Hello SMS Families!
We aren't even to THAT time of year yet, but things really seem to be speeding up. There is a lot going on, so be prepared, there will be a lot of important information in this email, that all of our parents should know.
To make up for last week's miss of "Celebrating Our Student's" Day for Catholic School's Week, ON MONDAY we will be going bowling in shifts as we had planned to do last week. Students may wear spiritwear. Students will receive popcorn and a drink at the bowling alley. If you have not sent in the $10 for CSW expenses, please do so. Students should not bring additional money to the bowling alley. We are in talks with Greenacres about make up dates for the Maple Syrup field trips for grades K-5.
Registration for the 2026-27 school year is officially open. We had open house today, and have several new applications. It is extremely important that we get all of our registrations in asap so we can plan for next year. Forms can be found here, and we only need one form filled out per family. If you need us to print one for you and send it, just let us know and we will be happy to do that. The registration fee is $300, which will be waived if you sell at least 30 tickets for the SMS $10K giveaway. I will extend that deadline until the first fish fry which is February 20.
Speaking of tickets, we started out hot, and it slowed a little. We have collected about 400 tickets so far with a goal of 2500, so we have a long way to go, and drawings begin in 3 weeks. Please start working on those if you haven't yet. Each family is required to sell at least the original ten that we sent you in November, but if you sell 30, your registration fee for next year will be waived. Remember, these fundraisers help us keep tuition where it is, which is easily the most affordable of any Catholic School in Cincinnati.
The deadline for purchasing tickets to the SMS Gala is this Monday, February 2 at noon, as the Gala is a week away! This is going to be an awesome event, that all SMS supporters should attend. Thanks to everyone who has donated, sponsored, or organize this. Again to purchase tickets, you can do so online here, or call the parish office on Monday morning, or you can even contact me if that works best for you.
Please remember that scholarship applications are due as well. If you currently receive the scholarship, you only need to turn in a renewal application for each child and a utility bill. If you are applying for the first time, you need to turn in a request application, utility bill and birth certificate then complete the online income verification. It is vital that all of our students who are eligible apply. This scholarship can be worth up to $6,166 per child. Everything you need can be found here, or in the school office.
As we get into tax season, please don't forget that you can use your tax dollars to directly benefit SMS. You can essentially choose to send your state tax money to SMS where you and your child benefit, or send it to the state and who knows where it goes. It's a no brainer. We should all be doing it, and encouraging everyone we know to do it as well. I just did it last week. It's not hard. For more information click here or call me and ask me about it, and ask your tax person as well to make sure you are eligible.
First Reconciliation for our 2nd grade students is Tuesday, February 10 from 6:00-7:00 at St. Michael.
Please put on your radar, Thursday, February 19. We will have parent teacher conferences. Signups will be in next week's newsletter. As usual we will dismiss at 12:30 that day and conferences will be from 1:00-6:00.
There will be no school the following day, however that is February 20 which is the first fish fry. We will also have signups in next week's newsletter for that. We ask that every family sign up to work at least 3 shifts over the course of the six weeks. Again, our fundraisers directly benefit your family. It is essential that we all come together to make it a success. Thanks in advance!
Saturday, March 21 is World Down Syndrome Day, which we observe each year at SMS. Since we will not be in school that day, we will observe on Monday, March 23. On that day, students may be out of uniform if they wear Blue and/or Yellow or their World Down Syndrome Day t-shirts from year's past. If anyone would like to order a new one, see the attached flyer.
Special thanks to Mrs. K, Mrs. Pedigo, Mrs. Wallace, Kelly, Kim Stauffer, and Malique, Oscar and Josie for volunteering at the community soup supper! Thanks also to everyone who donated desserts. I was told by Mr. Kratzer that the shut-ins appreciate it more than we know.
Thanks to all who contributed to our now annual Mother-Son Event at the YMCA. It was very well attended, and looks like the moms need to work on their dodgeball game! We hope everyone had a great time! Special thanks to Brian Nead, Christine Fetters, Betty Dahlheimer, and Tim Davenport for helping with the evening!
Thanks to all who helped with our teacher appreciation lunch last week. Special thanks to Caitlin Seip for cooking an extra meal, and to the extra volunteers who came in to give our teachers a break from lunch duty, especially Allison Back, who hung around the rest of the day to help with Family Feud!
Finally, I dont normally say much on the matter, but I strongly recommend waiting as long as possible before letting your child have a smartphone. They honestly seem to be the root of most teouble with students in many schools. State law has already forbidden that they be allowed during the school day, and we do collect them. But now they are becoming a problem on the bus. Therefore cell phones will not be allowed to be used on any of the buses that come to SMS. I would also encourage all of you to be very aware of what your children are accessing or creating especially on Tik Tok. Although we have not had any major issues with it yet, I want us to get out ahead of this issue, so that we can protect our children from so many nefarious outside sources and continue to allow them to grow up in this safe environment. Thanks for your help in this matter.
Well, that was a lot! Thank you to so many of you who go above and beyond to be supportive. I appreciate it more than you know. We have a special thing going here, truly blessed, and the more we work together, the stronger our school, and community will be. Have a great week!