News for the Week of 5/29/13

Prekindergarten went on exciting field trip to Little City Pizza earlier this month.  Students got to make a pizza of their own and then enjoyed a delicious lunch.

June is almost here!  As is always the case, the last few weeks of school will be busy ones.  Please take a moment to review the upcoming calendar events -

Wednesday, June 5 - St. Mary's Spring Carnival opens.  See below for more information about this family friendly spring tradition.

Friday, June 7 - Celebrating the Class of 2013.  Join us for Mass at 10am in the Church.  Please remember that no physical education uniforms should be worn to Mass.  There will be a Class Day Assembly celebrating our graduates at 1pm in the Parish Center.  The Graduation ceremony will take place in the Church at 7pm.

June 13, 14, 17 and 18 are all full days of school.  Prekindergarten enrichment and aftercare are available.

Wednesday, June 19 is our last day of school.   This is a 12:45pm early dismissal day.  There is no Prekindergarten enrichment or aftercare available.  Everyone is welcome to join us for an end of year prayer service at 9am in the Church.  The Academic Awards Assembly will take place at 9:45am in the Parish Center.  Parents will be notified if students are receiving an award.

Summer office hours begin Thursday, 6/20/13.  In general, the school office will be staffed daily from 9am-1pm.  Voice mail and email will be checked regularly.  A "Back to School" mailing will be sent out to all enrolled families during the month of August.

A Word about iPads - All iPads will be stored at school over the summer.  Gr. 8 students will turn in their iPads and chargers at the end of the day Wednesday, June 5.  All other iPads and chargers must be turned in at the end of the day on Monday, June 17.

Prior to turning in iPads for summer storage, all students should be sure to back up any content that is stored on the iPad.  One good example is any notes that are saved in Notability.  These notes should be backed up to a "cloud" storage solution like Evernote or Dropbox or even emailed to the student.  Over the summer, all iPads will be "refreshed" to apply App updates and new apps.  Any iOS software updates that may become available will also be applied. Most of the time, no loss of content will occur during this process but it is a real risk and backup of important information is advised. When school begins, your student will be given back the same iPad they used this year.

Welcoming Committee - Each year, our Welcoming Committee does a great job of helping new families get acquainted with our school.  In addition to providing new families with a central spot for information on the school website, this group assigns "buddy families" and also hosts a Welcoming Reception each September.  Helping our new families feel comfortable and at home is so important.  All of us can easily relate to how wonderful it feels to be made to feel welcome and important to a community.  The Committee is currently chaired by Mary O'Bryan.  Mrs. O'Bryan will be retiring from Welcoming after this coming fall's reception.  If you think you would like to help welcome new families, please contact her. She encourages anyone who is interested to speak with her to get more information.  This is a job that could easily be shared by a couple of people.  Contact Mary at 860-217-1817 or marobryan@gmail.com

Home & School Association News
The next HSA meeting will be Thursday, May 30 at 9:00am in the music room in the lower church.  Click here for an agenda. The new board will present next year's budget at this meeting. 

Scholastic Book Fair is here!  Below are the hours of operation for the book fair - 

5/30 Thursday    -  8-4

5/31 Friday         - 8-4

6/1  Saturday       CLOSED

6/2  Sunday        - 8-12:30      Coffee & Donuts Following Mass

The schedule for remaining Classroom Visits are as follows:


Grade 6:            Fri.    5/31   @ 2:00PM
Grade 7:            Fri.    5/31   @11:45AM (includes Grade 7 Literature class)
Grade 8:            Fri.    5/31   @ 2:35PM  (Literature class)

The Book Fair will also be open during the lunch hour (11:30AM - 1:00PM) from Wed. 5/29 through Fri. 5/31 for students and parents to browse and shop.  The Spring Book Fair is a "BOGO" ("Buy One Get One Free") event, so it will be a great opportunity for everyone to stock up on summer reading books.  Teachers will also be given an opportunity to make selections for their classroom libraries.

Bookfair clean up is scheduled for Sunday, 6/2 from 1-3pm.

CHOICE News  - Big Y 6% still available!  We still have a supply of Big Y at 6%, so take advantage of this great profit percentage (normally 2%).

MAX Restaurant Group cards are now available in $100, $50 and $25 denominations.  

HomeGoods/TJMaxx/Marshall's cards are now available in both $100 and $25 denominations.

CHOICE payments are due  Just a reminder that CHOICE balances for 2012/13 were due May 31.  Anyone with an outstanding balance has a statement coming home in your child's backpack this week.  If you just paid your balance within the past week, and you still receive an outstanding statement, please ignore it.  Most recent payments were not processed before the statements were printed.  Thank you.

Community News

The St. Mary's Youth Group invites all current 7th and 8th grade students to an evening of laser tag and bowling at Blue Fox Rock 'N Bowl on Saturday, 6/1/13, from 6-8pm.  Cost is $10 per student. Please click here for a registration form and more information.

St. Mary's Spring Carnival is Coming Soon!  This year's carnival will take place from June 5-8.  For more information, click here.  To become a carnival sponsor, click here.  St. Mary's School receives 50% of funds raised by the carnival, so let's show our support by volunteering! Your help, even for an hour or two, would really be appreciated and it's a lot of fun!  The Spring Carnival is one of the most family friendly traditions in the Farmington Valley!  Click here or contact Peg Mancarella at Margaret.Mancarella@gmail.com.

Would you like a chance to win $10,000?  Raffle tickets are now available at $20 each.  The annual St. Mary's Spring Carnival will be held June 5-8, and the raffle will be held Saturday, June 8th at 8 pm.  Winner need not be present.  If you are interested in purchasing tickets, simply kidmail a check payable to "St. Mary's Spring Raffle", and include the name, address and phone number of the person to which you would like the ticket(s) issued.  Remember that half of the profits go to St. Mary's School, so please support the carnival!

Martocchio Music is offering several summer music camps along with private lesson packages.  For more information, contact them at 860-651-6683 or www.martocchiomusic.com.



Alumni News - It's getting to be that "time of year" - college acceptances, graduations, weddings, new opportunities and new successes!  Do you have news about an SMS alum you would like to share?  Please send your news to dhatch@stmarysimsbury.eduk12.net.   Click here to read all our alumni news.