Weekly Parent Letter August 25, 2015

Parents – School begins each day at 8:50 a.m. Students that walk or are brought by parents should not be at school before 8:40 in the morning. Teachers use this time for planning and preparing for the day. Most days our teachers do not receive a break all day so this time is important to them. Our new dismissal time is 3:15 p.m. Thank you for your support!

The students and staff of Divine Mercy School extend their prayers, thoughts and deepest sympathy to Elizabeth, Christina and Cameron Graham and Grady Vogel and their families on the recent death of their grandmother, Dorothy Vogel. She was an amazing lady and will be greatly missed.

Dear Parents.

Welcome to the 2015-2016 school year. I trust that the summer has given you time for relaxation and renewal. I look forward to another wonderful year with many opportunities for learning and growing. I hope you will feel comfortable and involved with your child’s learning throughout the year. I welcome your presence at school, encourage you to become active partners in the education process, and invite you to volunteer for activities at the school whenever possible. Please share your ideas, encouragements and concerns with me so that the Divine Mercy staff can provide the best possible learning environment for your child. Newsletters are written to inform our parents of school news and upcoming events. We will continue to send home the “Wednesday Envelope” this school year. This seems to work better for our busy working parents! Please watch for them and remember that the envelope needs to be returned to school.

Bouquets

  • to Mrs. Gerardot our new reading teacher. She will be working with students in grades 2, 4 and 6. Her subjects will be reading, language arts, spelling and grammar.

    Mrs. Gideon will be teaching our 3rd and 4th grade students. She will also be music for grade 3-6.

    Miss Kaufman is our kindergarten teacher. She will also be music for grades K-2.

    We are excited to have all 3 as part of the Divine Mercy School staff!

  • to the students who have come back ready and eager to learn and to their parents, who through their love and encouragement, havebeen responsible for the development of such positive attitudes
  • to staff members who spent much of their time during the summer break preparing their classroom for the new year
  • to Mrs. Stuart and Mrs. Kuhn who helped in the office by registering new students, assisting staff members, and other numerous tasks done in order to facilitate smooth transition into the new school year
  • to Mrs. Kay Rager who has spent the summer months making our school shiny and clean for our students
  • to Schweller Electric workers that installed our new intercom system. Each classroom is equipped with a unit capable of reaching the office with any requests or emergencies.
  • to Mrs. Stuart for working many hours to make sure that our ASAP funding was used appropriately.
  • to Father Poggemeyer, Miss Kuhlman and Mr. Linder for their help with the summertime interviews.

Divine Mercy School is truly blessed with many wonderful people willing to give of their time, talents and willingness to help out. Thank you to everyone!

Friday we will kick off our fall fundraiser.  Club’s Choice Fundraising is offering some individual group incentives to encourage participation. Check out your envelope for the prize incentives and bonus prizes. Sell 10 items to attend the dance/ice cream party and 30 items to grab an envelope from the cash box! The oldest child in each family received a packet with items that are for sale. This event will run through Thursday, September 10th. Delivery of ordered items will be October 13th. Our fundraiser helps keep our tuition affordable. Let’s all get involved!

Absence – When your child is going to be absent of late, please call the school before 8:40 a.m. Otherwise, our secretary will be calling you to verify your child’s absence.

Fog Delays – If Paulding is delayed 2 hours for weather reasons, and Wayne Trace is on the regular schedule, Paulding buses will run 2 hours late. You may bring your child in, safety permitting, or you may let them ride the Paulding bus running on the 2-hour delay. They are not counted tardy when it is a weather related 2-hour delay. If Wayne Trace is delayed 2 hours and Paulding is not delayed, Divine Mercy students arriving on Paulding buses will be placed in a monitored study hall in the Paulding School until they can be transported to Divine Mercy.

If Paulding closes for weather reasons, and Wayne Trace remains open, there will be no bus service to Divine Mercy School. If you choose not to bring your child to school, they will not be counted absent for that day.

To make this shorter and to the point – Paulding will transport students to Divine Mercy School unless the Paulding school is closed for weather reasons.
3-hour fog delays – Wayne Trace will implement the 3-hour fog delay when necessary. Hopefully, this delay will eliminate having to close school for weather conditions. A 3-hour delay would extend the school day by 1 hour, with dismissal at 4:15.

Tuition and Book Fees – Families will be invoiced and payments will be made through the Divine Mercy Parish Office. In an effort to make this process more convenient for you, there will be a number of ways you can make your tuition payments. You can drop your payment in the weekend collection at any of the Divine Mercy Parish locations, mail it to the parish office (417 N. Main St., Paulding, OH 45879), or drop it off at the parish office during office hours (Mon-Fri, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.). If you have any questions please call the parish office at 419-399-2576. Thank you for your cooperation.

PTA –Notification of upcoming PTA meetings will be included in the Wednesday letter sent home each week with the students. It will also be listed on the monthly  calendar sent home each month. This meeting is open to any parent of a Divine Mercy student. The PTA sponsors many fun activities throughout the year. Our first meeting of the 2015-2016 school year will be Tuesday, September 8th, at 6:30 in Mrs. Gerardot’s room. Please plan on attending PTA meetings this year as everyone is welcome and needed.

Hot Lunch Money – Just a reminder you need to send in money with your child if they will be buying hot lunch. You may send in a lump sum of money and this will be placed on your child’s lunch account. Lunch (which includes milk) is $2.60. This is an increase of fifteen cents over last year’s price. If your child wishes to purchase milk only, it is $.50 a carton. If paying by check please make the check payable to Payne Elementary. Remember to place your child’s money in an envelope. On the outside of the envelope be sure to put their name, grade level and the amount of money enclosed. Since we don’t want to take advantage of the Payne Elementary Cafeteria we would like everyone to please do their best to keep their child’s lunch account current. They are very nice to let us be human for the times we forget our money, but let’s not plan on charging. If you don’t feel comfortable putting a lump sum of money on account, please pay each day your child eats a hot lunch. This way charges will be used for emergencies only such as a forgotten lunch at home or forgotten money at home. A notice will be sent home with your child when more money is needed in the account. Thanks

Free and Reduced Lunch Forms – This form was in the packet of papers you received at open house or on the first day of school. If you have not yet returned this form, please take time and look at the Income Chart and see if you qualify. If you can, don’t be concerned that your child will be singled out at lunchtime. There will be no difference in how the count is taken or the lunches served. Federal Assistance through our Federal Government funds our Title 1 Reading and Math programs. The more students who qualify for free/reduced lunches help secure funding for our Title 1 Reading and Math programs. These programs are a very important part of our daily curriculum. Our students depend on these reading and math programs to boost their skills in all academic areas. It’s totally your decision to complete the free/reduced form. However, if you complete the form and you qualify under the federal guidelines, you significantly help secure federal funding for our Title 1 programs. If your income is too large, God has blessed you. However, if you have more members in your family and could qualify would you consider it? Please return the forms to school by Thursday, September 3rd. Thanks. If you need another form, please just send word to the school office and we will provide you with one.

Divine Mercy School Council is sponsoring the 7th Annual Nathan Rosswurm Memorial 9 Hole Golf Scramble on Saturday, September 12th. Profits from this event will benefit the tuition assistance program. We still have a few openings for teams. Tee off time on the 12th will be at 9 a.m. with a shotgun start. You can call Michele Daeger (419-263-3431), Kay Rosswurm (419-263-2249), or the school office at 419-263-2114 to register a team for this event. If you are unable to play, but would still like to contribute, you can show your support for our school by purchasing a “Tee or Cart Sign.” Following the event a patronage page will be inserted in the church bulletin thanking all those who supported Divine Mercy School. Our parishes do a tremendous job supporting our school, so let’s show them we appreciate it by showing our support. You can have your family name listed on a tee sign for a $15 donation and/or a cart sign for a $25 donation. To purchase a “Tee or Cart Sign”, you can send in your donation along with your family name to the school. If you have any questions call the school office. Thank you!

Wanted – Golf Prizes – If each family could donate 1 or 2 small items it would really help! The prizes do not have to be big. Some examples might be – Bath & Body lotions, tee shirts, gift cards (sometimes fast food restaurants will give something just for asking), golf balls, or candles. Thank you for your help!!

Box Tops for Education bring in extra funding for our school. Campbell labels also enable us to get free items for our school. Please save and send in all Box Tops for Education and Campbell labels to us. Thanks for all your help.

School Pictures – The school pictures are scheduled for Monday, September 21st. Info will be included in a future envelope. We will once again be going with Lifetouch Studios. These pictures make up the composite pictures for our annual yearbook so all students will be photographed.

THE BIG ENVELOPE YOU RECEIVED THIS LETTER IN MUST COME BACK TO SCHOOL! We use this envelope every week to send home weekly letters and notices. When this envelope is returned to school, we know that you have received these papers.

We pray the Lord will be with all of you as we journey into the 2015-2016 school year together.

Cathy Schoenauer & Staff