Saint Gabriel School Weekly Newsletter for Parents

Week 6 - September 19

Upcoming Events

Eat Lunch With Your Child Day

Eat Lunch With Your Child days are back! The next designated day is Friday, September 26. This year there is an adult order form for lunch. If you would like to purchase lunch from the cafeteria, please complete an order form by September 23. This form is for guests only- please do not include your child's order. Orders will not be accepted after this time. Please do not bring outside food from another vendor. This event is for lunch only, not recess.

Eat Lunch With Your Child Day Adult Lunch Order Form

Feast of St. Gabriel Spirit Week

We are excited to celebrate our patron saint and 72 years of faith, family, and tradition. Here are more details on some of our events.

We'd love for you to join us for one of our four masses (4pm, 8am, 10am, 12pm) during the weekend. Wear blue to show your spirit!
Saturday: We have amazing volunteers who support our community. At the 4pm mass, we will recognize this year's service awards winners.
Sunday: Join us after mass for the Knights of Columbus pancake breakfast.
Decorate your front door at home to show your spirit! One lucky winner will get a visit from Big G! Post a picture of your decorated door and tag @stgabriellouisville by Monday, September 29 at noon to enter.
Monday: All-school mass followed by a Eucharistic procession through the school!
Tuesday: Decades Day! What's your favorite decade? Show us with your attire that day!
Wednesday: Say cheese! It's picture day. Follow the picture day uniform break guidelines.
Thursday: Spirit Day! Show your school spirit for our Pep Rally to celebrate fall sports and clubs! Leave your backpack at home and bring something else for Anything but a Backpack Day (see guidelines below)
Friday: Walk-a-thon! Dress in your class colors.

Trunk or Treat

Save the Date! Trunk or Treat will be Friday, October 24 from 6-8 p.m. All ages are welcome.

Letter from Administration

Fall MAP Testing

Dear Families,

We made it through our Fall MAP testing this week! Thank you for your support in ensuring students were well prepared at home before testing days.

Students are tested three times per year to measure growth over time. To give you more insight into our testing, here is some valuable information to keep in mind:

What is MAP testing?
MAP is an assessment that helps us measure your child’s growth in reading and math over time. Unlike a traditional test, MAP is adaptive—meaning the questions adjust to your child’s responses. This gives us valuable information about what your child already knows and what they are ready to learn next.

Why the new schedule?
This year, we had all students test on the same days (1 day for Reading, 1 day for Language, and 1 day for Math) rather than spreading testing across multiple weeks. Please note: only 3rd-8th tests for Language. Make-up tests will be scheduled next week. We are excited to share that testing went pretty smoothly. This new schedule had several benefits:

Minimized classroom disruptions
Created a focused, calm environment
Simplified scheduling for staff and students
Built a sense of community and shared effort

What happens now?
Teachers will be able to analyze results soon, helping them tailor lessons and supports to meet each student’s needs. Homeroom teachers will have individual conferences with students to share their scores and set goals for their learning this year. Fall test scores will be shared with parents at Fall P-T-S conferences on October 8 and 9. We plan to continue to use the same style of schedule for the winter and spring sessions. Winter MAP testing will be January 6, 7, and 9. Spring testing will be April 15, 16, 17, and 20.

We appreciate your continued partnership in helping our students succeed.

Sincerely,

Kelsey Dyar

Instructional Support Specialist

HIGHLIGHTS

QUICK LINKS

Congratulations, Mrs. Abell!

Congratulations to Director of Faith Formation, Mrs. Kathy Abell! She is this year's recipient for the Archdiocese of Louisville Roncalli award. The Roncalli Award, named for Pope John XXIII or Cardinal Roncalli, is awarded to catechists who have been ignited by the spirit of Vatican II to spread the faith through catechesis. In addition to helping teachers with school masses, sacramental prep, and consulting with religion teachers, Mrs. Abell teaches Catechesis of the Good Shepherd classes to our K and 1st grade students. We so appreciate her leadership and partnership! We are so proud to have you as part of our #leopardfam! Mrs. Abell was recognized last night at the Archdiocese of Louisville Faith Formation Recognition dinner.

Bingo- Volunteers Needed

Bingo is one of our largest fundraisers. Funds are used to offer tuition assistance and capital projects. A schedule for this year has been created to assist with staffing volunteers to sell pull tabs. If you volunteer, your child may have a uniform break the next non-mass day! Please sign up using Sign Up Genius link below. Thank you for your support!

Sept. 24- 3Mattmiller

Sept. 25- 4Cornwell

Oct. 1- 4Bratcher

Oct. 2- 4Owens

Safety Patrol

St. Gabriel School invites all 4th, 5th , or 6th (NEW) grade students to become School Safety Patrols. This stewardship project is a great opportunity to participate in our school community. Each morning, a group of approximately three students along with several adults, will greet students arriving during carpool drop off and assist Kindergarten and Pre-K students. For more information, see Ms. Lauder.

Honor Thy Child/ Safe Environment Training

Are you planning to volunteer or attend a school event this year?

Field Trip chaperones and special event volunteers need to have a background check on file and have attended the Safe Environment Training. For more information, visit https://www.stgabriel.net/background. Not sure if we have your information? Contact background@stgabriel.net. To view upcoming Honor Thy Child trainings, visit https://www.archlou.org/about-the-archdiocese/archdiocesan-policies-guidelines-and-handbooks/restoringtrust/safe/. Background checks and safe environment training refresher must be completed every five years.

Save the Dates

September 26- Eat Lunch With Your Child Day
September 29- October 3- Spirit Week
September 29- Feast of St. Gabriel All School Mass
October 1- Picture Day
October 3- Walk-a-thon
October 24- Trunk or Treat
November 3- Fall Into Reading Night

From the PTSO

Walk-a-thon Giving is Live

Saint Gabriel will be hosting its annual PTSO Walk-A-Thon on Friday, October 3rd. Funds raised help provide student scholarships, school enrichment, teacher requests for their classrooms and student and teacher appreciation throughout the year. Our goal this year is to raise $43,000.

Walk-a-thon giving is now live! Visit https://fundraise.givesmart.com/vf/SGWALK102025 to get started.

Two Ways to Give:

Click on "Become a Champion" to set up your own fundraising page*. Click on "Join a Team" to join your homeroom team. You can then personalize your page and share your direct link with family and friends!

Donors can register on the main page and select “Donate”. The form will ask donors if they want to attribute to a child or homeroom.

Family goal is $150 to win awesome prizes!

2025 Walk on the Wild Side Parent Letter

2025 Walk-a-thon GiveSmart Directions

Walk-a-thon GiveSmart Website

PTSO Mission

Saint Gabriel PTSO strives:

To promote communication among parents, teachers and administration.
To provide parents and teachers assistance in all aspects of education and student growth.
To promote good will and cooperation between parents, faculty, administration, school board and parish.
To direct and coordinate parental support to the school through specific assistance activities, social functions and fund-raisers.
To organize and conduct fundraisers. Funds raised are given to Saint Gabriel the Archangel School to assist with classroom supplies, student programs, teacher and staff appreciation, social events and other programs approved by the administration

PTSO Events

Walk-a-thon- October 3

Father/ Daughter Dance- November 1

Santa Shop- December 2-4

Paint Night- December 4

Mother/ Son event- March 21

PTSO GroupME

Not on social media but want to stay up to date on PTSO news? Join our GroupMe chat. GroupMe link

BTFE_Overview_2025.pdf

Box Tops

Box Tops is a great fundraiser for PTSO! Download the Box Tops for Education app and scan your receipt for a contribution of $1.50 or more. Be sure to enter the name of the child who should receive credit. Our next Box Tops Uniform Break will be September 22.

Our school ID is ID: 393279.

From the Parish

Parish Directory Update

The parish is updating the parish directory. Have you changed your phone number or email address? Have you moved to a new home? Please submit your updated contact information by 11/28/25.

Link Your Kroger Card

Choose St. Gabriel for your Kroger Community Rewards! This can be done easily by selecting our program on your digital account.

St. Gabriel ID # is: QA178

Learn more at https://www.kroger.com/i/community/community-rewards

From Athletics

Leopard Spot Sports Corner

📢 Basketball & Archery Sign-Ups Are Now Open!

🏹 Archery – Co-ed for 4th–8th graders

🏀 Basketball – Open to all JK–8th graders

👉 Please use GameDay to sign up at https://gameday.loucsaa.net/ .

Sign-ups end on October 1, 2025.

We are also seeking basketball coaches for this season!

If you’re interested, please email Jamie Pike at: 📧 jpike1793@gmail.com

Basketball tryout dates

The following tryout dates have been scheduled:

Saturday, 10/18/25

12:00 – 1:30 PM — JK/K

1:30 – 3:00 PM — 1st/2nd Grade Girls

3:00 – 4:30 PM — 1st/2nd Grade Boys

Sunday, 10/19/25

3:00 – 4:30 PM — 3rd/4th Grade Girls

4:30 – 6:00 PM — 3rd/4th Grade Boys

Note: Tryout times for 5th/6th and 7th/8th grade teams will be scheduled once the volleyball and football seasons are completed.

All Sports Mass

There will be an All-Sports Mass on Sunday, September 21, 2025, at 10:00 AM. We ask that each team sit together to show unity during the Mass. Father would like to fill the church with our athletes and take a group picture with all players after Mass.

For 8th-grade coaches: We need players to help serve during the Mass. Please let Margaret know which team members can participate in the following roles: Server, Reader, Altar server, Gift bearer

Thank you for your support in making this a meaningful and special event for our church and our teams.

From the Community

High School information

We have added a section on News You Can Use for high school information. Check out this section for upcoming events for prospective students. This section will continue to be updated.

To view information about Catholic high school open houses, visit https://louisvillecatholicschools.com/schools/high-schools/.

2025-2026 AHDT Fall Clinic Flyer.pdf

Assumption H.S. Dance Clinic

Grades K-9 students are invited to join the Assumption High School Dance Team for our annual Dance Clinic on Saturday, September 27 — a high-energy day filled with movement, learning, and fun!

This beloved community tradition brings together young dancers from across the area to learn new skills, make new friends, and experience the joy of dance. It’s also our team’s largest fundraiser, helping us pursue our goal of competing at nationals.

Mindful Parenting Study

The Mindful Parenting Study at the University of Louisville is currently recruiting parents of 5-8-year-old children to share their parenting experiences. The study visit should take about 1 hour (in-person at UofL) and participants will be compensated up to $25 for their time.

Mindful Parent Study Link

Post of the week

Saint Gabriel the Archangel Catholic School(502) 239-5535 | school@stgabriel.net | School Website | Parish Website

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