The time has been flying by! Our Fall Halloween Carnival is already upon us this weekend, and soon it will be time for the Thanksgiving holidays!  There is so much to be thankful for:  our community, our families, our school, our faith!  There has been so much energy and excitement here at St. Elizabeth School this year, thanks to the commitment of our families and school staff and our combined dedication to providing the most outstanding education for our children possible!!!  Let’s keep that spirit alive as we continue to move forward through this school year!

We are very grateful this year for our dynamic Family Volunteer Organization and each and every one of our GLR’s (grade level representatives) under this year’s leadership team:  Marybeth Jones, Andy Goza, Anna Burciaga, Dana Choate,  Katy Barrilleaux, Michele Mills, Michael January, & Erica Aranda.  We are looking forward to the most fantastic Halloween carnival ever!!!  Thanks for all you are doing to build community among our students and families while raising much needed funds to help educate our deserving children.

We are so blessed this year to be able to provide a number of after school programs for our students.  So far this year we have established the following extra-curricular activities:

• DPL Athletics
• YMCA Soccer
• Scouts
• National Junior Honor Society
• Guitar Classes-Beginner, Intermediate, Liturgical
• Tech Club
• Environmental Club
• Teen Read Week

I am so excited to announce that, beginning in November, we will be adding the following after school clubs to our repertoire of extra-curricular activities:

• Art Club Gr. K-3 (facilitated by Mrs. Michelle Green)
• Art Club Gr. 4-8 (facilitated by Mrs. Molly O’Sullivan)
• Theater Club Gr. 1-5 (facilitated by Mrs. Monica Stansberry)
• Robotics Club Gr. 4-8 (facilitated by Mrs. Stepniewski and Mr. Dulac)

Additional information regarding these new clubs will be sent home this week, allowing students the opportunity to sign up.  However, space is limited in each class, so students will be admitted on a first come, first serve basis.

You may notice that most of these new clubs are facilitated by parents and volunteers who have expertise in their respective areas.  Perhaps you have expertise in an area and would like to consider facilitating an after school club in the future.  If there would be any parent willing to assume the leadership, we would love to add a Speech Club so that our students could complete in the Diocesan Speech Meets.

Please join us for this year’s Parent/Teacher Conference Day which is scheduled for Friday, November 5^th, from 7:30 am-12 noon and again from 1-4 pm.  Parents of students in PK-5 may call Mrs. Walkley in the school office to schedule an appointment with the grade level homeroom teachers.  Parents of students in grades 6-8 may conference with the individual teachers on a first come/first serve basis.  Parents who are unable to make a conference for that day may schedule an appointment directly with any individual teacher through email.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call the school office.

Ms. Jackie Rice, who facilitates the Title One Program here at St. Elizabeth School, will also be here, in the Robotics Room, on November 5^th from 8 am-3 pm (during the Parent/Teacher Conference Day) to meet and share information with parents regarding their children.  If your child is receiving Title One services this year, please take advantage of this opportunity to learn more about this year’s program.

We are looking forward to the Feast of St. Elizabeth of Hungary on November 17^th.  On that day we will be singing Happy Feast Day to our patron saint with cake at all the lunchtimes.  On Friday, November 19, we will honor St. Elizabeth of Hungary during our Children’s Liturgy with a procession of saints.  On Friday afternoon, we will hold our annual “Saints: To Tell the Truth Game” in the school gym.  Please be sure to read Mrs. Belcher’s column (the Director of School Religious Education) for more information regarding Saints’ activities during the month of November.

Many thanks for your continued support of St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic School this year!  Let us continue to always pray for one another and for the needs of our community.

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Welcome to St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic School!  We would like to especially welcome all of our new families to our St. Elizabeth family this year.  We have had a terrific beginning to the school year.  The Boosterthon Fun Run generated a great deal of enthusiasm and excitement and reinforced the character values that we teach here at St. Elizabeth School!  I’d like to thank Mrs. Belew for coordinating this very awesome event as well as everyone who contributed to its success!

I am sure that by now you have seen the outstanding work done by our Grounds and Facilities committee to make improvements to our field.  A number of families including Josh Choate, Russell Jones, Sandy & David Walkley, and Coach Clack have contributed to this effort under the direction of Susan and Dennis Vrana and Jacinto and Pati Reyes who contributed both the time and the cost to make this a reality.  I would also like to thank Phil and MJ Barrilleaux who donated the “Field of Dreams” sign for this project.  There are many more projects planned for our “field of dreams” and we know that many more of you will want to become involved in this very worthwhile endeavor to make St. Elizabeth School’s environment as well as athletic facilities state of the art!!!

The Family Volunteer Organization has been hard at work planning this year’s Halloween Carnival.  This is always an exciting event that everyone looks forward to and enjoys.  This year it will be held on Saturday, October 31.  Please be on the look-out for flyers sent through the communication envelope and through Renweb emails for more information.

Our faculty and staff have embraced the new Diocesan curriculum with great enthusiasm and expertise!!!  We are even being invited to share our success with other Diocesan schools in an effort to share our resources and talents with others.  We are developing communities of learning amongst the teachers here at St. Elizabeth School as well as with other schools within the Diocese.  A number of our faculty attended the Thinkfinity Workshop and Diocesan Teacher Tech camp this summer and have brought back many resources to share and ideas to implement in the classrooms.  I would like to thank Michele Green for all the work she has done to develop an Art instructional program for our students.  She will be sending out information in the near future inviting students to join an after-school Art Club.  We will also be participating in the Dallas Museum of Art Go Van Gogh School Outreach Program.  We plan to have them come out to work with the K-8 students twice during this school year, hopefully once in the fall semester and once in the spring.

Our students in grades 1-8 will be taking the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) the week of October 12.  This standards-based test will provide a snapshot of the type of learner each student is as well as how students perform academically at the beginning of the school year.  It is a diagnostic instrument that will help our teachers make decisions as they plan for instruction throughout the school year.  It is a norm referenced test, not a criterion referenced test such as the TAKS test.  The ITBS is not a test that we can “teach to.”  Rather it is a test designed to measure overall knowledge and higher order thinking skills.  The teachers will be able to share information with you when they visit with you during the Parent Teacher Conference Day on November 13.  Please arrange for your child to be present at school and on time during the testing week in October unless s/he is ill.  Also, please make sure that your child gets a good night sleep the night before and eats a nutritious breakfast each morning.

Again, I would like to thank all of our faculty and staff, students, and parents for everything you do each day to make St. Elizabeth’s such an outstanding school.  Let us please continue to pray for one another and for the needs of our community

God bless.

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