Dear School Families,
Welcome to the 2009-2010 St. Francis Xavier school year! This year promises to be memorable as we celebrate our centennial anniversary and pay tribute to our heritage of excellence. While we honor our past, we are excited about the new traditions we are undertaking and the benefits to our children. We have much to be thankful for. Personally, I am very grateful for the assistance of the school board, the HSO, and our whole community. Without the hard work and dedication of school families, St. Francis Xavier School would not be in the strong position we are in today.
Our enrollment for this school year is up substantially from last year. For example, our kindergarten program had twenty-five students last year, and this year we have thirty-three students enrolled. Our three-year old preschool had twelve students enrolled last August; this year we have twenty-three. This is wonderful news! We have reconfigured the preschool space to provide more room for our growing programs. The kindergarten is moving to a full day program, and both kindergarten rooms are now on the main floor. We have created a teacher resource room to facilitate curricular cooperation and knowledge sharing. Please feel free to come by and see the changes we have put in place. These developments hallmark a robust school community and a strong commitment to innovation.
Our Apple computer program is ready for launch. All sixth, seventh, and eighth graders will receive their own Apple MacBook for use during the school day. New computers will also be placed in every K-5 class section. Furthermore, every teacher has received a computer and is involved in ongoing training. Finally, through a special program we are receiving two Smartboards for use in our math program. All of these advances will positively impact every child here at St. Francis and puts us at the forefront of area schools.
After much discussion and reflection, St. Francis will indeed see changes in the foreign language program. Spanish instruction will continue in the classroom through fourth grade and will be expanded downward to include the four-year-old preschool. We will also offer conversational Spanish after school twice a week for grades 5-8. This offering will provide our older students a way to expand their use of the Spanish language and continue its development. Classical Latin will be offered for fifth through eighth grades. I am convinced Latin will strengthen our students and our school. These changes mean we said goodbye to Senora Ruttenberg. Senora started at St. Francis in the early nineties and was instrumental in the success of our foreign language program. We salute her for her dedication and service to St. Francis. Although we were sorry to say goodbye to Senora, we are excited to welcome Mrs. Mary Joan Masello as our Latin teacher. Mrs. Masello comes to St. Francis by way of Baker Demonstration School where she taught Latin for many years. She is eager to help St. Francis start this new program.
Another important change will be our daily bell schedule, including our start time. In this envelope you will find the new schedule. Please note: the tardy bell will ring at 8:15. In other words, students must be in their classrooms at 8:15am. The end of the day remains three o’clock. This early start, along with four minute passing periods, allows us to carve out one forty-minute period per day. We are calling this period the “flex” period. For the younger students, the flex period will provide teachers extra teaching time and the ability to plan special programs across sections and grades. For middle school students, the flex period affords opportunities to work collaboratively with their peers and to seek extra help from their teachers. This model goes hand-in-hand with our computer initiative. The MacBooks do not go home with the students and so the flex period lets the students have time to work with the computers during the school day.
We are also pleased to roll out a daily lunch program for our students. This optional program gives our families greater choice and flexibility when it comes to providing lunch for their children. You will be receiving more information regarding this program in a special mailing. You can also go to our Newsblast website and click ”SFX School Lunch” for more details.
In our efforts to meet the needs of our school community, we will be offering before and after school care at St. Francis beginning in September. The program begins at 7:30 am and ends at 5:30pm. A forthcoming mailing will detail the program and also include costs.
We are including in this packet forms to be returned to the school office. These include the following: handbook acknowledgement, publicity release form, tuition agreement, and the emergency card. These may be dropped off to the main office.
Finally, we need to acknowledge teachers not returning to St. Francis Xavier this year. I have already mentioned Senora Ruttenberg. Mr. Fahrenbach, Mrs. Simkins, Ms. Godfrey, and Ms. Gaines are also leaving our school. We salute them for their service to our school and wish them well. We have hired some great new teachers and they are eager to get to know you and your children. I look forward to introducing them to you at the back-to-school mass and BBQ on August 23.
Go Crusaders!
Dan McKenna
