STM Newsletter for Wednesday, December 16, 2020

View this email in your browser Ugly Sweater Designs from Sixth Grade  December 16, 2020 Dear STM Families,  Ho, Ho Ho! There was much excitement in the air today as Santa visited! He seems to know that STM students have been really really good this year and he enjoyed learning about the fun activities they are doing to prepare for Christmas! The Student Council organized a fun Spirit Week for everyone as well as an ornament coloring project to share with our elderly neighbors at Alma Via and to send some holiday cheer their way.  Santa visits Kindergarten Santa visits Fourth Grade PICK UP DAY TOMORROW Thursday is pick-up day for all grades. Materials and books needed for January distance learning will be on tables out front or on the schoolyard benches, labeled by grade and student name or number. We will move items to the gym if it rains. Your classroom teacher will notify you if a pick-up has been scheduled. SCHOOL UNIFORMS We will continue with modified school uniforms for the remainder of the school year.  Beginning January 5, all students will be required to wear their uniform shirt and sweater during distance learning. We hope that this will lead to increased student engagement and will serve to delineate school time from other activities.  CALENDAR Thursday, Dec. 17 - Christmas Character Day Friday, Dec. 18 - Minimum Day Monday, Dec. 21-Monday, Jan. 4  Christmas Holiday - school closed Tuesday, Jan. 5 TK-8 classes resume with distance learning until Jan. 15th Minimum Day - 12:15/12:30 dismissal Tuesday, Jan. 19 TK-8 In-person instruction resumes; full day COVID19 PROTOCOLS AND TRAVEL RESTRICTION As we head into vacation time we need to keep in mind our responsibility to be vigilant, to continue to practice proper social distancing, mask wearing and following guidelines from the San Francisco Department of Public Health and our California state mandates. Included here are the most updated advisories as well as the form you will be required to submit the week before we return to in-person learning on January 19. We will send you the January Return to School form again on January 10. It will need to be completed by all students between January 11-14, 2021, in order for your child to return in-person learning. Adhere to the Stay-Safer-At-Home Order C19-07q updated December 9.  Follow the COVID Travel Advisory from SFDPH Complete the Archdiocese of San Francisco January Return to School form REQUEST TO RETURN FOR IN-PERSON INSTRUCTION If you wish to have your child return on Tuesday, January 19, please complete Request for Student In-Person Learning form no later than Tuesday, January 12, 2020, so that we have adequate time to make any necessary adjustments. We will not be checking emails, or updating the roster, once Christmas vacation begins. In an attempt to help your planning for the remainder of the school year we are providing additional dates when students may return to in-school learning.  For these dates listed below, please submit this form at least 5 business days prior to your child's return to campus. Please email our Admissions Assistant, Betty Quinlan, at bquinlan@stmsf.org, if you have further questions. Return for in-person instruction schedule: January 19 February 16 March 8 April 12 May 4  LINK: Request for Student In-Person Learning Form CHRISTMAS COMES EARLY TO STM! In today's mail we received a grant in the amount of $85,000 from the Carl Gellert and Celia Berta Gellert Foundation. This grant goes towards the renovations of the boys and girls bathrooms in the main school building. This renovation is part of the ongoing seismic retrofit of the school. We are so very grateful to the Gellert Foundation for their support of this project. They have previously assisted with grants towards the science lab, which is named in their honor, with the recent roof replacement and have supported families through our Tuition Assistance Program for many years. Please offer a prayer of thanks for their extreme generosity and support of Catholic education. DONATIONS NEEDED  This year we have been forced to cancel or modify many of our major fundraising activities such as The Fall Festival, the STM Golf Tournament and the Pancake Breakfast because of restrictions caused by the pandemic. However, we continue to make improvements to the school facilities and to provide additional resources to enhance student learning. We have three projects that we are hoping to complete in the Springtime if we can raise the funds. Thank you to all those who donated to our school improvement projects. So far we raised $1,850 in a week!  School Improvement Projects: Acquire and install desktop speakers for classroom laptops to ease communication among in-class and distance learning students. Install a mail slot by the front door. Install a clear barrier on the second floor outside of the library and science lab. Pandemic Tax Tip: Non-Itemizers Can Deduct $300 for Charity Donations in 2020 Please consider an end-of-year donation to allow us to proceed with these improvements. If you won't be itemizing your deductions on your 2020 federal tax return — and most taxpayers won't — be sure to take advantage of the special $300 charitable-giving deduction that Congress authorized this spring in response to the pandemic. LINK: DONATE TO SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT FUND EXTENDED CARE PROGRAM CANCELLED Beginning January 2021, afternoon extended care will no longer be offered. Very few families availed of the service and we are unable to continue running the program at a loss. We will reopen both Morning Care and afternoon Extended Care for the 2021-2022 school year.  12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS AT STM To watch all of the 12 Days of Christmas at STM videos check out our Youtube Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfAKkD9GK82IrDcai5y53HyPdZq4m-BqO As we look towards 2021, we, at St. Thomas More School, continue to be  filled with hope and gratitude. I am confident that we will continue to build on our strengths so that collaboratively we can work to provide the best possible environment for our students to learn, thrive and to grow in God's love. Wishing you a joyous Christmas season and a happy and peaceful New Year.                Marie Fitzpatrick Principal Copyright © 2020 St. Thomas More School, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email from the office of St. Thomas More School.   Thank you for helping us go green. 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