Hawk Happenings

July 13, 2023

Summer Update

Good Afternoon Hawk Families,

I hope you are all doing well! I wanted to send a quick email to introduce myself and update you on a few items. I plan on using this same format throughout the school year to send a weekly update on the last day of the school week. As a parent myself, I know that it can be a lot. My hope is that you find this is a good resource to refer back to throughout the week, when needing to find information. Please note that there will more than likely be attachments each week. Make sure to scroll all the way down to the bottom of this email to see those attachments. The logo and contact information will always be at the bottom so that you know you made your way through the whole newsletter.

Introduction I grew up in New Athens where I attended St. Agatha Catholic Grade School and then New Athens High School. I graduated from SIUE with my Bachelors of Science in Elementary Education and American College of Education for my Masters Degree in Educational Leadership. My husband, Bob, and our three children, Josh, Lauren, and Chase, live between Red Bud and Waterloo. We are parishioners at St. John the Baptist in Red Bud. Josh will be a Sophomore and Lauren will be a Freshman here at Gibault.

I have worked in the Belleville Diocese for 18 years as a teacher and principal. I started my career at St. Mary in Belleville where I taught Kindergarten for three years, then moved to St. Agatha where I taught 7/8th grade for five years before shifting into the role as principal for five years. I then decided to go back into the classroom and taught 5-8th grade Math and Science at St. John the Baptist in Smithton for one year before going back into the role as principal for the past four years.

I am very excited to join Gibault because of the unique school that it is. The amount of support from current and past families, alum, and friends gives the school a strong sense of a close family. The modular schedule also provides a unique opportunity for students to prepare for college by working hard during their off mods to get the best educational experience possible. I am excited to work with our teachers to continue to promote high rigor and academic excellence.

In my free time, I enjoy playing games, spending time outdoors with my family and watching our children's sporting events. I also like to bullet journal, cheer on the St. Louis Blues, and watch Hallmark Christmas movies all year long!

Summer Progress The Men's Club and our maintenance/custodial crew continue to make progress this summer. They have been working really hard on four of our classrooms to paint, replace lighting, and flooring. We are so thankful for all the time and work that has been put into our school this summer.

The Men's Club will be holding a meeting next Thursday, July 20th @ 7:30PM in the teacher's lounge and they are always welcoming new members. If you are available, come on out to see the work completed and offer your talents!

Thank You A big thanks to Nick Kessler for finding us and donating a four wheeler for us to use around our grounds. This will come in handy to drag the softball field and use around here to move and transport items. Thanks so much for handling this for us, Nick!

Republic Times (RT) All-Local Baseball Team Last week the RT published this year's All Local Baseball Team. Congratulations to the following Hawks for making the list:

First Team: Kameron Hanvey, Daniel Darin, & Hudson Blank

Second Team: Brady Biffar

Special Mention: Ty Frierdich, Jack Keeven, & JJ Kinsey

Class of 2027 Mixer Mrs. Day and myself spent part of yesterday with some of our incoming freshman at The Edge in Belleville. The hawks that attended had fun and it was a good bonding experience for them. Thanks to those who came out for the fun!

Enrolling Please help spread the word that we're still welcoming visitors to our school! Have any prospective family contact Mrs. Day (kday@gibaulthawks.com) to schedule a tour or answer any questions.

FFA Night at the Fair Mrs. Katie Zeidler, our Future Farmers of America (FFA) sponsor, is excited to be returning to her role in FFA. She has us signed up to compete in exciting events against other area high schools at the Monroe County Fair. Events include Tug-A-War, egg toss, bail toss, wheel barrel water race, giant hay bail timed event, and a shovel race. The event will happen on Sunday, July 30th @ 6:00PM at the Monroe County Fair Grounds. If your hawk is interested in participating, please complete this Google Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSez3-iqjkYRJQeYEAVv1weBna0zUq7P2LAnZu_559FAhxxklg/viewform

If you hawk isn't interested in competing, have him/her come on out to the County Fair to cheer on our hawks in this fun event!

Fall Sports Our fall sport seasons will be starting next month. With that being said, if your hawk is participating in cross country, golf, girls volleyball, boys soccer, or girls tennis please have your completed sports physical in the school office by the start of the practice season.

If your hawk would still like to join a sports team, that can still happen. Please reach out to Mr. Montgomery (jamontg@gibaulthawks.com) and he can get you the details of the sport season and any upcoming events related to the sport.

Our boys JV soccer team could take on a few more players to help provide a deeper roster and we would love to add a few more girls to our tennis team. Please share the possibilities with your hawk.

Coaches Needed We are still in need of some coaches. We need a head coach for girls tennis. We have people willing to help, however, we need someone to fill the head coach role. We also need an assistant baseball coach, girls’ freshmen volleyball coach, and assistant boys’ volleyball coach. Contact Mr. Montgomery at jamontg@gibaulthawks.com

Tuition Online Account (Praxi) Last week you should have received an email from our Finance Director, Aubrie Swafford regarding all the details of Praxi. If you haven't read the email, please go back and do so, however, here are just a few items from that message.

You can now log in to Praxi School to pay your general, sports and transportation fees. Families were emailed statements last week with their current fees. You can make one-time payments on Praxi or send in checks to the front office. General and class fees should be paid by July 30th. Sports fees are due by the time the sport season begins. Bus fees may be paid on throughout the year.

While you are in Praxi paying your fees, you can go ahead and set up your automatic tuition payment plans. Tuition is billed on the first business day of the month, August through May. Monthly tuition is $907 for a Parishioner, and $1,110 for Non-Parishioners. If you were awarded Variable Tuition, you received your monthly tuition amount in the award email.

Tuition information will be uploaded into Praxi during the month of July. This will not prevent you from entering your automatic payment plans now if you know your monthly tuition rate or you use the balance due option. Auto-payment plans do not roll over from prior years. You will need to reenter your information.

Please see PDF attachement below as well for directions regarding Praxi.

Dress Code You will find dress code changes attached below. A few other details regarding dress code.

Gibault polos can be purchased from Crafted in the Loo either online or instore. Crafted in the Loo can also embroider the GCHS logo on to a plain polo. - https://www.creationstationdesigns.com/gibault
- We also have polos in a variety of sizes and colors that have been donated back to Gibault from alum that can be picked up for FREE. These are on a table outside the main office. Summer hours are Monday – Thursday, 8 – 1.
Gibault skirts can be purchased from Just Me Apparel in St. Louis – https://www.justmeapparel.com/product/plaid-skirt-44/ (Note: It takes several weeks for skirts to come in once an order is placed. They do not have much inventory of our plaid in store.)

School Supplies and Laptop Requirements You will find a suggested list of school supplies attached that Mrs. Day sent out last week. The teachers will announce what the students will need for their class. This list will get you started. The laptop information is also attached.

Host Families Needed Gibault Catholic High School, in partnership with Educatius Group, welcomes international high school students to the school and community every year. Students come from all over the world and take classes alongside their American peers, while living with loving host families. Educatius provides the host family a monthly stipend of $450 per month. If you become a host family and have a child who attends Gibault, you will also receive $1000.00 off the cost of your tuition.

Educatius is still looking for families for four students for the 2023-2024 school year. Host Families come in many different shapes and sizes - young couples with small children, single persons, one parent families, empty nesters, etc. The one characteristic all host families share is a big heart!

An International Coordinator will provide support to the student, host family and school throughout the duration of the academic school year. There is also 24/7 national support. Students come with their own spending money for school lunches, fees, personal items, and activities they wish to be involved with.

Please contact the Educatius Local Coordinator, Patty DeRousse at 618-612-7008 or plderousse.educatius@gmail.com for more information about this amazing opportunity or Becky Ramlose, Director of International Admissions at (618) 939-3883 or bramlose@gibaulthawks.com. Currently we have 8 international students scheduled to come for the 2023-2024 school year and need host families for 4 students.

Prayer Request

Please keep in your prayers, Rex Hancock, who was our girls' golf coach last year. Rex had surgery today due to his battle with cancer. He will be in the hospital for some time and could use all our prayers.

I think that's it for this newsletter! Phew! For the remainder of the summer, look for a newsletter from me every other week. Once the school year begins it will be weekly.

Have a great weekend! Stay safe and make family memories!

Peace and Blessings,

Sarah Lanham