Living, Loving, and Learning Our Faith

Important Upcoming Dates

April 4: FORWARD Testing Continues (State Required Assessment)
April 14: Grade 4 Lenten Play for students and staff
April 15: Good Friday-April 22 EASTER BREAK
April 25: Classes Resume
April 27: Siena Grades 6-8 Math Competition (more details forthcoming)
April 29: Forward Testing Window Closes
May 1: Students may begin to wear uniform color shorts to school
May 16: STAR Assessment begins

May 22: Feast Day of St. Rita
May 26: School Celebration of St. Rita. (details forthcoming)
May 26: Spring Musical/Talent Show (6:30pm)
May 27: STAR Assessment ends
May 30: Memorial Day-No School
May 31: F&P Running Records Due
June 6: Physical Education Field Day (In case of bad weather, make up day is June 7)
June 9: Half day of school 11:00AM Dismissal/End of 4th Quarter
June 9: Grade 8 Promotion-Details forthcoming

From the Desk of Dr. Sue!

Greetings,

We are really pleased with how well the students are participating in the Forward Exam. The exam continues through April 14 as noted in the schedule. It is a long testing window--whew! We have appreciated those that are able to avoid appointments during this testing window. Testing is best when done with the full class. However, we do know things happen and certainly understand signing your child out for an appointment maybe needed.

YEARBOOK sales are ONLINE ORDERING ONLY! Order your yearbook on line this weekend! Details are noted further down in this newsletter. Do not wait. Order early.

I have provided an update regarding our ALiCE safety drill training for May and next steps. Please scroll down for further information. Safety is a top priority and all of our practice drills keeps us polished in the event we would need to be prepared.

As we round out the last 4th week of Lent, we would like to invite everyone to participate in our "Blessings in a Bag." This is a fast, fast turnaround but we want bring blessings to others. This is part of our lenten journey and promise to share and give to others. Please see "Blessings In a Bag" section of this newsletter for class items being collected April 4-8. Thank you for your contribution!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Blessings,

Dr. Sue

St. Rita's Mission

Living Loving and Learning Our Faith: Living as members of our Catholic Faith Community; Loving God and all of His creation; Learning for our future on Earth and Heaven.

STATE REQUIRED

FORWARD EXAM CONTINUES

We are very pleased with the students concentration and committed to the exams.

Just a quick reminder, please no scheduled appointments during the testing windows; if these can be avoided.

Student make up dates will be provided for your child if they missed any tests.

These exams are for grades 3-8 respectively.

Below you will find the schedule for the Forward Exam.

Yearbook Sale: ONLINE ONLY

Last Day to Order Yearbooks in April 11th.

Order your yearbook today at https://ybpay.lifetouch.com/

Yearbook ID Code: 2270722

Summer School

Hello Siena Families!

We invite you to register today for the Center for Urban Teaching/Siena Catholic Schools of Racine Summer School program! This FREE program is great for learning AND enrichment...math, art, science, reading, phy ed, we have it all! Students will receive FREE breakfast and lunch, too.

WHO: all Siena students (incoming K5-8)
WHAT: Summer School!
WHEN: Wednesday, June 29, 2022 - Wednesday, July 27, 2022 (no school on July 4 or 5); 7:30 a.m. – 2 p.m. Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Fri; 7:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. Wednesdays (breakfast and lunch included on all days)
WHERE: St. Rita Catholic School
COST: Aside from the $5 per shirt fee (required), this program is free, free, free!

Why consider CfUT's summer school program? This is a fantastic program that helps reduce summer learning loss, something especially critical because of the COVID disruptions over the past two years. This particular summer school is a great combination of fun activities and academic enrichment. Register today!

Please note: registration is on a first-come, first-served basis. Waiting lists will be formed once classes are full. There is no before or after school care and parents are required to provide their own transportation.

4K - March 2022

Happy Spring from 4K! We have been busy watching the different types of weather that March has and then graphing it! At the end of the month, we add it up to see which type of weather was the most, the least, and if there was a tie. Then we celebrate!

In Bible Time, we are focused on learning about the different Stations of the Cross. To help us learn about each Station, we have a book with actual pictures from St. Rita’s Church. We are looking forward to going over to church and seeing each Station in a few weeks.

At centers, we are very busy creating masterpieces by cutting, gluing, stamping, tracing and putting puzzles together. We have so many plants to observe in science. Our tulips didn’t flower. As a class, we decided it was too warm in the classroom. We did learn that some experiments fail. We also did the color changing flower experiment with white carnations. Finally, 4K has caterpillars! We are very excited to watch the daily changes!

It is a busy time in 4K using our five senses to explore the world around us. We love it!

3K is having an Awesome March!

The children are very busy learning the alphabet.

We are having a lot of fun with the letter M this week.

Here are some pictures of all of our dot painting letter fun.

Thursday Mass & Altar Servers

Sixth grade led this week's Mass. Altar Servers were Javier A. and Fernando A.

BLESSINGS IN A BAG

Our Faith Formation Committee is interested in fulfilling our Lenten commitment to Blessings in a Bag. First grade teacher, Ms. Peeper graciously created the chart below to help organize this project.

We know this is a fast turnaround and appreciate all that you can do.

Collection starts Monday, April 4 and ends Friday, April 8.

Buddy Bench Donations

Our Royal Student Ambassadors are excited to work on a project that will benefit St. Rita's mission of Living, Loving and Learning our Faith.

Who: The Royal Ambassadors, 4th- 8th graders, donors from St. Rita’s Parish

What: A “buddy bench” designated to connect students interested in playing with someone or making a new friend.

Where: The bench will be placed on the large playground. The solicitation for material or financial donors may be at the fish fry on tables or in the church bulletin and the school newsletter.

When: The bench could be completed by the end of the year with a dedication assembly and instruction at the beginning of next school year.

Why: To give students an opportunity to demonstrate compassion, kindness and friendship. The bench would make it easier to notice who could be invited to join a game or see the chance to connect with someone new. Ideally, no one should be sitting on the bench longer than a minute.

How: Donation maybe a bench or a donation of money/ materials so that the Royal Ambassadors may design and paint the buddy bench. The bench will be dedicated at an all school assembly next year with specific instructions to have no one sitting on the bench for more than a minute alone.

Sports Banquet

Students who have participated in any Sport for St. Rita School this year will be having a banquet on Thursday, May 12th, 5:30 PM- 7:30PM.

The banquet will be held at the school gym.

Please email Mr. Tom Ferguson for more information or any questions.

tferguson@alloyweld.com

ALICE UPDATE-GRADES 1-8

School safety is a priority at St. Rita’s Catholic School. Siena has adopted the ALiCE model for all our school safety needs in the event of an active shooter/serious situation that may cause a lockdown. In any type of serious situation, the minutes that pass while people are waiting for police to respond are crucial. The ALICE acronym exists to help those trained to do everything we can to save as many individuals as possible.

In the fall of 2021, all Siena staff were required to participate in an online module training provided to us by Navigate 360. Each staff member had to pass the online course in order to receive their certification. 100% of St. Rita’s staff is certified. This past March (2022), the Siena Leadership Administrative Team (which includes all Principals) participated in an in-person presentation by Sheriff Dave Fisher under the direction of Mr. Kurt Kayser, Chief of Operations for Siena. While much of the learning was a refresher, we also discussed the next steps for our schools. As a result of the training, we at St. Rita will be discussing the word “barricade” with our students. Many of us used to be trained with the idea that a simple lockdown would be used in an emergency, but this is no longer the case. If a classroom had to utilize lockdown as a safety measure, lockdowns are now joined with barricading. Therefore, the purpose of this notification is to share that at our May lockdown practice drill, we will be doing the following so that we are incorporating barricading as part of our biannual state-required lockdowns:

Verbally discussing the word barricade in each classroom with the students.
1. Barricade means to block; create a barrier between two things.
Verbally sharing and seeking feedback from the students as they look around the room, asking what objects might be used for barricading/items to be placed in front of the door.
Teachers will submit via a Google doc their classroom ideas for barricading for record-keeping.

THERE WILL BE NO PHYSICAL PRACTICE OF BARRICADING IN ANY CLASSROOMS AT THIS TIME.

The goal is to help students understand what the word means and to visually identify items in the room that they may use to barricade inside the room if needed.

As a reminder, ALiCE stands for

Alert – Alert is your first notification of danger. Maintain good situational awareness to overcome normalcy bias and ensure the best response to a critical incident or violent intruder.

Lockdown – Barricade the room.

Inform – Communicate the violent intruder’s location and direction in real-time. To do this, pass on real-time information using any means necessary. Examples are video surveillance, 911 calls, and PA announcements.

Counter – Not to be confused with fighting, this step involves creating noise, movement, distance, and distraction. Its intent is to reduce the shooter’s ability to shoot accurately.

Evacuate – Safe and strategic evacuation techniques get people out of harm’s way. Understand how your current environment impacts your ability to evacuate and discover the safest ways to do so.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support. We pray we never have to be in such a situation. However, if we do, we are fully trained and prepared to keep everyone as safe as possible.

*3K, 4K, and K participate in the lockdown only. We are very sensitive to their levels of our littlest learner's needs and keep all of this very simple. The staff in the rooms are responsible for their safety and use their judgement as ALiCE trained teachers.

Children’s Liturgy and Family Resources

The readings today call to mind the struggle for holiness both individually and as a society. During Lent, we can get bogged down by our past defeats and failures. The first reading is a hopeful reminder that throughout salvation history God has been making things new. In the second reading, St. Paul writes that while we are not perfect, we are called to keep the eternal gift of heaven in mind and focus on the goal ahead. In the Gospel, we see God’s unfailing mercy and forgiveness. Jesus’ response to the scribes and Pharisees’ accusation of a woman from their community is a reminder of the need to look at one another without judgment and with the love of God. May we feel the love of God through one another as we all journey together toward holiness.

Bringing the Gospel Home:

*Read and discuss Ruthie and the Not So Teeny Tiny Lie by Laura Rankin Ruthie and the Not So Teeny Tiny Lie | Kids Books Read Aloud!

*Holy Week video: Holy Week in Three Minutes

COVID-19 Testing at St. Catherine's High School

Siena Catholic Schools has maintained a focus on safety throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. As an organization, Siena continues to find ways to support our students, staff, and family as the pandemic progresses. Testing has become a key resource to monitoring the spread of COVID and identifying proper quarantine timelines for students, staff, and family members.

Siena is happy to announce that we will be providing onsite testing for our students, staff, and family members. This service will be available from 7:30 a.m. until 3:15 p.m., Monday through Friday. We have designated a testing location at St. Catherine's High School (1200 Park Ave., Racine, WI 53403, Door 9) which is located on the west side of the building with parking on Villa Street.

Here is what you need to know:

Testing is free: you will not be asked to provide any insurance or payment information.
Testing is walk-in, but it is recommended that you pre-register for your appointment. The attached document is the same process for registering, just select the school where you work.
Paper registration forms will also be available for walk-ins.
Parents should complete registration forms prior to their students arriving for a test and accompany their students for testing.
Antigen tests will be used when available, but PCR tests may also be used with results arriving in 24-48 hours of testing.

Below you will find a link for Instruction on how to pre-register. By pre-registering prior to testing the process will run more smoothly, will cover consent for testing, and the patient will receive an email notification once the result is available in their patient profile.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aNYoowlYuPb8opDnckQXII3ZToRA9TKd/view?usp=sharing

We are excited to continue to support our system through this next stage of the pandemic.

SCRIP

While we cannot have SCRIP in person like we used to, we CAN participate in SCRIP online with E-gift card delivery, which is instant and completely contact-free.

You can ONLY purchase E-gift cards (there are over 750 vendors to choose from, including Amazon, Target, Kohls, Home Depot, Walmart, Starbucks, etc.!)
A percentage of that purchase (2-17%) "gives back" as a rebate:
- 50% of the rebate goes toward your family's tuition bill, student activity fees, spirit wear or a check at the end of the school year
- 50% of the rebate directly supports St. Rita’s.

Click on the link to Learn more : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UAVWKOFQDJwnlFhUO_3CJ3Z7OUaaGPS8/view?usp=sharing

Catholic Social Responsibility Guidebook

Please see the newly released Catholic Social Responsibility Guidebook from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee under the direction of Dr. Kathleen Cepelka. It is available at https://www.archmil.org/Education/Catholic-Social-Responsibility.htm.