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MR. RIDDER’S REMINDERS Oct 13 2:00 Dismissal
FALL PARENT / TEACHER CONFERENCES – Below you will find how the various grade levels are implementing Parent/Teacher Conferences. Fall conferences will be held on two different days for kindergarten through 8th grades.
These fall conferences are required. This is a great time to receive feedback and ask questions of teachers on how your child is performing in school. Report cards will be given to parents at that time. Sign- up sheets will be posted in the front entrance area on THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13th. Appointments need to be made by October 21st. If you feel you need more than the allotted time, please email the teacher to make other arrangements. The Specials teachers for Art, Music, PE, & Spanish will be located in their classrooms and it is not necessary to make an appointment to see them.KINDERGARTEN – 6th GRADE PARENTS will conference with every student’s homeroom teacher. If you feel you would like to visit with your child’s other core subject teachers, please make an appointment with the homeroom teacher and the additional core subject teachers at the same time. In these cases, the meeting will take place in your child’s homeroom. UPDATE ON OUR UNIFORM SUPPLIERS - Midwest Impressions is no longer carrying school uniforms.We have enjoyed outfitting the students with uniform over the past 8 years. Feel free to stop in and say hi.Midwest Impressions will continue to serve the parish family with customized apparel for groups, schools, businesses, and organizations. UNIFORM MASS SWEATERS MUST BE WORN AFTER OCTOBER 15TH – Should you need to order a sweater for the upcoming uniform season change, please do so now to allow for delivery. Also, shorts may not be worn after the 15th of October. NOTE FROM EDUCATIONAL OUTFITTERS - With pant season upon us we are giving parents an incentive to come in and get those pants before the shorts deadline expires on October 15th for St. Patrick’s. We all know that we wait until the last minute…here is an incentive not to wait! The sale runs from October 10th until October 15th. Come in and save! LINK TO THE UNIFORM PANT SALE INFORMATION SWEATSHIRT ORDER FORM – As the cold weather is approaching, we want to make sure we keep our students warm! Please use the link below if you would like to order your student a sweatshirt. LINK TO UNIFORM SWEATSHIRT ORDER FORM
CALLING COPY MOMS/DADS/GRANDPARENTS/AUNTS/UNCLES -The St. Patrick’s School Copy Mom Team is searching for volunteers for Monday mornings and/or afternoons, and Thursday afternoons. If you are interested in this fun and helpful volunteer opportunity please contact Deb Strumberger at dstrumberger@cox.net.
LINK TO LAST CALL FOR UGANDA T-SHIRT ORDERS CATHOLIC 101 – The 8th Commandment: You Shall Not Bear False Witness Against Your Neighbor 2011-2012 HOME & SCHOOL DIRECTORIES PICK-UP - If you are a Home & School members who has not received your directory, pleasestop by the office as soon as possibleto collect it! Thanks to everyone who has already picked up your family's directory or made alternate arrangements. If you notice any errors in the directory, please forward your corrections to Jaymie Oehler at jaymie@jaymie.net. A list of modifications will be electronically distributed in the next few weeks, if necessary. YEARBOOKS ARRIVED - The 2010-2011 yearbooks, that you ordered last spring, will be sent home on Thursday, September 29th. There are a few additional yearbooks available on a first come/first serve basis. If you are unsure if you purchased a yearbook, or if you would like to order a 2010-2011 yearbook, please contact Victoria Brichacek at victoriabrichacek@hotmail.com. VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR LUNCHROOM DUTY - Each month we need to fill 100 volunteer positions in the lunchroom to help serve and clean up after the students. Whether your child buys their lunch at school or is a cold lunch kiddo - they utilize the lunchroom. Parents (or grandparents) are needed from 10:45 - 12:50 each school day. We need help every day of the week, but specifically we could use additional volunteers on Mondays and Fridays. Please call or email Kris Morrissey if you would like more information or are willing to help: krismorrissey@cox.net or 402-630-8964.
We are thrilled to announce the winners of the September Scrip promotion. There were 35 families who purchased $200 or more in Scrip gift cards and the winners of the drawing are Michaela Corey, Renee Kudirka and Becky Reger. They will each be awarded $20 worth of pizza and movie gift cards. At the end of September Scrip has raised over $2000. Thank you for your continued support of Scrip! BOXTOPS = FREE MONEY FOR OUR SCHOOL! Last year we earned approximately $4400 for St. Patrick's. This year our goal is $5300. To achieve this goal, we will be doing a monthly promotion. Each student will receive a sheet on which to attach boxtops. (They may cut slits to slide the boxtops in or place them in an envelope or baggie and staple it to the sheet). For each sheet turned in, the student's name will be placed in a drawing for a $10 scrip card of their choice. All sheets and boxtops should be turned in to me. I will take care of the paperwork. We plan to put a link on the website for extra sheets so that it will be the responsibility of the parents to get those extra sheets. If you have any questions, please let me know. Thanks for your help in getting our school a little extra money!
SCRIPTURE STUDY ON THURSDAY MORNINGS! - St. Pat's is offering a wonderful adult education opportunity for you to participate in after mass on Thursday mornings. It's a great way to be an example to our kids that learning about our faith is life-long!Join Michael Willis, our director of Liturgy and Music, as he explores the readings for the upcoming Sunday liturgy and how they all connect. This is a great way to gain a deeper understanding of scripture and develop a fuller appreciation for the mass. You can join in at anytime!
Principal's Notes Deadline: Please submit all items/information in final form. Principal's Notes deadline is Tuesday by 8:00am to the school or email to |
MORNING AND AFTERNOON TRAFFIC - This message is primarily to thank all of you for your support and cooperation of the morning and afternoon traffic plans. Since we made the change of starting our drop off time from 7:45 to 7:40, traffic and the number of tardies in the morning, couldn't be better! A big thank you to the Safety Committee and morning Safety Patrol volunteers for making that happen. After school dismissal is going well also. The only issue that we would like to resolve is the number of people who are coming late. If there is any way that you could get here just a few minutes earlier, we would all really appreciate it. Lastly, I want to send out a special thank you to all the people who have served on the safety patrol in the morning or in the afternoon over the last 12 years. Please know we all really appreciate you and thank you for putting the safety of our children as a top priority. 
INFORMATION ABOUT HALLOWEEN FOR YOUR PLANNING PURPOSES – PreK – 5th Grades will have the opportunity to dress in costume and celebrate Halloween with parties hosted by room parents. Halloween gatherings will run from 2:00- 2:35 pm. The PreK-pm – 5th grade costume parade follows at 2:40pm. All students in PreK – 5th grades, may come to school in their costumes that day. No make-up, colored hairspray, guns, swords, knives or any type of weapon props are allowed. Grades 6th – 8th students and the school staff may wear ORANGE & BLACK and do not have Halloween parties. All students will be dismissed in the same fashion as a normal school day and at the regular time.
SISTER SCHOOL/UGANDA T-SHIRTS FINAL ORDER – Just a reminder, if you would like to order a Uganda t-shirt for your child to wear on designated dress down days, the order form deadline is October 5th. This will be our last order of the year. Students will not be allowed to wear previous year’s green t-shirts on designated Uganda Dress Down Days anymore. If they do not have the current year, blue shirt, they will be required to dress in uniform. Please see the attached order form. The designated dress down days will be on the Friday following the 2nd Thursday that we have a 2:00 dismissal. Students may wear their t-shirt with jeans or shorts that are appropriate to the dress down day policy. If a student comes to school on those designated days and they are dressed down without the sister school t-shirt then they will be asked to switch into a uniform shirt. 
A few weeks ago on a Sunday morning I went to use the Men’s Room. There was a woman standing at the door who told me her son was inside, he told her he was too big to use the “girl’s room.” I said I was going to use the one downstairs but she asked if I would go in because he had been in there a long time. Well, when I went in, he was standing there pulling all of the toilet paper off the roll. When he saw me, he panicked and ran out of the rest room (without washing his hands). Not sure what to do I walked out after him and there was Mom. How did he do? She asked. Umm, well, look for yourself. I held open the door and she looked in, turned to her son and said: Tommy, (not his name), did you do that? No, he said, it was like that when I went in there. I walked away. Why do we lie? We do it to get out of trouble; to avoid hurting someone’s feelings; to get what we want, and on and on. The CCC in talking about the 8th commandment says that it: Forbids misrepresenting the truth in our relations with others. This moral prescription flows from the vocation of the holy people to bear witness to their God who is truth and wills truth. Offenses against truth…undermine the foundations of the covenant (2464). In the Gospel of John, the words of Jesus are: If you continue in my word you are my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free (John 31, 32). In other words to honor truth, is to honor Jesus Christ. The most obvious way to live this commandment is to just not lie. To lie is to intentionally deceive another by speaking falsehood. So a lie, is a lie, is a lie. We call some lies, little white lies, but that doesn’t make what we said any less of a lie, and therefore immoral and sinful. Figures of speech, teasing, jokes, hyperboles, and those types of things are not lies, because they lack intention, someone is just trying to be funny. But sometimes telling the truth can be a lie. IN the movie Steel Magnolias, the character played by Olympia Dukakis says: If you don’t have anything nice to say about somebody, sit next to me. Gossip, or what is properly called Detraction, is telling something true about someone, usually something embarrassing and confidential, with the only intention and purpose of ruining their reputation. Calumny is gossip that isn’t true, told for the same purpose. Both are immoral and therefore sinful. There is something called Mental Reservation which is way of withholding truth without lying. In other words, you hide or conceal the truth by intentionally holding back some facts, and only enough not to tell a lie. Now this isn’t to be done casually, because generally the expectation when asked a question is that we will tell the truth. But not every truth is everybody’s business. For example, if asked a personal or inappropriate question, we have every right not to answer, but to lie; even in this type of situation would be a sin. Intentionally lying is always considered a sin, even if the reasons are noble. According to the Church, we were created by God to use our intellect to know the truth, so to intentionally distort it, is wrong.
HEY ST. PATRICK'S FRIENDS! Donate your Hy-Vee Smart points to St. Patrick's. St. Pat's is currently in 2nd place!Here is how it works: For every $20 of Procter & Gamble products you purchase at Hy-Vee from October 1, 2011– December 30, 2011 you earn 100 SMART Points to donate to the school of your choice. Get 100 additional points when you purchase two (2) or more Sara Lee Fresh Bakery products in the same transaction as your qualifying $20 Procter & Gamble purchase. Find the promotional code printed on your receipt of purchase, and enter it by clicking on the "Donate Points" button. From there, select the school for which you would like to make a donation. More than 200 schools with the most points will win! 
SCRIP - TheOctober promotionhas kicked off and we have added a new local vendor to the program, 
CASH FOR STUDENTS - St. Patrick’s School is once again participating in Hy-Vee’s Cash for Student program. Here’s how it works: Send to school ALL receipts from area Hy-Vee stores, pharmacies and gas stations from September 1- December 31, 2011. Ask family members to save them…grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends and neighbors. For every $200.00 in receipts, St. Pat’s will earn a $1.00! Send in the receipts to school weekly, monthly or when the envelope is full! Whatever works for you. Contact Susan Drvol at 
POP TOPS!!! - Please save your pop tops again this year. Bring them to school and put them in the Ronald McDonald box on top of the "Lost and Found" cabinet. We recently received a "Thank You" note from the Ronald McDonald house for the 60,000 pop tops I took down 2 weeks ago. Our Grand Total is 298,000 pop tops over the past 3 years. Great job people!!!! They really appreciate what you do. Thanks!! Dan Van Anne. 
ST. PATRICK'S BASEBALL AND SOFTBALL - The St. Patrick's Athletic Committee will be holding an information meeting, Thursday, October 13th at 8:00PM in the Parish Center to discuss the creation of a baseball and softball program offered through St. Patrick's. Representatives from the Parochial Athletic League - PAL (boy’s 7th and 8th baseball) and the Metro Omaha Saints (boys’ 1st - 6th baseball)/Catholic Girls Softball League (girls 1st - 8th) will be present to discuss their leagues in more detail. As St. Patrick's continues to grow, offering our children a variety of athletic options while representing their school continues to be priority for the Athletic Committee. We look forward to seeing you there! If you have any questions please contact Erik Carlson at 
PAL BASKETBALL REGISTRATION IS OPEN - Sign up for the PAL Basketball girl’s and boys basketball teams (5thgrade through 8thgrade). Registration is now open and will remain open through Sunday, October 16thfor $55 per player. Late registration will be available for one additional week for an additional $20 ($75 total) through Sunday, October 23rd.
IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN…Class Basket Donations for the SPIRIT Dinner & Auction. Class Baskets are always great sellers at the auction. An envelope has been sent home to each family via youngest or only this week – please look for it in your child’s backpack. Please return the envelope, noting your student(s) & their grade(s) and write one check made payable to St. Patrick’s. All contributions for Class Auction Baskets are due October 20th. Thanks in advance for your participation. If you have any questions please contact Stephanie Vosik at 
WE’VE GOT SPIRIT, YES WE DO, WE’VE GOT SPIRIT, HOW ‘BOUT YOU? Thinking about ways to help with this year’s SPIRIT dinner/auction? Consider donating an item to be auctioned off. We welcome anything you can offer, give or share. Think about vacation properties, event tickets, gift certificates, talents or hobbies. The possibilities are endless. Show your “SPIRIT” by donating to this important parish-wide event! Should you have any questions, please contact one of the event chairs: Jenn Copenhaver: 
HELP A FAMILY IN NEED - Tony Grasso and his wife, Wendi, worship with us here at St. Patrick’s and next door at Bethany Lutheran; Tony is Catholic and Wendi is Lutheran. They have a baby boy named Jaden. They traveled to Colorado for a weekend getaway, when Wendi went into labor sixteen weeks early. Jaden was born weighing less than two pounds, and his little heart and other organs were not yet properly developed. As a result, the family of three has been in Colorado for about five weeks waiting for Jaden to be healthy enough to travel back home to Elkhorn. As you can imagine the medical costs are immense not to mention the costs of being away from home. Bethany Lutheran is hosting a benefit for the Grasso family on October 15 from 2:00 – 6:00. It will be a Fall Festival with food and games and hayrack rides and music and a silent auction. I would love for us to help in any way we can. If you have or could get silent auction items, if you would like to help sell food, or set up or clean up, or run a game booth please let us know, contact Fr. Rodney at 402-289-4289 x1522 or 