St. Agnes School
Family Newsletter
December 1, 2010

Mission Statement of Saint Agnes School
Saint Agnes Elementary School strives for excellence in providing a Catholic education that inspires and empowers our students to embrace the Gospel Message of Jesus Christ as compassionate and faithful Christians, who continue to pursue their spiritual journey, their highest academic potential, and stewardship to others.

Advent: Advent is here. Check last week’s newsletter for our school advent project. Socks of all kinds are coming in and filling the stocking in the stable. Socks can be brought in through December 17th. Each day we have a special practice for advent, and of course we light our advent wreaths.

Christmas Tree Lighting: The parish children’s choir and the St. Agnes school chorus have been invited to sing at the Park Hills Christmas Tree Lighting at Trolley Park in Park Hills on Sunday, December 5th, from 6 to 7 pm. Everyone is invited to attend! Join us if you can!

St. Nick: St. Nick comes on December 6th. Hang your stockings out on Sunday night, the 5th. You might be surprised!

Junior High Parent Meeting: On December 6th at 6:30, seventh and eighth grade parents will have a meeting in the school cafeteria to discuss the up-coming spring play. Any students who want to participate must have a parent present at the meeting. Students are welcome also.

Feast of the Immaculate Conception: There will be no school on Wednesday, December 8th. It is the feast of the Immaculate Conception, and a holy day.

Children’s Christmas Concert: Primary Children’s Christmas Program is December 16th at 6:30 in the gym.

Christmas Vacation: Our Christmas vacation from school begins on Wednesday, December 22nd. Remember that Tuesday, the 21st, is a full day of classes.

Library Books: Next week will be the last week students will be able to check out books from our school library until after the holidays. Remember the end of the quarter is December 21st, so please encourage your child to get their Accelerated Reader Books read now before it’s too late!

Virtus: There are changes with Virtus, the Diocesan Safe Environment Program.
(1) All those now on three month modules will go back to monthly bulletins. Everyone in Virtus will have a monthly bulletin to read.
(2) An unreasonable amount of time is spent putting people into suspension and taking them out of suspension when a field trip or something comes up that people want to volunteer for. So…in the first three weeks of December, anyone suspended for not reading the articles, will be unsuspended. (If this is you, catch up on your articles now.) After the three week “open” period, they will place people who have chosen not to read their articles into suspension. No one can get out of the suspension until the next open period, which will be in three months. So the key is to read the articles monthly, and keep up-to-date. If suspended, it will be three months before another “open” session occurs which you can get out of suspension.
If you want to volunteer for any activity at school….please keep up-to-date.
If you have questions, email me at lgroh@saintagnes.com.  Thanks for your attention to this!

St. Agnes SOS: Parish Council is hosting an event to be known as “Saint Agnes SOS” this Saturday, December 4, 2010. Click on the attached bulletin article which covers the details of the event. This event could be used by your family for fulfilling School Service hours. We hope to see many of our families on “Saint Agnes SOS” day.

PTO News:

December Eat Out Nights:
Skyline - Monday, December 6 from 5:00p to 9:00p. Click here for coupon.
Sub Station II - Wednesday, December 15 from 5:00p to 8:00p

Ladies Night Out: Thank you to all who attended this year's Ladies Night Out. We hope that you enjoyed seeing old friends and making new ones. Congratulations to the four teachers who won makeovers from Salon Beck. You all looked marvelous! Thanks also to those who contributed to this year's event ensuring its success including: Sue Currie and the team at Salon Beck for the teacher make-over’s and wonderful spa services; Chuck McHale and McHale's Hospitality Group for the donation of the room; Dixie Novelty for the Beer Slide; Angie Otto for decorations; Jim Flood (our accountant); Jennifer Kopp for the wonderful "purse" cake; and our many male volunteers. Hope to see everyone next year.

Looking for a stocking stuffer? Check out the new St. Agnes spirit bracelets. They are in the school office. The cost is $6.00.

Free Babysitting: Notre Dame Academy NHS is planning to host a free event during which they will babysit so parents are able to shop for Christmas. This will take place on December 11 from 1:00 to 4:00. For more information, or to register, call Notre Dame Academy at 261-4300.

NDA/CCH “Babes in Toyland”: Click here for more information about the NDA/CCH play, “Babes in Toyland” that will be playing next weekend.

It's time for Season's Readings at the Kenton County Public Library! Beginning December 1st, children 12 and under can visit any Kenton County Public Library location and pick up a "Books are Snow Wonderful" book log (also available on our website). Read or listen to five books and return your log to the Library for a prize and raffle entry. Complete as many book logs as you like for more chances to win. All logs are due to the library by 5 pm on Friday, December 31, 2010.

Around Our School

Did you know… the seventh and eighth grade academic teams won their matches with IHM and the sixth grade won their match with St. Joseph, Cold Springs? Congratulations to all 3 teams!