| | | | Dear Friends,
When you think of Halloween, what comes to mind? For a lot of people, Halloween has become synonymous with candy, costumes, scary stuff, and pumpkins. But do you know the religious connection to the holiday? The word Halloween itself is a contraction of "Hallowed evening". Hallowed is an old English word for "holy" — as in "Hallowed be Thy Name", in the Lord's Prayer. All Saints Day, celebrated on November 1, is the day on which Catholics celebrate all the saints, known and unknown. The vigil or eve of this feast, October 31, is Halloween. The purpose of Halloween is to prepare us for All Saints Day by remembering and celebrating those saints. All Saints Day, Thursday, November 1 is a holy day of obligation. Please consider joining the student body to celebrate this special feast day at the 8:30am Mass.
MINIMUM DAY
Next Monday, October 22, is the fourth-Monday-of-the-month minimum day dismissal. Don't forget we dismiss at 12:15 (K-3) and 12:30 (4-8) that day. Yes, we will have extended care beginning immediately at the end of the shortened school day. | | HALLOWEEN SPOOKTACULAR Please join us on Saturday, October 20, 2018 from 10am-9pm for the Halloween Spooktacular. Everyone will be there! Please check out the wish list, bracelet pre-order and bake sale flyers you received last week. Have some Fortnite fun in Carroll Hall with Laser Tag, Battle Royale style! | | |  | | HALLOWEEN PARADE
Our K-8 Halloween parade, will begin at 11:00am in the schoolyard on Wednesday, October 31. All are welcome to attend! When purchasing costumes for wearing to school for the parade, please consider the following: - Age appropriate
- Bathroom accessible
- Make up must be applied at home
- Shoes must be comfortable for walking
- No weapons of any kind
Also remember that Wednesday, October 31 is a minimum day with a 12:15/12:30pm dismissal. | | | PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCES You will be receiving your Parent-Teacher conference appointments today. Should you have a need to reschedule your appointment, please contact the school office. Just a reminder that Monday through Friday, October 29-November 2 are all minimum days with 12:15/12:30 dismissal. Yes, there is extended care each of those days. Students not signed in to extended care will not be allowed to remain in the yard during conferences. | | | SCHOOL TOURS Today we welcomed six new families on our "Wednesday Walkthrough" school tour. Please share this link to sign up for a tour with family and friends considering TK/Kindergarten for the next school year. - October 24
- November 7, 14
- December 5, 12
APPLICATION FORMS New student application forms Kindergarten, Transitional Kindergarten and grades 1st-8th for the 2019-2020 school year are available from the front office and may also be completed online. 2019-2020 PRESCHOOL APPLICATIONS Utopia, our preschool, has begun accepting applications for the 2019-2020 school year. Please note that preschool spots fill up very fast. If you have a child who is of preschool age (3 years old by September 1st) and you would like them to attend Utopia next Fall, please arrange a tour with Utopia's Director, Rachelle Frantz, rfrantz@stmsf.org. | | | | CIOPPINO SILENT AUCTION COMMITTEE - WE NEED YOU! The Cioppino Dinner and Silent Auction, held in February each year, is one of our largest fundraisers. This year we are looking for several people to join the Cioppino Silent Auction Committee. The committee will be tasked with the procurement of auction items, organization of class baskets/donations, set up on the night of the event and be responsible for all auction systems the night of the event, and after. If you think this might be something you are interested in, please fill out this short contact form. We will be in touch with you shortly with more information. | | | SHOPAROO
Do you Shoparoo!? Shoparoo is a fun and free app which turns pictures of your everyday shopping receipts into cash donations and sweepstakes entries for our school! Yep, it's that simple. Over the past few years, Shoparoo has donated over $3500 to our school! All you have to do is shop as you normally do, snap pictures of your grocery receipts with the app, and voila! Just shop, snap, and earn!
Get started today:
1. Download the free Shoparoo app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.
2. Select our school from the list and start taking pictures of your receipts - shop anywhere, buy anything!
3. You can even select a grade to support and have fun with grade competitions!
There's no limit to how much money we can raise with Shoparoo - the more supporters, the more we will raise for our school. Check out shoparoo.com to learn more about this awesome app! | | | Finally, last week we were delighted to receive an unexpected $15,000 grant from The Outrageous Foundation. This is the sixth year in a row that they have chosen STM as one of the schools to receive this grant. The Outrageous Foundation has a strong commitment to Catholic education in the San Francisco Bay Area and has received recommendations regarding our wonderful school from a friend. Their foundation does not accept grant applications, but awards their funds based on referrals from others. Last year we were the recipients of a $15,000 grant from this foundation and the previous year, we received $10,000. These funds will be earmarked for tuition assistance. We are very grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Bob McGrath of The Outrageous Foundation for their continuing support of St. Thomas More School!
See you at the SPOOKtacular on Saturday!
Sincerely,
Marie Fitzpatrick
Principal | |
"Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently."
- Maya Angelou | | | | | | | | |
