Dear Parents and Guardians,
Tomorrow is a local institute day. The staff will be meeting in data teams to review our recent standardized testing results. We will also be participating in a training for report cards on FACTS. Since it is our first time using FACTS for report cards, please continue to be patient with us.
Thank you for using FACTS to schedule your parent teacher conferences. As you may have noticed, FACTS does not send you a reminder email regarding your conference sign ups. If you would like to view or edit your conference times, you can do so through your Family Portal.
Go to Family Portal → Calendar → My Classrooms → Click on the date of conferences (November 16 or 17). You will see your conferences listed. Click on the blue link for details about the conference.
Speaking of FACTS… As we continue to get accustomed to our new student information system, we wanted to work out any kinks with communication to our families thru automated texts, emails, and phone call messages as we enter the winter season. We will be testing the automated system at some point over the next few weeks. We will let you know when that will happen in a Thursday letter; however, in the meantime, please make sure your cell phone number is listed correctly in FACTS. If you do not have a home phone, do not list your cell phone as your home phone. Please list your cell phone under cell phone. If you do not, you will not receive automated text messages from FACTS.
Tuesday is Halloween. Students PS-4 may wear their costumes to school for the day. Students in grades 5-8 should bring their costumes to school and will change into them during lunch. Students will meet in the gym at 1pm to begin our costume parade. Parents are welcome to join us in the gym beginning at 12:50pm (please use the main ministry center doors to enter and exit the gym.) We will be playing spooky music while classes parade up to the stage, take a class picture in their costumes, and then parade outside using the ministry center side door. We will exit the MC kitchen door, parade toward the parking lot, around the front of the MC, and back into the main school doors. Parents can absolutely join the parade with their child’s class; but may not enter back into the school unless they are scheduled to be room parents for the event. Room parents must stop in the office with their drivers license prior to heading to the classroom.
Wednesday is All Saints Day. All Saints Day is in honor of all the saints, known and unknown. I encourage you to talk with your child about saints that are special to you and your family. Please join us for our school mass on Wednesday at 8:15am as we observe this solemnity. Our 5th grade class will be leading us in mass as we learn about their special saints.
Thank you to Kori Duncan and her Trunk or Treat committee for such a fun day! Even though it was a tad bit windy, we certainly lucked out with the weather.
Congratulations to our three football mania winners this week. Kim Perez and Elvin Camaganacan each won $25 on tickets sold by the Czaplewski family. Sonia Ohmae won $25 on a ticket sold by the Arias family.
Congratulations to SICS! Look for us in the Examiner this week! Bartlett, South Elgin, Carol Stream, Streamwood, and Hanover Park all have a story about us becoming a Microsoft Showcase School!
And last, but certainly not least, I wanted to take a minute to review our tardy policy. The State of Illinois requires compulsory attendance for all children between the ages of seven and seventeen years. By law, school principals have the obligation to see that requirements of the law of the State of Illinois are met. One of those is attendance. Tardies fall within the general umbrella of attendance. Excessive tardiness is considered truancy. A truant student is one who is absent or tardy for 10% or more of the previous regular school attendance days, as determined by the school calendar.
The school day at St. Isidore Catholic School begins at 7:50am. At that time, all students should be in their classrooms ready to begin the school day. That does not mean students should be pulling into the lot at 7:50am. Students who arrive to school after 7:50am are marked tardy. Habitual tardiness is not appropriate and disrupts the education of not only the tardy child, but the education of the other students. SICS sends written notification on the 10th, 15th, and 20th unexcused tardy. Once a student is tardy (unexcused) 10% of the school attendance days, the child will be considered truant.
Please do your best to have your child dressed and ready to leave for school on time. Arriving late and disheveled does not allow your child to start his/her day on the right foot. Should you be interested in any supports to help your child in the morning, please feel free to reach out to our school social worker, Mrs. Alma Figueroa.
Wishing you a wonderful extended weekend.
Mrs. Alimento