Good afternoon St. Joseph’s Families,

I hope you and your family have had a great week! As of tomorrow, we have finished up our distance learning for the 2019-2020 school year. We are so grateful for all of our students and families- everyone has worked so hard and now can take a well-deserved summer break!

St. Joe’s Virtual Crab Feed

Join us virtually next week for St. Joe’s Virtual Crab Feed Fundraiser. Online auction will start Monday, May 25th at 5:00 PM and the Virtual Live Auction will be Thursday, May 28th – Pregame starts at 6:30. This is our biggest fundraiser of the year – happy bidding!!

Faculty/Staff Updates

We are getting ready to say good-bye to three amazing St. Joseph’s faculty members. Mr. Frank Aspiri, Mrs. Debbie Moody and Mrs. Mary Seibert are retiring at the end of this school year.

• Frank has served St. Joe’s as the music teacher and later as facilities manager for the past 30 years. That is a lot of music concerts, choir practices, etc. He will be greatly missed.
• Debbie Moody has been part of the St. Joe’s team since 1999. Debbie has played at our school Mass, music concerts and helped Mr.Aspiri in music class.
• Mary Seibert has served our St. Joseph’s community as a 3rd grade teacher and later, middle school religion teacher since 2007. Mary’s creative projects and fun spirit will be missed.

We also have some changes in positions and are welcoming one new faculty member onto our team.

• Mr. Ricardo Yanci will be moving from 5th grade English, Social Studies and religion. He will be serving as our middle school religion teacher. We feel blessed that Mr. Yanci will share his faith and expertise with our middle school students.
• Mrs. Candy Vieira – current second grade teacher will be moving into Mr. Yanci’s spot in 5th grade. Mrs. Vieira was a 5th grade lead teacher in Catholic Schools in Texas before joining us last year.
• We are also welcoming a new 2nd grade teacher – Ms. Bella Zito. Bella comes highly recommended from so many people. During her interview – Mrs. Seidler, Mrs. George and I were so impressed with her passion for her faith and for working with kids. .Ms. Zito has extensive leadership experience at Boise State University and, as one of their top students, was asked to speak at commencement for the School of Education. Ms. Zito will be a great addition to our St. Joseph’s faculty!

End of School Materials Pick up/Drop Off

In order to finish out our 2019-2020 school year and make sure that students’ items and supplies are returned to them and that textbooks, library books, etc. are returned to the school, we have set the following dates for the exchange. We will have tables set up by grade level in the playground area in front of the school. We ask that everyone practice social distancing.

We are also asking that if you park and approach by foot, that masks are worn. All faculty and staff will be wearing masks and gloves for your safety and ours. Please come into the playground area from 8th Street (between the school and front of the Cathedral) and exit through the gate on 9th Street. The play equipment will not be accessible during this time.

If you would rather stay in your car, we will have drive through in the regular pattern of morning drop off (coming in through Hays and exiting onto 9th). We will bring your child’s supplies to you in your car.

You can also drop off used uniforms at this time.

If these times do not work for you, you can pick up supplies from 10:00 – 2:00 the week of June 1st – 5th. If families do not come and pick up supplies, we will hang on to them and give them to the student next school year.

Here are the dates of pick up designated by family last name:

• Tuesday, May 26th – 9:30 – 11:30
  • Families with Last Name A-G
• Wednesday, May 27th – 9:30 – 11:30
  • Families with Last name H-M
•  Thursday, May 28th – 9:30 – 11:30
  • Families with N-Z

Looking Forward to Next Year

We are in process of developing  a plan that we will implement as we start school in August. We are collaborating with other Catholic Schools here and around the U.S. who, like us, have had a successful distance learning program. St. Joseph’s Catholic School will be open next year either in full capacity, hybrid model or through distance learning dependent on state and national guidelines. Our main focus areas in developing this plan are

• The health and safety of our students and staff
• Our Catholic Identity
• Academic Excellence
  • Keeping students engaged in learning
  • Teaching essential content and skills
• Our St. Joseph’s/St. John’s Community – building relationships

We plan on sharing our learning plan with our community in late June. To our faculty, staff, students and families,

Thank you all for being part of our St. Joseph’s Family.

Take Care and God Bless,

Tammy Emerich

Principal – St. Joseph’s Catholic School