Dear Students, Parents/Guardians,
Welcome to the 2019-2020 school year at St. Anthony’s! We continue to receive so many blessings here and this year promises to be another incredible one. I am so excited to begin my fifth year as Principal here at St. Anthony, and sixth year at this school.
It has been a fruitful summer, and I look greeting all of you again personally as we begin the new school year. Our faculty and staff have been working hard since the beginning of August, planning and anticipating your child’s arrival. We are all excited to continue the work you have begun with your child’s education! In July, the Daily Breeze officially announced that our school was VOTED “FAVORITE PRIVATE SCHOOL IN THE SOUTH BAY 2019” by the Daily Breeze Readers! Congratulations to all of us on another amazing accolade!
Here are some of the major updates you should know about:
- We are proud to announce this year’s STELLAR faculty and staff. Change brings new opportunities and possibilities, and some changes to our roster include: Ms. Nicole Martinez as our 1st grade teacher. Ms. Angelica Gomez is moving from 4th grade to 2nd grade. Sr. Tho Pham is our new 4th grade teacher, and finally, we welcome back Mrs. Marianne Dyogi as our 6th grade Homeroom and ELA/Religion teacher in jr high. This year, Mrs. Navia will be teaching Jr. High Math this year, and Mr. Perry will be teaching History and Science to our middle school students. We are so blessed to have these hand-picked staff members on board. Please welcome all the great people that have joined our school community, as well as our extremely talented and dedicated returning educators who have given years of service to Catholic education. I am thrilled to serve alongside them. Our faculty and staff at St. Anthony is truly the BEST!
- This past summer, we renovated the hall. We were thankful to receive at least $60,000 in donations from Dal Tile and other donors. We hope you enjoy the new changes to our Parish and School Hall!
- Thank you to all the parents and students who spent many hours volunteering at school this summer!
- Mr. Pablo Flores worked tirelessly all summer, along with our amazing staff, to get the school and classrooms ready for our students. I wish to thank them all for their hard work and dedication.
- Our teachers and I have undergone professional development training this summer in order to explore new ways of teaching your children and to make sure that we are implementing the very best of research based instruction to effectively serve our students. We will continue to implement the “Core Instructional Practices” and we are looking forward to ensuring the absolute success of your children and our students through the use of ST Math, Accelerated Reader, Accelerated Math, and STAR diagnostic reports (3 windows a year, which we will pass back at parent conferences in October and at each trimester during report card time). We continue to utilize and practice our Tribes agreements daily and we ask you to reinforce these at home (Mutual Respect, Attentive Listening, No Put Downs/Show Appreciation, Right to Pass/Participate, Personal Best)
- We have received a grant for a character education initiative the Positivity Project, and will be implementing this in our religion program this year.
- We have purchased Meet the Masters, an Art program that introduces techniques of famous artists to our children.
- Thank you to the Steinmetz Foundation for the “Growing Great” grant that incorporates STEM lessons into our curriculum and teaches our children how to garden and build sustainability. We are continuing to focus on the Next Generation K-12 Science Content standards (NGSS) in our science curriculum in all grades K-8.
- This year, we got word that Arts Alive was not able to return to St. Anthony’s, so we have discontinued our Jr. High Instrumental program offering keyboard, guitar, dance, and show band. However, we are happy to welcome Band for Today, a company that will offer after school piano and guitar classes for our students.
- This year, we welcome a new St. Anthony School Folklorico teacher, Ms. Martha Zambrano. She is a referral from our former K-8 Folklorico teacher, Maria Elena Alvarez. We are excited for another great year ahead!
- Other after school offerings include STEM&MORE, Spanish language classes through Cultural Bytes, and cooking classes through LIFT Enrichment. Abad-Mancia will once again offer Martial Arts, Polynesian Dance, and something new: Hip-Hop classes! Check the parent bulletin for more info!
- We are thankful for the generous grant from the Smet Foundation for Onward Readers, a 3-year ELA program that will aid in ensuring that all our students perform at grade level or better. This is very exciting! We are also going to have coaches helping all our teachers throughout the year during workshops. We are in year 3 of 3 of the grant, and we are focusing on differentiation to ensure we meet the needs of all our students.
- Our K-8 staff continues the idea of instilling at a young age that every student is “college bound”, and we are ready to begin preparing every child for the “next level” of academics. Our College Fair will take place this Fall in the junior high.
- The STAR diagnostic testing window begins on 8/19 and ends 9/17. Please be sure your child gets a good night’s sleep and eats a healthy breakfast each day before testing.
- Parents, please read the latest Parent Student Handbook online at our website to be up to date on our policies. Please also sign the media release form to allow your child to be in photos and videos taken by the school, and return the form as soon as possible. Please pay special attention to any slight updates/changes in the handbook from last year.
- Finally, I want to thank Mr. Paul Bay for his countless volunteer hours updating our website, in order to bring you the most updated information. Please be sure to always check www.stanthonygardena.org and your child’s teacher’s blog for the most current information.
Important Reminders:
- WE NEED THE EMERGENCY CARDS RETURNED IMMEDIATELYTO THE OFFICE… This is extremely important in order to make sure we have accurate and updated records for your child. If your child has a medical condition or has allergies, we need to know this up front and have a plan in place of an emergency. Any medication must be self-administered by the child or by you, and permission for us to administer medicine must be in writing. Please fill out both sides completely and legibly and sign.
- Gradelink – Gradelink login information for each student is being sent home. Please use this to log into Gradelink often in order to see how your students are progressing in their classes. Please contact Ms. Grimaldo at mgrimaldo@stanthonygardena.org if you misplace this information or become locked out of your account.
- Missing Registration documents – Any families who are missing any of the documents that were sent out for registration will be receiving a new set in the family Envelope. Please fill these out and turn them in promptly.
- Please read and fill out all paperwork sent home on the first day of school on Wed, 8/21/19 and return to the office the next day.
- Back to School Night will be on Thursday, September 5, at 6:30pm in the Hall. We will have two 20-minute sessions in the classrooms to accommodate families with multiple children. If you have more than 3 children at the school, please coordinate with teachers to sign up for parent conferences in October and get your packets. This is the first of three mandatory parent meetings throughout the year. Non-participation will result in a $50 fine every time, per the tuition contract you each signed. You will pick up your fundraiser candies on 9/5 as well if you opted in to fundraise. Vicki Marsha Uniform will also be on campus that day.
- There will be a gently used uniform sale the first week of school if parents sign up to volunteer to lead the event.
- Student service fees of $350 per child are due the first day of school, and no later than Friday, August 30. This is extremely important in order to cover the cost of classroom supplies, books, wi-fi access school-wide, and student accident and liability insurance. Students may not receive their classroom materials or books until this is paid and will receive their books the day after it is paid.
- First day of school is Wed, Aug 21, 2019. Thursday and Friday, August 22-23 are half days, noon dismissal, and uniform is optional. Our first school Mass is on Thursday, August 22, so children should be in Mass-appropriate attire (Sunday Best per free dress handbook guidelines) if they come in Free Dress. All families are invited!
- PLC Leads are meeting in the faculty room at 6:30pm on Thursday, August 22. Please confirm your RSVP with Mrs. Grey or Mrs. Leah Nakayama, our PLC lead for this year.
- Kinder has noon dismissal the entire first and second weeks of school. The second week of school starting on 8/26, we ask that you enter at the school gate on 163rd St. to sign in at the office and pick up your child at noon, as school will still be in session for grades 1-8.
- Daycare is offered every day till 6pm for a fee, starting 8/21/19. If your child attends daycare, they need a snack, drink, and lunch that day.
- Our Hot Lunch program through Happy Lunch begins on Monday, Aug. 26 for grades 1-8, and those grades have full days from 7:50am-3pm starting Aug 26. Kinder students staying for daycare can order lunch as well starting on 8/26/19.
- Just a reminder that Wednesdays are 1:30 pm Dismissal due to our weekly faculty meetings.
- Our school is going through our WASC/WCEA Accreditation Visit next March 2020. Our staff has been working on our self-study for the past year and we are excited to see all the growth our school has made in the past 6 years since our last accreditation visit. We look forward to continue working together to improve student learning for all our children this year.
- Thank you for entrusting us with your children, as we continue to work in partnership together!
- Please join us for a parent Meet and Greet and some coffee and donuts on our first day of school, Wed, 8/21/19 during carline and after morning assembly at the hall/brown benches. God bless you all. Here’s to a terrific year!
St. Anthony of Padua – Pray for us,
Angela Grey
Principal
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