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Frequently asked questions
General1
The Parish Center (gym) doors are open at 7:25 AM. You can drop off there, and the children will go straight to their homerooms. Parish center doors will be locked at 7:45 AM, and children should then enter the front doors of the school at that time. Students that are entering after 7:45 should report to the office.
Our plaid “Hunter Classic Navy” pattern for jumpers (K-5th) and skirts (6th-8th) can be purchased at Schoolbelles or at Lands End. Shirts (polos or button downs), skorts, shorts, and pants can be purchased through various retailers (Target, Children's Place, Kohls, Old Navy etc).
The students will wear a gym uniform to school on their scheduled gym day. They will not need to change before or after class, they can wear this uniform all day on their gym class days.
The link below will take you to the website to order. Orders will be placed, processed and picked up from Vennefron in Newport, 2106 Monmouth Street, Newport, KY 41071.
Make sure you order soon so you are ready for the first week of school! scsgymuniform.itemorder.com(http://scsgymuniform.itemorder.com/)
When their children outgrow uniforms, parents often donate the old uniform back to the school. There are shorts, skorts, pants, shirts, and jumpers available. This is a great resource for school sweatshirts and various spirit wear, too. Contact the school office if you would like access to the uniform exchange room. (859) 572-2680
Feeding God’s Children is on the last Friday of the month. The kids can wear their FGC shirt over their uniform shirt if they bring in the non-perishable item being collected that month. The school office will communicate what is being collected. A monetary donation to the agency is always welcome as well.
The kids are sorted into teams at the beginning of the year. The teams consist of 8-10 kids from nearly every grade level K-8, with the students in Junior High being the team leaders. The teams pick a team name as a group and design a team shirt. The shirts are worn for the meetings and end of year events. The teams get together every month or so and have a meeting. They write letters to seminarians, and other various service projects. They talk about religious happenings throughout the year – St. Catherine’s Feast Day, Ash Wednesday, etc. They will discuss it and do an activity about their topic. They walk with their TUWG team at Walk-a-thon. Their TUWG team is also their Olympic Day Team. Team shirts are worn for Walk-a-thon and Olympic Day.
VIRTUS is a training program offered by the Diocese of Covington focused on “Protecting God’s Children”. It is a class every adult must take in order to volunteer in the school, attend field trips, work in the cafeteria, coach, attend class parties, anything having to do with interacting with the children. There are several opportunities to take the class throughout the year. Parents and other adults wanting to volunteer have to attend a class, have a background check run, and read a bulletin each month to stay current in the system. A good rule of thumb is to take the class before the school year starts so you can jump right in with volunteering. Information on upcoming classes can be found on the Diocese of Covington’s website.
Sycamore is the tool our teachers use to input grades for parents to be able to stay informed on how their child(ren) are doing. There are also many other useful tools within Sycamore. There is a family directory, staff directory, the lunch menu is posted. You will be sent information from the school office on how to log into your account. There is an app you can download to your phone. Our school ID is 3297.
The school email addresses are used to log in to the various accounts the students use daily. They use their email address to access their Google Classroom account. Their email address can only be used for school related assignments. They can’t email anyone outside of the school server. The students are given all of their log in information at the beginning of the school year.
Google Classroom is an online service that teachers can use to share class information with students and for students to communicate with teachers for questions outside of the classroom. Assignments can be given, grades can be posted and materials can be shared easily from teachers to students. Students may login into their Classroom account via the internet using their assigned St. Catherine account (usually first initial + last initial + 8th grade graduation year @stcatherineofsiena.org and password of colts + grad year). This account links to other Google suite services including Google Drive, Google Docs and Google Slides that students will use at school.
Accelerated Reader (AR) is a program that helps monitor how your child(ren)’s reading is progressing. After reading a book (or being read to for younger grades), the student logs on to their AR account and takes a quiz. The quiz tests reading comprehension. For younger readers, there are generally 3-5 questions per book. As their reading level progresses through the years, they are asked more questions on the books they read. The student is given points based on how many correct answers they got. Each student is given an AR point goal per quarter. Children can take quizzes during their library period, or when they ask their homeroom teacher during down time. If you are wondering how your child is doing working towards their goal, feel free to email the school librarian, mfassler@stcatherineofsiena.org.
This is a big day at St. Catherine! Grandparent’s Day is going to be in the fall. Grandparents, or a special guest are invited to spend some time with their grandchildren. The morning starts with an all-school Mass. Grandparents sit with all their grandchildren. After mass, we will have a music presentation. Parents are welcome to attend as well.
Yes, we have an After School Program (ASP). At dismissal, the children go with the ASP staff. Typically, ASP is located in the school library. They are given a snack and have time to work on homework. There are various activities available to keep the kids busy. The ASP signup form is on the school website. The parish office sends an invoice once a month for payment for the ASP. The ASP ends at 5:30.
Our diocese uses a service called My School Bucks (MySchoolBucks.com). The school office will set up an account for your family and send the log-in information. Each child has a number specific to their lunch account that they give to the cashier in the lunch line. To fund your student’s account, we recommend that parents/guardians deposit money using MySchoolBucks.com with your student’s current lunch ID number. Cash and check payments will also still be accepted. You can also use MySchoolBucks.com to receive low balance alerts, set up automatic payments, and set daily/weekly spending limits.
Yes! Your child is permitted to be out of uniform for their birthday. Have them go to the school office for the birthday out of uniform pass. You can bring in a store-bought treat or non-food goodie bags for their birthday. If your child has a summer birthday, they can celebrate their half birthday with their class. Just talk to your homeroom teacher about it.
A Room Parent is a contact person between the homeroom teacher and the classroom parents. Sometimes the teacher needs their room parent to organize parent volunteers for class activities. The Room Parent also communicates information from other organizations within the school. The Room Parent collects money for gifts for the homeroom teacher. Typically, $12+ is collected per student. This money goes towards giving the teacher a gift for Christmas and the end of the school year. It’s also used to celebrate the teacher’s birthday. The Room Parent is in charge of contacting the coordinator for class parties two weeks prior to the party to remind the parent volunteers what they signed up to do for the party. Occasionally Room Parents are asked to help organize fundraising events for the school.
There are sign-up sheets at the beginning of the school year for the class parties throughout the year. The classes have parties for Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and the end of the school year. Each party needs a party coordinator. This person is in charge of contacting the parents that volunteered to bring in something for the party. The party coordinator also plans some activities for the class to do during the party. There are also sign-ups to bring in snacks, drinks, and plates & napkins. You must be VIRTUS certified to come to a class party.
Olympic Day is during the last week of school. It’s an all-day event that you are welcome to attend if you are VIRTUS certified. The kids work with their Team Up with God teams to earn points at various events throughout the day. The cafeteria is closed so students pack their lunch and a drink. A healthy snack table is always set up so send your child(ren) in with some money to buy snacks throughout the day. There are many parent-volunteer opportunities on Olympic Day. It’s one of the best days of the year!
The Catholic Order of Foresters (COF) is a Catholic organization that sells insurance - don’t cringe yet! The Foresters sponsor many outreach projects and family friendly activities throughout the year. Every time they sponsor an event, the children that are members, and attend the event, can sign in. The COF headquarters will give our local court $8 for each youth member’s signature. This money is used to sponsor more events and purchase things for the school and parish. All are welcome to be a member. Contact Tom Kaelin at 859-630-3217 for more information. The Foresters also organize the Parish Campout at the end of June. It is a highlight of the summer!
The Parish Campout is a COF sponsored event held at the end of June every summer. The campout is typically held at the Kentucky Horse Park. The COF block out 70 campsites for members of our school and Parish. The Foresters plan several fun things throughout the weekend. We even celebrate Mass together on Saturday evening. It’s a great weekend of fellowship.
Yes, you can set St. Catherine as the organization you want your rewards to support. If you have a Kroger shopper’s card, you can use the website or Kroger app to search for St. Catherine of Siena and select the option to have your points support us. Kroger donates a certain percentage each quarter to St. Catherine.
AmazonSmile is another easy way to support St. Catherine just by shopping. Go to smile.amazon.com and select St. Catherine of Siena as your charitable organization. There is even an option on the app within your settings to shop using AmazonSmile. On eligible purchases, Amazon donates 0.5% back to St. Catherine. It doesn’t sound like much, but it really adds up!
Box Tops for Education is a program that donates to St. Catherine for every Box Top you submit. You can download the Box Tops for Education app and select St. Catherine as your school. You take a picture of your receipt using the app, and it scans the receipt for eligible Box Top items. For every eligible item you purchased, we get $.10 back from the program. They have bonus offers pretty often so check your app! Box Tops emails will be sent periodically throughout the year to encourage participation. There are two collection periods each year, November and March. The families that participate can earn an out of uniform pass for each child in their family per collection when they notify the Box Tops coordinator during each collection period.
Throughout the school year, we try to have Dine to Donate nights. These nights take place once a month at local restaurants. The participating restaurant donates a certain percentage of each bill back to the school. You take a flyer with you to the restaurant and give it to your server telling them you’re with St. Catherine. These are fun ways to have fellowship with other families, and raise money for our school.
The Parish hosts a festival the first weekend in June. The Friday of the festival is an adults only, 21 and up, music festival night. Get a babysitter and come hang out with other school and church families! The Saturday of the festival is open to everyone. There are lots of games for every age. Delicious food is available. It’s a great weekend of fellowship!
St. Catherine Students in grades 5-8 are required to complete service hours. Each grade level has a certain number of hours they must complete throughout the year. There are three categories of service, Community Service, Home Service, and Parish Service. The student must take their service sheet with them to their service project, fill out the information on the service, and have the person in charge sign the sheet. All service sheets are to be turned into the school office.
Catholic Schools Week (CSW) is a celebration of Catholic education. It starts on the last Sunday in January and goes through that whole week. Our school has various activities planned throughout the week. On the Sunday CSW starts, there is a Mass to open the celebration. Everyone is invited to Mass at 11:30 that day. There is a reception immediately following in McCrystal Hall. There will be a sign-up for people to bring various things for the event. CSW is also the week of our book fair. There will be opportunities for the students to shop the book fair throughout the week. This is also the week of our family dinner night. The faculty serves lasagna and spaghetti & meatballs to our families.
The Boosters sponsor school-based athletic and academic teams. The Boosters also provide resources to various school and parish initiatives throughout the year. The Boosters raise money by hosting volleyball and basketball leagues. Anyone is welcome to join the Boosters. They meet the second Thursday of the month in McCrystal Hall at 7:30.
The American Heritage Girls (AHG) is a Christ-centered character and leadership development program for girls 5-18. AHG is dedicated to the mission of building women of integrity through service to God, family, community, and country. Meetings are held in McCrystal all at 6:30 on the second and fourth Mondays of the month.
Our PTO’s objectives are to help St. Catherine of Siena Parish School to be a place where every student reaches their full potential spiritually, physically, and academically. The PTO hosts various fellowship and fundraising events throughout the year. The PTO uses funds raised to give back to the teachers, students, and school community. PTO meets the first Thursday of the month in McCrystal Hall at 7:00. All are welcome!
Cross Country
Season: Fall
Grades: K-8
Registration: St. Thomas CC/Boosters in Summer
Soccer
Season: Spring and Fall
Grades: K-8
Registration: Campbell County Youth Soccer League; End of June for Fall, January for Spring
Basketball
Season: Fall/Winter
Grades: 2-8
Registration: St. Catherine Boosters in October
Volleyball
Season: Fall for grades 7/8; Spring for 5/6
Grades: 5-8 Girls
Registration: St. Catherine Boosters during Summer 7th/8th and Fall 5/6
School Play
Season: Fall
Grades:6-8
Quick Recall
Season: Fall - Winter
Grades: 4-8
Registration: QR Coaches/Boosters
Governor’s Cup
Season: Fall/Winter
Grades: 4-8
Registration: Teachers and QR Coaches/Boosters
American Heritage Girls
Season: August - May
Grades: K-8
Registration: St. Catherine of Siena Parish during Summer
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