Dear Parents,
I hope you are all having a wonderful summer spending time with family and friends. On behalf of the faculty and staff of Saint John Bosco Catholic School, I’d like to welcome you to the 2022-23 school year!
We are all very eager to see your children on Wednesday, August 10 to begin another fabulous year of learning and growing! We have many fun events planned, so be sure to read the Bulldog Bite in its entirety each Friday — beginning today! — so you don’t miss anything.
We have been busy this summer making adjustments to enhance the safety, learning environment, and quality of education for all learners. Before the teachers left for the summer, our entire faculty finalized our Accreditation Report to submit to the Diocese of Phoenix Catholic Schools Office and the WCEA Accreditation Team. We have been dutifully preparing these documents for our 6-year accreditation visit in November. It’s a major undertaking requiring input from every teacher and many staff members to collect data on our school operation and curricula, present evidence of our progress, and set goals for the future. This is an intensive self-study and assessment by educators and administrators within the Diocese of Phoenix and a visiting colleague from outside the diocese — all designed to maintain excellence in Catholic education and keep us on our toes. We are looking forward to their visit in November as it gives us a chance to show the brilliance of St. John Bosco Catholic School, inside and out.
Of course, the safety of our students, faculty, and staff is of the utmost importance. Fr. James and I recently met with a third-party security specialist affiliated with the Diocese of Phoenix and reviewed our current security measures and protocols. In addition to practicing monthly school-wide lockdown and fire drills, we have installed 35+ security cameras, and strictly enforce one way in and out of our campus. We will continue to look into implementing additional measures to ensure the safety of our community. Please remember when entering campus, all parents and visitors must enter through the school office or front gate. ALL other gates are for emergency exit only. The north gate may only be used for the before- and after-school program.
We are also making visible improvements to our campus with the construction of outdoor learning areas. Our Dads’ Club, the Knights of Columbus, and TMC Landscapers spent an entire labor-intensive weekend moving rock and digging holes to prepare all three corridors for the installation of artificial turf and trees to allow ample space for outdoor learning for all grade levels. TMC is finalizing the irrigation and turf this week to add even more beauty to our campus. Once the heat subsides, our students and teachers will be able to enjoy many learning activities outside in the fresh air of our newly-renovated space!
Our fabulous PTO has worked overtime providing a massive facelift to our teacher workroom. The new layout will not only increase efficiency but does double duty by creating a beautiful space for teachers to eat lunch and relax between classes. We may now officially call it a Staff Lounge.
This week we received a delivery of 300+ Chromebooks and all classrooms will have OneScreen Interactive Boards. In keeping our pledge to provide academic excellence to all learners, this will enable every K—8th-grade student to have their own Chromebook to use to start off the new 2022-23 school year.
Finally, I am pleased to introduce our 2022-23 Faculty and Instructional Assistants. Please help me welcome those new to our staff this year.
Joyful Blessings,
Jamie Bescak, M.Ed.
Principal