Hello,
In this newsletter we continue to focus on our pillars or Faith, Family, Academics, and Service. Our family is important to us so we have provided information on flu shots. To focus on our other pillars we have included information on our new grading scale, multiple volunteer opportunities, and a new volunteer policy from our School Commission. Please read the newsletter and participate in the various survey and volunteer opportunities. We need your support.
No school Friday this week!
Please take our survey today
CLICK HERE to take our digital access survey. We need all families to take this new survey to assist us in ensuring appropriate digital access for all from home.
Volunteers needed
We need you to participate in our school. We have several ways to help:
- Recess Help - The most fun part of every school day
- Equipment Donations - Make recess more fun
- Giving Garden - Harvest some of the most beautiful food on the planet weekly
- Outdoor Projects - Build, create, and deliver
You can sign up to come regularly for the garden and recess so that we do not stress about doing it alone ;)
From the Nurses’ Desk
This year, more than ever before, flu shots are important to help prevent illness due to Flu. Franciscan Health Immunization Services will be at St. Monica on Tuesday Oct. 27 from 3-7pm to provide Flu and Pneumonia vaccines in St. Augustine Hall. All parishioners, school families and employees are welcome to attend. Franciscan Health accepts most major health insurance companies (like Anthem, Aetna, Medicare, United Healthcare and Cigna). Please check to make sure that you are in network. If you do NOT have health insurance you can also self-pay for $15/vaccine. Please enter the building through the main rotunda entrance.
Grade Scale Changes
Our gading scale has changed to meet the requirements of the Archdiocese:
A+. 99-100 A. 96-98 A- 93-95 B+. 90-92 B. 87-89 B- 85-86
C+. 83-84 C. 79-82 C- 76-78 D+. 74-75 D. 72-73 D- 70-71 F. below 70
School Commission has a new volunteer policy
St. Monica School calls upon the gifts and talents of our wonderfully diverse community of parents. New this year is a volunteer program that emphasizes participation without penalty; most diocesan schools—including St. Monica in recent years—have had volunteer programs that require 20+ verified hours per family that result in fees assessed at year end for any incomplete hours. St. Monica is stepping away from this model and toward a practice that boosts school success through community building and fellowship, service to students and administration, and financial relief. Digging deeper to illustrate the power of volunteer hours, during the 2019-20 school year St. Monica families volunteered 4,900 hours (12.4 hours/student); this equates to $310/student tuition savings, or the equivalent of 3.5 full-time staff valuing $122,500. St. Monica received just over $22,000 in donated school supplies; that amounts to an extra $56 tuition per student. In total, volunteer hours saved $366/student in tuition expense this past year!
The main responsibility of a volunteer is to assist the administration or teachers; there are myriad volunteer opportunities available at St. Monica. For ease, we have categorized them into Volunteer Hubs based on activity, responsibility, time commitment, and seasonality. Each family is asked to support an activity in at least two Hubs. Why? Because far too often in our past volunteer hours models, we have seen the same giving faces stepping up to fill more gaps than what should be necessary for one family. With nearly 290 families, we should be able to achieve all St. Monica campus volunteer needs with a wide variety of friendly and giving faces. Our Volunteer Hubs, additional information about each, contact persons, and instructions for signing up will soon be found on the Family tab of the St. Monica School website: www.smsindy.org.
AfterCare
Aftercare is only to be used by preregistering and prepaying. CLICK HERE to take you to the Family page of our website for more information. If you need to use it on Friday due to the early dismissal you must register and prepay first.
PickUp
Please make sure that you plan to arrive no earlier than 2:40PM or park in the South lot and wait until 2:40PM before driving onto Knollton to get in line. We do not open the gates early most days and IMPD has asked us to inform you that parking on Knollton and Fox Hill is not safe.
Thank you for taking the time to read our newsletter. If you have not already, go back and click on the links to spend some time in service to your community. Make this week beautiful for someone else.