St. Pius X Catholic Parish, Indianapolis, IN

Due to illness, Mr. White has not been able to be with the PE and health classes for much of the second semester. We are looking forward to welcoming Pat back to school for a limited number of PE classes on Friday, May 22nd-Thursday, May 28th. While we will be asking the substitute teachers to be present on these days, Mr. White is planning to spend some time with students in each of the classes during this last week of school. On Thursday, May 28th at 2pm, we will commemorate his time at the school with an all-school celebration in the gym. Parents are welcome!

It is with much sadness that I tell you that Mr. White will not be able to return next school year. As a way to say goodbye, he asked that I pass along this heartfelt letter. We’ll miss you, Pat.

I know it has been awhile, but unfortunately things have not gone in the right direction. Oh well, you deal with challenges when they face you. I would like to say how much I have missed everyone at school; all of you mean so much to me. I also would like to thank everyone for their kindness, thoughtfulness and generosity, cards and letters. I have read them all.

Without all of this support, I do not know where I would be. With that being said, May 29, 2009 will be my last day of teaching at St. Pius. The doctor that has treated me for the last two years feels it would be in my best interests to retire and spend more time resting and in treatments.

The last 11 years at St. Pius have been my best years in teaching, and I was hoping for another 11, but it is not going to happen. I am going to miss everyone very much and will think of you daily. I know that I will be one of the saddest people in Indianapolis, on August 13, 2009.

One final thing: In between hospital stays I did get engaged. Most of you have met my fiancée, Rene’ Chamberlain, and she has done a wonderful job of helping me and taking care of me. At times it has not been the easiest thing to do, but she is strong.

Prior to Easter, I communicated that I did not anticipate that any significant changes would need to be made in the 2009-2010 calendar based on the way State Superintendent has reinterpreted the current “180 Instructional Days” law (for the press release from the State Department of Education, please refer to the web site: http://www.doe.in.gov/news/2009/03-March/instructional_day_policy.html).

The Indiana Department of Education has since released a “Frequently Asked Questions” document ostensibly designed to address the influx of questions they were receiving from public and private schools about how this policy will affect next year’s school calendars. In this document, the Department of Education, among many other clarifying statements, points out that (1) two half-days may not be combined to equal one full day; (2) all students, including those in kindergarten, are to be in school for 180 full days (half-day kindergarten students are to be in school for 180 half days); and (3) parent-teacher conferences may not count toward the total number of school days. The Office of Catholic Education has communicated to principals that it is in full support of these requirements.

In light of these stipulations, many Catholic schools are having to adjust the 2009-2010 calendar. We have had to do the same. I waited to send out a revised calendar until I had a chance to confer with Mr. Herman to make certain he and I are in agreement as to the specific revisions that need to be made.

As such, please find a revised calendar included in this week’s newsletter. I have also posted this revised calendar on Edline (Principal’s Corner/General Info). Please consider these revisions when referring to the “Planning Ahead” sheet distributed with the registration packets. This new calendar reflects the following changes:

Congratulations to our 2nd grade students who made their First Eucharist on Sunday. It was a wonderful mass!

Congratulations to our 1st grade students who did a wonderful job in last Friday’s Grandparents Day program!

Thanks to the 8th grade students, chaperones and teachers for making the Washington DC trip such a success! Our 8th graders returned home on Saturday morning a little weary, but with a better appreciation of our nation’s history.

I mentioned in a previous email that I would not be holding this spring’s “Parent Night” in anticipation of a “meet and greet” that Mr. Herman will want to hold later this spring. However, I did want to provide each of you with a review of the initiatives—some new and some continued from prior years—that made this year such a success. You can find this report included with today’s newsletter (you can also access it on Edline).

Each morning two different teachers are asked to supervise students in the gym prior to dismissing students to the classrooms. After, the teachers stand in the hallway and greet students on their way into the building. Even in encouraging students to respond with “Good morning” or “Hello,” it’s not always the case, that students are quick to return the greeting, particularly first thing in the morning. Well, last week a couple of teachers decided to take a different (seasonal?) approach to encourage more students to return their greetings. Holding Easter baskets filled with candy, the teachers cheerfully greeted students as they walked through the lobby. Each time a student responded back, one of the teachers would hand him/her a piece of candy. It was interesting to see how the students responded. Some students seemed a little more inclined to say “Good morning” once they knew it was being rewarded. Other students came back to greet the teachers once they knew there was candy involved! Several students weren’t sure what was going on! One teacher who wasn’t even involved reported to me that a student, after he had been given a piece of candy, approached her further down the hallway and said “Good morning, how are you today?” Ostensibly, the candy provided this student some positive reinforcement to continue to greet other teachers! In total, the teachers distributed about 150 pieces of Easter candy to some of our most polite students. And, what’s more, in almost all cases, these 150 students responded with an enthusiastic “Thank you!” This story reminds us how important old-fashioned manners should be in a culture that can sometimes forget!

Welcome back! I hope each of you had a restful spring break! Please feel free to join the school and parish for our Holy Week activities:

A Virtus training session is scheduled for Wednesday, April 8th at 6:30pm in Ross Hall.

This Friday, April 10th, students will be dismissed at 12:45/1pm for Good Friday.

I hope this Holy Week will be a time of prayer and peace for you and your family.

While we thought we had resolved the issue as to why some of you are not receiving Edline communications, some of you are continuing to experience problems. Our understanding from Edline is that unless a parent has clicked on the automatically-generated message that appears at the bottom of each Edline email (the message reads “You have received this e-mail because this address was registered at www.edline.com. If you do not wish to receive any emails, please use this link to unsubscribe…), Edline will continue to send emails to the address provided. For those of you that are not receiving my weekly email or other Edline communications, please follow these instructions to check your status:

2) On the left side of the screen, under Command Center, click on “Manage Account”.

3) Under “Email”, click on the button that will allow the school to send you emails through Edline, then click “Update”.

We all know how special our students are, but, amidst the busyness of the school year, it is sometimes easy to overlook how truly impressive they are. I’d like to take an opportunity to share with you the successes of some of our students who were recently recognized for their outstanding work. Last weekend, four of our 8th graders—J. Wooldridge, Z. Bystry, A. Huntine and J.Mitchell—placed in the CYO Science Fair (James actually placed first!). Each of these students had already received commendations from the school for their well-designed science projects and, in moving on to represent St. Pius X at the CYO Fair, they did not disappoint! We also received word last week that 6th grader S. Willem, who won the St. Pius X Geography Bee, qualified to compete in the state competition at IUPUI. After winning the school contest, Spencer was required to pass what is a very difficult written test in order to move on to the next level. We’re proud to say he did! Good luck in the next round, Spencer! Lastly, 4th grader M. Nickerson, told me last week that she recently won a weekly contest, called “Making the Grade”, sponsored by the Indianapolis Star. In this particular contest, the Star asked students to submit a short essay explaining how they are generous to others. Margaret’s thoughtful response won her four Pacers tickets! I wanted to be sure to recognize these unique accomplishments—let’s remember how fortunate we are to have such outstanding students!

Thanks to the generous support of our PTO and leadership from Mrs. Ratkey and Mrs. Taber, on March 17th, author Jim Aylesworth will be visiting kindergarten-fifth grade students. We’ve managed to schedule classroom visits around some previously scheduled St. Patrick’s Day activities. Famous for applying humorous rhymes to many well-known stories, Mr. Aylesworth is the author of such children’s books as Our Abe Lincoln, The Gingerbread Man and Naughty Little Monkeys (I just purchased this one for my three-year-old son over the weekend—it’s wonderful!). Jim Aylesworth was born in Jacksonville, Florida and finally settled down in Hinsdale, Illinois, where he graduated from high school. After a short career as a stockbroker, Mr. Aylesworth began teaching first grade and developed a love for the classroom! His experience teaching led him to write several children’s books. He continues to write and share his creativity with schools across the country. We are excited that he will bring his “world of rhythm and rhymes” to our school on Tuesday, March 17th. Mr. Aylesworth will be signing copies of his books during his visit, so if you would like a signed copy, please send the book in with your child. To learn more about Jim Aylesworth, you can visit his web site at www.ayles.com or check out his books at www.amazon.com

Eight years ago, Alice Mattingly wrote her first grant proposal to the Lilly Endowment for one of the $8,000 Teacher Creativity Grants they sponsor. Each year for the past eight years, Alice has written a grant proposal in the hopes of having it accepted. These grants are very competitive and, while Alice’s proposals were always thoughtfully considered, she was never fortunate enough to win. That is, until now! Alice was informed last week that her most recent proposal, “Journey of the Heart: Live, Learn and Teach in El Salvador,” was one of the one hundred and twenty grant applications accepted. Alice was one of only two educators from the Archdiocese of Indianapolis to win the grant.

These grants are designed to encourage teachers and administrators to consider creative projects that are personally renewing and intellectually revitalizing. Proposals are judged on the substance, clarity, originality and feasibility of the projects, and determinations are made based on each grant’s evidence of imagination and creativity. In a project befitting Alice’s passion for service and education, she will be visiting a school in Portillo, El Salvador (St. Pius X’s annual coin challenge helps support this school) to work with the students to create digital storybooks to share with our students at St. Pius X. Her plan is to have the students in Portillo take photographs that capture the breadth of their cultural, social and educational experiences and annotate these photographs as part of a digital story. In addition to the wonderful opportunity this presents for the students in Portillo as well as our own students at St. Pius X, there is a more salient message that all of us—students particularly—should take to heart. Even if your enthusiasm and commitment to a project is not immediately embraced or acknowledged, you should never cease to continue to work hard toward your goals. Alice has been working hard these past eight years (the grant proposal is no easy one to assemble) to convince others that her grant (which has remained similar in purpose and focus all these years) was worthy of being selected. Bravo, Alice, for your commitment to service and, most especially, your perseverance! We’re proud of you!

We have received a few notes from parents in the past couple of weeks concerned that they are not receiving emails sent through Edline. As we began to investigate the problem, we were initially puzzled why so many seemed to be affected. However, with the help of a parent and St. Pius X’s new “detective-in-chief”, Mrs. Bastnagel, we discovered that an automatically-generated message that appears at the bottom of each Edline email may be the source of the problem. The message reads “You have received this e-mail because this address was registered at <>www.edline.com. If you do not wish to receive any emails, please use that link to unsubscribe:

It is our understanding that this message has changed from that which used to accompany Edline emails. Thus, if in the past, you’ve been accustomed to clicking on this link as a way to log in to Edline, please do not click on it any longer. Parents who click on this link are communicating a preference to remove themselves from Edline’s email distribution list.

Last week, Mrs. Bastnagel sent home letters to the affected families with instructions as to how to restore the account to the previous settings that allowed Edline emails to go through. For those of you that did not receive a letter and wish to check your email settings on Edline, please follow these steps:

2. On the left side of the screen, under Command Center, click on “Manage Account”.

3. Under “Email”, click on the button that will allow the school to send you emails through Edline, then click “Update”.

This week, we’ll be using morning video announcements as a way to promote the role each child has in standing up for one another when he/she sees examples of mistreatment. As such, we’re calling this week “Stand Up Week.” During the announcements, we plan to show a news story about two high school students who took a unique approach to stand up for others (I’d encourage to view it at www.standupday.com); we’ll show a brief “movie short” (created by Pixar entitled “Boundin”) as a way to point out, in a student-friendly way, how one can make a difference in standing up for another; we’ll feature two teachers who attest to how impactful it can be to have had others stand up for them; and we’ll show a video skit and photo show focused on the theme of the week. Following the announcements, teachers will be facilitating brief conversations in each of the classrooms centered around a series of questions.

Also as part of the week, a group of students from Cathedral High School will be visiting the school today (Tuesday, Feb. 17th) to act out a series of brief skits (featuring bullying scenarios) for our 6-7th graders. We hope these activities will help to stimulate thought among students about our mutual role to follow Christ’s example of love and empathy.

I know that I must sound like a broken record, but I’d like to reiterate the importance of adhering to certain policies.

Catholic Schools Week isn't just a time when we celebrate the existence of Catholic schools. More importantly, it's an opportunity for us to celebrate the gift of those who gather, work in and support these schools. Last week, we celebrated Catholic Schools Week in a variety of different ways--allowing the students to dress in silly clothes; playing Bingo; and competing in a faculty-student volleyball game (perhaps one could argue that the “activity” students appreciated the most was the snow day!). However, even with these fun activities, it was the spirit of our students; hard work of our faculty and staff; and volunteerism of our parents that illustrate the true value of a Catholic education.

Monday's Hobby Show reflected the many and diverse talents of our students (check out this week’s issue of The Criterion for some photos of the event). The week-long canned food drive demonstrated the commitment students, parents and staff have in promoting the virtue of service. Students' Thursday and Friday Catholic Schools Week testimonials during morning announcements provided us a reminder of how meaningful a faith-based education is to students (even though they may not tell us as often as we'd like).

Friday's events demonstrated how thoughtful and creative our parents can be in organizing and generating enthusiasm for community-building events (the Math Mania event, themed school lunch, and Winter Carnival were remarkable successes). It is not the mere existence of Catholic schools that we celebrated last week but rather the contributions and character of our Catholic community. Thanks to all of you for a great week!

We are very excited about the capital improvements we’re planning to make to the school. While some light construction will begin this spring, the heavy construction is scheduled to begin once school has concluded in late May/early June.

For those that did not see the plans in the narthex earlier this fall, we are adding a resource classroom/office space, a Spanish classroom, a parent room (with pull-down window for Scrip sales), new administrative space, a conference and workroom for teachers and staff, as well as public and staff restrooms. We’re also reconstructing the front vestibule to create a more secure entry into the school.

During school hours, individuals wanting to enter the school will need to enter through a newly-constructed reception area which will accommodate our front office staff. As a way to give you a more detailed look at our plans, I’ve uploaded a copy of the plan on Edline (Principal’s Corner/General Info/ “New Construction Plans”). While the interior details of the newly-constructed space are not yet finalized, the sketch should give you a good sense of what’s to come.

For the past two and a half years, I have been blessed to serve as Principal at St. Pius X Catholic School. During this time, I have relished the opportunity to work in such a welcoming, supportive and spirit-filled Catholic community. In reflecting on past experiences working and visiting other Catholic schools, I can say that there is something truly special about our school and parish.

One issue I have found to be consistently challenging as principal is how to balance the professional expectations associated with my position together with the time and energy I want to devote to my family. With two young children and a wife who works full-time, I’ve found it difficult to meet both sets of expectations in a way in which I feel comfortable. While I enjoy my work as principal immensely, I continue to feel unsettled in how I’m negotiating these professional and familial obligations.

Thus, after many months of prayerful discernment, I have decided that I will not be returning as Principal for the 2009-2010 school year. I informed the teachers of this decision yesterday afternoon, and I plan to talk to the students next week after our Wednesday mass. I am announcing this decision at this point in the year for two reasons. First, I want to provide the Office of Catholic Education and the parish ample time to attend to the responsibilities associated with finding a replacement. Secondly, it is important to me that I’m open about my intentions to prospective families who may be considering the school for their children.

While I will continue to try to stay active in some professional capacity after my departure, my plans for the foreseeable future are to stay home and raise our children. It is important for you to know that this decision is not motivated by a desire to remove myself from a difficult professional situation at the school nor is it to seek another position elsewhere. I love St. Pius X! Rather, this decision is based strictly on what my wife and I think is in the best interests of our family.

While I have highlighted a new process for distributing report cards in prior ommunications, with this the first quarter in which we’ll be uploading electronic report cards to Edline, I thought I would provide some important reminders:

* Report cards will be electronically posted to Edline no later than Tuesday, January 13th at 10am (they may be posted before this time). No hard copies will be mailed or sent home.

* Once the report card has been posted, it will not continually update in the way that Edline grades are updated on teachers’ individual class pages. The date range will be printed on report cards to avoid any confusion. In order to evaluate students’ progress for the third quarter, parents should continue to check the individual class pages on Edline.

* On the 6-8th grade report cards, you will find a “numerical average” listed at the bottom of the column for each of the student’s first two quarters. This number represents the average we use to determine whether a child has made the quarterly honor roll (middle school parents can find the honor roll guidelines as well as the process for calculating the honor roll average on pages 9-11 in the 2008-09 Student Handbook). To help parents interpret the numerical average, we will also include the honor roll grading scale at the bottom of the report card. Honor roll lists will continue to be printed in the Purple and Gold each quarter, however each parent will now have access to the student’s information prior to the school’s notice in the newsletter.

* In order to provide honor roll information, we had to make a change in the format of the report card. So, some of you might notice in January that the design of the report card has changed slightly. For the most part, the new report card format has the same information, just a different layout.

*If any of you would like a copy of the report card, you are welcome to print one from home. For those parents that do not have convenient access to the Internet, please feel free to contact the school office for a hard copy.

As I mentioned in last week’s Principal’s Corner, the Indiana Department of Education has released a new web site, called the Indiana Parent Network, that is designed to more efficiently communicate fall 2008 ISTEP+ results. Letters with a user name and password were sent home last week, and the site is now up and running for parents to access. After you log in to the site, you will find your child’s “scale score” which reflects his/her proficiency in answering a series of standards-based, multiple choice and, in some cases, open-ended questions. You will also see a detail of your child’s performance according to the specific standards associated with English/language arts, mathematics and, for 5th and 7th grade students, science. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions in how to interpret the results.

When you are reading the test results, there are a couple of important statistical considerations. First of all, there are three performance levels for which a child may be assigned: Pass, Pass Plus, or Did Not Pass. These designations reflect your child’s mastery of the Indiana academic standards and are based on defensible judgments made by the Indiana State Department of Education in conjunction with the test publishers. The ISTEP+ is a criterion-reference test (as opposed to a norm-referenced test) which means that your child’s performance reflects the extent to which he/she meets the Indiana standards on which the test is based. ISTEP+ results do NOT compare your child’s performance to the performance of students across Indiana.

Although individual student results vary from year to year, this year’s aggregate scores are consistent with the high performance St. Pius X students have demonstrated in recent years. Because passing rates are typically so high for students in the school, it is not always helpful to examine small fluctuations in the percentage of students who passed the test. Instead of conducting this kind of analysis of the scores, I believe it is more constructive to examine the performance of the same group of students over time. In examining the detail chart (view it now within the Purple & Gold Newsletter), I would encourage you to track the performance of a certain grade of students over the course of the past four years. For example, if your child was in third grade in the 2005-06 school year, you can track the performance of his/her grade by referencing the rows that reflect the third, fourth fifth and sixth grades for the 2005-06, 2006-07, 2007-08, and 2008-09 school years. While there are always opportunities for improvement, it is worth noting the positive trend in the number of students earning “pass plus” designations in 5-8th grade mathematics and 7th grade English/language arts.

Any statistical analysis of ISTEP+ scores merits some caution as changes in scores can reflect myriad factors that influence student results. In some cases, a lack of exposure to certain curricula eventuate in students underperforming on certain parts of the assessment. In other cases, a student or group of students’ scores may reflect significant achievement gains in comparison to the year before that may not be immediately evident in a cursory analysis of the passing rates. Given these limitations, the school—through the Office of Catholic Education--is working with a research firm to identify, in a much more detailed way, how student performance grows over time. Once this information is available, I will be working with the teachers to identify what this data means for our school. This data will be an important source of information in continuing to evaluate how we are doing in improving students’ ability to write competently, analyze text and apply mathematical operations to word problems.

The Indiana Department of Education is releasing a new web site, called the Indiana Parent Network, that is designed to more efficiently communicate fall 2008 ISTEP+ results. As we are expecting ISTEP+ scores to be released shortly, the Department has asked the school to send home letters which provides an “invitation code” for accessing the site. Please watch for this letter later this week. The site will be available starting Thursday, December 4th. The invitation codes are set to expire on February 12th, so please be sure to log in sometime prior to this date. For subsequent test scores (e.g. spring 2009 ISTEP+), the Department will generate a new set of invitation codes that will be sent out to parents. Please contact the school if you do not receive a letter or you experience a problem in accessing the site. Many thanks!

I’m excited to announce the start of the National Junior Honors Society peer tutoring program. Students in NJHS will offer tutoring to interested students each Thursday between 3:15-4:30pm.

Please support our local food pantries by sending in a can with your child on Wednesday. We’ll collect and deliver the cans as part of our annual pre-Thanksgiving mass!

Please remember that in order to register for the next school year and to receive the “active parishioner” tuition rate, each family MUST have a stewardship card on file in the parish office. Please return your stewardship pledge card as soon as possible. Registration will begin in January.

On the evening of Tuesday, January 20th at 6:30 p.m., we will again host an Open House for prospective families. The evening will begin with tours, a brief presentation, and a chance to interact with teachers. You are our best marketers. Start thinking of people you interact with everyday, and invite them to attend!

I wish each of you a very blessed and safe Thanksgiving! There is indeed much to be thankful for!

By the end of the day on Wednesday, we will make 3-8th grade second quarter progress reports available via parent’s individual Edline page. You can access these progress reports by clicking the link entitled “Report Cards.” This link can be found under the “Contents” menu on the right side of the front page of Edline. Upon clicking this link, you will find your child’s name listed. Click on his/her name after which an up-to-date summary of his/her grades will appear. A few related notes:

(1) These progress reports are snapshots of students’ performance. They provide a summary of students’ 2nd quarter grades from Monday, October 13th through Tuesday, November 11th. Once the progress report has been posted, it will not continually update in the way that Edline grades are updated on teachers’ individual class pages. The date range will be printed on the progress reports to avoid any confusion. In order to evaluate students’ progress during the remainder of the quarter, parents should continue to check the individual class pages on Edline.

(2) On each of the progress reports, you will find your child’s up to date for second quarter as well as the child’s first quarter grade. This will give you a comparative sense of how your child is performing in each subject area.

(3) 2nd quarter report cards will also be uploaded to Edline in mid-January. No hard copies will be mailed or sent home. On the 6-8th grade report cards, you will find a “numerical average” listed at the bottom of the child’s quarterly grades. This number represents the average we use to determine whether a child has made the quarterly honor roll. To make this information more accessible, we will print both the numerical average as well as the honor roll grading scale. In order to provide this information, we had to make a change in the format of the report card. So, some of you might notice in January that the design of the report card has changed slightly. For the most part, the new report card format has the same information, just a different layout.

(4) If you would like a copy of the progress report or report card, you are welcome to print one from home. For those parents that do not have convenient access to the Internet, please feel free to contact the school office for a hard copy.

The Archdiocese has promulgated a new set of requirements for how schools and faith formation programs must integrate chastity education into existing religion curricula. In short, each school and faith formation program is required to implement a chastity education program (with accompanying student texts) for grades 5-8 by the start of the 2009-10 school year. Grades K-4 must have these programs adopted in time for the 2011-2012 year. Teachers and catechists for these grade levels will complete a day-long training program prior to implementation.

We currently address issues of human sexuality and reproduction in the spring of the fifth grade year. As part of this curriculum, we take students to the Ruth Lilly Health Education Center as a way to support our discussion of such topics as the physical and emotional changes entailed in puberty; the anatomy of male and female reproductive systems; and the development of human beings from conception to birth. With this new requirement to integrate chastity education more comprehensively across grade levels, we will have to determine if and how we will need to revised this and other grade level religion curricula. It is important to note that, in my review of the texts that are recommended by the Archdiocese, much of the curricula does not cover issues you would immediately think of as relating to chastity. For example, one of the 6th grade texts I’ve reviewed, focuses on topics such as setting goals, respecting others, and aging and death. So we’ll ultimately need to discuss what topics could easily be integrated into existing curricula and which need to be addressed separately.

As the Pope and United States Conference of Catholic Bishops remind us, parents are the primary educators of their children. Thus, not only will we want to keep you apprised of what topics and issues will be discussed, but also invite you to take part in this discussion at home with your children. I will have more to say about these curricular changes as we learn more from the Archdiocese and have a chance to discuss the new mandate as a faculty.

Many thanks to all of you who attended last week’s Parent Night. As I mentioned, the school will be making a change in the way we supervise students at recess. Starting immediately, I will be seeking to hire three paid recess supervisors who will monitor each of the recesses Monday-Friday. Among other responsibilities, these paid supervisors would be responsible for communicating closely with the teachers and me on behavior matters; and they, as school employees, would also be empowered with the right to hold students accountable for inappropriate behavior. With a consistent presence at recess, they would be able to intervene quickly in ongoing situations involving students and work with teachers proactively to understand situations more completely. They would also be asked to participate in school meetings that relate to discipline/bullying.

I can't tell you how pleased I've been at the work each of our parents has done in helping at recess. As you well know, recess supervision is not the most popular position, and all of them have done a wonderful job in being communicative (with me and teachers); monitoring students on the playground; getting equipment in and out; and consistently reminding students of our collective expectations. Even with how effective they have been, I've had a growing concern with the lack of consistency our approach to recess supervision provides students. When students know that the supervisor today will be different than the one tomorrow, their behavior changes. Further, as I am committed to continuing to address the issue of bullying at the school, I believe consistency is all the more important during a time of the day when bullying occurs most frequently.

If you or someone you know is interested in such a position, please feel free to contact me. The ideal candidate will have a flexible schedule and a willingness to commit to this important responsibility. I will interview candidates on an ongoing basis until the selections are made. Until such a time as these individuals are hired, our current recess supervisors will continue to monitor students at recess. It is important to note that any parent who would like to continue to be present at recess as a volunteer is welcome to do so.

I don’t know how many of you have had a chance to attend one of weekly school masses this year. For those that haven’t, the teacher/students that organize the mass for the week have begun cantoring as part of their mass responsibilities. While we continue to appreciate the good work of Mrs. Muller and our 8th grade cantors who cantor once per month, Mrs. Kirch and the teachers have done a wonderful job in preparing a different group of students to sing each week. The great work of our weekly cantors has energized students and created a heightened sense of community during mass. I want to thank Mrs. Kirch in a particular way for her leadership and hard work in this area!

Other notes:

Many thanks to all of you for providing me with your requests for conference times in such a timely fashion. On the enclosed sheet, you’ll find each of your children’s conference times listed. In almost all cases, I was able to accommodate at least the third highest time preference; in many cases, I was able to accommodate either the first or second preference. A special priority was given to those school families with more than one child. If you noted on the form that you are not able to be present for conferences or did not return your form, please contact the teacher directly to arrange an alternative time and date to meet. I know that it can be difficult to juggle professional and personal obligations in order to accommodate conference times. Thank you once again for your flexibility and support.

Some other items of note:

This past week, several teachers and I attended the Indiana State Literacy Conference at the Convention Center. The conference focused on building students’ vocabulary and comprehension skills. While the conference took us away from the classroom for a couple of days (by the way, our substitutes did a wonderful job filling in!), it provided many research-based strategies for engaging students in reading instruction and improving their ability to comprehend. Many of the speakers were nationally recognized for their research and teaching in these areas.

Not only are our teachers committed to helping improve students’ reading skills. At St. Pius X, we are lucky to have parents that do so much to help support students’ reading as well. In fact, research study after research study discusses children’s home environment as the most important indicator of a child’s success in learning and using sophisticated vocabulary; identifying a story’s main idea; and summarizing key events from a story.

As I mentioned last week, our school’s academic goal focuses on reading comprehension and analysis. In addition to discussing some other items, I will use the upcoming Parent Night (scheduled for Tuesday, October 21st at 6:30pm) as a way to provide more information about this goal and what parents can do to help support our instructional efforts. For those that attended the Parent Night a couple of years ago, you might remember that I discussed several reading comprehension strategies as part of that event. You can find the Powerpoint presentation on Edline (Principal’s Corner/School Improvement/Reading Comprehension Powerpoint).

During the spring-summer 2008, the Archdiocese of Indianapolis and the state of Indiana approved our school improvement plan. This plan outlines three broad goals--one academic, one "institutional" and one related to our Catholic identity. Each goal contains several specific objectives designed to achieve the goal. In our institutional goal, we seek to maintain or increase current enrollment figures through the implementation of certain marketing and promotional strategies. Our Catholic identity goal seeks to cultivate a climate of empathy among our students and, in explicit and implicit ways, encourage students to stand up as leaders when they see bullying behaviors take place.

Our academic goal focuses on increasing students' nonfiction reading comprehension and analysis skills. This goal is cross-curricular and spans across grade levels. It will serve as the basis for the school’s collective professional development efforts. During the course of the year, the teachers and I will be examining how we can use effective instructional and assessment strategies not only to improve students' ability to recall facts from what they read, but, more importantly, to be able to extrapolate and apply ideas and extend thinking beyond what is written in the text. As part of this effort, we'll be looking to build upon instructional ideas we've discussed in the past year such as using graphic organizers and summarizing activities to help students frame their thinking. We're also seeking to integrate existing and projected technological initiatives as part of this process as well. Of course, we'll continue to use ISTEP+ as a way to gauge our progress. However, the teachers and I are also in the process of designing three assessments that would be used locally at the school to evaluate students' progress over the course of the year. We hope to have our first assessment finished in time to administer in January.

If you would like to learn more about the school improvement plan, it is available on both the school web site and on Edline (Principal’s Corner). In it, you'll find much more specific information about all three goals and how we plan to achieve them.

Many thanks to all of you who submitted feedback about our use of electronic progress reports. The response was a positive one! The one item that I did hear from a few of you is an interest in having the school’s grading scale published on the reports. I think we’ve found a way to do this for future reports. Thanks again!

Please be sure to read the conference letter included in this week’s newsletter. Please return your conference preference form no later than Tuesday, September 30th. Other pertinent information is included in the letter.

As I mentioned in last week’s parent email, we will be starting a band program at the school for interested 4-8th grade students. The band instructor at Bishop Chatard High School, Amy Fry, will be the teacher, and practices will take place after school on Thursdays from 3:15-4:15/4:30pm. Wood and percussion instruments only (no guitar or piano). To generate enthusiasm for the idea, we are planning to hold an assembly for students in grades 4-8 on Tuesday, September 23rd at 2:15pm in the gym. Following this assembly, we will hold a parent/student meeting for all interested students on Wednesday, October 8th at 6:30pm in the music room. In order to attend the meeting, you must first contact Mrs. Kirch by Tuesday, October 7th to express an interest in your child participating. There will be a $25 per semester fee for each child. Paige’s Music will be present at the meeting on the 8th with instruments available to rent. We are excited about the program!! Many thanks to Bishop Chatard for their support of SPX!!

Please see this week’s bulletin insert for information about Janice Gabe’s presentation on Thursday, October 2nd. She will be addressing the subject of how parents can address bullying with their children. I would strongly encourage you to attend!

In the past couple of parent emails, I mentioned that we were working on a system by which to provide parents electronic copies of students’ grade reports. I believe we are ready to offer these reports. This Wednesday afternoon, September 17th, we will send an electronic progress report for each child in grades 3-8. These progress reports will be accessible via the parent’s individual Edline page by clicking on the link entitled “Report Cards.” This link can be found under the “Contents” menu on the right side of the front page of Edline. Upon clicking this link, you will find your child’s name listed. Click on his/her name after which an up-to-date summary of his/her grades will appear.

Most of you know that in the middle of last school year, we stopped sending home progress reports for students in grades 4-8. Thus, starting immediately, we will resume sending quarterly progress reports albeit in this new, electronic format. Again, the first of these progress reports will be sent home this Wednesday. At least for the first quarter, we will continue to send home a paper copy of the report card (the distribution date for first quarter report cards is set for October 22nd). However, in light of the fact that these electronic grade reports are, in design, layout and content, exactly the same as a “paper” report card, we are seriously considering sending quarterly electronic progress reports AND electronic report cards beginning in the second quarter. I will certainly keep you updated as to our plans.

A few related details of which I’d like each of you to be aware:

With this serving as our first attempt to send these electronic progress reports, I am very interested to know your thoughts. Once we send these electronic progress reports out, feel free to contact me. Many thanks!

Last Tuesday evening, during a hard rain, the drain situated between the computer lab and library let in quite a bit of water. At one point, we probably had about 2-3 inches of water covering much of the hallway leading toward the school lobby. By the time Brett Fischer, our superb maintenance director, and I arrived at school, the maintenance crew, with the help of some football coaches who had just come in from practice, did a great job in vacuuming up most of the water. In a special way, I wanted to thank Mike Joseph and John Busald and all of the parents who stayed into the evening to help! Thanks to everyone’s hard work, we suffered no significant damage to any of the floors or, most importantly, computer equipment that is positioned across the hall from the lab. Another great example of how fortunate we are to be a part of this wonderful SPX community!

I wanted to take an opportunity to formally welcome all of our new school families. In a special way, I’d like to welcome two new students and families who have joined the school in the past two weeks. Destin Kitto (mom: Elizabeth; dad: Ryan) joined the 7th gr class two weeks ago. Destin is from Needham, Massachusetts, where he attended Pollard Middle School. Matt Zachocki (mom: Jenny; dad: Paul), formerly at Skiles Test, joined the 3rd class on Friday of last week. We’re thrilled that these two families—and all of our new families—have decided to join our school community. Both of these families—and many of the families who inquire about the school (including another prospective family who I met with last week)—have heard about St. Pius X from a neighbor, relative or friend.

I believe that more than any newspaper headlines, awards or direct marketing efforts, the positive recommendations that each of you offers to others about the school is the most influential factor in families choosing St. Pius X for their children. With an exceptional group of teachers and staff, supportive parents like you, diverse extra-curricular offerings, and, most importantly, wonderful students, we’ve got a lot of good news to share! (Special Note: We also need to add “caring principal” to his list!)

With this being the beginning of the second full week of school, I wanted to take an opportunity to remind you of some very important safety precautions during morning drop-off and afternoon dismissal.

First of all, when dropping your child (children) off in the morning, please have him/ her (they) exit on the passenger side of the car. With the large size of some cars and the small size of some children, it is dangerous for children to be walking between running cars.

Second, please be certain that if you need to enter the school in the morning that you park in the north parking lot (by the playground). Again, we want to avoid students (and parents) having to walk across the drop-off line into the school.

Third, during afternoon dismissal, please be certain that you turn off your engine when students are dismissed from the school. This past week, I noticed many engines had been turned off, but there were a few still running. I know during these hot summer months, we would all rather keep our air conditioning running, but, for safety reasons, it is very important that engines are off. Given the size of our parking lot and the number of cars coming in and out, parents do a great job dropping off and picking up. Please help us to continue to improve this process! Thank you so much for your cooperation and for a great start to the school year!

Welcome back!! While I’ve already explained some staff changes and curriculum and programmatic elements for the upcoming year, there are several that I wanted to highlight in a specific way:

I am delighted that Mrs. Jeanine Ritter will be taking over as the 1st grade religion teacher. We’ll surely miss Mrs. Hankee at the school, however we are replacing her with an exceptionally creative and enthusiastic teacher in Mrs. Ritter! She introduced herself to last year’s kindergarten parents at our end-of-year 1st Grade Open House.

Our school improvement plan, required by both the state of Indiana and the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, was approved in May. You can find a copy of the plan on the school web site or on Edline (“Principal’s Corner,” see “Contents” on far right side). We will be using this plan as a guidepost for professional development in the coming years.

This year, we will be using the highly-acclaimed program “Handwriting Without Tears” to teach handwriting in our kindergarten and 1st grades.

For this school year, we will be using a 4th grade vocabulary curriculum (the text is entitled “Wordly Wise”) to replace our spelling-only curriculum. This new curriculum will emphasize word meanings, root words, writing, and spelling. Last year, 5th grade students made this same transition from spelling-only to vocabulary.

As a way to bolster students’ typing skills, we will be requiring our 4th and 5th grade students to take a keyboarding class once per week. This change will mean that students in these grades will take music once per week.

Mrs. Julie Cook will be increasing her time at the school to four days per week. She will split her time as the intermediate grades resource teacher and the teacher for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade enrichment programs. These programs, offered twice per week, are designed to provide a small group of students standards-based supplementary learning experiences targeting reading, writing and, in certain cases, math skills across the content areas. Let me also take the opportunity to remind you of the ISTEP+ schedule for the upcoming year. Starting on September 15th, our 3-8th grade students will take the regularly scheduled ISTEP+ assessment in English/language arts and mathematics. As part of a transition plan, 3-8th grade students will also take the English/language arts and mathematics sections in the spring. The spring administrations are separated into an open-ended section (short answer responses and essays) and a multiple-choice section. The open-ended section is scheduled to begin on Monday, March 2nd, and the multiple choice section is set to begin April 27th. In effect, these changes will bring with them three separate ISTEP+ administrations for next year (in future years, ISTEP+ will take place only in the spring). I’ve added these dates to the school calendar. The ISTEP+ schedule is not only the element that will change. In the spring, students in grades 4 and 6 will also take the science version of ISTEP+ (students in grade 5 and 7 will take the science version in the fall), and students in grades 5 and 7 will take a new social studies version. These changes will provide us with meaningful data on students’ performance in these areas, however, particularly in the case of next year, we will see a significant increase in the amount of instructional time we lose to testing. You can learn more about ISTEP+ by accessing the “ISTEP+ Infocenter” on the Indiana Department of Education page (http://www.doe.state.in.us/istep/welcome.html).

There are some additional curricular and staff changes associated with the middle school:

As some of you may know, Mrs. McNulty has been experiencing some health issues dating back to earlier in the summer. Although her health is rapidly improving, she will not be ready to begin the year in a full-time capacity. As such, Ms. Jenny Sullivan (daughter of Pat and Beth Sullivan) will be serving as an interim substitute for the 6-7th grade English and 6th grade religion classes while Mrs. McNulty recuperates. Mrs. McNulty is able to teach the 8th grade speech class, and she will also be working closely with Ms. Sullivan on the organization and design of the instructional plans for the English and religion classes. We anticipate that Mrs. McNulty will be ready to return to the school in a full-time capacity sometime in mid-October. I’m happy to welcome Mrs. Peg McEvoy as our new 7th grade religion teacher. Mrs. McEvoy comes to us as the former Coordinator of Religious Education for St. Louis Parish in Clarksville, Maryland. Prior to this position, she was a teacher of religious studies for Edgewood High School of the Sacred Heart in Madison, Wisconsin.

I am also excited to announce that Mrs. Angie Hyre, our parish Youth Minister, will serve as our new 8th grade religion teacher. Mrs. Hyre (Angie) has been a great teacher as part of the confirmation program and, in addition to student-centered catechesis she’ll bring to the classroom, her new role at the school will provide her an opportunity to connect with our middle school students prior to them entering high school.

We are excited to offer our 6-7th grade students an additional day of Spanish this school year. Thus, 6th grade students will take Spanish twice per week and 7th grade students will take Spanish three times per week. 8th grade students will continue to take Spanish three days per week.

Most of the new middle school classes we began last year—Social Studies Concepts, Speech, and Debate—we will continue this year. However, due to time considerations, we were not able to offer our once-per-week “DEAR” (Drop Everything And Read) class (Mrs. Taber will continue to offer silent reading during all of her literature classes) nor were we able to fit in the once-per-week “Collaborative Projects” class (this is regrettable as I was particularly fond of the interdisciplinary and creative elements associated with this course).

6th grade students will also have a once-per-week “Flex” class that is designed to serve as an opportunity to complete homework or, if the teacher is available, receive extra help.

Last year, we scheduled the 6th grade study skills class once per week for the entire year. In conversations with Mrs. DeGan, who teaches the class, we’ve opted to schedule the study skills class as a “rotating explore” class. This means that 6th grade students will take the class either 1st or 2nd quarter for four days per week.

All of our middle school students will also have the opportunity to save and transfer school documents using the “Web Locker” feature on Edline. Each student’s account has a link, entitled “My File Locker,” that can be used for electronic storage. Students may wish to utilize this “locker” as a means to transfer documents to/from home and school. Document storage using the web site “think.com” will no longer be permitted (for a complete explanation of the reason for this change please refer to the letter entitled “Letter Regarding the Use of Think.com” which can be found on Edline (“Principal’s Corner,” “General Info”)). Mrs. Bastnagel will be offering all middle school students training on the use of the Edline File Lockers at the beginning of the school year.