| | | | Dear Friends, Happy New Year! We hope your vacation was enjoyable. On these cold (and sometimes wet) mornings, it is important that your child has a warm and waterproof jacket to wear to school. While the building is nice and warm, it can get quite chilly when the children go outside at recess time. No umbrellas please. This past Sunday, January 6 marked the Feast of the Epiphany. Epiphany is traditionally celebrated the 12th day after Christmas. The term epiphany means to show or to reveal. When the Wise Men, who brought the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to Jesus, they were the first to acknowledge Jesus as King and so were the first to show or reveal Jesus to a wider world as the incarnate Christ. Today, Epiphany is now observed as a time of focusing on the mission of the church in reaching others by showing Jesus as the Savior of all people. WCEA ACCREDITATION
Tomorrow we look forward to welcoming our visiting WCEA Accreditation Committee for their pre-visit. We will have our three-day visit from the team in mid February. Following this, usually sometime during the summer, we will find out if we have been accredited again and for how long our accreditation period will be. If you see members of the team around during their visit, please say hello. The team members are: Bruce Stewart (chairperson), Junipero Serra School, Carmel-by-the-Sea; Megan Armando, St. Charles School, San Carlos; Anne Barsi, St. Gregory School, San Mateo; Barbara Kane, Our Lady of Loretto School, Novato; and Sr. Kathryn Keenan, SNDdeN, Notre Dame Elementary School, Belmont; Nicole Kelly, St. Brigid School, San Francisco; Laura Roach, St. Anselm School, St. Anselmo; Janel Worley, St. Matthew School, San Mateo; and Zoe Zebarte, Ecole Notre Dame Des Victoires, San Francisco. | | MEET OUR NEW COUNSELLOR - DR. COLORADO Hello Bronco families! My name is Dr. Hallie Colorado and I am your new school counselor. I am so excited to join your school and I very much look forward to meeting you all and serving your families. I will be on campus Wednesdays and Fridays during school hours and you can always reach me at hcolorado@stmsf.org. I am going to do my best to see you at recess or stop by your classroom this next week to say hello, if you happen to see me walking the halls, please introduce yourself! Are you curious to know more about me? Well let me tell you, I am the proud mom of four little girls, I am happily married to an active duty Naval officer, Go Navy! I have a doctorate in clinical psychology, a masters in mental health counseling and I absolutely love what I do. I have a few different places that I serve, one of those is St. Patrick's seminary in Menlo Park where I am an adjunct professor. This job is a really fun one because I get to teach all the gentleman that are studying to become priests, it has been a fantastic way for me to give back to the church. I also work in the pediatric cardiology unit at Lucile Packard, and am the school counselor at St. Matthew in San Mateo. I am looking forward to getting to know you all! | | | ONE WARM COAT COLLECTION
ALL types of coats are needed and will be distributed to needy people by St. Anthony's and the St. Vincent de Paul Society. You can drop off your donations anytime between now and February 1 to the school office. | | | | HOOP-A-THON
Just a reminder that pledges are due back by Friday, January 11th. Once all monies have been received we will announce the names of those who have raised the most funds. | | | CIOPPINO 2019 Please mark your calendars for our 27th Annual Cioppino Dinner and Silent Auction on Saturday, February 23, 2019. The evening includes appetizers, antipasto, salad, garlic bread, cioppino (or chicken if you prefer), dessert, balloon prizes and a fabulous auction. Click here to make an ONLINE RESERVATION! UNWANTED CHRISTMAS GIFTS? The committees in charge of Cioppino are busy looking for raffle and silent auction items to use as part of this event. Many such items are received through the generosity of our parent community. Do you have items at home that you cannot use? Are you always thrilled by all your Christmas gifts? Well, one person's trash is another person's treasure. Send us your unwanted/unneeded gifts. We'll turn those lumps of coal into diamonds! The committee is now accepting donations of all kinds. Please drop all donations to the school office. | | |  | This runs from January 27 through February 2. Please mark your calendars for our Family Mass, Open House, Book Fair, and other exciting events on Sunday, January 27. The schedule of activities for National Catholic Schools Week will be sent home next Wednesday. Again this year we will be having a special day where we invite grandparents and other special guests to spend some of the day with the children. Pencil in the morning of Thursday, January 31 for this special event. This year we are again beginning early and are including some breakfast treats instead of lunch. Look for the invitation in today's envelope. | | STUDENT HOLIDAY
Plan ahead - Please remember that the school, preschool through 8th grade, will be closed on Friday, February 1. This is the day set for the annual Archdiocese Professional Development for all Catholic school teachers and administrators.
Have a blessed New Year,
Marie Fitzpatrick
Principal | | | | | | | |
