Many of you may have already read my post regarding Sr. Ann Marie’s retirement and no doubt many of you who’ve known her are sad that she is leaving. With her permission, I’d like to share what she said about her decision. She said that she has wanted to retire a few years back but was hesitant to leave St. Clare until she was certain it was in good hands. She feels very strongly that with our current group of parents, teachers and administrators, St. Clare School will be in good hands for many years. She will continue to pray for us and she has asked us to keep her in the loop on all our happenings.
Legacies such as Sr. Ann Marie’s and the charisms of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary have been the cornerstone of St. Clare’s success. Each year we are together, we have an opportunity to build on this legacy and create new traditions elevate our school, especially in the ways of our faith. As part of our baptismal promise, we vowed to live in service of Christ and his Church.
CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK RECAP
We thank our Student Council, Student Ambassadors, Girl Scouts, PTG, SAC, faculty and staff and Kristi Britt and her Pancake Breakfast team for the joyful celebrations during Catholic Schools Week. Way to practice our focus habit of Live Joyfully!
Once again, our community came together to provide for the clients of the Window of Hope at St. John XXIII Center in downtown San Jose, our community partners: SCU, Mission Library, Bright Smilz Preschool and Daycare, the SCPD and SCFD. Thank you to our teachers for the letter/card writing campaign to highlight the benefits of Catholic education and to thank our teachers and our parishioners for walking the journey of our faith with us. On Wednesday, our friends at the Legion of Honor joined us with VFWs presenting arms at our flag ceremony.
Here are some of the celebrations you might have missed:
Student Ambassadors prepared videos of our students thanking their teachers
Buddy classes spent Friday morning guessing our teachers’ favorites
Student Council planned an amazing rally with incredible teacher participation that really showed how much joy we bring one another at St. Clare
We thank the hospitality committee, the Nolan and Angeles families and all of our room reps for preparing meals and great messages for our teachers. There is nothing more affirming than our students letting us know how much they appreciate the efforts we make to form them into good humans. Thank you all for recognizing that the great sacrifices you make to provide this opportunity for your children is worthwhile!
ONE LOVE FEBRUARY
Jesus said, “I have given you an example so that you may copy what I have done for you.” (John 13:15)
To this end, our school community, with parent leadership from PTG and SAC partnering with classroom teachers, present our first “ONE LOVE” campaign beginning Monday, February 3. The vision is that as a school community, we bring focus to practice the example that Jesus has given us by living our faith guided by the principles of Catholic Social Teaching. (Read more about the seven tenets of Catholic Social Teaching HERE.)
Focusing all of February on this theme will challenge us to look inwardly so that we may act outwardly. We begin today by reflecting with gratitude on what we have, the consumer “throw away” culture that permeates our world and the priorities we give to material things. We follow this look inward with a drive for those who are in the midst of housing insecurity, living on the streets, in their cars or sharing a house with several other families. LifeMoves, an organization that looks to help the unhoused transition into shelters or transitional housing facilities; as well as Sacred Heart Community Services will be the main beneficiaries of the drive which begins on February 10.
In the middle grade classrooms, we will be inviting speakers to speak about the needs in our community so that their teachers can guide them to work towards advocacy. In the younger grades, teachers will continue to guide students to act with empathy and to broaden their Catholic world view to “see” those who have been made invisible. Other age-appropriate and grade level activities will be infused into the curriculum as part of religion outcomes, homeroom and social studies standards.
All of these efforts will culminate in our first-ever “One Love” Day of Service on Saturday, February 29 from 10 A.M. to 2 P.M. where all are invited to gather to share our faith and perform acts of service (all age levels) including a food insecurity exercise for our junior high students. There are many details to this vision that we will communicate separately. For now, we ask for your prayers to have the Holy Spirit guide us in our endeavor to open our hearts to those who are struggling and those whose day-to-day reality is so different than ours.
Our greatest hope is that the effort to focus on this for a whole month will build a culture where these actions of LOVE will permeate within us, in the hearts of our students even after they have left the comfort within the walls of St. Clare School.
We pray that you will be an active participant in our drive to spread ONE LOVE.
CORONA VIRUS AND ILLNESSES
This week, an email was sent to pastors and principals from the Diocese of San Jose that confirms the protocol we follow for infectious diseases.
We regularly consult the Santa Clara County Public Health site for notices. We are vigilant about communicating with parents regarding protocols at home and with teachers regarding protocols in the classrooms to minimize the spread of any disease.
As always, we work very closely together as a system of schools should we need to act more aggressively. At this time, we are keeping a close eye on developments as we continue to advise parents to keep sick students home.
Read the letter from the Vicar General and the Superintendent of Schools in the Diocese of San Jose that contains links from the CDC and the SCCPHD. As always, promote good hygiene, eat a healthy diet, drink lots of water and get lots of rest.
WCEA SHAREHOLDER ENGAGEMENT INVITATION | Feb. 11, 5:30P
Starting at 5:30 P.M. on Tuesday, February 11, the School Advisory Committee is hosting an evening to engage in conversation around the WCEA (accreditation) Action Plan goals that will be presented to the accreditation visiting committee on Tuesday, February 25. A separate post will ask you to RSVP if you can make this event. Vice Principal Analiza Filion, will lead the activity. We hope you can join us.
2020-2021 TUITION AGREEMENT DUE BACK BY FEBRUARY 10
Students brought home an envelope that contains the 2020-2021Tuition information (letter, schedule/rate and fees, agreement). Please read through it carefully. (They’re attached to the post.)
If you plan to return for the 2020-2021 school year, please sign and return the tuition agreement by Monday, February 10, 2020. If you are not planning on returning, I ask for the courtesy of a letter or email indicating the reason or the request for a meeting before February 10.
In addition, if you would like to be considered for tuition assistance, please complete a FACTS Grant & Aid application (online: FACTS) as soon as possible (DEADLINE: February 14, 2020***).
***While applicants missing financial documents (1040, 1099, W2) will be considered for a scholarship, no determination will be made until all required documents are uploaded to and verified by FACTS Grant & Aid. Scholarships will be awarded until all available funding is allocated, after which qualifying applicants will be placed on a wait list.
On February 3, let us pray to St. Blaise to heal all those who have infections and diseases of the throat.
Our focus habit of the week is “Be Attentive”. This Sunday’s gospel reading once again speaks of the divine being revealed to us. How can we know if we are not attentive? How can we see God in others if we do not pay attention?
Ephphata! May our eyes and ears be open to this revelation and may we take it and spread its good news by being LOVE to one another.
Peace.
Mrs. Cecile Mantecon, Principal
