May
9, 2008
Dear
Parents,
What
an incredible week this has been! You have showered
us with flowers, feted and fed us, not to mention
fattened us, and made us feel truly treasured. Thank
you so much for your kindness and generosity. Each
year you outdo yourselves and make us realize how
blessed we are to be part of the St. Rita School
family. A special thank you is extended to Mary
Ann Tabet and Susie Musso, Teacher Appreciation
Coordinators, whose creativity, ingenuity and hard
work made all this possible. We know that they had
many helpers throughout the week, but they are so
many that we would hate to forget even one name.
Kudos to all of you, too!
Our
next FAITH Mass is this Sunday at 10:45. It is for
our K-2 families, and we urge you to come and celebrate
Mother's Day at this Mass with us. As you know,
one of our goals this year is to provide opportunities
for family involvement in faith development. The
Mission Effectiveness Committee of the advisory
council has done an outstanding job with this goal.
We'd
like to congratulate the newly-elected members of
the Advisory Council, Chris Dierks, Maria Tuttle,
and David Weber. They will be joining the returning
members, Steve Brockett, Joyce-Marie Clouse, John
Franz, Eric Hyman, Michelle Vopni, and Wade Vaché.
We are indebted to the outgoing members, Helaine
Blizzard, Joe Byrne, and Phil Doepfner, for their
wonderful leadership and for the three years they
dedicated to the council. We have come a long way
under their leadership. Thank you for giving of
your time and talent for the good of our children.
We
congratulate our STRIVE students who participated
in the second annual Robotics competition held at
St. Monica last Friday. Our 4th grade STRIVE students
competed with nine other diocesan schools. Altogether,
there were 30 teams and 107 students from grades
4th -8th participating. Our students were the youngest
ones participating. The Galaxy Gladiators team,
consisting of John Michael Priddy and Michael Molash,
placed first in the RCX arena, and the Power Bots
team, Christine Ehlinger, Jack Hagewood, Nicole
Herleman, and Sam Musso, placed second. They had
to score a certain number of points in order to
win their events. In addition to competing, the
students heard some SMU graduate students talk about
the different opportunities available to students
in science and engineering. Way to go, Spartans!
We hope you will continue this tradition next year.
Mrs. Robbs, our Enrichment Coordinator, coaches
their team. Thank you, Mrs. Robbs, for your hard
work preparing these students.
Congratulations
are also extended to Mr. Joe McCann, 5th and 6th
grade social studies teacher, who was honored with
a Work of the Heart award last Friday. Thank you,
Mr. McCann, for all you do for our students. It
is still not too late to nominate that special teacher
or staff member for a Work of the Heart award this
year. Many of you took time to nominate teachers
for the various awards that St. Rita offers. Unfortunately,
only one is selected from the many nominations for
each category. You might just want to submit that
same nomination to the Work of the Heart. What do
you have to lose? Not even a stamp. You can do it
via email at workofheart@catholicfoundation.com
. Don't forget that there is still time to nominate
someone for the Fr. Schott Award. The nominations
are due next Friday. Read our school mission and
decide who best fits that award. If you don't have
a nomination form and would like one, please contact
the school office.
Next
Friday after Mass, we will be presenting various
teacher and volunteer awards. We invite you to come
and celebrate Mass with us and to stay and honor
our award winners. The following awards will be
conferred: the Silver Apple, Rookie of the Year,
Father Barras, Booster Club Volunteer of the Year,
and the Dorothy Good Teacher of the Year.
A
brief reminder from the office: there are still
about 15 families who have not signed up for FACTS.
The deadline is fast approaching, May 15th . Please
remember that you must sign up each year if you
wish to use FACTS for tuition payments.
Wishing
all our mothers a joyous weekend and hoping to see
you at our FAITH Mass this Sunday, I remain
Yours
in Christ,
Elena
C. Hines, Ed.D
Principal
