Crusader Chronicle

As I was thinking about this year's Catholic Schools Week, I was reflecting on the fact that I have spent the majority of my professional life in Catholic Education. I know that is also true of other members of the St. Ignatius staff, and I know that many of you have been immersed in Catholic Education for many years, as students when you were in school, in addition to the years you have invested as parents.

The Gospel reading today is from the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew. It is the best known passage from the Sermon on the Mount - the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes help us to know what God desires for us so that we can be blessed, so that we can be happy.

As we celebrate Catholic Schools Week, let us remember all the blessings of Catholic Education - not only faith, excellence, and service, but community, friendship, dedication, family, and God's ever present guidance. Let us remember that God sends us many signs, and those of us who are immersed in Catholic Education know that those signs are around us every day, in our classmates, in our teachers, in our prayers, and in our families. Let us pray this week that we will always be aware of the signs that God sends us through the people in our lives and the experiences that we have, and that we will listen with attentiveness to the many ways that God speaks to us and blesses us, each and every day.

Each day of Catholic Schools Week, we will highlight one saint who is connected to Catholic education. On Friday, January 27, we began our saint reflections with St. Thomas Aquinas, whose feast day was yesterday. This is what our students heard on Friday about St. Thomas Aquinas:

Saint Thomas Aquinas, who was born in the year 1225 and died in the year 1274, was an Italian Catholic philosopher and theologian. He is considered by the Catholic Church to be its greatest theologian, and he is one of the thirty-three Doctors of the Church. St. Thomas was a member of the Order of St. Dominic. He wrote many books and taught at different universities. He is the patron saint of students.

Here is a prayer that St. Thomas Aquinas wrote; please take a moment to say this prayer.

Grant me,

O Lord my God,

a mind to know you,

a heart to seek you,

wisdom to find you,

conduct pleasing to you,

faithful perseverance in waiting for you,

and a hope of finally embracing you. Amen.

Please be on the lookout for a short biography and a prayer for each of the saints that we are highlighting this Catholic Schools Week!

Catholic Schools Week is here! Thank you to the St. Ignatius Home and School and to the St. Ignatius Student Council, along with our faculty and staff, for their work in preparing for Catholic Schools Week.

Thank you to all of our families, faculty, and staff who joined in prayer at 5:15 Mass last night, and for all who enjoyed our Family Dinner last night as well. Thank you to all our faculty and staff, as well as our Student Council, who joined us for Open House today.

During this coming week, we will have events celebrating community, students, our nation, vocations, faculty/staff, and parents. Please see the Upcoming Dates section of this Weekly Update for more information.

Please join us on February 3 for this year's Handbag Bingo. See the flyer below for more information.

We are already planning for registration and class numbers for the 2023-2024 school year.

If you are a current family and are planning to register a new child from your family for the

2023-2024 school year, please contact Mrs. Crozier at hcrozier@sischool.org as soon as possible.

St. Ignatius usually switches to the winter uniform on November 1st. If your child has not already begun wearing the winter uniform, please have your child switch to the winter uniform.

Our Family Directory is complete! Thank you for updating your information. You can view and print a copy of the Family Directory by clicking on the file below.

Thank you to all the families who have already participated in our SchoolStore fundraiser!

Many of our teachers have received generous gift certificates from their students. If your family has not registered, there is still time, prizes are still available. Click the link below if you want to participate:

https://www.schoolstore.net/cgi/SetSchool?secheck=1&SchoolID=0000120009

6th Grade Honors Math has once again been running the on-campus school store. They will sell items from 8:30 am to 8:45 am daily. Items are $1.00 or under. Please send change when possible. Last year's store raised over $70. The money was used to buy new materials for the math classrooms.

Thank you for following the procedures for car drop off and car pick up.

If you need to pick up your son or daughter prior to regular dismissal time, please be sure to pick up no later than 2:15 pm, in order to keep all of our dismissals flowing smoothly.

Car drop off begins at 8 am. If you do not see a school staff member in the drop off area, please do not drop off your child or children and leave them outside the doors under the blue canopy; please wait until a staff member comes out and opens the doors.

For car drop off, please stay in the drop off line and do not drive around the car in front of you. Wait until the car in front of you pulls forward before you pull forward.

For car drop off, please do your best to make sure your child is ready to exit the car when you pull up and stop. Especially if you are the first car in line, please drive away once your child is out of the car and your car door is closed. This will help with the flow of traffic in the car drop off line.

For car pick up, please wait until the school staff member gives the signal for your line of cars to pull out and drive out of the parking lot before starting to drive away.

For Pre-K drop off and pick up, please follow the procedures, leaving the lanes with cones at the ends empty for parents to drive out once they have walked their Pre-K students to the Pre-K building. Please take extra care as you are driving, parking, and leaving after Pre-K drop off and pick up.

If you have someone dropping off or picking up your child that has not dropped off or picked up at St. Ignatius before, please inform them of the procedures so that there will be no issues.

Home and School Weekly Update:

The Home and School Association is thankful for all the parent support for all our recent events. Please mark your calendars for our upcoming events!

Volunteer Clearances

As a friendly reminder, any parent or guardian who would like to volunteer at our school and church events, MUST have up-to-date clearances on file with Jayne Marcinowski, the Safe Environment Coordinator, at the church rectory. She can be reached at hr@stignatius.church. The following link will take you to the Church Safe Environment website where you can follow instructions to obtain clearances.

http://www.stignatius.church/safe.html#more

We would like to thank Father Brownholtz, Mrs. Helene Crozier, and Mr. Meade for organizing our Catholic Schools Week Mass. It was so wonderful to have our school families come out to celebrate our Catholic School identify as a community to help begin Catholic Schools Week! Another big thank you goes out to Jaime Santoro and Clare Longino and their families for organizing a beautiful Family Dinner following Mass. Thank you to all of the volunteers who helped set up, serve dinner, and clean up. This night could not have happened without the wonderful volunteers who donated their time and effort. Finally, thank you to the Capuano Family and Carlucci's Grill for catering another fantastic meal!

LUNCH DUTY - REQUESTING ASSISTANCE

We are still in need of some assistance on several dates for lunch duty. Please note that we need FOUR (4) parents to volunteer on each and every day in order to cover both lunch periods. There are several days where we only have 1 or 2 parents signed up. Please see the Sign-Up Genius below and add your name where you can help. You will need current clearances in order to assist with Lunch Duty. We appreciate any and all help you can give!

SIS parents: Lunch Duty Jan/Feb (signupgenius.com)

FINAL CALL: WEEKLY PRETZEL SNACK

The Home and School Association is happy to offer the option to purchase a weekly pretzel snack for all interested students! For this order, the weekly pretzel snack will begin the week of February 6 and run through the week of May 29 (excluding Easter week), for a total of 16 weeks. Pretzels will be distributed on Thursday mornings of each week. Please note this is a fundraiser, with the money going back to support our children and St. Ignatius School! The cost of each pretzel is $1.00 for a total of $16.00 for the current offering.

ALL ORDERS MUST BE PLACED BY January 30, 2023! We need to pre-order, so there will be no late orders accepted!

Please Note: pretzels will be purchased from Philadelphia Pretzel Factory in Langhorne.

2023 Soft Pretzel Orders (Round 2) (google.com)

7th and 8th GRADE DANCE - FEBRUARY 10

The Home and School Association will hold a Winter Semi-Formal Dance for 7th and 8th grade students on Friday, February 10. The dance will be held in the school cafeteria from 7:30 PM to 10 PM, with students invited to attend a post dance get together at Villa Rosa. Please see the attached flyer for further details. A Google Form will be available in the coming week for registration purposes. Please keep an eye out for the registration form this week.

*** Please note that 4 chaperones are needed for the dance, and 5 chaperones are needed for Villa Rosa. We are also in need of volunteers for set-up and clean-up. Please consider donating the gift of your time to help us make this event a success for the kids.***

There is a Sign-Up Genius below where you can volunteer to donate refreshments, as well as donate your time as a chaperone.

St. Ignatius School 7th and 8th Grade Dance: St. Ignatius 7th/8th Grade Winter Dance (signupgenius.com)

If you have any questions, please contact our chair, Bridget Schmitz.

OPEN GYM NIGHTS - SAVE THE DATE!

The Home and School Association is happy to announce that we will be holding Open Gym Nights for our younger students in Kindergarten through 5th grade! Please save the following dates on your calendar as follows. Please note that there is no need to register in advance, and payment will be taken at the door.

FEBRUARY 17 - Grades 3-5 from 6 PM to 8 PM

FEBRUARY 24 - Grades K-2 from 6PM to 8 PM (Please see attached flyer for further details)

If you are interested and able to volunteer with these events, please contact Kelly Capuano for grades 3 to 5 (kpcapuano@gamil.com) or Jillian O'Hara for grades K to 2

(Jillian.ohara1883@gmail.com)

Monday, January 30, is Catholic Schools Week Celebrate Community Day. Prayer buddies will join together for our Sock Cupcake Service Project.

Tuesday, January 31, is Catholic Schools Week Celebrate Students Day. All students will have a free dress down day on Tuesday. Home and School will be providing all students a hot dog lunch, and after lunch, all students will enjoy an afternoon assembly with the Harlem Wizards.

Tuesday, January 31, is our next Class Mass. Grade 6 will join the St. Ignatius parishioners at the 9:00 am Mass.

Wednesday, February 1, is Catholic Schools Week Celebrate the Nation Day. Students will have a $1 Red/White/Blue Dress Down Day. All money collected will be donated to a veteran organization.

Thursday, February 2, is Catholic Schools Week Celebrate Vocations Day. Home and School will be providing a lunch for our faculty and staff.

Thursday, February 2, is our next School Mass. All of our students from PreK-4 through 8th grade will join the St. Ignatius parishioners at the 9:00 am Mass. We will celebrate our January Student Award winners at the end of Mass that day.

Friday, February 3, is Catholic Schools Week Celebrate Faculty, Staff, and Volunteers Day. Homeroom parents have coordinated a special mid-morning snack for students for this day. Prayer buddies will join together to make appreciation cards, and we will have an early dismissal half day. PreK will be dismissed at 11:45 am, and all other grades will be dismissed between 12:10 pm (bus dismissal) and 12:30 pm (car dismissal).

Friday, February 3, is the date for this year's Handbag Bingo. Please see the information at the beginning of the School News Section of this newsletter for more information.

Friday, February 10, is the date for the 7th and 8th Grade Winter Semi-Formal Dance. Please see the Home and School Update section for more information.

Friday, February 17, is an Open Gym Night for Grades 3-5. Please see the Home and School Update section for more information.

Monday, February 20, is a school holiday for Presidents Day. There will be no school that day.

Friday, February 24, is an Open Gym Night for Grades K-2. Please see the Home and School Update section for more information.

St. Ignatius of Antioch School has developed and maintains an Asbestos Inspection and Management Plan as required by the Asbestos Emergency Response Act of 1986 (AHERA). A copy of the plan is available for your inspection at the rectory office during regular office hours.

Inquiries regarding the plan should be directed to Acer Associates (856-809-1202), the

school's asbestos consultant.

If you have not already taken care of it, please check the school website for Medical Records and Immunizations, under the Parents Tab, for the new school year. The Pennsylvania State law requirements are explained there, and the medical forms are linked for those who may still need them. Please be sure to complete all immunizations and dental examinations required for your child's grade level.

For those of you who need to leave medications at school for your children, please complete the forms from the Health Office. Please bring the medication with the completed forms to the Health Office. See the Health Office Aide or the nurse (Wednesdays only) for more information.

Please check the school website (sischool.org) for updated documents (2022-2023 School Handbook, Responsible Use Policy for Technology, etc.) and for accompanying parent and student signature forms. Please return signed forms as soon as possible. Signature forms are attached here as well.

Save the Date!

Thursday, February 16, 2023 – 7:00pm

Event: Walking with Purpose LIVE with Lisa Brenninkmeyer

Join us for Walking with Purpose LIVE with Founder and Chief Purpose Officer, Lisa Brennkmeyer as she shares her talk Strong Yet Tender: Building Resilience in an Age of Trauma. Are you tired of feeling untethered and overwhelmed? Most of our families are experiencing anxiety, woundedness, and stress. But that does not need to be your story. Come and see how, through God’s help, you can build resilience in an age of trauma. Every woman is welcome!

Presenter: Lisa Brenninkmeyer, Founder and Chief Purpose Officer, Walking with Purpose

Location: St. Joseph Parish, 340 Manor Ave, Downingtown, PA 19335

More info: Registration opens 6 weeks prior to the event; More details at Save the Date!

Thursday, February 16, 2023 – 7:00pm

Event: Walking with Purpose LIVE with Lisa BrenninkmeyerJoin us for Walking with Purpose LIVE with Founder and Chief Purpose Officer, Lisa Brennkmeyer as she shares her talk Strong Yet Tender: Building Resilience in an Age of Trauma. Are you tired of feeling untethered and overwhelmed? Most of our families are experiencing anxiety, woundedness, and stress. But that does not need to be your story. Come and see how, through God’s help, you can build resilience in an age of trauma. Every woman is welcome!

Presenter: Lisa Brenninkmeyer, Founder and Chief Purpose Officer, Walking with Purpose

Location: St. Joseph Parish, 340 Manor Ave, Downingtown, PA 19335

More info: Registration opens 6 weeks prior to the event; More details at https://walkingwithpurpose.com/event/wwp-live-with-lisa-brenninkmeyer-2/

Please see the flyer below - St. Ignatius of Antioch Parish is looking for more adult volunteers to help with the Children's Liturgy of the Word on Sundays. Please prayerfully consider this opportunity and help the children of our parish learn about the readings at Mass each week.

The St. Ignatius of Antioch Boy Scout Troop 230 is recruiting new members. Please consider this great opportunity! See the flyer below for more information.

Please click on the link for information about the Cub Scouts and upcoming events.

https://pack230.org/