WHAT!

Another Fundraiser!

I sent a message via the phone over the weekend, but wanted to share my thoughts in writing for all to see.

Let me begin by thanking you for ALL the support you have given to make this year successful for our students. I have expressed gratitude numerous times for the extraordinary steps we are all taking to make in-person education a possibility.

Now I would like to share a little bit of our financial situation with you all. You make tremendous sacrifices to pay the tuition, and for that we are most grateful. The tuition does not cover the exact cost of educating your child at St. Peter’s. Each year our school raises about $150,000.00 in fundraising to offset that cost. We have Bingo which brings in $50,000. Christmas Fair $13,000, Calendar Drive $9,500, Auction $40,000. Musical $35,000, Golf Tournament $10,000. and the list goes on.  Last year due to the closure on March 13^th, our school lost $230,000 in revenue including the fundraisers. We applied for the CARES Act money from the Government and were able to keep personnel on the payroll and make it through the August 31^st closing of the budget year.

That brings us to this year…still no Bingo, no Live Dinner and Auction, etc.

I am grateful for all of you who have stepped up to raise money. Our 12 days of Christmas raised twice what the fair usually makes, the calendar drive brought in $4,000. more than ever before. A Mom set up a Super Bowl pool and sold out three. The day after she arrived at the door with $3,000. In cash. Another Mom works with Texas Roadhouse to sell rolls and dinners and send us checks for our participation.

 It seems like every week another fundraiser arrives in your child’s school bag. I wish there was another way, but our purpose, other than the obvious budget obligation is to provide “something for everyone”.

Pick and choose what works for your family and social media friends, please. If every family helps in some way, we will be successful in our efforts.

If you have ideas or want to help, let us know. All are welcome.

Thank you for All that you do, most importantly the trust you place in us to walk this educational journey with your children.

God bless,
Meg

Thank you to everyone who supported our

Spirit Week at Texas Roadhouse fundraiser that was held on

Monday, March 1 through Thursday, March 4.

Thank you to Colton Siergie’s mon Bryanna for our Texas Road House nights.

We really appreciate you for supporting SPCC!

GO HAWKS!

To download a copy, Click the link below.

Important Information About Snow Days and Remote Learning 2021

 

Important Information

Please Read

Dear Parents and Guardians,

For whatever reason, I was made aware that some of you did not receive the message about no school on Sunday night, not sure what happened so I am just going to chalk it up to another technological glitch. As if the COVID wasn’t enough for all of us to deal with, the snow keeps coming. I know that many of you are questioning, why we are calling off school when the storm has passed or not yet begun, please understand that in twenty-one years, I have never made the NO School call. It is generated from Worcester Public Schools and based on the transportation. We do not technically pay for the buses, so we are at their mercy to make the call. Most of the time they are good calls. This year, I will say that without the public school students in session, I think they make the call more hastily than in other years. We have five buses of students, transported to SPCC, the number of riders is smaller due to social distancing., but many of our families rely on the buses. I understand how trying all of this has been for all of you, our teachers and our children. I stand by our Diocesan decision to stay remote until January 25th. The spike of the virus was so high following the holidays, our families were affected by the virus. Unlike the spring, when everything was shut down, many of our parents are working outside the home in front line positions and exposure is happening despite precautions. When someone in the household tests positive, the children must quarantine for fourteen days. This equates to a lot of interruption to our in-person learning, as teachers try to teach remotely to several at home and address the needs of the students in attendance in class.

When I set up the remote program, I did so at the request of families who are compromised or have circumstances that made it too risky to have a student attend in person. In grades Kindergarten through Grade 5, I designated one teacher at each grade level to be the remote teacher. In grades 6, 7 and 8, since the students have multiple teachers each teacher is set up for remote learning. I offer this as a way of explanation. Lately, we are receiving phone calls about travel or appointments, and the desire to have your child go on remote for the day. Our system is not set up for this. Remote access will be reserved for students who are ill or must quarantine, due to exposure to the virus. In the case of illness, if that teacher is not one of the “remote learning teachers”, it will take them a day to gather the necessary equipment, needed to teach remotely. I also hear your concerns for better acoustics for your remote students. We are working on that too, but please understand that the teacher moves around the room and also attends to the students in the classroom. Some teachers are understandably more comfortable with all of this, but I am so proud of all of them for learning and doing all they can to make this challenge work for our kids. Thank you for your understanding.

We have over two hundred chrome books in the school and are busy writing grants for additional devices. When we went to remote learning in January, we were prepared and able to assist with some who lacked enough devices at home. Some chrome books were returned with missing parts and others needed to be cleaned from food spills. We do not have the money to automatically replace such expensive pieces. We have had requests to keep them at home throughout the snowy weather. Unfortunately, we cannot do that because they are always being used in the classrooms while we are in attendance.

Snow days are quickly becoming a thing of the past across New England. I have heard from many of you, who think that removing a snow day from a child’s life is a terrible thing. Agreed there should always be time for sliding, snow angels or shoveling out a grandparent but since we have all mastered the technology, some educators want to do away with them altogether.

We have made a decision at St. Peter’s, after listening to parents, teachers and students that snow days will be from 9-12 with synchronous learning with the teacher. We will fulfil our requirement for a day of learning by abbreviating the length of each class. I heard, your comments about not enough technology at home or difficulty managing the remote process. I have heard the concern in your voices about child care and how many grandparents or day cares are not equipped to help with the remote process. So, the afternoon will be snow time.

Most important, I cannot thank you enough for your honesty, attention to our COVID checklist, reporting and patience. You have helped us to remain in- person learning, which we all know is the right thing for our children.

May God bless you all,

Meg

Here is a copy of the SPCC Remote Learning Handbook that went home with the children today. Please review it with your child/children in order for them to understand what is asked of them. This will also help you to better help your child in this process.  There is a page that both you and your child/children need to sign and return to school.  Thank you for your help and support.

Click here to download a copy of SPCC remote handbook 2020.  You can also find it in the list of documents on the Documents Page.

Dear SPCC families, please read this letter from Bishop McManus.

In an effort to keep everyone healthy and safe during the upcoming holidays, we will be temporarily shifting to remote learning on 12/21/20 until 1/11/21.  Our prayers are with all of you and your families.

Thank you for your understanding.  God bless you.

Congratulations to all of our September Star Students. We are so proud of all of you. Keep up the wonderful work.

Our September Star Student are:

Preschool:  Tanner Dumas and Caroline Gemme

Kindergarten:  Ellie Cavanaugh and Madison Gemme

First Grade:  Maurice Fogue and Stephen Scanlon

Second Grade:  Anthony Hernandez and Patrick Kelly

Third Grade:  Keryn Brown and Jade Dorvilus

Fourth Grade:  Jasmine Nesbit and Julia Nordahl

Fifth Grade:  Adriana Barrett and Charles Zellmer

Sixth Grade:  Kassidy Gibree and Colin McCarthy

Seventh Grade:  Madeline Olson and Victor Wairimu

Eighth Grade:  Larissa Aweh and Samara Masiki

Click here to download a copy of Mrs. Kursonis’ Letter after the Second Week of School 2020

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Thank you for all of your support for the last eight days. It is great to see the students and hear their voices, and because we are all working together your children seem happy as a little more “normal” has entered their lives. The children are doing so well wearing their masks, thank you for preparing them. Thank you also, for following our daily COVID contact checklist. It’s working to keep us safe and healthy.

Drop off in the morning is working well. By staggering your arrival time, you have helped to move the process along quickly.

Afternoon dismissal has rave reviews from many of you. Again, if you stagger arrival times there will be little or no wait. There will be days when the school yard gate is closed because a gym class or another class is working outside. When the driver in the first car gets outs and checks to see that the classes are no longer outside, you can open the gate. The reminder is that arriving earlier than necessary for dismissal, causes a back log on Hammond and Main St. Please try to arrive as close to 2:45 as possible.

Important Information:

Please understand that if your child is seen by the school nurse for any symptom associated with the COVID virus, they will need to be picked up immediately and brought home. Once they are at home, you will need to contact your pediatrician for clearance to come back to school. Likewise, if you call your child in absent in the morning, you must follow the same procedure and contact your pediatrician. Please understand also, that this is not a rule made by St. Peter’s. The Department of Public Health has set the guidelines, which will apply to all students and staff. The pediatrician may see your child or they may refer them immediately for COVID testing. It is important that you contact the school and advise us that your child is being referred for testing. It is then necessary for you to contact us again with the test result. When your child receives the paperwork for the negative test, please forward a copy of that to school as well. Everything needs to be documented.

If your child or someone that your child has been in contact with tests positive, then they should also be tested. If your child is deemed a direct contact, then even if their test result is negative they must quarantine 14 days. If your child tests positive they must quarantine for a minimum of 10 days and be symptom free. I have attached the documentation from DESE and the Department of Public Health for you to read. In addition, there is a slide show on the web site regarding the COVID protocol and expectations, that might answer some of your questions.

If your child has seasonal allergies or a doctor diagnosed re-occurring condition, it would be wise to have your doctor provide that information to the school in writing.

If you are travelling out of state, please be aware that you and your child may need to quarantine for fourteen days as well. The Massachusetts “quarantine states” list is updated and appears on the Mass.gov web site.

I am sure that you are aware that Worcester still falls within the red zone for the number of COVID cases. As promised, we continue to monitor that index. St. Peter’s students come from twenty-two different towns and cities, and so these numbers are being taken into account as well. The index also does not differentiate in population, for example, the nursing home, college students or homeless population and the general population, including children are all figured together with one formula.

We are committed to staying with in-person education as long as it is possible. We pray that God will take good care of all of us and we will see out the 2020-2021 school year, right here on Main St.  If that is not the case and the Governor or circumstances change for safe school, then please be prepared for a shift from school to home(remote) learning.

Please remember that all of these rules have been established to keep us safe and help us to stay in school.

Thank you for trusting your children to us. We are blessed indeed.

God Bless,

Mrs. Meg Kursonis