February 12, 2010
Dear Parents,

Well, the second half of the school year has begun. As a type of midyear review, I thought it would be a good time to look at the changes we have undertaken at Holy Family School this year. Too often life gets so busy and complicated that we forget to reflect on our successes and just take them for granted. So, here goes!

• We began by hiring three new staff members, Suzanne Scafidi for the Early Childhood Program, Lisa Halsteter for first grade and Sarah Mahan for art.
• We focused on expanding our Early Childhood Program to a full time program, but still allowing parents the flexibility of half days and 3 day a week options. We worked on creating a curriculum that would academically challenge our students and still create an environment where they could refine their social skills.
• We purchased a new ELA series for our students in kindergarten through 5th grade, including textbooks, workbooks and leveled readers. This is allowing us to coordinate our curriculum from one grade level to the next.
• We purchased a new reading assessment tool and tested all our students in October, sharing the results with our parents. We are just concluding retesting those students that scored below grade level to see if the supports we put in place for them are effective. We will retest all of our students at the end of the school year.
• We remodeled the kindergarten and first grade rooms, adding cubbies and more useable storage areas.
• We added reading lofts in the first and third grade rooms.
• We purchased new tables and chairs for the Pre-Kindergarten, Kindergarten, and first and third grade classrooms for their learning centers. We also purchased new tables and chairs for our middle school social studies room.
• We purchased Smartboards for our kindergarten and first grade classrooms. Now all our classrooms on the main floor have Smartboards.
• We purchased 16 new computers to create computer centers in our elementary classrooms for student use, as well as additional computers for our computer lab.
• We changed our webpage and grading system to Edline and Grade Quick, providing our parents, staff and the entire school with a better system to communicate with each other.
• We painted the gym/stage area and the entrance way. We also installed new lighting and ceiling tiles in the entrance way and the hallway by the library.
• We instituted many energy efficient initiatives to conserve natural gas and electricity that we use to heat and provide lighting to our facility. Although there were upfront costs to these measures, the long-term savings should be significant.
• Additional outlets were installed in many of our classrooms.
• The main fire alarm system was inspected and a new alarm installed in the elementary wing.
• New lockers have just been installed for our middle school students.
• We are in the process of purchasing 12 new computers for our middle school classrooms for student use.

I’m sure I forgot to mention some additional changes we have instituted this year, but even I’m amazed with this list! We have accomplished a lot this year, but more improvements are on the horizon.


UPCOMING EVENTS

Friday, Feb. 12th Non-uniform Day – Box Tops Reward

Feb. 13th – 21st Winter Break – No School

Feb. 15th – 19th Kids Zone is Open