Principal's Update Thursday, June 4, 2009

Principal's Update Thursday, June 4, 2009

Thursday, June 4, 2009               

Congratulations Kindergarten Graduates
We congratulate our Kindergarten students, who were honored at their graduation last night.  We are very proud of our graduates and their families, and of all of the teachers and staff who worked with them along the way.

LIFETEEN IS COLLECTING USED BACKPACKS
LIFE TEEN is collecting Used BACKPACKS in good condition that will be filled with school supplies and donated to our children of Catholic Charities of San Jose.  This summer 3 of our St. Simon  High School Girls will volunteer on the San Jose Justice Awareness Immersion Week Aug. 3 - 7. Students will be involved in assisting with various Catholic Charities sites including serving &  making meals at homeless shelters, working with low-income children, the Day Worker Center, the Senior Center and food distribution sites. Your Backpack donations can be brought to the Rectory or placed in the collection box in the Vestibule of the Church.  Questions:   Call LIFE TEEN     650-967-8311  X 31.

SAVE THE DATE: "T.G.I.F." Fall Parish Wide BBQ: Friday, August 28th!
Come ONE, Come ALL to the "Welcome Back From Summer Fall BBQ"!     Friday, August 28th!

Thank you from the 2nd Grade Brownies
The final pennies counts are in! The 2nd grade brownies would like to thank all of the kids, teachers and staff who donated pennies to our Pennies for Peace drive at the January and March Wednesday Masses.  The girls collected a whopping 26,000 pennies ($260) throughout the year, with the St. Simon community contributing $145.33 of that total. Thank you for helping our girls contribute to building schools in the remotest regions of Pakistan.

BOX TOPS FOR EDUCATION
Thanks for making this a great year. We collected a total of 8832 box tops.  We are ranked 100 out of 698 schools in the area.
The winners for May and free dress are:
Grade 1 Room 8 and Grade 8 Room 16
The winners for the Year and free dress are:
Grade 3 Room 5 (total collected 988)  and Grade 6 Room 13 (total collected 1093)
Please keep clipping all summer!   Thank you Grace Papoulias for coordinating Box Tops for Education.

Summertime fun - NASA Moonfest - July 19
Moonfest is a family-oriented celebration of NASA's history of  Moon  Exploration and commemorates the 40th anniversary of the first moon  walk.  It will be held from noon to 6:00 pm on July 19, 2009 at NASA  Ames Research Center.  Admission is free!  Activities will include:  presentations by NASA lunar scientists, interactive exhibits, games  for kids of all ages, family activities, Q&A with NASA scientists,  robot demonstrations and entertaining performances.  The event is hosted by the NASA Lunar Science Institute and the LCROSS (Lunar  Crater Observation Sensing Satellite) Mission Team.   More information can be found at
http://lcross.arc.nasa.gov/ and by contacting Liza Coe  650-255-9506.  See you there!

FAQ:  Next Year’s Placement
At this time of year we are asked how children are placed in classes for the upcoming school year.  Here is the process that is used at St. Simon School:
-  Each teacher ranks the students in the class, taking into account each child’s academic skills and overall strengths and areas of improvement.
-  The class is divided into two balanced lists, and then the two teachers combine their lists so that children from each homeroom are mixed together into new homerooms.
-  The lists are checked to make sure that the new classes are evenly balanced with boys and girls and a good mix of personalities and abilities.
-  The lists are then given to the principal, who decides which teacher in the upcoming grade will have each of the classes.
Please note that parent requests for particular teachers are not taken, so we respectfully request that you do not ask teachers or administration for an appointment to request a particular teacher.  We trust that you will respect our professionalism, our experience, and the policies of the school.  Class lists will be available on Thursday, August 20th.

Prayer Corner
Please pray for the repose of the soul of Brian Hegarty, Vice Principal of St. Clare School.