SAS families we need your help with the Raffle. We are looking for donations from local businesses. If you own a business or know someone that does, we would love a donation from that business. The donation can be gift cards or items from the business. Please contact Mrs. Tucker if you know a business that may be willing to donate. In the coming weeks we will be asking families to donate to our Reverse Raffle. It is important that we have the help and support of all of our families. This is our biggest fundraiser of the year, and the money raised will be used to continue to update and improve the aesthetics in our classrooms.

This Friday we will have our classroom birthday parties. The party will honor the students who have birthdays in October, November, December and January. Students who have a birthday during these months may be out of uniform on this day and are recognized at the class party. Room mothers will provide a treat for the class on these special days. Room parents if you are bringing in items please clearly mark them with the room number so that we know who the items belong to.

I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone for your continued support and understanding as we navigate through this neverending pandemic. I especially want to thank our amazing teachers. Our teachers work so hard in not only educating children at school but also making sure masks are worn properly, sanitizing on a constant basis, and keeping up with students who are learning from home. Our teachers never cease to amaze me and they are always willing to step up to any challenge thrown their way. As I said last week, we continue to deal with positive Covid cases and close contact situations. With that being said, I have also seen an improvement in our attendance rate over the past two weeks. I hope this trend remains steady or continues to improve. Again if we see a major uptick in school cases, school spread, or staffing shortages we will consider the option of a grade level moving to virtual learning or the whole school moving to virtual learning. These decisions are never easy, but please trust that we are doing what we think is best for the entire school community. It is essential that if your child is sick, even just minor symptoms, you keep them home and seek medical advice. Also, if your child has been exposed, please do your part in making sure quarantine guidelines are followed. If we continue to work together and put our trust in God, I know that we will make it through these challenging times. I pray that everyone remains healthy during this time.

We were not able to celebrate our Spirit Wear Day last Friday. We need to celebrate our athletes and their success in the Deanery Tournament. I think the whole school school should show their support for our teams. On Friday, January 14, we will have a spirit wear day. Students may wear a spirit wear shirt and jeans or sweatpants. If students do not have a spirit wear shirt, then they may wear a yellow/blue shirt.

We will not have school on Monday, January 17th. We hope you enjoy your 3-day weekend. Please stay safe.

As we all gather back together after the Holidays, I wanted to update you on our Covid situation. Unfortunately, we are seeing an increase in sickness and an uptick in Covid cases. I wish I could say that things were getting better, but that is simply not the case. It is very important that we do everything we can to keep our kids in school. We know that virtual learning is not as effective as in person learning. I want to be transparent and let you know that if we begin to see a high percentage of Covid cases, in school spread of the virus, and/or staffing shortages we will consider the option of virtual learning. I know we are doing the best we can here at school to help mitigate the spread of illness. We continue to wear masks on a daily basis, we social distance, and we stress proper hand hygiene. Families do a great job of keeping children home when they are sick and many of our students have been vaccinated. We must continue to follow all protocols and guidelines. I know that as a school community we can get through these challenging times and hopefully begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The CDC and the Indiana Department of Health recently updated the quarantine and isolation guidance. The guidance guidance is included in the Bear Facts and a letter is also going home today. I know the guidance can be very confusing, please call if you have any questions. As always, if your child is sick, please keep them home. I appreciate your continued support as we navigate through these challenging times. I pray for all our families that we remain healthy and safe throughout this New Year.

Congratulations to our 5th and 6th grade girls and boys basketball teams on winning the Deanery Championship. A big shout out to our coaches for all their hard work throughout the year. As always, Bear Nation showed up as #1 fans and cheered the teams on to victory. To celebrate the victory, all students who attended the Championship game and the players may wear spirit wear and sweats or jeans on Friday, January 7.

As many of you know, the way we've ordered and distributed spirit wear, PE uniforms, and school sweatshirts in years past has not been very efficient. In order to streamline this process, we're partnering with River City Workwear. River City Workwear is a local business that stocks the items our students wear in house. Starting now, you can shop from the link below from the convenience of home to order PE Uniforms, Bear Nation spirit wear, & St. Anthony School uniform sweatshirts. You can pay to ship the items to your house or pick them up at River City Workwear free of charge. Unfortunately, the cost for some items has increased. While we'd love to have kept the prices the same, we felt the convenience of partnering with a vendor who keeps our items in stock and can print on-demand along with the fact that we haven't increased our prices in over 10 years justified the increase. As always, we encourage you to mark the tags of your child(ren)'s school clothing in permanent ink with their name so we can easily return items to you if they make their way to the Lost and Found! You can access this site by clicking this link: http://www.rivercityworkwear.com/unsec-stanthonystore or on our school website under the “Current Families” tab.

We will make every effort to allow students to play outside during their recess time each day. It is important that students dress accordingly for the weather. So, we need your help in sending them with items to bundle up with coats, hats, scarves, gloves then they can enjoy their much needed outdoor time to run and play as much as possible. *Just a reminder to please put names on items like coats, jackets, and uniform sweatshirts.

2nd quarter grades will be finalized in Jupiter this Friday. Please make sure to login to Jupiter and review your child’s report card. It is important that you discuss the grades with your child, looking at areas they may need to improve and areas that they are excelling. If you are not able to access your Jupiter account, please let me know.

Now that the holidays are over, it is time to focus on our Reverse Raffle. You don’t want to miss out on this fun-filled event. The Reverse Raffle is set for Saturday, February 26 at 6:00 in the Parish Gym. Please invite family and friends to attend this wonderful event. If you can’t attend, you can still purchase raffle tickets and have a chance to win cash prizes. You do not have to be present to win! An order form is included in the Bear Facts, please help support SAS and sell dinner and raffle tickets.

Our Open House for perspective families is coming up. The Open House will be held on Sunday, January 30th from 11:00-2:00. Our School Commission and volunteers will lead individual tours for new families. Families will meet teachers and staff, visit classrooms, learn about the curriculum and different activities offered at SAS, and receive information about the Choice Scholarship and SGO Programs. Help support SAS by passing along the details of our Open House to family, friends and neighbors. If anyone has questions about the Open House or about our school, please have them contact Mrs. Tucker.

Auditions for Seussical Jr. will be on January 12th in the music room from 3:00pm-4:30pm. Students interested in auditioning will need to get a form from Ms. Alberts the first week back to school. Students will need to read and sing for their audition. The reading will be given to each student so they can prepare. They may sing anything they’d like for their audition (even the Happy Birthday song). Rehearsals will be held on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturday mornings. The performances will be April 8 & 9. If you have any questions, please contact Ms. Alberts at k.alberts@stanthonyschool.us.

We will make every effort to allow students to play outside during their recess time each day. It is important that students dress accordingly for the weather. So, we need your help in sending them with items to bundle up with coats, hats, scarves, gloves then they can enjoy their much needed outdoor time to run and play as much as possible. *Just a reminder to please put names on items like coats, jackets, and uniform sweatshirts.

We were all so happy to have our Christmas Program back this year. It was beautiful to see our students share the Christmas Story. I want to give a huge shout out to Ms. Alberts for our wonderful Christmas Program. I also want to thank our teachers who helped with the program and taking time out of their busy schedules to make the program a success. To all of our K-4 students and our Ensemble students for sharing their talents and singing out praises to the birth of Jesus. Thank you to our parents for sharing your children with St. Anthony School and allowing them to be a part of the program.

Friday, December 17 is a fun-filled day for our students. This is our last day before Christmas break. We will dismiss at 1:00 on this day and there is NO after school care. Please make plans to pick your child up by 1:00 on this day. It is very important that all children are picked up on this day as the staff will be having a gathering after school. Also, students may wear a Christmas/Festive shirt, ugly Christmas Sweater, or a red/green shirt with uniform bottoms. Classrooms will have an early brunch and will have their Christmas parties. Our Christmas Break is from December 18th through January 3rd. School will resume on Tuesday, January 4.

The Faculty and Staff would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for the wonderful school year that we have had so far. We as a school community work together and do our best to make everything a success.. We want to thank each of you for the support and cooperation that you have given to St. Anthony School. St. Anthony’s is blessed in so many ways, and we are thankful and rejoice in our everyday blessings. The Faculty and Staff hope that you have a wonderful Christmas and a Blessed New Year. May your heart be filled with love and hope this holiday season for the wonderful gift of Jesus and the joy He brings to our lives. St. Anthony Faculty and Staff

WOW!!!! For our first time doing this fundraiser and the quick turnaround, it was definitely a success! We sold $16,450 worth of Texas Roadhouse gift cards, which means we made a profit of $1,645. This money will be used to purchase charging stations for the classroom Chromebooks. The top selling class was 2nd grade. They will receive a special gift from Texas Roadhouse. I want to thank Ally Huber for helping with this fundraiser. I also want to thank all of families for participating in the fundraiser. It was a huge success. Thanks for your support and generosity.

Friday, December 17 is a fun-filled day for our students. This is our last day before Christmas break. We will dismiss at 1:00 on this day and there is NO after school care. Please make plans to pick your child up by 1:00 on this day. It is very important that all children are picked up on this day as the staff will be having a gathering after school. Also, students may wear a Christmas/Festive shirt, ugly Christmas Sweater, or a red/green shirt on this day with uniform bottoms. Classrooms will have an early brunch and will have Christmas parties on this day. Our Christmas Break is from December 18th through January 3rd. School will resume on Tuesday, January 4.