May 2018 Newsletter

The Principal’s Corner Dear Friends of St. Stephen School, Well Spring has sprung and now we are turning on the air conditioners. You have to be quite adaptable to live in our beautiful state of Maryland. The month of May brings beautiful weather and wonderful Catholic traditions. We celebrate with our second grade students who received Communion last weekend, and look forward to the Confirmation ceremony for our 8th grade students this weekend. Special appreciation to Mrs. Liberto, Mrs. Diegel, Sister RoseMary, Sister Angela, Mrs. Reynolds, Mrs. Rand, and Mrs. Schucker, who all work closely with our students on their sacramental journey. During this month of May, the students and teachers recite one decade of the Rosary during morning prayers. Our second grade students and teachers are preparing the Mass on Friday, and our amazing Kindergarten and 8th grade will honor Mary, our Blessed Mother, with a Crowning Ceremony at the conclusion of the Mass. I hope many of you can attend. Apparently May has also become Field Trip month. Let us pray for the safe travel of our students for their remaining trips. I know that students, parents, and teachers enjoy these educational opportunities to learn outside of our campus, but I am always happy when they return safe and sound. As the academic year winds down, you should know that we are already making plans for the 2018-2019 school year. I have answered some of the discussion points and questions from the State of the School event in February that will drive some of the decisions we will make for 2018-2019 (see pages 9-12) As always, thank you for your continued support. Happy Mother’s Day! God bless,

Mary Patrick Principal

St. Stephen School Mission Statement

A pre-Kindergarten through 8th grade Catholic parochial school, St. Stephen School is dedicated to the ideals of educating children in an environment that surrounds them with Christian values. The school strives to educate the whole child spiritually, academically, physically, socially, and emotionally. Every effort is made to cultivate within each child a positive self-image and to heighten his/her awareness of the dignity and worth of others.

Dates to Remember Please check the website frequently for the most current information and event dates. May 4: PreSchool closed –No Enrichment or AfterCare for PreK Students 10:15 May Crowing Mass May 5: Confirmation May 7: School closed—Professional Development Day May 9: Hot Dog Lunch May 12: Middle School Dance May 14: NJHS Induction Ceremony 8:30 AM in Church May 16: Fine Arts Night begins at 5 PM; HSA Meeting to begin at 6:30 PM May 20: Father/Daughter Dance 5-7 PM in the Hall May 21: BOOST Scholarship Application deadline May 23: Hot Dog Lunch May 25: 12:15 Dismissal; Field Day May 28-29: School Closed for Memorial Day

Volunteer Training (through www.virtus.org) Any parent who wishes to volunteer in the classroom or chaperone a class field trip must complete the Archdiocesan program through virtus.org. This training is mandatory for all parents, grandparents, and friends in order to volunteer/work at St. Stephen. If you are compliant with the program through virtus.org, you may volunteer. If you wish to volunteer at St. Stephen School and have not completed the training, please contact Mrs. Kathy Arbutus at 410-592-7617 during school hours.

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Girls Spring Soccer: Undefeated 7-0!

Good Luck in the Playoffs!

Service Project: Weinberg Center Lunches

Our Students are engaged in a school-wide, year-long project to provide lunches to

the homeless through the Weinberg Housing and Resource Center. Each month, a class

purchases the food and makes 150 lunches for the homeless in Baltimore.

In April, our students in Kindergarten participated.

Thank you to teachers and parents for providing the resources for our

students to help the homeless.

SOAR Weekly Winners:

Zach Rand-8th Grade Jordon Eckman-7th Grade

Mackenzie Hobik-5th Grade

Sophie Andrychowski-5th Grade

National Junior Honor Society News

Congratulations to our National Junior Honor Society Inductees:

Jack Brooks, Giuliana Caltabiano, Julia Campbell, Anna Grabowski,

Konstantinos Karais, Mitchell Kuta, Drew Regulski, Reagan Riemer, Ronan Sennett

Inductions of the National Junior Honor Society of St. Stephen School will take place on Monday, May 14, 2018 at 8:30 AM at St. Stephen Church

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Congratulations to the following St. Stephen’s students who received merit-

based scholarships to The John Carroll School:

Ella Andrychowski Emily Baranoski Brianna Botkin

Emma Campitelli Olivia Lockett

Kamryn Rittmeyer Savannah Sheppard

Emily Baranoski will enter John Carroll as one of the school’s first group in the Archbishop John Carroll Scholarship Program, or Carroll Scholars. Way to go Emily!

Congratulations to Ryan Buddenbohn for placing 6th out of 100 students at the National Geographic Bee Maryland State Competition!

Congratulations to Reilly Riemer and Margaret Wells for receiving the Knott

Scholarship! We are so proud of Reilly and Margaret!

Congratulations to Carter Pancake for placing 1st in the St. Stephen Spelling Bee!

He will go on to compete in the Spelling Bee at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Ellicott City on May 9, 2018. Good Luck Carter!

Congratulations to Mrs. Rand for receiving the Mercy M.A.G.I.C Day award!

Thanks to all who participated in the Rice Bowl collection. The total St. Stephen

School Family contribution this year was $596.05!

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Alumni News

We would love to hear from all of our graduates about their academic and athletic successes in high school. Parents – please send us your alumni news! We are very proud of our alumni and their accomplishments, and we would love to share information with our St. Stephen community!

Marianne Discher won 2nd place for her essay in the Maryland Right to Life Essay Contest. Way to go

Marianne!

Madeline Arbutus was named Miss Catholic High for the 2017-2018 school year. She crowned the

Blessed Mother at the traditional May crowning ceremony on May 2nd.

Field Day is Friday, May 25th.

If you would like to volunteer for Field Day, please email Mrs. Davies at mdavies@ssschool.org. Once you email, you are hired!

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Show your St. Stephen Eagle Pride! Our next Spirit Wear Day will be June 1st. To order Spirit Wear, please

visit https://ssschool.org/resources/school-store

The following students have achieved

Third Quarter Honors at Catholic High:

Gold Honors

Madeline Arbutus

Hannah Debelius

Marianne Discher

Sarah Sines

Brittany Sydlik

Miranda Zeiler

Silver Honors

Grace Bussard

Sophie Cossaboon

ATP Newsletter – May 2018

The mission of the ATP – Administrators, Teachers and Parents – is to provide parents with a platform to express their issues, concerns and ideas with school administration in matters that affect the well-being, educational success, and positive environment of students. The ATP committee represents all families to the school administration. Parents should continue to speak directly to teachers about individual student concerns. If you have an idea or suggestion, please visit the ATP page on the school website to make a submission. RECENT ALUMNI SURVEY Parents of recent alumni from 2014-2017 received a survey at the end of April for their child/children to complete. The purpose of the survey is to gather information about how the academic, spiritual, and social experience at St. Stephen School has had an impact in high school. Survey results will be used by school administration to help prepare future graduates for high school and beyond. If you are the parent of a recent graduate (2014-2017) and need the link to the survey, please contact atp@ssschool.org. 8th GRADE EXIT SURVEYS In the coming weeks, all parents of graduating 8th grade students will receive the ATPs 8th Grade Parent Exit Survey. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey. Survey results are presented to the school administration. All 8th grade students will complete their surveys at school. ATP PARENT/STUDENT PROGRAM The ATP team wishes to thank Officer Carey Kus from the Baltimore County Police Department Community Partnership Team for presenting to St. Stephen parents and students on substance abuse awareness. Both the parent and the student programs were informative and well-received. Thank you to Amy Przywara and the St. Stephen Home School Association for supporting our efforts and for supplying the delicious food at the parent program. Thank you to Tammy Alkins and the Used Uniform volunteers for making Used Uniforms available. Thank you to Brenda Schruefer for selling our school Spirit Wear. Special thanks to Bob Stelmack for putting us in touch with our speaker and to all the volunteers who helped at the events. The ATP will meet on Monday, May 14 at 7:00 pm in the Library.

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2018-2019 Calendar Update

1st day of School: September 4, 2018 Last Day of School: June 13, 2019

Christmas Break: Begins on December 21st with a 12:15 dismissal; students return to school on

January 2nd. Easter Break: Begins on April 18th with a 12:15

dismissal; students return to school on April 29th.

**Please note the added ½ days**

4th of July Parade – Looking for volunteers to create and make an impressive

float for the 4th of July Parade. Please email Mrs. Ullmann at rullmann@ssschool.org

Would you like to learn more about upcoming St. Stephen Parish events?

You can subscribe to the St. Stephen Parish E-newsletter at https://ststephenbradshaw.org/_modules/form.php?id=18

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Topics of Discussion and Questions from the State of the School Meeting

Catholic Identity:

School Mom’s Prayer Group

We would be delighted to facilitate a school mom’s prayer group. I know that Sr. Angela would

be interested in helping to schedule time in the convent chapel. Please call the Faith Formation

office to discuss

Make Angelus a part of the curriculum

The Angelus is part of the curriculum. We distributed the Angelus prayer cards at the beginning

of the year in grades 4-8 and the students are encouraged to use them at recess.

Sacramental program needs to have more focus in school and less work at home

The sacramental program is developed and delivered by the Parish office of Faith Formation and

is fully supported by the school religion curriculum.

Curriculum:

Something must be done about Spanish curriculum revise Spanish program to be more

interactive and less computerized

The Spanish program offered at St. Stephen School has always been part of our “Specials” These

set of subjects. Physical Education, Computer, Art, Music and Spanish do not meet daily. Due to

the constraints of the budget and instructional time, Spanish will continue to be a “special”. We

have tried many different approaches to Spanish. The online program is very expensive and not

productive so we will not renew that subscription. Mrs. Boschert will try a blended approach next

year to better meet the needs of our students. We have purchased several new interactive

Spanish supplements and will continue to look into a workbook. Any parent that would like to

volunteer to add a more conversational approach to Spanish instruction will be welcomed.

Strive to be a Blue Ribbon school, Test scores improved

It is our goal to become a Blue Ribbon School. Blue Ribbon designation is based solely on test

scores. The faculty uses the data from the test to plan instruction however the true value of

standardized tests is to show growth in each individual student so as we work toward being a

Blue Ribbon School we must be mindful of making sure that we are meeting the educational

needs of all of our students. This year we added a Geometry Course and an additional

instructional group in Math and additional assistance in Reading. Next year we are reconfiguring

instructional time to provide more time in Math and Reading and writing.

Computer classes are lacking in content and take a long time to boot up

We are very disappointed in the new laptops that were purchased for the lab. We have had

connectivity problems and battery issues. We are in desperate need of a new building to house

new technology. The parish and school recently hired a new network specialist to try to improve

the situation. Grades 3-8 will be working with a new Robotics/Drone Curriculum next year in the

1st and 3rd trimester.

Secure several technology educators so all staff members have adequate support

I can request additional money in the budget for additional technology teachers but that means

tuition increases or another program is reduced. I am hopeful that the addition of the technology

training from the Robotics and Drone Program, the new ebook program from Discovery Ed in the

Middle School Science and Social Studies curriculum and the continued support of Dr. Gail

Donahue from Notre Dame of MD in the primary and intermediate grades will be helpful.

More hands on science labs for 4-8

Grades 4-8 have scheduled labs in the Science Lab. The new Pearson Interactive Science Program

in Grades K-5 provides hands on activities for each unit.

More extra help in math

The instructional groups in Math are currently the smallest of any Catholic school in the area.

Next year we are hoping to rework the schedule to increase the Math instruction to 60 minutes.

Placing mandates or guidelines in PowerSchool for all teachers to follow i.e. grades should be

inputted every 10 days for all classes.

There are mandates as to the time in which PowerTeacher should be updated. If you are

experiencing more than a ten day wait time after an assessment then you should email the

principal for the reason for the delay.

Facilities:

Cafeteria

The gym has been used in the past as the cafeteria. The time and personnel required to put up

tables, chairs, clean the floor etc. seemed excessive to previous administrators. The cost of

construction of a new space for a cafeteria is prohibitive at this time.

Designated physical space for after care K-8

We would like to have a designated space in the new Middle School Building.

Security door beyond school office

The cost of installing new doors beyond the school office is $6,000. This is expected to be

accomplished this summer

Consideration of installing an elevator

It is on the list, we understand the need and it has been investigated. The last estimate was

around $15, 000, to purchase and install an elevator to go to the second floor. The facilities

committee will include it in our Aging Schools grant for next year.

Widen driveway, cones create narrow lanes

Narrow lanes slow everyone down and that is one objective of the cones.

Spirit wear kiosk

I need more information to answer that question.

Separate building for middle school

Absolutely, just need funding!

Renovate convent for use by students i.e. additional classrooms

The convent is a parish building and there are not any plans for the school to use it.

A clock or timer system in nurse’s office for students who need medication on a temporary

basis to prevent students from not getting meds on time or from being missed

I can check with the nurse about that.

Consider lunch outdoor in pavilion during fall and spring. Organize by class so not

overwhelming. Have lunch in the gym once or twice a month on Friday. 7th and 8th graders

can set up and breakdown to earn service hours.

Outdoor lunch in the Pavilion can be scheduled by the lunch mom ahead of time with permission

of the teacher. There is a safety concern as to releasing students for the bathroom which will

happen, who will supervise them inside? Who will supervise the students who are taking down

and putting up tables and chairs if we have lunch in the gym? I will take this suggestion to the

faculty and school board for discussion.

ADA compliance for students who cannot climb stairs

I would certainly support an elevator.

Expand size of preschool

Next on the list of improvements after the Middle School building is completed. When the state

moves to all day Pre-K 4 we will need more space

Faculty lounge

As soon as space becomes available.

Recess – soccer playing on the lot is super dangerous, I’ve seen many falls. I don’t want to

limit soccer but can there be certain days grades go to field?

We have tried that in the past. The first time it is offered the students are very excited to go but

the next week they prefer to stay on the parking lot. Apparently they do not like the walk back up

the driveway.

Advancement:

Perfect Attendance Award – One current 8th grader has had perfect attendance for 11 years

I will investigate that.

Advertise on TV during the Turkey Bowl or in program

I will ask about pricing.

Online Student directory vs. paper pen

We did that one year but there were privacy concerns, I will check on it again.

Tuition Rates – consider tiered structure for parishioners vs. non-parishioners

That is not Archdiocesan policy, we are to structure tuition at cost and offer tuition assistance to

parishioners.

Support Programs:

Baseball club

We tried to field a team this Spring, we needed more players.

Game design club

I will ask the faculty if someone is willing to be the facilitator for that club.

Primary grades split in 3 groups for Math and Reading

We do not have any more room available for additional instructional groups. The Instructional

assistant in grades K-3 is responsible for additional assistance in Math and Reading groups.

More ongoing visits by a counselor especially during middle school dealing with the problems

of bullying and excluding others and the problems with social cliques

I have money in the budget next year for 2 days a week for the counselor. I am looking at staffing

now.

5 day full day 3’s!

Lack of space is still the biggest problem.

Better tracking in and out for after care. E-tracking app, not a notebook

I agree this is a safety issue, hopefully when they have a designated space we can use the “Lobby

Guard” system that we are installing in the office.

Is there additional instructional support for 4th and 5th grades? Instructional aid in 4th grade

Depending on enrollment, budget and staffing I will investigate additional support.

After school activities for primary grades

What did you have in mind?

Service Club

The Department of Catholic Schools has set the theme for this year as the year of Service. At our

last faculty meeting the idea of a Service Club was discussed and approved , I will have more

information for you at a later date.

Enrichment programs for math and reading Differentiation

These are both current goals of the educational program that are being met through our small

instructional groups in both Math and Reading.

Walkies for each teacher

Although this sounds like a great idea the experts have informed us that in the case of an

emergency too many voices at a time create communication problems. We currently have 6-8

that are in use throughout the campus. The teacher on recess and dismissal duty should always

have one.

Better explanation of State of the School so more people realize they should attend

This was our second attempt to receive input from parents on the development of the strategic

plan, we will continue to publish the answers to the questions raised at the meeting and try to

incorporate their concerns into the goals of the strategic plan. Yes it is important that we get as

much input as possible from our stakeholders.

Boys volleyball team

Currently the league that we participate in does not have a boys’ volleyball option.