The Patriot Report – February 15th, 2019

Our staff for the past two days has been in attending the Catholic Educators Conference at the Pan Pacific Convention Center. Over 1000 Catholic educators gather to be formed in their professional and spiritual practice. It is always impressive to see the large number of support staff, teachers, and administrators that make our system what it is. I am grateful for the many colleagues I have worked with in the CISVA and for the shared mission we have in education. I am also grateful for the staff I currently work with. They care deeply about your children and they work very hard to provide an enriching educational experience that will form your children into the people that God intends them to be.

Come to our 4th annual winter orchestra concert on Monday, February 25th at 7:00pm in the gym.  The junior and senior orchestras, and some small groups, will play pieces in a variety of styles.  The performance will run about 30-40 minutes, followed by a reception.  All are welcome.

We have been fielding phone calls and emails inquiring into open spots at St. Jude School. In some of our classes we now have a waitlist. Please ensure that your re-registration documents are in on time otherwise your spot for next year could be given away to one of the families on the waitlist. Our Open House this past Wednesday was well attended, especially considering the snow. So please ensure that if you know of families considering Kindergarten at St. Jude for 2019-2020 that they pick up an application from the school office. 

St. Jude School cares about the safety of all users of our school building. It is important for our students’ safety that the doors downstairs remain closed and not wedged open, especially after hours. Please also ensure that the door downstairs shuts properly after opening it. A reminder that all visitors to the school need to come in through our main doors that face East 15th Ave and check in at the office.  

As an administrator it is my desire to always have school be in session. However, I cannot put students and staff at risk in the event that road conditions become treacherous. Our school is a commuter school in that the majority of our students are driven to the school and our staff comes from various neighbourhoods. This presents unique conditions for our school that must be considered when discerning whether to close the school due to weather.
The school will communicate a closure due to weather through the school website and through email using our MailChimp service as well as Remind. Please understand that the decision to close is never an easy decision and numerous factors are taken into consideration.

Parents are responsible for checking email and the website on cold weather days when snow is in the forecast. 

Catholic Schools Week was this past week and while we did have two snow days, we managed to have a very full Wednesday with Mass, Open House, and 100s day. The pictures above are of 3 students who show why they love Catholic school! Below are some pictures of the 100s day project for Kindergarten! What an amazing job our students (and parents) did on this combined project! They are on display in the hallway outside the classroom and I encourage parents to check them out. Congratulations Kindergarten on making it to day 100!