Dear Parents,

We are looking forward to an exciting, short-but-busy week! Wednesday is early release at 12:30pm. If you are in need of child care beyond 12:30 PM dismissal, please register your child for after-school care with Innovation Learning. Due to the holiday and no homework assignments, our teachers will be unavailable for after-school tutoring. 

Dear Parents,

It’s been an exhilarating and productive week and I am incredibly grateful to so many people for their interactions with our visiting accreditation team. On behalf of the Western Catholic Education Association, this visiting accreditation team of Catholic educators/administrators conducts a thorough investigation of every facet of our school and curriculum to assure the primacy of faith formation, the rigor of educational excellence, and the vitality that comes through continuous school improvement. 

Dear Parents,

This week we were reminded of how blessed we are that our students are allowed to embrace and celebrate our Catholic faith at school. We celebrated All Saints Day with our precious first graders dressed as saints as they processed into church to the tune of “The Saints Go Marching In” on Tuesday.

On Thursday our 7th graders created a Living Museum of Saints throughout our campus. Preschool–8th-grade students, teachers, and parents enjoyed strolling through our campus listening to the saints tell their stories and answer questions about their saint's life. We were all so impressed with how well-versed our 7th-grade students are with their knowledge of saints!

Dear Parents,

Saturday’s Harvest Fest and Trunk-or-Treat was a fantastic evening of fun and community-building! The costumes were exceptionally creative, and the lip sync competition and band were AMAZING. This annual event is made possible only by the diligent, selfless effort of our parent and student volunteers. Thank you to everyone who put in time and monitored the various stations of the festive grounds. Special thanks to our PTO Harvest coordinators, Erica Seidel and Julie Morris, and PTO committee members. This incredible team worked countless hours planning and organizing the event for the sheer joy of building school community.

Dear Parents,

Our campus courtyard has been alive with excitement all week with parents and students admiring the Harvest Fest baskets and hoping to be the lucky raffle winner!

I hope to see everyone at Harvest Fest TOMORROW evening as we join together as one community with St. Benedict Church! There are many activities for all ages including Trunk or Treat, food trucks, bouncy houses, a beer garden, costume contest (Preschool-3rd), lip-Sync contest (3rd-8th), live band, and festive fall decorations to enjoy while roaming the grounds in our mild Arizona temperatures.

Dear Parents,

We understand that everyone still has questions about the exciting news of the universal ESA program. We are also still in the learning phase; however, below are a few facts we can share: 

• Each ESA contract is unique and each family's needs are unique. Do not base your decision to use the universal ESA on what other families are doing. Each contract is individual and determined by numerous factors including your grade level, school district, and zip code. 

READ MORE

Dear Parents

Did you know that a portion of last year’s Gala helped us purchase hands-on science materials, experiments, and dissection kits, and update our science closet for all grade levels to utilize? Our science lab houses many materials—microscopes, scales, synthetic frogs, infrared thermometer guns, laser and optic kits, prisms, pumping heart models, eye models, human skeleton models— to not just meet but exceed the Diocesan Science Standards.

Dear Parents,

Did you know that our STEM Lab is one-of-a-kind? Our school is one of the only schools around with: 

• Nine 3D printers 
• A green screen
• Advanced audiovisual equipment
• Brand new Sphero programmable robots with a charging suitcase to allow use at our STEM lab or mobilized and brought to other classrooms.
• Thousands of Legos!
• Bins and shelves holding all sorts of craft materials (glue guns, tape, paper, cardboard, toilet tissue/paper towel rolls, etc.) 
• A Makerspace — a large open area allowing students to build and create

Dear Parents,

Did you know that our STEM Lab is one-of-a-kind? Our school is one of the only schools around with: 

• Nine 3D printers 
• A green screen
• Advanced audiovisual equipment
• Brand new Sphero programmable robots with a charging suitcase to allow use at our STEM lab or mobilized and brought to other classrooms.
• Thousands of Legos!
• Bins and shelves holding all sorts of craft materials (glue guns, tape, paper, cardboard, toilet tissue/paper towel rolls, etc.) 
• A Makerspace — a large open area allowing students to build and create

Dear Parents,

I know many of you have been eagerly awaiting more information about the ESA program, especially with the new legislation that passed this summer and signed into law. As shared at Curriculum Night, we were advised to sit tight and wait to see what happens after September 24th as the opposition to this new legislation has until then to gather enough signatures to halt the new legislation and place it on an upcoming ballot. If enough signatures are obtained, there will most likely be legal maneuvering to determine how a referendum will appear on a particular ballot (either this November or in 2024).

Dear Parents,

I’m sure you have noticed Mr. Macdonald holding a sign in the parking lot that says "DO NOT BACK INTO PARKING SPACE." We would kindly appreciate everyone following the parking lot rules to ensure the safety of our community and facilitate traffic flow. Thank you for using patience and care as you navigate through the parking lot each day. Please pull forward into the parking space—do not back in. If you are in a hurry to get to and from school, consider utilizing our efficient valet carpool service.