News - May 2015 RSS Feed

Today, our sweet little preschoolers graduated! We would like to congratulate all of the 4 year old kids for working so hard this year. Kindergarten...ready or not, here they come!

Field Day will be Friday, May 29th. Students may wear spirit clothes, PE clothes, or any shirt that has St. Anthony School on it. Students should wear tennis shoes. More information will be sent next week.

Attention everyone wanting to play volleyball, football, dance, or cheer for the 2015/2016 school year, we are having a sports signup on Tuesday, June 2nd from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM in the Social Hall. Please bring a copy of your current IHSAA physical (4 page) and a check for your athletic fee ($60 per student / $120 family max). There will be coaches sizing football equipment as well so that we can be sure to have correct sizes once practice starts. Any questions (or if you are interested in helping to coach or be a team parent), please contact the following: Volleyball – Brian Fisher, 812-786-4753 Football – Kip Connin, 502-554-4807 Dance - Tiffany Bordenkircher, 812-989-4111 Cheer - Tracy Harley, 812-989-2204

There are currently two openings on the Athletic Committee. The first is for Picture Representative. This person acts as the liaison between the sports reps/coaches in season and the photographer to make certain all team/individual pictures are taken and ultimately, sent to the school office for inclusion in the yearbook. The second opening is for a Concessions Coordinator. Over the last year, we have been trying to transition this position into more of a managerial type role. That is, they (or people they ask to help them) will stock the concession stand before game weekends and will schedule parent volunteer workers. Over the last year, our parents have stepped up to help volunteer as needed. The concessions chair should be able to work with parents of the teams in season to make sure the spots are filled on game days. We do not want or expect the concessions coordinator to work all the hours themselves; rather we want this Coordinator to schedule the parents, who have been willing to help. We have a great group of people who work to make our sports programs the best they can be for our parish and school kids. I hope you will consider joining us. Please contact Brian Miller, 812-207-127 or bmiller@pfauoil.com if you have any questions.

Mrs. Janet Marlin will be retiring at the end of this school year after 39 years of teaching, with 33 years working as a teacher at St. Anthony School. Ann Whitworth will also be retiring after 40 years of teaching, with 31 years working here at St. Anthony School. We are very sad to see them go, but we would like to wish them the best in their retirement. We will honor Mrs. Marlin and Mrs. Whitworth at the Mass on May 27th when we celebrate the last Mass of the school year. We would love for you to join us at Mass and to offer your best wishes to them after the Mass.

Next week the cafeteria will drop the hamburger casserole scheduled for Tuesday and instead will have popcorn chicken.

The Kindergarteners had a GREAT time on their field trip today to Deere Farms!

As this school year is winding down, the SAS staff has been reviewing our instructional practices and researching ways in which to make improvements. Teachers will receive training in June on two initiatives. STAR360 is a comprehensive assessment tool, allowing educators to screen and group students for targeted instruction, measure student growth, predict performance on summative exams, and monitor achievement on Indiana state standards in Reading and Math. All students in grades kindergarten through eighth grade will take the STAR360 assessment in the fall, winter and spring. This online assessment will take each child less than one hour, but it provides a wealth of knowledge for the teacher in terms of strengths and weaknesses. We are excited to be able to improve our ability to make intentional, informed instructional decisions about each student in our building. Teachers in grades 1-3 will also receive training on Accelerated Reader (AR). AR is the nation’s most widely used K12 reading program. Student are motivated to grow as goal-focused readers though individualized, independent reading practice -- teachers assist students in finding books on their reading level; students read books independently and then take online quizzes to check for comprehension. Teachers are able to easily gather data to highlight student strengths and weaknesses. This data is used to set and monitor personalized goals for each student within AR and within the classroom curriculum.