Saint Agnes School
Family Newsletter
September 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.

It was so nice seeing so many of you at the Back to School Night for parents of students in grades one through six last evening. Thanks for coming!
It has been a good beginning. Students are working, teachers are working…all is running smoothly in our second week of school. Help us pray for a relief of this heat. The students are doing well in spite of it. Students may continue to wear gym uniforms until further notice.
If you need something, or have questions, email the school office at office@saintagnes.com or myself at lgroh@saintagnes.com.  
Enjoy the holiday weekend! Back to School Night for parents of students in grades seven and eight is Tuesday, September 7th. I hope all can come.

Forms: Thank you to all those who sent in their forms. If you haven’t done so, please send them in tomorrow. We need emergency forms for every family. If you wish to apply for free and reduced lunches, the forms are due September 7th. Do them now. Today we will be sending more forms:

• Catholic Social Services concerning our counseling services;
• Photo, video, website release form;
• Market Day information;
• Box Tops Challenge information;
• Yearbooks to those who ordered them last school year.

Thank You!!! The Kluemper children (Kayla, Ray and Ella) and the Carothers children (Lauren and Lindsey) and a friend, Andrea Little had a lemonade stand this summer and donated all their profits to St. Agnes School. Thank you!! What a nice thing to do!!

Heat Emergency Schedule: We are trying to get through one full week of school without special schedules. It is uncomfortable in the classrooms, but we are making it. This week there will be no heat emergency change of schedule. I hope the relief that the weathermen are promising does come. If we reach these temperatures in the next few weeks, it may be necessary to use our heat emergency schedule. That schedule is as follows:
7:00 School doors open
School hours 7:15 – 1:00 with lunch served.
Kindergarten schedule: AM – 7:15 to 10:00 PM – 10:30 to 1:00
Bus schedules will be adjusted and will run.
We will always announce a heat emergency schedule by email, phone and/or through the students. We are hoping there won’t be a need, but we will see.

Handbook: The 2010-2011 Parent-Student Handbook is now available online. Please click here for the handbook, read it over and discuss it with your children and sign and return the Handbook Acceptance Form by Friday, September 10th. There are several changes this year, so please be sure you and your children are familiar with our procedures and policies.

Overwhelmed with Emails from the New School Website? You can change your email settings! Log into your account on the school site, click “My Account” on the left side menu. At the top of your grey panel, click “Notifications” and then “Edit your notification settings.” Scroll all the way to the bottom where it says “Messaging and Notification Settings.” This is where you can change your settings to how often you want to receive email updates from our website (immediately, every hour, twice a day, daily, or weekly). If you are set to receive emails immediately, you will get an update as soon as a teacher updates their web page. If you set it to daily, you will get a one email each day with a summary of all changes that day. Please set this according to the best choice for you.

New Cafeteria Payment System: We are pleased to introduce a new program call e-Funds for Schools. This program offers various options for parents who choose to make payments on-line and is extremely user friendly. Not only will you have the ability to have various school fees and lunch payments electronically withdrawn from your checking account, you also have the flexibility to make a payment at any time through the school's website. Of course, you may continue to send in money to the school office, if you prefer this method of paying for lunch, bus, etc.
The e-Funds for Schools service is offered to you by a third party service provider and charges for processing your payment(s), similar to other on-line banking services. There is a $1.00 transaction convenience fee for each electronic checking payment that you make. The system carries a Non-Sufficient Funds (NSF) charge if the payment is “bad.”
You are in full control of your account and can make a payment at any time that is convenient for you. No payments will be allowed without your knowledge and authorization through this secure payment system. By providing your home and/or work email address, an email notification informing you of the student’s name, purpose of the payment, and the amount of the item will be sent to you each time that a payment is to be processed. The e-Funds for School site is secure and uses industry standard data encryption.
How does e-Funds for Schools work?
• Families set up and maintain their own logins, passwords, and payment preferences. Your account information is retained in a password-protected file. (Student ID=student’s lunch number. You may add all your children to one account.)
• e-Funds For Schools will help to eliminate last minute check writing hassles, improve efficiencies, and help cut costs for both you and the school
• On-line payments will help eliminate the worry that your children could lose or forget the money intended for school items or that it might be spent on other non-school related items.
• Payments from a checking account may easily be set up.
• Parents/guardians may establish a reoccurring payment or may opt to make a one-time payment.
• The program offers various types of payments to families that include but are not limited to bus passes ($10 each), registration fees, and of course food service payments. The system may be expanded to include other fees as well.
• Your payment history for the year is available with a click of the mouse
Go to our school website, click on Parent and Student Portal, and click on the cafeteria page. You can visit Lunchbox (to view your child’s daily lunch activity) or eFunds (to add money to your child’s account). If you have any questions, please contact the cafeteria at cafeteria@saintagnes.com.  Thank you!

Website Help 101: Are you confused by the new website? Don’t know where to find things? Need help learning how to navigate? I’m offering classes to help with just the basics of our new web site. These sessions should last about 30 minutes plus time for questions. The classes will be offered at the following times, so choose one that best fits your schedule:

 I hope these will be helpful in answering any questions you may have about the site. There is also be a help guide posted online (thank you Phil for creating that!) that will answer many of your questions. No need to RSVP, just come if you are interested! Thanks! Monica Wainscott (mwainscott@saintagnes.com)

• Friday, September 3rd after the all-school Mass (approx. 9:30 a.m.) in the computer lab
• Wednesday, September 8th at 8:00 a.m. in the computer lab
•  

Thursday, September 9th at 6:00 p.m. (Come for the web class, stay for the PTO meeting at 7:00 if you’d like!)

2009/2010 Yearbooks: Yearbooks are in and will be going home today with the students who ordered one last school year. If you do not get yours and feel you ordered one, please contact the school office at office@saintagnes.com.  We do have some extras. If you did not order and are interested in purchasing one they are $21.00. You can send your request to the school office.

Board of Education News:
The Board of Education thanks the St. Agnes Parish, Parish Council, and Frs. Keene and Wigger for substantial financial support to the school as a primary parish mission. The Parish gave more than $400,000 to St. Agnes School last year offsetting costs which would otherwise fall to parents. The best thanks we, as parents, can give the parish is to attend Sunday Mass as a family.
The Board thanks the 173 families who completed a school survey at the end of the school year. Results were studied and shared with administration and teachers. The Board welcomes your continuing input at the September 14, 2010, Board meeting at 7:00 in the school library. To make a formal presentation, the Diocese requires you to notify Board Chairman Todd Berling (todd@hmb-a.com) by September 9, but all are welcome to attend the meeting.

PTO News:
Welcome Back! Welcome back to another GREAT year at St. Agnes! I would like to extend a warm welcome to all new families and students! We are very excited to kick off another year for the PTO, and are always looking for new and old faces to join us! We have plenty of opportunities to earn service hours as well as ways to support this great school! I encourage all of you to find how you can help the PTO and our school. We have lots to choose from, Magazine Drive that kicks off this week as well as Box Tops for education and our monthly Market Day just to name a few! Please join us for our meeting next Thursday September 9 at 7pm in the school library to learn even more. We are in the process of getting the PTO web page up and running, I invite you to subscribe to the PTO link so you stay up to date! Please feel free to contact me with questions! Heather Teller hteller@fuse.net

Magazine Drive: The Magazine Drive kick-off is tomorrow, Thursday. Look for the information coming home with the students.

GAME ON!!! It is time for the ST. AGNES BOX TOP WAR!!!!! Clip those box tops off all participating products, put them in a bag and send them with your child to their homeroom teacher. We will kick off the box top war this week; the last turn in day for the fall will be Monday October 18. The classroom envelopes will be collected, Box Tops counted, and the winning classroom will be announced along with their prize date and time. The classroom that collects the most will win a snack and drink along with an added 15-20 minute break on the prize day! Click here for a link to participating products, you can find them everywhere!!! Good Luck.....get clipping!!

365 Lotto: Join us this Sunday September 5 after 9:30 mass at donut Sunday for the BIG drawing!! Will this be your lucky month? Come and find out! Only four more months to win in the 2010 year!

Room Parents: If you would like to be a room parent or homeroom helper, please click on the link here and KidMail to Aimee Dickhaus c/o Ben 2W by this Friday, September 3. This is a great opportunity to help out in the classroom! If you have any questions, please contact Aimee at ddickhaus@yahoo.com  - thanks!

Skyline Eat Out Night: Join us on Tuesday, Sept. 7th for St. Agnes Skyline Chili Night at the Ft. Wright Skyline from 5:00p to 9:00p. Please click here to print the coupons. If you forget to bring them, tell the cashier that you are there to support St. Agnes School. We will receive 10% of the night's sales. Thanks for your support!

Market Day: Time is running out! Last day to place your order is tomorrow, Thursday the 2nd! Pickup is on Tuesday, September the 7th at 5:30 in the cafeteria. Order forms are coming home today. I wanted to thank everyone for supporting our Summer Sales. Now we’re ready to dive into Fall! For those that are new to ordering from Market Day and are unsure of what to buy, try the Chicken Steaks. They are great in a pinch! Each piece is individually wrapped so you can control your portions. Pair this with the Market Day broccoli and you have a wonderful nutritious meal for the family.  (www.marketday.com)
This month they have a few specials:

• Purchase 3 qualifying items and receive 2 FREE Chalkboard Storage Bins. (Great teacher Christmas gift idea!)
• Spend $80 and receive a FREE Apple Pie (Yummy!)
• Frequent Buyer Program is Back! Spend $40 twice (Sep-Oct or Nov) and $40 in Dec and receive a FREE Picnic Basket.
• If placing an online order, add code MDNF1 to receive to receive $1 off!
• Special Web only clearance items: Autumn Sprinkles $2.50! Great for kid cookies. ALSO! Gingerbread Boys $8.99! They come in a cute tin and make wonderful holiday gifts.

Bible Study: This fall we will read Luke’s Acts of the Apostles. The text itself does not require a lot of interpretation to understand, but probably raises more questions of application: “All who believed were together and held everything in common; they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one’s need” (Acts 2:44f). We will use the Collegeville Bible Commentary and Study Guide from the Little Rock Scripture Studies Series. We will meet for 10 weeks, beginning Wednesday, September 8th and finishing November 10th. We meet at 12:30 p.m. or 7 p.m. for approximately 90 minutes in the Rectory Conference Room. Cost for materials, etc., will be $15. Bob Gerth, Adult Faith Formation Director, will lead the sessions. Call 431-1802 or e-mail bgerth@saintagnes.com  for more info or to register. Service Hours Eligible

First Grade Daisy Scouts: There will be a parent meeting next Friday the 10th after school in Murphy hall for 1st grade parents to come and sign their daughter up and fill out paperwork. It should not last more than a half an hour. We will talk about frequency of meetings at that time. Normal daisy meetings will be Friday after school. I have received interest forms for 7 girls so far and would love those parents to attend as well as any others who may be interested. Any questions please call Amy Geiger at 647-0618. Can't wait to get started and meet our new troop!

Help a Neighboring School:  St. Joseph School in Crescent Springs has been working since April to earn enough votes in the Pepsi Refresh Grant Contest to get $25,000 for new computers. Please help them by logging on the following and voting for their school. You can vote as many times as you want. The vote is open until the end of September. They will appreciate it….and maybe they will help us out sometime. Go to: www.refresheverything.com/stjosephschoolcomputers.  

Silverlake After School Program: Transportation is now available from St. Agnes to Silverlake after half day kindergarten and after school. Contact Stephanie Gregg for more information at 426-7777 ext 41 or email sgregg@silverlake.com.  Silverlake is offering a new Springboard Diving Program. All levels, ages 6 and up are invited to participate. Contact Silverlake at 426-7777 or Joanne Glass at jglass@fbtlaw.com  if interested.