March 12, 2008
My heart is singing for joy this morning. A miracle has happened! The light of understanding has shone upon my little pupil’s mind, and behold, all things are changed. Anne Sullivan
Thank you to all of you who attended our parent meeting on March 10. Ms. Diane Wiltz’s presentation on bullying was very interesting and pertinent. While bullying is not a widespread problem at St. John, there are isolated incidences that must be addressed. Your support in assisting us with this problem is vital to eradicating it. Ms. Thomas, Ms. Wiltz’s assistant from St. Mary Parish School Board, touched on Internet safety as well. While most of you know how to check your students’ computer history, I am listing the steps in checking their “cookies” (another great way to view what sites your child is visiting.) Click on the following list: Internet Explorer, Tools, Internet Options, Temporary Internet Files, Settings, View. Please remember that the safety of your children is of paramount importance to the entire St. John faculty and staff.
Forty-three St. John students participated in the St. Jude Math-a-Thon raising $3,000. Congratulations to Taylor Stirling who raised $400 for this very worthy cause. We are extremely happy to support this organization that services numerous Louisiana families.
Keep in mind that we will be administering the Stanford 10 Achievement Test to students in grades kindergarten through fifth beginning April 1. Please help your youngsters by ensuring that they get a good night’s rest and eat a hearty breakfast each morning during testing. Keeping to their normal evening routine will also help them perform their best. It will be useful to go over the “Preview for Parents”, and our teachers will be utilizing a simple “Practice Test” to help your students become familiar with the test format.
The faculty and I are working diligently on plans to improve our curriculum, and I am anticipating summer projects to further enhance the learning environments of our St. John Elementary students. We are very honored to welcome the Office of Catholic Schools of the Diocese of Lafayette to our campus April 24 to gain their unique perspective on how we can make this truly wonderful school even better!
Respectfully,
Sheri Higdon
Principal
February 25, 2008
Dear Parents,
All God’s glory and beauty come from within, and there He delights to dwell. His visits there are frequent, His conversation sweet, His comforts refreshing, His peace passing all understanding. Thomas a Kempis
What a joyous season to be in the presence of children! The cool days of winter intermingled with the warm days of spring are a wondrous time to observe our St. John students growing and thriving in maturity and strength. Our official registration period has come to a close, and I am very pleased to announce that we have 185 youngsters registered for the 2008-2009 academic year with many new families joining us in the fall and parents continuing to inquire about our truly unique and phenomenal academic program. I thank each of you for promoting the “development” of both St. John and Hanson, as our enrollment at both schools is growing.
Catholic Schools’ Week was a tremendous success. Your attendance at our various events and your financial support of our philanthropic projects such as Chez Hope and St. Jude’s Children Research Hospital are deeply appreciated. Please send all Box Tops for Education that you have been collecting to school this week, as they will be mailed shortly.
Note the following calendar items, as some changes have been made.
- February 25 - Safe Environment Training 5:30, 6:00, 7:00 p.m.
- February 29 – Mass 8:00 a.m.
- March 5 - BBQ $ or tickets due
- March 7 - Way of the Cross 8:00 a.m.
- March 10 - Coop Club Meeting 6:00 p.m. with Diane Wiltz, Guest Speaker on Bullying
- March 14 - St. Joseph’s Altar Mass – 4th & 5th grades only
- March 16 - BBQ at St. John Elementary
- March 20 – Way of the Cross at St. John at 8:30 a.m.
This spring I have the opportunity to participate in LEADTech, a graduate level technology course for school administrators, and the Association for Supervision, Curriculum, & Development’s annual conference in New Orleans. Please know that my faculty and I will maintain our professional development efforts, as we strive to provide your children with the very best educational opportunities!
You and your students continue to be a blessing in my life!
Respectfully,
Sheri Higdon
Principal
January 22, 2008
Dear Families,
Catholic Schools’ Week will be celebrated across our country January 27-February 1, 2008. Along with this letter you will find the schedule of events, as we recognize that “Catholic Schools Light the Way!” You are invited to attend school wide events such as our Social Studies Fair, Flag raising ceremony, Parent/Grandparent Lunch, Spelling Bee, and Holy Mass. Please feel free to quietly tour our campus and view the beautiful projects created by our students and our “potato saints.” I take this opportunity to thank you, our families, for your continued support of and dedication to St. John Elementary.
Note that Community Coffee labels are due to be mailed at the end of the month, so please send them to the office.
The Diocese of Lafayette and the Office of Catholic Schools assist school leaders in keeping abreast of issues that affect our schools. The diocese has encouraged its schools and families to participate in the effort to defend Catholic education through Citizens for Educational Choice, a lobbying organization. Simply log onto www.louisianacec.org and click on Voter Voice. Voter Voice is extremely effective and an easy way to contact your legislators and ask them to support a particular bill. In an upcoming legislative session, a bill may be introduced to provide a tax credit to offset a designated portion of a state taxpayer’s nonpublic school tuition cost. Following passage of this tax deduction legislation last legislative session, the bill was vetoed by Governor Blanco. With the assistance of CEC and the families of Louisiana, we may obtain the benefits of this legislation if it indeed passes and is signed by Governor Jindal. Please log on and sign up if possible.
We are truly looking forward to the Office of Catholic Schools visit to St. John in April. Our faculty and staff are diligently working on strengthening our already rigorous curriculum.
Respectfully,
Sheri Higdon
Principal
Catholic Schools Light the Way
In an effort to support the needs of our community, we are asking our St. John Elementary family to contribute the following items that will be donated to Chez Hope. Please send them to your student’s teacher, and they will be delivered as a gift during Catholic Schools’ Week.
As always your generosity is deeply appreciated!
Pre-K - toothbrushes and toothpaste
Kindergarten - toilet paper
1st grade - deodorant
2nd grade - toilet paper
3rd grade - body wash
4th grade - disposable razors in sealed original packages
5th grade - baby powder
Faculty - feminine products
Each one should give, then, as he has decided, not with regret or out of a sense of duty; for God loves the one who gives gladly.
2 Corinthians 9:7
January 9, 2008
To: Parents
From: Sheri Higdon, Principal
On Friday, January 18, 2008 St. John Elementary students will be dismissed at 12:00 noon, as we will be having a faculty in-service that afternoon. Please make transportation arrangements for your students. After school care will not be provided either.
Your support is deeply appreciated now and always!
For God is indeed a wonderful Father who longs to pour out His mercy on us, and whose majesty is so great that He can transform us from deep within. Teresa of Avila
December 17, 2007
Dear Parents,
“And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14
The joy of Christmas is contagious, not primarily because of gifts. The joy of Christmas is contagious because of the spirit behind the gifts. The glory of Christmas is that a gracious God became one of us to tell us that He loves us. And, in our Christmas giving, the genuine believer symbolizes his or her inner desire to spread this Good News.
Please know that you and your children are a gift to St. John Elementary and me. Visiting classrooms and walking about this campus bring joy to my heart. The Christmas season is indeed a perfect opportunity for me to thank you for entrusting your children to our care. Their smiles, their laughter, our conversations, observing them learning and growing each day…all of these things are an utter delight!
As we will enjoy two weeks of celebration and relaxation, I will be reflecting upon the fact that Christmas celebrates the incarnation, not just the nativity. While the nativity is the once-for-all-historical event of Bethlehem, the incarnation is an on-going process of salvation. We are remembering an event that happened long ago, but we are also celebrating the stupendous fact that God entered our world so thoroughly that nothing has been the same since. And God continues to take flesh in our midst, in the men, women, and children who form His body on earth today. “…What we celebrate is our redemption in Christ and the transformation of all creation by the presence of the divine in our midst.”
It is my hope that every faculty and staff member, student, parent, and stakeholder of St. John Elementary will “be contagious” with the joy of the Christmas season and “spread the good news” of the true gift that our school is to our families and our community. Please know that each and every one of you is a blessing to me!
Have a blessed and holy Christmas,
Sheri Higdon, Principal
November 15, 2007
Dear Parents:
“God will reward each one according to the work he has done, for we are partners working together for Him. Surely you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s spirit lives in you! God has already placed Jesus Christ as the one and only foundation. God’s temple is holy, and you yourselves are His temple.”
1 Corinthians 3:8,11,16-17
Thanksgiving gives me the perfect opportunity to thank each of you for the work you have done as parents of our St. John children. We are partners working together for our God knowing that it is our responsibility as educators and parents to build God’s holy temple in our students. It is a joy and a delight to work in a school where Jesus Christ is the one and only foundation. The spirit of God is truly alive in your beautiful children.
Your generosity is greatly appreciated as we made contributions of food items to the Emergency Aid Center in October and provided Thanksgiving baskets to needy families this week. In December we are requesting donations of the following items which will be delivered to the Franklin Nursing Home by our Make a Difference Club: spray deodorant, powder, toothpaste, socks, handkerchiefs, and Kleenex. Please send these products to your child’s teacher, and they will be delivered by our students.
The exterior of our school is being painted in a three-year schedule. You may have noticed that the Blakesley Street side of the building is nearly complete. We thank our pastor, Father Lloyd Benoit, for his very generous gift from Church of the Assumption which made this project possible. His financial contributions along with his presence at school functions are deeply appreciated.
Please note that St. John will be having a Christmas program on Thursday, December 20 at 6:00 p.m. More details are forthcoming. We would deeply appreciate enthusiastic participation by all students.
Thank you to Ms. Marie, our fabulous librarian, and to you for making our fall Book Fair so successful. Funds generated from this project allow us to purchase relevant reading materials which truly enhance our curriculum.
While we are still collecting Community Coffee labels and Box Tops for Education, we will no longer be sending Campbell’s Soup labels to the company. The rates of shipping have made this venture cost prohibitive. Please note that Winn-Dixie continues to be very generous in their financial contributions to our school through its Community Pals Program.
If you need further resources for the safe use of technology in your home by your children the Diocese of Lafayette has recommended the following website for your perusal: http://www.pointsmartclicksafe.org/flash.html.
Note that at the bottom of this letter I have included an article of relevance written by Reverend Charles J. Chaput, Archbishop of Denver.
With humble gratitude I also want to take this occasion to thank the truly gifted and uniquely talented faculty and staff of St. John Elementary. Educational administration is a true joy when surrounded by them!
“One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but the warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.” Carl Jung
With sincere thanksgiving,
Sheri Higdon, Principal
CATHOLIC FAITH-THE SPINE OF EVERY OTHER FIELD OF STUDY
In a Catholic school, Catholic faith should be the spine of every other field of study. The philosopher and Catholic convert Alasdair MacIntyre once wrote that the “liberal arts and sciences”-the heart of a well-rounded education-can only be understood by a certain kind of public. Unless a culture shares certain standards of judgment, a common sense of the past, and the skills to take part in common public debate, schooling becomes just another consumer product. To put it another way, education fails when it only amounts to pouring facts into students’ heads. Knowledge needs a framework of meaning. It needs to be more than just “useful.” It needs to be humanizing. Facts are valuable. What the facts mean is even more valuable. And teaching students how to reason intelligently for themselves, guided by a properly formed moral character and love for the common good, is the most valuable gift of all. This is the heart of a Catholic education. The Church gave birth to the idea of the university. Catholic philosophers, scientists and educators rank among the greatest in history. This is to be expected. For Catholics, faith and reason have always needed each other. As John Paul II often said, they naturally reinforce each other. Thus, educating the whole person-mind, body and spirit-has a very long heritage in Catholic schools. In fact, Catholic schools are often alone today in understanding what a “whole person” is. A citizen with a stunted spiritual life has been robbed of part of his or her humanity. And the public square has lost that citizen’s ability to fully contribute to the moral life of the community. I could tell you that Catholic schools offer a great academic formation, and that our teachers and administrators make great personal sacrifices to do it. That would certainly be true. They do. I could also tell you that Catholic schools work very hard to instill in students a sense of mutual respect, civility and discipline sometimes lacking in other schools. That would also be true. But Catholic schools don’t exist to compete with public schools or offer a good “private” education…Catholic schools exist to form young people in a love for Jesus Christ and the Catholic faith. It follows that religion-even more than math or science or English or history, as vital as they are-should be the most important subject matter in every Catholic classroom. In a Catholic school, the Catholic faith should be the spine of every other field of study. A teacher friend of mine has the words “to Jesus through math” emblazoned in her in her classroom, and she is exactly right. Of course, learning about God can never excuse a lack of academic excellence in any other subject. Just the opposite. Knowledge of the world, and the adult achievements that come from a great education, are tremendous ways of giving glory to God. But to be fully human, to be fully alive, excellence in mind must be matched by excellence in soul, conscience, character and personal virtue. Otherwise, schools will create thousands of very fine technicians and specialists-but not fully rounded human beings, and not a truly educated public. It’s really very simple. If we want an educated, committed, faithful Catholic Church in the future, we need to ensure that by supporting the character and excellence of our Catholic schools today.
October 15, 2007
Dear Parents,
Schools are not buildings, curriculums, and machines. Schools are relationships and interactions among people. (Johnson & Johnson, 1989 & Zoul, 2006.)
Please know that I thank God daily for the opportunity to work with you and your precious children. Walking about our beautiful campus and visiting classrooms daily bring me much joy. Your volunteer efforts and your enthusiastic support of our parent meetings and family events such as our picnic say volumes about your dedication to your children’s education and our school. I am pleased to report that our 34 new students and those who were at St. John before this school year are prospering and growing spiritually, academically, socially, and physically. In perusing scholastic records and standardized test scores from the past several years, it is evident that our students are thriving academically and will be well prepared for their transition to middle school. The faculty and I are continuously working to update our already rigorous curriculum and maintain our high standards of achievement.
If you missed the deadline for ordering our St. John spirit t-shirt and would still like to purchase one, please visit T-shirts and Treasures on Main Street in Franklin.
During the last two weeks of October we will be collecting canned goods for the Emergency Aid Center. Send your contributions to school with your child, and we will distribute them accordingly.
The season of fall is the perfect time for a family field trip. The Global Wildlife Center in Folsom, Louisiana recently announced the birth of two new baby giraffes. Visit www.globalwildlife.com for more information.
Your cooperation with our new and safer drop-off/pick-up procedures is deeply appreciated. By utilizing our carlines and remaining in your vehicles until the duty teachers assist your children, we are improving safety and reducing congestion on Main Street.
Kindly remember that Church of the Assumption is providing Safe Environment training on October 23, 2007 at 7:00 p.m. All parents, family members, and other volunteers must be trained each calendar year before the end of December.
Please note that my policy as principal of St. John Elementary is an “open door policy.” I welcome your comments, concerns, and contributions. Do not hesitate to call the office to set up an appointment if you need to discuss a particular issue with me. It is vital that we tackle issues in a cooperative manner as opposed to speculating and conversing amongst ourselves without all of the information on sensitive topics.
In the past several weeks, I have had the opportunity to attend meetings and in-services with school and church leaders from across the Diocese of Lafayette. After contemplating what I have learned from these occasions and current educational research, I would like to share my focus and immediate plans for St. John Elementary. The faculty and I are continuing to analyze our Stanford 10 achievement scores in order to map our curriculum and fill in teaching and learning gaps. In addition, I have purchased the Keystone Curriculum, a character and relationship building program, which our teachers will utilize to build our students’ social and interactive skills. I also intend to work with Father Benoit and Mr. Kenny Alfred in building a Development Core Team for St. John and Hanson that will promote the many and varied opportunities our schools have to offer the students and their families in this area.
As I conclude, I would like to reiterate some of the scripture passages, Roy Petitfils, our guest speaker at our parent meeting, shared with us Thursday night.
As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, and we were given to drink of one Spirit. But God has so constructed the body as to give greater honor to a part that is without it, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the parts may have the same concern for one another. If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored; all the parts share its joy. Now you are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it.
1 Corinthians 13:12-13, 24-27.
We as educators and parents and children are one body in Christ Jesus. I pray that there will be no division in this body, and that the St. John Elementary family will share both our sufferings and joys and bring greater glory and honor to our Savior.
Respectfully,
Sheri Higdon, Principal
September 17, 2007
Dear Parents:
Schooling occupies only about 13% of the waking hours of the first 18 years of life, which is less than the amount of time students spend watching television. (Fraser, Walberg, Welch, & Hattie, 1987 & Zoul, 2006.)
As we move into the heart of our academic year it is pertinent that we as parents and educators work closely together to give our St. John Elementary students every possible opportunity to obtain the education they will need in the future. In keeping abreast of current educational research I have created a list of suggestions that will tie your children’s formal education at St. John to your family life. We are all extremely busy as parents, whether we work inside or outside the home, but attempting to establish some of the routines listed below may improve our quality of life at home with our children.
Eat meals together.
Enjoy nature together by taking walks.
Turn off the television.
Show interest in their schooling by asking, “What was the best/worst part of your day?”
Communicate with teachers.
Establish homework routines in an appropriate work environment.
Encourage “perfect” attendance.
PRAY TOGETHER AS A FAMILY!
Believe me, I know that these habits are “easier said than done” some evenings, but giving them a try on a regular basis could make a tremendous difference.
Thank you for cooperating with my changes in drop-off/pick-up procedures. I am simply concerned about the safety of our St. John children and reducing traffic congestion on Main Street. Please be reminded that students should not be dropped off before 7:30 a.m. when the back doors of school are opened. There should be absolutely no “foot traffic” through the back gate at any time during the school day. In the afternoons, please proceed to the rear of campus in two lines and move as far forward (to the exit gate) as possible. In addition, as your children should be exiting your vehicle in the mornings on the school side of the street, you are encouraged to unload two vehicles at once. Please know that your cooperation and assistance are deeply appreciated!
Fortunately many of you were able to attend the Continuing Education Safe Environment session on August 20 which was an eye-opening experience for all of us. However, if you were unable to make it that night at Hanson or if you are still in need of the Initial Training, Church of the Assumption is planning Initial and Continuing Education classes on Tuesday, October 23, 2007 at 7:00 p.m. Keep in mind that all volunteers who have contact or work with minors (including parent chaperones and school visitors) must take these classes on an annual basis.
It is with a truly grateful heart that I thank Mr. Kenny Alfred at Hanson for sharing his very talented teachers and students with our St. John children. Coach Juneau meets with every kindergarten through fifth grade student weekly for Physical Education. Lyndsi Maus and Lyndsey Naquin, juniors at Hanson, prepare our youngsters for Holy Mass each week through vocal music instruction. Please feel free to join us on Fridays for Mass, as I am confident that you will notice the enthusiastic participation of our St. John children in word and song.
The talent of this St. John Elementary faculty is utterly amazing! It is a joy to visit their classrooms and observe outstanding teaching and learning every single school day. I also want to take this opportunity to applaud you as parents and your beautiful children. They are a true gift from God to our St. John family! I thank you for the wonderful job you have done with your children in preparing them for their formal education!
Respectfully,
Sheri Higdon, Principal
Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders You have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to You; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare. Psalm 40:5 |
