September 27, 2019

Dear St. Dorothy Families,

October we honor Mary in her most favored prayer, the rosary. During this month the teachers will take time to teach praying the rosary. Students will be saying a decade a day in Religion therefore, finishing a rosary each week. We hope you will join us in church on Wednesday, October 24th at 1:00 PM to pray the living rosary.

Due to the continued summer temperatures we will move into our fall/winter uniforms on Monday,
October 14th . Please visit the website for clarification of the winter uniform.
https://saintdorothy.org/dress-code-1

Tuesday, October 2nd is an Archdiocesan In-Service day for teachers. There is no school for students. Thursday, October 10th is a Middle States Meeting day for St. Dorothy faculty. Students are not in school on October 10th .

Oktoberfest is here! Please consider giving of your time for this wonderful community building event, and St. Dorothy’s biggest fundraiser. This event is essential for our school and parish viability. Please check out the many ways you can show this support on our website. This year when you volunteer for a shift you will receive a dots dress down dot for your child to have a dress down day in the month of October. Oktoberfest will run from October 8th -12th . Set up begins on the 7th . Bring your family and neighbors. Please remember during this week we have very limited parking for car line pick up. Please use the streets in the near vicinity. We ask that you support our safety conversations by crossing at the corners and not walking into the middle of the streets especially on our busy Burmont and Township Line Roads.

A Parent meeting for Confirmation will take place on Thursday, October 3rd at 7:00 PM in church. More information is available from your child’s teacher.

Progress reports will be available on OptionC on October 21st. Please print your child’s progress report, discuss with them and sign and return to school. Teachers will be planning conferences on the evening of October 30th . These will begin at 3:00 and run until 6:30 PM. Thursday, October 31st is a half day of school with dismissal at 12 noon. Afternoon conferences beginning at 12:30 PM. Friday, November 1st is All Saints Day, a holy day of obligation. There is no school for children. Masses are Friday at 8:00 AM, 10:00 AM and 7:00 PM.

Pre School students will have their Halloween parade on Wednesday, October 30th at 8:15 AM. Parents please park in the upper lot and walk down in an effort to leave space for the children to parade around the building and gather in the lower lot after the parade. On Halloween morning, October 31st Grades K-3 will parade around the building at 8:30 AM. This parade is followed by our second grade All Saints presentations in church at 9:15 AM. We hope you can join us.

I want to take a moment to thank the many parents who take a lunch break from work or come from home to spend some time with our students and support us in our need to supervise the children during lunch recess. This is a necessary component of child growth and development. Their ability to get outside and socialize, learn to create boundaries and rules within games, and engage in play is only made possible by this dedication, rain or shine! The faculty and administration appreciate your support regardless of how much time you can spend. Thank you! Thank you also to Mrs. Colaberdino for volunteering her time and material in sketching and painting the new 4 Square games, hop scotch and tic-tac-toe coming soon. The students look forward to their game days! Our basketball boards are in need of some attention. We will be addressing and looking for new boards as well as adjusting the poles for optimal use. This project is on the list.

Future dates for your calendar: Please keep our Confirmation class in your prayers as they prepare to be sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit on November 7th. Seventh grade students will be dismissed at 12 noon on this special day. In order for us to have a smooth dismissal and have the lot cleared out for Confirmation by 3:00 we plan to begin dismissal with car line first at 2:30PM on November 7th. Please make arrangements for car and homecare on this day keeping in mind there is NO CARES after school.

Also, November 12th will be our General Home and School Meeting. Our Technology teacher, Mrs.
McGarvey will be presenting “A Parent’s Guide to Screen Time”. She will address monitoring, tools and apps to support, as well as studies and data. We would like to see all families represented for this presentation. She will also share class curriculum topics for you information.

In recent news you see much of what our last year guest speaker, Katayoun Copeland, had to share on vaping and it’s very serious effects on our youth. District Attorney Copeland shared these statistics and ideas for conversations with your children. Please revisit these conversations as we see this danger affecting neighboring school children. Making good sound judgment in their social groups is always worthy of continued conversation.

Please look to the school calendar on our St. Dorothy website to ensure you have the important dates of the year. The early dismissal days, Holy days, days off and school events planned so far are noted on the calendar.

Sincerely,
Karen Tomasetti
Principal
Live Each Day Giving Witness to Christ