Holy Family School -  News Aug./Sept.   Father Ted’s Theme for us this school year:        "Lord, I will listen." We Are Off and Running…     With the first few weeks under our belt, we feel as if we never left—all of us are going at full strength and we are all on the road to success!      We welcomed "old" and new students and parents alike at our first two welcoming events.  First was the student registration day on July 17th from 3:00-6:00.  This gave all families an opportunity to come in and finish the necessary but redundant paperwork that all schools must have "on file".  It seems endless, but it is for the protection and benefit of your children.  "Thank you" for all that took the time to take care of this.  It saves the office personnel much time to get all of this taken care of early in the year—without many rounds of reminder notes.  Thanks!    Our second welcoming event was the Parent Orientation meeting held July 26th.  Father Ted began with a welcoming prayer and reminder of our truly solemn duty as parents—souls are in our care!  Wow!  If that doesn’t get your attention, nothing will! Father is always inspiring, and he didn’t fail us that evening, either.  He is always thinking and praying for the students at HFS!  Thank you, Father Ted!       We continued the evening with a couple of brief explanations of several programs we are running…Fair Share, SCRIP, Home and School Association, volunteering opportunities and more.  Then the parents traveled to their children’s classrooms for a first hand look at how messy a desk COULD get in just a few days!  Some were surprised!    We also had MANY informative handouts available Thursday…have you signed up for rvsgradebook yet?  You need a user ID from Ms. Croy, then you sign on by yourself to get your password.  With both in hand, you can keep "up to the moment" on the progress your child is making at school.  The teachers try to update these at least once per week.  This is a fantastic way to stay on top of what your child is learning at school.    Of course, our BIGGEST update and "new" thing is the growth of our web page:  hfsdanv.org.  Mrs. Dolbee is working to keep that site as current as possible.  You can get classroom news, menus for breakfast and lunch, HFS Parent and student Handbook, homework listings, the Accelerated Reading List…which now has access to Renaissance Learning’s 100,000 titles for test purposes.  Isn’t THAT incredible!  Check out that website!  Keep current!    Another really cool link to our website is schoolnotes.com.  All of our teachers are getting up to speed in leaving daily and/or certainly weekly homework on the site under their name.  It isn’t complicated …check it regularly.  With this and the gradebook online, you can’t help but be better informed.    No doubt Mrs. Dolbee will be adding other exciting topics to our site…don’t forget: hfsdanv.org …it should be your default "home page"! Preschool II Room FINALLY Ready for Students    It’s been a long haul, since February; but we finally have the "damaged" preschool room open for students!  After some new drywall, new paint, new bathroom fixtures, new carpet, new tile—you get the picture—everything had to replaced—we have our "new" room.  Boy, does it look great!      Special "thanks" goes out to Brian and Tillie Welsch for lending their painting expertise to make the walls, ceiling and pipes look fantastic!  They came in on very short notice, spending night and day for a weekend to get the room prepped, caulked, primed and painted.  Wow, does it look great!  Thank you, Brian and Tillie.      Silver Brothers construction did much of the construction work with the new drywall, built-in closet, new bathroom door and the trim.  They kept answering my desperate phone calls for more help on yet one-more-facet of the job.  Thank you to them for their patience with me.       As you can tell it was really a group project—but it is almost completely finished.  We still need closet shelving and a few more furniture pieces; but all in all, it is open for business and looking beautiful.  Stop in sometime and take a peak! Our Year for Water Issues      Perhaps you have heard—we had a water leak somewhere in our copper pipes that displayed itself in the boys’ bathroom.  But all is well now and we have all bathrooms up and running. Remember those Physicals      If you are entering preschool (for the first time), kindergarten, fifth, or planning to participate in any extra-curricular sports program your physical exam must be on file in the office before you begin practicing. And…If it’s School Time, It Seems It’s Head Lice Time      Yes, less than a month in and we have our first sighting of head lice.  Realize that it is possible for anyone to come into contact and have head lice—from sharing combs, baseball hats, summer hats and more—it just happens.  Please check your children’s heads regularly to help prevent a prolonged situation.      At the point a case has been found, by Illinois Public Health Department Regulations, the school must be notified, the child treated and not return to school until the child is nit free.  The child’s hair must be checked at the office before returning to class.      Thank you in advance for your diligence—it’s never fun.   Financial Meeting in February—Mark Your Calendars NOW!      It is obvious from this year’s disbursement of the Diocesan John Lancaster Spalding Scholarships that all of our parents must be more diligent in filing the paperwork for this scholarship.  We are missing out on some scholarship money that our families are eligible for—we cannot afford to let this happen.      To this end, we are planning at least two workshops where we will go through the forms and help individual families complete and mail in the data.  You will need to have completed your 2007 tax forms and/or at least have income data for the previous year (2007).       We announce this now (early and often) so that you can mark your calendar and plan ahead.  The proposed meeting dates and times at this point are February 5th and 7th starting at 4:00 p.m.  We will firm this up as we approach the dates—just realize HOW VERY IMPORTANT THIS IS FOR ALL OF US!  Plan to attend one of these meetings. Family Movie Night Planned      The Home and School Association has scheduled a Family Movie Night for Friday, September 7th beginning at 7:00p.m.  We don’t know the movie selection yet, but it will be good family entertainment.  Last year we saw "Over the Hedge" in September and "Polar Express" at Christmas time.  Both nights were great fun with some wonderful refreshment possibilities.  Mark your calendars now and plan to come with your children—you will all have a great time! It's almost "Bob"time!