Good afternoon SMS Families!
We are off and running on 2026, and it has been great to see all of our friends this week and get back into the routine. This week at morning prayer, we read from the Gospel of Luke and talked about how the shepherds "made haste" to go see Jesus after His birth was revealed to them, and we contemplated, "do we make haste to go to or turn to Jesus in our lives?" We also read from the First Letter of John and reflected on this passage, " Those who say I love God, and hate a brother or sister are liars". We talked about how hypocritical it is to call ourselves followers of Jesus Christ, but also treat each other as poorly as we do sometimes. Being a Christian is more than just saying we are, to be in "the club". As Scripture says, they will know we are Christians by our love.
This week, as we begin Ordinary Time in the liturgical year, we will read Luke, chapter 2, Mark Chapter 1, and from Acts, chapter 10. I encourage all of our families to read Scripture together as a family daily!
This coming week, we will conduct our winter assessments. K-1 will take the AimsWeb, and 2-8 will take the MAP assessment. Again, please avoid scheduling appointments and unnecessary absences. I would also remind you, that these assessments are used mostly to help drive instruction for us as a staff, by being a diagnostic, helping us know where our focus needs to be to help each of our students. To do this we need an accurate snapshot, so it is important that everyone does their best, however, there is no reason for anyone to have test anxiety, as these tests have no bearing on grades, or anything like that.
Other than testing, there will not be too much else out of the ordinary next week as far as the schedule goes, but there is a lot in the coming weeks that you should put n your radar:
Jan 19- We will be out of school in observation of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Day
Jan 21- Our 8th grade students will travel by bus to Southern Hills Career and Technical Center in Georgetown. 8th grade parents, please fill out the permission slip eform on OptionC.
Catholic Schools Week (January 25-30)
We are asking that parents send in $10 per child to help with expenses for Catholic Schools Week activities. (bowling, transportation, etc) THANK YOU!
Jan 25- Open House- Students are encouraged to wear uniforms to Mass on Sunday. Open House will take place at the school from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm.
Jan 26- We will celebrate our students by going bowling at Town and Country Bowling Lanes in Aberdeen. Students will get to bowl a few games, and popcorn and drinks will be provided. Students will not be permitted to purchase extra food at the bowling alley. Permission slips for ALL STUDENTS are available in eforms on your OptionC account.
Jan 27- Our 8th grade students will travel to the Cathedral in Cincinnati for the Catholic Schools Week Mass. This is a great tradition, as we join students from all over the Archdiocese. We will go out to eat afterward. 8th grade parents please see the permission slip in your eforms in OptionC
Jan 28- The 1st and 2nd Grade will be visiting Greenacres to learn about the maple syrup making process. Permission slips are available via eforms on OptionC.
Jan 29- The 3rd, 4th and 5th Grades will be visiting Greenacres to learn about the maple syrup making process. Permission slips are available via eforms on OptionC.
Jan 29- We are in charge of the community soup supper. Students will be helping prepare soup and sandwiches throughout the day at the Methodist Church. If anyone would like to help in the evening at the soup supper please let us know. This year, we believe we have all of the ingredients accounted for, we just need our families to donate some desserts. Desserts for the soup supper should be dropped off at the school on Wednesday, January 28.
Jan 30- We will celebrate our staff, by providing a meal for our staff and a lunch period to take the time to eat. If anyone would like to donate a dessert or if any of our Safe Parish approved volunteers would be able to come in to help with lunch or recess duty for the day please shoot me an email and we will set that up. Thanks in advance.
Registration for the 2026-27 school year will open on January 25. Registration forms are available now on our website, or can be picked up in the school office. All returning families must complete a registration form and pay the registration fee of $300. Registration fees will be waived if you sell 30 SMS $10K Giveaway tickets.
Parents can also begin the scholarship application process as well. I posted a story about that earlier this week with all the information you will need. Don't hesitate to ask if you have questions or need help. We have already had a few turned in. Ideally, we will have scholarship renewals in by mid February.
Please don't forget before you file your taxes to consider helping SMS students with tuition with your tax dollars through the Scholarship Granting Organization. I reminder about that process can be found here. I have had many people over the past few weeks asking me about this, and to be sure it could be a game changer, allowing our supporters to send their tax money to SMS instead of the state. If you have not yet, please check this out, and let me know if you have any questions.
Finally, thanks to everyone who have been working so hard on our fundraisers. If you have not yet purchased your ticket or donated to the SMS Gala, please consider doing so. There is a lot of work being done behind the scenes to make this a fun night for our families and supporters. Thanks also to everyone who has been selling $10K tickets. We have collected about $5,000 so far, and have a long way to go. We still have about a month until the first fish fry, but just wanted to remind everyone to get their tickets sold! Thanks for all you do for SMS. When we come together for our children, we do great things!