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Thursday Thoughts
September 18, 2008
Carlton Rider, Principal |
I don’t know about you, but that is about as
close to a hurricane as I hope to come in my
lifetime! As you might recall, we have been
compiling names and phone numbers/e-mail
addresses as being a part of the National
School Alert System. We actually could have
used that system last Sunday to notify
parents and students concerning the
cancellation of classes on Monday, however,
the system is computer based and with no
electricity it could not be activated. There
is a phone number that can be used as a
back-up but I didn’t have that number. I
will be checking into getting that phone
number so that we have it if we would need
to send communications to our parents and
students in the future. In fact, I couldn’t
even communicate with officials from the
Lancaster City Schools regarding closing the
schools nor our other two Catholic School
principals because of the lack of phone
service. When you are without power and even
cell phones don’t work, one finds that we
are really at the mercy of Mother Nature
when she chooses to be fickle in spit of
best laid plans.
We will have to wait and see whether these
three days are considered calamity days and
count toward our five calamity days
permitted by the Department of Education.
With the prediction of a colder than normal
and snowier than normal winter, it would not
be good to have only two calamity days left
going into winter. I’ll let you know as soon
as we know about this situation.
As you may remember, Bishop Frederick
Campbell was the principle celebrant at our
opening school Mass on Friday, September
12th. The participation by our students
during the Mass was outstanding. The singing
was strong and vibrant on the part of all in
attendance, the reader, MichelleBowes, was
very well prepared, our greeters were
hospitable, the servers reverant, and our
fifth grade singers, under the direction of
Mrs. Wettersten, angelic. At the end of Mass
the Bishop took time to answer some of the
students’ questions and stayed after Mass to
greet and meet those in attendance. To me,
he seemed relaxed, hospitable, and appeared
to really enjoy being with our students,
faculty, and others in attendance. He was in
no hurry to get back to Columbus and the
rigors of being a bishop. One particular
thing caught my attention. After Mass our
Home and School Association provided cake
and punch in the Spirit Center for our
students and faculty and the Bishop came
over to visit and share in the food. Earlier
he had told us that he really liked cake but
that his doctor didn’t like him having too
much cake! I noticed that he was sitting
with a group of fourth grade boys sharing
cake and punch. Suddenly he got up from the
table and went to the punch table and got a
cup of punch and brought it to one of the
boys at the table who must not have had a
cup of punch. After giving the cup to the
boy he sat back down at the table and
continued his conservation with them. This
gesture brought to my mind the quote from
scripture about all of us being servants to
one another, even if it means getting a cup
of punch for a fourth grader!
On Thursday, September25th interim reports
will be sent home. This means that we are
half way through the first quarter. These
reports will give you an idea as to how your
child is performing at this time in the
quarter in his/her various subject areas. I
know that many of you have already been in
contact with your child’s teacher or
teachers with either academic or discipline
concerns and that communication helps
prevent more serious problems from
developing in the future.
I welcome Fr. Franks and Sr. Louis Mary back
to meeting with our students on Tuesdays and
Thursdays during their religion classes.
This gives me, along with Fr. Franks and Sr.
Louis Mary, an opportunity to do what we
consider to be very important, share our
faith with our students. It also gives our
students an opportunity to share their faith
and life experiences with us. It’s a win-win
opportunity for all of us!
During the next weeks you will hopefully see
less and less paper coming home in the
Thursday folder and more information being
put on our website. Since we already have
our monthly activity and cafeteria calendars
posted on our website, we will discontinue
sending those items home each month in the
Thursday folder. We will let you know what
you can expect to see on our website and in
the process save a few trees along the way.
Check the link Sports on our website to see
how well our fall sports teams, especially
junior high, are doing to this point in the
season. Two teams, football and girls’
seventh grade volleyball, are undefeated! Go
Irish!
Previous Messages:
September 11, 2008
September 4, 2008
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