St. Agnes School
Family Newsletter
May 25, 2011

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.

Spiritwear Day Tomorrow: Students may wear a St. Agnes spiritwear shirt/sweatshirt with gym uniform pants/shorts or regular uniform pants/shorts tomorrow.

Kindergarten Commencement: Our kindergarten class had their commencement ceremony today at 1:00 in church. What a joy to watch them! They are now big first graders! Congratulations to all!!!

Graduation: After nine years at St. Agnes School for most of our eighth graders, we will have eighth grade graduation this evening at 7 pm. We are proud of our eighth grade class and will miss them at St. Agnes. We want to congratulate each of them and their parents. We will be hearing great things about them in the future. Congratulations from all of us at St. Agnes School!!!

St. Agnes Summer Reading: All students at St. Agnes School entering grades 1 through 8 will be expected to participate in our Summer Reading Program. Click here to get an explanation of the incoming first grade program. Students going into grades 2 through 8 are required to read age appropriate books and pass an Accelerated Reader test on those books. Suggest that your child choose books they enjoy…fiction, mystery, and biography, whatever they like. Students must also read the number of books listed below, as well as the point goal for their incoming grade. Here is the list of books/points needed for each incoming grade:

2nd grade: Must read at least 2 books……and earn at least 1 point
3rd grade: Must read at least 2 books……and earn at least 2 points
4th grade: Must read at least 2 books……and earn at least 4 points
5th grade: Must read at least 2 books……and earn at least 6 points
6th grade: Must read at least 2 books……and earn at least 12 points
7th/8th grade: Must read at least 1 book……and earn at least 15 points

Any age appropriate book is acceptable. The summer reading lab schedule will be posted online soon and will be in next week’s newsletter. Happy Reading!

Tutoring Forms: Today some students will be bringing home recommendation forms for summer tutoring. Email or call us if you have questions. Please return the bottom of the forms to the homeroom teacher.

Used Uniform Sale: The Used Uniform Sale is Wednesday, June 1 from 6 to 8 pm in the school cafeteria. If you have uniforms to sell, please bring small bills or change for those buying. If you want to donate uniforms, send them to the school office before June 1. All students may wear gym uniforms from May 31 through June 3.

Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope: Don’t forget to send a self-addressed, stamped envelope for your child’s report card. They will be mailed after school is out.

Outstanding Lunch Balances: Please make sure that you are current on your child’s school lunch accounts. All accounts must be current before the end of school. Any balance on your child’s lunch account will carry over to next year. If you have questions, please contact Mary Fischer at cafeteria@saintagnes.com.  Prices for school lunches will rise to $2.00 next year. Thank you.

Thanks for the Wildcat Bash: What fun we had last Friday at the Wildcat Bash!!! Thank you so much to all who helped, worked, came and supported the event in any way. It was so much fun. Special thanks to those who worked hours and organized the day! The students and teachers thank you!!!

PTO News:

Market Day: Our June sale is Tuesday, June 7 at 5:30 in the cafeteria. Order cutoff is Thursday, June 2. For July we are going to try something new this year. We will be having what is called a truck sale. On Tuesday, July 19 at 5:30 the Market Day truck will be in the church parking lot for order pickup. We will not be using the cafeteria; rather all orders will be packed and ready to go off the truck. The truck will only be there from 5:30-6:00. All orders that are not picked up will go back with the truck. It might be a good idea to prepay for your order. That way if you don’t think you can make it to pick up your order, you can send someone else to get it for you. Order cutoff for our July sale is July 14. We’ll remind everyone who orders of the new procedure when the time comes.

Faith for Generations capital campaign –

Commitment Weekend – Thank you to all who attended Masses during Commitment Weekend to show support for the campaign and appreciation to all parishioners who support our school! If you were unable to attend, please submit your pledge card to the parish office by mail, in person during business hours, or in the collection basket.

Report of Preliminary Pledge Total – We have begun the follow-up stage of our Faith for Generations campaign, which involves quite a bit of work yet. The next number we report will be the preliminary total. This preliminary total is reported to the Diocese who rightly keeps up with how we are doing and assists us, so we want to make sure we have as many pledges reported as possible. We will give ourselves a few weeks to finish collecting and calculating pledges; you can plan to hear a preliminary total announced during Masses and on the parish website www.saintagnes.com  in mid-June.

Please Pray for Our Success: Please continue to pray for the success of our Faith for Generations campaign as we enter the follow-up stage.

Board of Education News:

Service Hours: Thanks for volunteering! If you have forgotten to enter your time for things like:
1) Attending New Family Orientation night or any school related meetings (PTO, Boosters, or the Capital Campaign),
2) Helping with the Parish Homecoming, Big Blue Bash, or Market Day,
3) Coaching,
4) Classroom helper, or 5) Virtus training / reading bulletins,
it's not too late to update your hours in the school website, My Service Hours. May 31 is the last day for service hours for this school year, June 1 is the beginning on the 2011-2012 school year. Any questions, contact Dorothy Hafertepen.

Save the date - September 18, 2011: Get out your calendars! The 2nd Annual Smiles & Miles 5K Honoring Maria Schaffstein will be Sunday, September 18, 2011. We were humbled and proud of the support from our St. Agnes families supporting the Smiles & Miles 5K. Tonight, John and Eileen Schaffstein will award four graduating 8th graders scholarships with money raised from last year's event. We thank you for your support!

School Belles Uniform Ordering Information: Here is a copy of the School Belles uniform information for the 2011-2012 school year. http://www.schoolbelles.com/myschool/M37/S1947  Just go to the website and click “ST. AGNES SCHOOL: Your 2011 Schoolbelles School Dress Code” at the top right side of the page.

Around Our School

Good Deeds: Three of our seventh grade girls selflessly and secretly gave up their tickets from Wildcat Bash. They put Elizabeth Smith's name on all their tickets and put them in the bike bag hoping Elizabeth would win the bike! She did!!!! And everyone cheered!!! How nice! A big thanks goes out to Caroline Fedders, Hannah Talkers, and Hannah Colvin. That is what St. Agnes School is all about!

A Message from the Smith Family:
Dear St. Agnes family,
We are so grateful to know such good-hearted people like you to share life's journey. Thank you for the many blessings you have given to our family. Your thoughtfulness, kindness and support is beyond words. We appreciate everything and thank you from the bottom of our hearts. God Bless You, Darrell, Tina, Alex, Nick, Logan and Elizabeth Smith.

Congratulations! Several of our second grade students played in their first soccer tournament this past weekend. They played extremely well and made their coaches and parents proud. They won the ISC U8 Girls “Springtagular” tournament in Independence. Players were Lauren Carothers, Iris Schuh, Josie Lawrie, Addie Middendorf, Maddie Broering, Michaela Summe, and Sarah Witt. Here is a link to the results: http://www.iscsoccer.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=oG4O8FUXxoA%3d&tabid=149005&mid=166284