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Welcome Back to All Our Students and Families! Happy School Year 2018-19!

Dear Parents and Friends of St Benedict:

It has been a very busy summer! There have been a lot of facilities projects, schedule/course planning and more! We hope to be sharing these items of news very soon. We are just putting the finishing touches on a few projects...others are still in progress but we expect to complete them soon: The Communications/Media arts lab for middle school, the Wonder Lab and the STEM lab. Eleven classrooms got a new paint job and Rooms 111 and 112 also received new carpeting. Room 219B also received new floor tiles! I also hope you will attend Mass this weekend. Father Steve will be sharing the good news about our new campus security system. If you can't make it, more news is coming soon.

We are looking forward to seeing everyone next week. The first day of School for grades 1-12 is Wednesday, August 22nd. It is a full day and students should be in uniform.

Peace - Ms. Rachel Gemo, Head of Parish School

Important Information Below

2018-19 School Calendar - Important Date
Regular Office Hours Begin
Update on SHORTS and Uniform Policy K-12
Drop Off Dates for our September Baby and Kids Garage Sale
IMPORTANT SCHOOL DATES CORRECTION
Security Upgrades Around Campus
Secondary School Library Flooded During Recent Heavy Rains
Tuckpointing and Window Facilities Project Update
Check out all the St. Benedict Parish Events to enjoy!

Here are Upcoming Dates to Keep in Mind

Monday, August 13-17th - Packet Pick Up Week for grades PK-12
Monday, August 20th - Preschool Orientation (evening time TBA)
Monday, August 20th - New Family Night for transferring families grades 1-8 6:30PM
Tuesday, August 21st - 6th Grade Orientation for students 9AM to 12PM
Tuesday, August 21st - Teacher meet and greet - Grades 1-5 4:30 to 5:30PM
Tuesday, August 21st - 6th Grade Parent Orientation 5:30 - 6:30 PM
Wednesday, August 22nd - First Day of School for grades 1-12
Thursday, August 23rd - First Day of Kindergarten & Bye Bye Breakfast
Tuesday, August 28th - First Day of Preschool & Bye Bye Breakfast
Tuesday, August 28th - 6:30PM Back to School Night for grades 6-12
Wednesday, August 29th - 6:30PM Back to School Night for grades K-5

Regular School Office Hours Begin

Please do not hesitate to call the school office if you have any questions before the first day of school. The office is now open 7:30AM to 3PM.

Update on Shorts and Uniform Policy for 2018-19

Warm weather uniform for Grades K-12 for all genders: The length of shorts shall be no more than 2 inches above the knee or 1 inch below the knee. Shorts shall be purchased from Lands End.

Shorts on out of uniform/dress down days/spirit days for Grades K-12 all genders: The length of shorts shall be no more than 2 inches above the knee. Tight sport/athletic shorts (think leggings without the legs) are not permitted.

IMPORTANT SCHOOL DATES CORRECTION

We realized that the school calendar included in the July Mailing had a few incorrect dates. Please make this correction in your calendars. We apologize for the confusion. The CORRECT CALENDAR has been in the BUZZ for the past several months.

These dates need correction:

September 28th – No School Professional Development Day (not the 29th)
June 11th – Field Day for grades 1-7 (not June 10th)
June 12th – Last Day of School – half day (not June 11th)

Mark Your Calendars for the 33rd Hunger Walk for the Greater Chicago Food Depository to Support the Common Pantry, September 8th

This event is a 2 mile walk which begins at Jackson Park on the shores of Lake Michigan, just south of the Museum of Science and Industry. The walk steps off at 8:30 am. We are going to be part of the Common Food Pantry team. The Common Food Pantry plan on having a bus that we can be part of or if we get enough from just St Ben's we can take our bus. The Common Food Pantry will receive a 12 dollar credit for every person that is registered to walk on behalf of their agency. They can use this credit at the Greater Food Depository to purchase needed items at the pantry.

This event is open to families, teens and adults. There will also be live entertainment and activities for all ages...the Hunger Walk is a fun event and will be helping out the Common Food Pantry! You can register to walk HERE (CLICK).

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Congrats to Our Cross Country Bengals - Impressive Showing at St. Viator HS XC Meet

Congratulations to the cross country team for starting the season with a huge win! At the St Viator Invitational, Our varsity boys won 1st Place! Varsity girls won 2nd! And JV boys won 1st Place! Congrats to all our runners!

Security Upgrades Around Campus

Thank you to all the very generous donors who contributed to the Fund-a-Need Project: Security Cameras from the 2018 Gala. Over the summer our new state-of-the-art cameras were installed and now capture just about every inch of our external perimeter as well as courtyard interior. These cameras have also been tied into our new security system which we will be rolling out very soon. What are those new blue boxes around campus? Cpme to Mass this weekend to learn more from Father Steve, our pastor. We will also be sending out more information next week. We can't wait to share!

Secondary School Library Flooded During Recent Heavy Rains

You may recall that on Thursday, August 3rd, our local area experience some fairly heavy rains and flooding. Parts of our campus were also flooded, including our secondary library. Thankfully, the only major damage was our carpeting, which is currently being replaced. For now, however, the library is closed off from use. We will hopefully have the carpeting installed sometime next week and get the library back online soon.

Tuck pointing and Window Facilities Project Update

Thanks to the generous Forward in Our Faith capital campaign, the Leavitt/Elementary School building received some much needed tuck pointing work on the Leavitt side. This work will be completed soon. We have also been working on finalizing our window order after much investigation and planning. We realize that this is a significant investment which will hopefully last several decades. We are not making these decisions lightly. So because we wanted to make sure that we got it right, our custom-made windows will be delivered some time in mid-September. Installation should begin soon after the delivery. Stay tuned. We are so excited about our new windows! Again, this has all been accomplished through the generosity of our Forward in our Faith campaign.

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Back To School Night is a Great Night to Learn More about The New School Year!

Why SBPS Does Not Publish Class Lists Until The School Year Is Underway

Each year we get a few parents asking why we don't publish class lists when we issue August packets. We know that there is a lot of excitement and anticipation around finding out which teachers your children have as well as who is in the class with your child. We understand fully the desire to know it all the details, but there are three significant reasons why we do not publish class lists at this time:

1. First and foremost, we believe that parents are the primary educators of their children and we would prefer that students find out from their own parents about their child's teacher, and not another student or student's parent. We believe this is being respectful to our school families.

2. Packets are not issued if there is a financial hold. If we publish class lists, parents with a financial hold may send their child to school, and then we are in the awkward position of having to pull a young child from class to be excluded. Some may think this wouldn't happen, but believe me, it does and it is really awkward.

3. The last and probably the most logistically important reason: We need parents to complete accurately and submit all those forms we send out in July. Parents don't get the packets until we get those forms. Again, some parents, ignore our requests and send the child to school. At this point we are either left chasing parents for these important forms (which takes up valuable time from the school nurse or secretaries) or we need to pull out a child from class and exclude them until the forms come in. Again, this is an awkward situation for everyone involved.

We hope you understand the reasons behind the decision and we appreciate your patience.

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