News for the Week of 1/7/15

School Mass will be celebrated on Friday, January 9th at 9AM in the Church.  Please remember that no physical education uniforms should be worn to Mass.

Warm Welcome - Please join us in welcoming several new students to SMS as we start 2015. Reed and Ross Phillips have joined their siblings Carter, Gr. 5 and Paige, Gr. 7 here at school.  Reed is in Miss Soucy's 2nd grade and Ross is in Mrs. Jehnings 1st grade.  We have also welcomed Benjamin Rivera to Mrs. Gore's 5th grade.

Open House for Prospective Families - Our celebration of Catholic Schools' Month will include an Open House for Prospective Families on Thursday, 1/29/15 at 6:30pm in the Parish Center.  If you know a family wondering if SMS is the right place for them, please invite them to come to this event.  Our new Suzuki Violin Program for PreKindergarten & Kindergarten will be introduced! There will also be an opportunity to meet our faculty, learn about our mission, discover how engaging an academic day can be here and begin to experience the important difference Faith in Education can make in a child's life.  Please encourage an RSVP to the school office at 860-658-9412 or by email to smsoffice@stmarysimsbury.eduk12.net.

School Survey - By now you have received a letter informing you about the upcoming Saint Mary’s School Survey. (Click here to view this letter.) In order to continuously improve in our commitment to educating today's students, we ask you to share your experience by completing this important survey.

There should be only one response per family. You will have the ability to provide feedback either on the per grade level or from an overall basis. The survey should take approximately 10 - 15 minutes to complete. Your responses are anonymous and all information will be analyzed in aggregate (non-individual) form only. The survey will remain open until Friday, January 23rd.

This is an opportunity for you to give feedback on how Saint Mary’s School is doing. Your feedback will help improve our strategic plan for Saint Mary’s. On behalf of the St. Mary's School Board and Administration, thank you for your participation in this important survey.  Click here to access the school survey.

Red Shirt Friday begins this Friday, 1/9/15 - The mission of RedShirtFridays.org is to show support for our servicemen and servicewomen. RedShirtFridays is not a political organization. They do not care whether or not one supports or does not support our nation’s specific military missions. They care only about making our support of our servicemen and servicewomen known to our fellow Americans and the world. They wish to let our servicemen and servicewomen know we support their sacrifice and that we will not forget them and they encourage us to do this by wearing red every Friday.  Mrs. Gannatti invites all students to participate each Friday by wearing a red shirt with the uniform of the day.

Home & School Association News

HSA Nominating Committee 

The HSA is looking for a Nominating Committee to help fill the HSA roles for next school year.  The Nominating Committee is responsible for finding nominees for each open position and presenting them at a spring meeting.  If you are interested in serving on the committee, please contact Jennifer Pavlonnis at jpavlonnis@yahoo.com or Amy Lillis at amylillis73@gmail.com.

Skeleton Scramble 

Planning for Skeleton Scramble 5K is going strong and we’d like to invite everyone to keep updated. Our new Facebook page is located at https://www.facebook.com/skeletonscramble5k.  Please visit and like the page to keep up with the latest news.  Don’t forget to share it with your friends!

HSA Monthly Meeting

Our next HSA meeting is scheduled for Thursday, January 15th. The meeting will be at 6:30pm in the grade 8 classroom. All are welcome!

Community News 

Simsbury Public Library Teen Space has lots of fun and educational programs coming up in January.  Events include a Wii Wednesday, TBT (Throwback Thursday) showing of Steven Spielberg's The Goonies, Teen Book Club & Making Infinity Scarves out of old T-shirts.  Click here for a complete list of upcoming events and all the pertinent details.