St.
Mary’s School
Summer Newsletter
Happy Summer!
I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Summer!
As one of my last things to do in the school office, I am sending
out this summer newsletter to recap everything we’ve done or
accomplished this year and to let you know of a few things that we are
excited about for next year.
New Programs!!!
Next school year, our students will be able to
participate in the Accelerated Math Program and
Study
Island
. Accelerated Math helps
students with their math skills and students are able to accelerate or
review work at their own pace. This
by no means replaces our Math textbooks this is an enrichment program
that runs similarly to Accelerated Reader.
Another program that we are implementing next year is
Study
Island
. This program was designed
to help student improve their
Reading
and Math skills. This too is
computer based with students learning a skill, participating in a
lesson, playing a game for review, and taking a test.
If you would like to know a little more about Accelerated Math
you can find more information at the Renaissance Learning website, www.renlearn.com.
For more information about
Study
Island
, please look at their website www.studyisland.com
and click on the state of
Minnesota
for information regarding
Study
Island
in
Minnesota
.
Test Scores
As part of our school’s annual report to the
Minnesota Non-Public Accrediting Association, I need to study our test
scores from the Iowa Basics Tests. I
am very pleased to announce that we are doing very well in all of our
scoring. One of the scores
that I look at is the grade equivalency scores; on average, our students
scored almost two grade levels higher than their actual grade.
The Reading Composite score, which includes Vocabulary and
Comprehension, showed that our students scored an average of 1.9424
grades higher than their grade level.
The Math Composite score, which includes Concept/Estimation,
Problems/Data and Computation, showed that our students scored an
average of 1.9272 grades higher than their grade level.
Those scores are definitely something to be proud of!
Also, I am required to study our students’
National Percentile Rankings. The
NPR means that a student does better than a certain percentage of the
same age students in the nation. For
example, if a student has an NPR ranking of 57%, it means that he or she
does better than 57% of students in the nation at that same age or grade
level. The following shows
how our students did at the top quarter and top half of percentile
rankings. Not only are
rankings listed but the percentage of St. Mary’s Students at each
percentile rank is given.
76th-99th Percentile Ranked Students
Reading
:
16 students out of 33
(48% of SMS students)
Language:
15 students out of 33
(45% of SMS students)
Math:
16 students out of 33
(48%
of SMS students)
51st-99th
Percentile Ranked Students
Reading
:
28 students out of 33
(85% of SMS students)
Language:
25 students out of 33
(76% of SMS students)
Math:
27 students out of 33
(82% of SMS students)
Note:
Schools want to see the majority of their student test taking
population in the top two quarters
(51st-99th
percentile).
St.
Mary’s School has clearly met this expectation in the 2008-09 school year.
Service Projects:
Thank you to everyone for your participation in all
of our service projects! As
a recap, we were able to give 20 Thanksgiving Meals, 20 Birthday Kits, 2
full cardboard boxes of gently used toys and over 100 pounds of
non-perishable food items to the Tracy Food Shelf.
We collected $300 for Heifer International and will be able to
provide a full Water Buffalo and a share of a Heifer to a village in
need. Our Pennies 4 Patients
effort meant that just over $200 was given to the Leukemia &
Lymphoma Society for research on curing blood cancers.
We collected 4 boxes of pop tabs for the Ronald McDonald House in
Sioux Falls
. Students made Grandparent
Day Cards for nursing home residents, Thank You’s
for our troops, and book marks for our parishioners.
Donation Needed
We are in need of a hog donated for the Box Car Day
Food Stand in order to make pork burgers.
If anyone is interested in donating a hog, please call Marla
Verlinde at 828-0341. Thank
you!
Calendar Raffle
Please keep in mind that we only have two months
left to sell calendar raffle tickets.
Our tickets were handed out during the last week of school to all
of our St. Mary’s families. If
you need more tickets, please contact the school office and we will be
more than happy to replenish your supply.
All remaining tickets, ticket stubs, and money needs
to be turned in to the school office by Tuesday, September 8th.
Box Car Day Food Stand
This year, Ryan and Marla Verlinde and Chuck and
Claudette Ankrum have graciously stepped up
to run the Food Stand. They
will be contacting you this summer to work.
However, next year, another family will need to graciously step
up and help one of these couples. The
Food Stand is not a long term commitment it is a commitment of a maximum
of 2 years. Year 1 there is
a “lead” couple who organizes the day and the “helper” couple
learns “the ropes.” Year
2 the “helper” couple is now the “lead” couple and there is a
new “helper” couple to learn “the ropes” and it continues to
repeat in this manner. Please
consider helping for the 2010 Box Car Day Food Stand.
New Additions to our St. Mary’s Family
I have found out recently that there are potential
additions to our St. Mary’s family.
Please keep in your prayers these people who may be joining us.
I know that when their decision is made, we will welcome them
with open arms!
Upcoming End of Summer Events
·
Dad’s Belgian Waffle feed on Sunday, September 6th, 2009.
Please be willing to help when you are called.
·
Our annual Box Car Day Food Stand will be on Monday, September 7th,
2009. Please be willing to
help when you are called.
·
Our
St.
Mary’s Annual Craft Fair will also be held on Monday, September 7th,
2009 from 9-5. We have
already had crafters register and everyone is excited for another year!
·
We will also have the float in the parade once again.
Everyone is welcome to ride!
·
School starts on Tuesday, September 8th at 8:05 a.m.,
we can’t wait to see everyone that morning.
St. Mary's School