
our school. She will be on campus Tuesdays and Wednesdays. This is a
free service. If you would like your child to visit with Vanessa, you
may contact her directly at vgamache@stmsf.org, or request it through your child’s teacher.
YARD POLICIES: We do need to remind you that when it comes to adults being present in the schoolyard after school, the directives from our insurance company
are specific. In the afternoon, the schoolyard is reserved for students
only. Parents waiting to pick up students from the later dismissal will
need to wait outside the gate. Only
parents picking up their kindergarteners or children from extended care
may enter the schoolyard at dismissal. If your child takes after school
classes such as piano, guitar or band, or they have sports practice, we
ask that you remain outside the gate and wait for their activity to end.
Finally, our kindergarten teacher, Megan Kennedy, and her husband Tim welcomed their first child, Abigail Marie Kennedy, born on Saturday, September 1st. Congratulations to the proud parents!
Sincerely,
Marie Fitzpatrick
Principal
