From Christina Clem, M.Ed., Principal
Posted on September 19, 2011, by Christina Clem, under Principal's Desk.
Print 
After a wonderfully successful beginning to the 2011-2012 school year, we are finally leaving the summer weather behind and looking forward to the season of Autumn! Cooler temperatures, falling leaves, the Texas State Fair, and the Fall Halloween Carnival will all be reminders that time is marching onward. St. Elizabeth students are busy all the while encountering new information and experiences as they focus on their daily tasks at school.
The school is on FIRE with this year’s Instructional focus: Thinking Maps! To learn more about Thinking Maps, you can go to https://sites.google.com/site/stethinkingmaps/home, the special link on the school’s website that our instructional support specialist, Mrs. Kuterbach, has created to keep parents updated as the year goes along. You can also go to www.thinkingmaps.org, or simply ask your child which Thinking Maps s/he has done thus far and how they are alike and different!!!
In a couple of weeks, you will be receiving the updated 2011-2012 Parent/Student Handbook. Although there are only a few changes, please take the time necessary to read and study the guidelines presented in this document. As a requirement of registration into St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic School, we ask that you & your students sign and return to the office the signature page, which can be found at the end of the handbook. I’d like to thank Michele Mills for all of her diligence over the last few years for all of her efforts in ensuring that we have a clear handbook of policies and procedures for St. Elizabeth School.
We are greatly blessed at St. Elizabeth School with a family-like community atmosphere, thanks to the dedication and generosity of our wonderful volunteers! I wish to thank the many parents and teachers who attended our Back to School Rally in August. We will keep a running list of our volunteers this year on the St. Elizabeth School website as an additional way of recognizing you for your commitment to St. Elizabeth School! Your involvement and commitment of time to our school helps us to provide a quality Catholic education for our children. Please remember that all of our volunteers must complete the Diocesan Screening Process for the Safe Environment Program. The first step is to submit a completed form to Mrs. Campos, the school’s Safe Environment Officer. Once that is done, it will take a few weeks to check everyone’s references and to set up individual interview times. A training session will also be held where volunteers will view the Diocesan training video. It is important that each of our parent volunteers completes every step of this process, and we appreciate everyone’s cooperation and patience along the way.
October is the month of the Rosary. We would love to have our parents join us at our school rosaries. Please check the important dates for the month of October for the dates and times.
We are looking forward to our 8th grade sponsored Hike for Life on Friday, October 7th, before we dismiss at NOON for Fair Day. We wish to thank the 8th grade class and Mrs. Belcher for all the work that will go into making this a meaningful morning for our students!
Our students will be taking the ITBS Standardized Achievement Tests the week of October 10-14. It is important that your child gets a good night’s sleep and eats a healthy breakfast each day during that testing week. Also, please do not schedule any doctor appointments during the mornings of that week. It is very difficult to schedule make-up times for students who miss any of the tests, and the results are sometimes negatively impacted, as well. We will schedule a parent meeting once we receive the results back from the testing company, at which time we can present general information to you, as well.
Our FVO has been very busy with plans for this year’s Fall Halloween Carnival, which will take place on Saturday, October 22. Our carnival chairpersons this year are Catherine Thompson and Laura Kubin, and they have plans to spice things up a bit! There will be some AWESOME raffle items that nobody will want to miss out on! Tickets will be going home soon for each family to sell. I know that everyone will do their absolute best to sell the tickets that are given to them. However, if for some reason you are unable to sell some of your tickets, please return them to the school office for someone else to sell. Our Halloween Carnival with the Raffle Ticket Sale has traditionally been the school’s biggest fundraising event of the year and goes toward filling in the gap between the actual cost of a St. Elizabeth School education and the income brought in by student tuition. I’d like to thank all of you, in advance, for all of your hard work in contributing to the success of this year’s Carnival event!
As always, let us continue to support one another in word, deed, & prayer! God bless!
Important Dates
o September 22: 1st Quarter Progress Reports Go Home
o September 23: Middle School Dance
o September 26: Annual Accreditation Report & NCEA Databank due to CSO
o September 27: Strategic Planning Committee to Visit-to look at facilities
o September 28-30 8th Grade Pines Trip
o September 29: Buck-a-Jean Day/Snack Sale
o September 30: State Fair Tickets Go Home
o October 3: Booster Club Mtg.
o October 5: Principal Mtg.
o October 6: Back to School Rally Dress Down Day #2
o October 6: Faculty Mtg./NO TUTORIALS
o October 7: St. E. Hike for Life
o October 7: Fair Day/NOON DISMISSAL
o October 10-14: ITBS Standardized Achievement Testing Gr. 1-8
o October 11: Advisory Council Mtg.
October 21: First Quarter Ends
October 22: Fall Halloween Carnival
October 26: Field Trip to see “To Kill A Mockingbird”
October 27: Buck-a-Jeans Day & Snack Sale
October 27: Report Cards
October 28: Diocesan Teacher In-Service/NO SCHOOL
October 29: Advisory Council In-Service
Nov. 4: Parent/Teacher Conference Day/NO SCHOOL
Print No Comments
From the Principal’s Desk
Posted on September 23, 2009, by Christina Clem, under Principal's Desk.
PrintWelcome 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.
Print No Comments
