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Principal's Corner

We have gotten off to a great start to our new school year! The students seem eager and pleased to be back with all of their friends. Teachers have planned great activities to help their classes settle back into routines. And, I don’t even want to mention the smiles on the faces of the parents as they drop off their children in the morning! We want to thank everyone for this great start! With everyone’s cooperation, hard work, and enthusiasm, we will make this the best year ever.

Guidelines for student Medication: There are a few reminders that we would like to pass on. If you think your child(ren) will ever need Tylenol or Advil (or their generic forms), please send the office a bottle in a ziplock bag with your child’s name on it Please include the dosage information for your child on a card inside the bag. Archdiocesan regulations prohibit us from giving any school purchased medication to the children. If there is ever any other medication that they must take, either prescription or over-the-counter, please follow the same procedure. Students must not keep medications of any kind in their possession (even in their lunchboxes).

Arrival and Dismissal Reminders: Arrival and Dismissal have run very smoothly so far this week. The entire procedure can be found on Edline, on the right side under “Contents”. Thank you so much for this terrific start! There are a few things to keep in mind, however.

• During Arrival, please pull up all the way to the end of the handicapped parking spaces which are in front of Shalom. Do this even if you are the only car in the line because it is amazing how quickly five or six cars can pull up behind you while your child is exiting the car. We can empty 15-20 cars at a time if we follow this procedure.
• During Dismissal, please make sure that your children know which pick-up you will use each day in order to reduce the number of children wandering around looking for your car when you are not even there. It would be best if you had a consistent pick-up so the children have a routine to count on.
• Afternoon Announcements will be made at 2:40 pm. If you need to announce a pick-up change for your child, you must call the office by 2:30 to get on the list of announcements. No announcements will be made after 2:40 because the children can’t hear them due to their preparations for dismissal.
• If someone from your carpool does not come out, please exit the lot and pull back in for the next pick-up.
• Please stay in your cars. Sometimes the children don’t recognize the car, but will know which driver they are looking for. If you are out of the car, they get upset (especially the smaller kids) because they don’t know where to go.

Attendance Issues: I am sure that most of you saw in the Indianapolis Star or heard on the news that the Public Schools, especially IPS, are getting tough on attendance. IPS will even contact Child Protective Services (CPS) for families whose students have 5-6 unexcused absences or six tardies.

You probably think this is not an issue with SPX. However, when you take your child out of school for a vacation or a few long weekends, you get unexcused absences very quickly. If your child consistently arrives late to school, tardies mount up. Last year we reported to the state that 38 students (9%) of our enrollment had ten or more days of absence (including excused and unexcused). Even excused absence contributes to lost learning time for the children; time that they cannot get back even if they do the work that accumulates during their absence. Children need to know that coming to school and being on time is not optional. We would like to ask for your help this year to improve our attendance figures. If your child is throwing up, has a temperature of 100 degrees or higher, or has been taking an antibiotic for less that 24 hours, then they should stay home. Beyond that, please monitor how sick they are. Many times they will feel better after they are up and at school. Don’t allow them to fall into bad habits because punctuality is a life lesson that they need to know.

Back-To-School-Night for 6-8 grades is tomorrow (Tuesday 8/24). It begins in the Church at 6:30 pm. We are trying a new format this year. Teachers will make their presentations in the Church, and we will not have a rotation. However, the rooms will be open after our presentations so that you can visit them and meet the teachers.

We will have an 8th Grade Parent Meeting at 8:00 pm after the presentations. We want to be good stewards of your time and not take up another evening. We will discuss the great way that they have started the year, the leadership they have shown and will be asked to show, and the 8th Grade trip and necessary fundraising activities.

There are many things to do at the beginning of a new year. Let’s pray for each other as we work for the benefit of our children.

—Bill and Theresa

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