In this week’s news, you’ll find Picture Day reminders and a link to order, an invitation to hear about Scouting at Assumption Church, our first Pizza Lunch day of the year, a save-the-date for Holy Hoops, correcting your personal information in FACTS, an ongoing need for Playground Angels, a need for more talent for school development, MAP testing plans for the remainder for the next two weeks, an opportunity to share in small faith groups, a talented art contest winner, the school Mass schedule for this week, a chance for your children to participate in coding or robotics classes with fellow ACS students, PTC News including incredible Italian Dinner results and gratitude, your first chance to order a yearbook for 2021-22, various volunteer opportunities, and upcoming calendar events. Thanks for reading!
Picture Days are September 23rd and September 24th
Individual pictures will be taken on Thursday, September 23rd for Preschool and K-8 students. Pictures for PreK are on Friday, September 24th (and for those absent on Wednesday). Students may come in free dress for pictures, but all current free dress expectations apply on picture day.
Return your order forms sent home last week or conveniently order online: https://my.lifetouch.com/mylifetouch/#/. Our school code is EVTSP3ZK2.
Scouts flyer
Church of the Assumption’s Cub Scout Pack #4016 is having an informational drop in session this Thursday evening in the gym from 6-8 pm. Boys and girls of all faiths in K-4th grades are welcome to come hear what Scouts are all about! Please see today’s physical envelope for a flyer containing more information.
Pizza Lunch
The PTC will be offering the student-favorite, monthly Pizza Lunches again starting next Monday, Sept. 27th!
- Please see your physical envelope for order forms and return the form no later than Friday, 9/24 at 3 pm.
- If your child doesn’t want pizza, you can just recycle the form.
- When selecting to pay via your FACTS pre-paid account, please be sure you have enough funds to cover the total amount.
Thank you!
Great news…HOLY HOOPS is back!
Mark your calendar for Tuesday, October 19th, through Friday, October 22nd. For anyone new to this annual ACS event, Holy Hoops is a FREE four-day, 4-on-4 basketball tournament intended for EVERY 5th-8th grade student at Assumption Catholic School. Once again, there will be two divisions: a boy’s league and a girl’s league. Games will take place after school from 3-6 pm each day. COVID protocols and expectations will be forthcoming once we work out the details, but we want 5th-8th grade parents to put this on their calendars! More to come…
Personal Information in FACTS SIS
If you haven’t already done so, please create a FACTS Family Portal account (instructions and check your personal information. Any updates you make yourself will be saved in the database for office use. If you change addresses, change a phone number, or need to make an emergency contact change for your child in the future, you’ll be able to make those changes at your convenience.
Please complete changes by Friday, Sept. 24th as the information will be used to create our Family Directory, going out around the end of the month.
Playground Angels
We have an ongoing need to keep these safety positions filled. Thank you for your help in keeping recess fun and safe!
Development needs
Shannon Zebrowski, our Development Director, is looking for additional people with these specific skills for some Advancement projects planned throughout the coming year. If you have experience in any of the following areas and a willingness to help, we’d love to hear from you:
- Graphic Design
- Video making (short promotional pieces)
- Drone Photography
We are so grateful to the few talented parents in this community who already graciously share their remarkable skills with us in graphic design and photography! This ask is a hope that we might have multiple resources, so we don’t overburden any one person.
Please contact Shannon directly if you’d like to share your gifts: szebrowski@school.assumption.org. Thank you!
MAP Testing: September 20 – October 15
Starting this week, all 2nd through 8th Graders will participate in the MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) bi-annual testing. Please don’t make appointments or schedule vacations through which your child will miss school during these important three weeks of testing. Most tests, approximately one hour in length, will be administered between 8:15 am and 11:30 am, but some days might have an afternoon test.
All students in grades 3-8 take four tests: science, language, reading, and math. Second graders take three tests (all but science). Make-up testing, if needed, will be done the week of October 4th. This test is not meant to rank students or compare them to the national average, but it is used for students to set their own academic goals for the school year in the form of a RIT score. Teachers also use this important data to inform instruction and collaborate with each other on school-wide essential standards.
Small Group Leader Training
Assumption Parish is looking for a few school parents who would like to be trained in how to create and run small faith sharing groups. This is a formation program, not a parish program; that is, the parish provides training to individual Catholics, with the expectation that these Catholics will use this training to start and maintain their own small faith sharing groups. The training is 12 weeks of weekly, 1.5 – 2 hour meetings. Please contact Fr. Moore (frmoore@assumption.org) if you are interested.
Winner Art Contest
Congratulations to Peyton Eberhardt for winning the Catholic Daughters of America state competition for her art submission! Peyton won at the district-level art in 2019 and because of COVID, it just recently went to the state level. Peyton again won at the state level for Art Division 1- 1st Place. She received a certificate from the WA State Catholic Daughters of America and a $50 prize. Her entry is now being judged at the national level in Washington, D.C. Peyton, we are proud of you!
School Mass this Friday
This Friday, Sept. 24th, grades 2-5 will go to the church for Mass. Third Graders will be leading the Mass and will be the lectors and gift bearers. Parents are welcome to attend the weeks that their children are attending, and community members are also welcome to Friday School Masses. We ask that visitors sit in the north and south transepts instead of with the students. Masks are required of everyone, regardless of vaccination status.
AHERA and Compliance Letter
Please see the attached letter from the Archdiocese regarding the school’s compliance with the Federal Asbestos Hazardous Emergency Response Act (AHERA) requirement for all schools and the required inspection to identify any Asbestos-Containing Building Materials (ACBMs). This is a standard letter that is sent to families and staff every year.
Bellingham Coding & Robotics Club
We are excited to announce two opportunities for our school this fall. Both opportunities are for our students at Assumption Catholic School only! Please see the flyer that came home in your Wednesday envelope. If you missed the first week, it’s not too late to sign up and start next Monday.
8 SPACES AVAILABLE: Middle School Robotics Team (5th-8th Grade): Mondays 5-6:15 beginning September 20th. Hands on, minds on! The middle school robotics team starts with the basics of building and programming robots. The teams of students are then tasked with designing and building a robot to compete against other teams in a game-based engineering challenge around the Pacific Northwest (and beyond if they go on!). Classroom STEM concepts are put to the test as students learn lifelong skills in teamwork, leadership, communications, and more.
12 SPACES AVAILABLE: 3rd-5th Grade Coding and STEM Classes: Mondays 5-6:15 beginning September 20th. Our unique fall 2021 group classes balances screen time with hands-on activities and opportunities to create and explore with 3D printing, makerspace and basic robots in addition to our signature coding curriculum.
Our program provides social interaction so that students can make new friends, all while experiencing a 5:1 student to teacher ratio ensuring personalized attention when they need it. We’re on a mission to help kids develop creative thinking skills, confidence, and have fun with their peers while learning to code.
If you are interested, please sign up online using the links below. Please reach out to the Club with questions: info@bellinghamcodingclub.com. Please note that membership is month to month so you can commit to as much or as little as works for your family.
Logistics and links to sign up:
- Please first purchase an Assumption only monthly membership by going to our “Join Now” page. Monthly membership is $199, but it will be discounted to $160 per month if we have enough students for a full Assumption 5th-8th grade team. Scholarships are available by contacting the school. https://www.bellinghamcodingclub.com/join-now-1
- 2. After completing your Assumption School membership purchase, go back in and sign up for the class you want (middle school or elementary school) to secure your space. Below are private links specific to Assumption classes:
Assumption Middle School Robotics (5th through 8th grades): link
Elementary School Coding (3rd through 5th grades): link
PTC News
The PTC would like to extend a huge THANK YOU to all of the volunteers and supporters of our Italian Night Take and Bake Dinner and Raffle. It was an ENORMOUS success! The event raised $11,026!!! We are so grateful to our school and parish communities for the success of this event! Congratulations to Katherine Deets (school parent) who won the raffle basket from Drizzle and Rob Seabury (Assumption parishioner) who won the Fall Flavors and Fun basket.
A special shout out to our Cook and Kitchen manager, Rob Viggers, our PTC President and event coordinator, Lynette Machinski, our top saleswoman and all around problem solver, Sara Rush and Dana and Ross Driscoll, owners of Drizzle, who helped us navigate supply shortages and refrigeration issues! We also would like to thank Soy House for use of their kitchen and refrigerator where we made 50 gallons of sauce for our lasagnas!
Yearbooks! Yearbooks! It’s that time of year to pre-purchase our awesome yearbooks! Purchase for $28 by September 30 and save! Price will go up after that date. Follow the link and order online this year with our school code 189029
LIVE LINK TO ORDER YEARBOOKS: https://www.shop.memorybook.com/school/189029assumptioncatholicschool/
We are continuously looking for Playground Angels and SCRIP sellers. We also have opportunities to assist with parish Coffee Hour after Mass each month. Please check the school website for sign-ups! https://school.assumption.org/parent-resources/current-volunteer-opportunities/
Our parish landscaping angel, Mrs. Jacobs, has been hard at work prepping the grounds for a visit from Archbishop Etienne in early October. She’d love to have some volunteers to help to pick up storm debris along the Virginia Street fence and with trimming by the alley to look our best for his visit! If you have some free time this Saturday (9/25), please contact the office for instructions by the end of the week.
If you’ve been hard at work serving our school community, be sure to log your volunteer hours! You must go to the Volunteer Portal, set up an account, and record your hours for tracking purposes. Here’s the link to get started! Volunteer Portal – Assumption Catholic School
Upcoming calendar items:
September 23rd– Individual Picture Day, Preschool & K-8
September 24th– Individual Picture Day, PreK
September 27th– Pizza Lunch!
October 5th– Feast of St. Francis, Blessing of the Animals starting at 8:15 am
October 15th– NO SCHOOL, Staff Retreat
October 19th to 22nd– Holy Hoops 4-on-4 Tournament for Grades 5-8 this week
October 20th– Early Release @ 11:45 am
October 26th– Picture retakes
