Volume 2, No. 10 May 2014 PRAYERS In your prayers, please remember the repose of the soul of Mrs. Eva Serratelli, mother of Bishop Serratelli, who passed away on Sunday, April 27, 2014. The funeral Mass will be celebrated on Friday, May 2nd, at 11am at Holy Family Church, Nutley, N.J. Visitation will be on Wednesday, April 30, from 7 to 9 pm, and on Thursday, May 1, from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 pm, at the Biondi Funeral Home, 540 Franklin Ave., Nutley. MAY PRINCIPALS MEETING There will be a meeting for all principals and presidents on May 6, 2014, at the Pope John Paul II Center in Clifton. From 9:30am to 12:30pm, elementary principals will meet about Standards Based Grading. At 12:30pm lunch will be served. At 1:00pm, all elementary principals as well as secondary principals and presidents will meet. The program will focus on plans for the 2014-2015 school year. The meeting will conclude by 3:30pm at the latest. High school presidents and principals are welcome to come for lunch at 12:30pm. DIOCESAN EDUCATION COUNCIL The reorganized Diocesan Education Council, which has new by-laws and new membership, will meet for an orientation on May 6th, at 5:00pm at the Diocesan Center in Clifton. REPORT CARD MEETING There will be a meeting on Friday, May 9th, at 2:00pm, in the Terrace Room at the Diocesan Center to finalize piloting the Grade 2 report card.

STEM MEETING A STEM meeting for principals of both Cohort I and II will be held on Tuesday, May 13th, from 10:00am to noon, in the Terrace Room at the Diocesan Center. Principals unable to attend are to inform Connie at comikolajczyk.diocese@patdioschools.org. MATH COMMITTEE MEETING Members of the Math Committee will meet on Tuesday, May 13th, at Noon, at the Diocesan Center for a working lunch.

STEM COMPETITION On Wednesday, May 14th, five of the STEM schools will have exhibits and prepared presentations for a STEM Competition to be held in the cafeteria at John Paul II Center from 10:30am to 1:30pm. The schools will be judged by a panel of experts and awards will be presented. All schools, especially those in Cohorts I and II, are encouraged to attend. 2014-2015 CALENDARS Principals are reminded that the 2014-2015 school calendars are to be submitted to the Catholic Schools Office by May 16, 2014, at the latest. The directions and form for completing and submitting the school’s 2014-2015 calendar for approval can be found here. STEM WORKSHOP There will be a STEM workshop on Tuesday, May 20th, from 1:00 to 3:00 pm, at Holy Spirit School, Pequannock, for anyone interested in implementing a STEM program in their school. Please RSVP by May 16th to comikolajczyk.diocese@patdioschools.org.

TERRA NOVA MEETING A Terra-Nova Post-Testing meeting will be held on Wednesday, May 28th, from 9:30am to 12:30pm, in the JP II Center in Clifton. Principals and testing coordinators are expected to attend. Principals should bring the Assessment Summary Reports for each grade and a copy of the Teacher’s Guide to the Terra Nova. Growth Reports, Performance Level Reports, and the Student Objective Mastery Reports will be distributed at the workshop. Please RSVP by May 21st to comikolajczyk.diocese@patdioschools.org with the number attending. ACE WORKSHOPS IN JUNE Each school is to dedicate two full days of year-end meetings for teachers to develop unit plans according to the ACE differentiated unit structure. Note that these two full days in each school will replace the ACE Curriculum Workshop scheduled for June 23rd through June 26th. Schools who have not already done so are asked to notify the Catholic Schools Office at comikolajczyk.diocese@patdioschools.org immediately of the specific dates for these meetings in your school TEACHING TOUCHING SAFETY The Diocesan Child Protection Office is requesting that each school be sure to enter the Teaching Touching Safety or RCL Benziger Family Life information in the Virtus database at www.virtusonline.org. These classes and their information input must be completed before school is out for the summer. If you have any questions, please contact Joan Valk, jvalk@patersondicoese.org or 973-777-8818, ext. 277.

INSTANT ALERT VENDOR The Catholic Schools Office has signed a contract with Alert Solutions for the 2014 -2015 school year. This company will provide an instant alert solution to all schools of the diocese. Configuration and training will be announced in the next month. Schools should continue to utilize Honeywell until the Diocesan contract expires on July 11, 2014. Address questions to edcard.diocese@patdioschools.org. POWERSCHOOL SINGLE SIGN-ON The Catholic Schools Office will implement PowerSchool’s single sign-on feature this coming summer. Single sign-on will allow parents to view information about all of their children attending Catholic schools which utilize PowerSchool from one account. The parent portal display will look the same with the addition of a tab at the top of the screen listing each student separately, thus allowing parents to browse between students’ records effortlessly. This feature will also allow parents and students to utilize the PowerSchool created smartphone apps for Apple and Android devices. Click here for a YouTube video explaining the account setup process. WEBSITE OFFER The Catholic Schools Office is in the process of designing a new website with Zumu Software of Atlantic Highlands, N.J., a leading vendor of educational websites. Zumu has agreed to offer a full-featured and fully supported website for any Catholic school in the Diocese school for $300.00 per year. Zumu web hosting is e-rate certified; therefore, a school can offset this annual web hosting cost through its e-rate application. If interested, contact Ed Card at edcard.diocese@patdioscools.org.

APPLE IPAD & IPAD CART TRAINING

The Catholic Schools Office will be hosting Apple training to provide insight on how Apple devices can be

configured utilizing Apple Configurator software. Apple Configurator is a free utility from Apple that facilitates the configuration and software installation on multiple iPads or iPods simultaneously. Schools do not need iPad carts to avail themselves of this training. All schools utilizing or contemplating the use of Apple products are encouraged to attend this one day training. The two training dates are June 11th, 9:00am to 3:00 pm, Assumption School, 63 Macculloch Ave., Morristown or June 18th, 9:00am to 3:00pm, St. Anthony School, 270 Diamond Bridge Ave., Hawthorne. Each session is limited to 20 participants. RSVP to Ed Card at edcard.diocese@patdioschools.org by June 1st. Click here for syllabus. CONTRACT FORMS Teacher contract forms for the 2014-2015 school year and principal contract forms for the 2014-2015 school can be accessed here. There are no changes in the forms from those used in the current year. Note that no alterations are to be made to the forms. Principals are reminded that once signed a copy of each the principal’s contract is to be sent to the Catholic Schools Office.

PICTURES The schools office is requesting a current outside building photo of each school in the diocese - one that best represents the building. These pictures will be used to enhance the Catholic Schools Office website and will be posted online. In addition, the CSO is seeking photos, videos, and inspiring or award winning news articles to place on the new website and to be included in the Catholic Schools Office annual report. Please forward pictures, videos, and articles to Edward Card at edcard.diocese@patdioschools.org. CHANGES FOR POWERTEACHER

When teachers sign in to the PowerTeacher Portal, they will notice a subtle change in where they go to launch the

Gradebook. This new area is easy to see, and simplifies the launch process, both for the new launch method and the old one.