Principal Post

Dear Parents,

The students, faculty and staff are excited to celebrate Catholic Schools Week next week! We have fun activities planned to start this Sunday with our Open House and Book Fair! A schedule is going home today K-8 in the Wednesday Folder and is included with Mrs. Boche’s weekly announcements.

This is one of my longer emails. Please take time to look all the way through it. There is a lot of important information about Round Ups, ESAs, and PowerSchool access for parents.

Spruce Up the School Appreciation

Thank you to Alise Haut and Emily Coryn for heading up our Spruce Up the School Day. Many thanks as well to the parents and students who made our classrooms sparkle! For those who help with this volunteer opportunity, the Out of Uniform Day is this Friday.

Returning Students for the 2024-2025 School Year – Date Change

Due to school cancellations and some needed updates to our registration system, we will begin re-enrollment for current students entering 1^st -8^th grade on February 1^st. This process will be very simple. You will log into your PowerSchool account and update your child’s information. Completing this will generate a notification to the school that you are planning to have your child return for the 2024-2025 school year. A link and information will be sent out next week.

St. Paul the Apostle Feast Day and Celebrate St. Paul’s

• The Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul - We will be having a special parish Mass on Thursday, January 25, at 5:30 PM to celebrate The Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, our parish patron saint. Dr Jacob Banks, our choir director, would like input from the parish on song selections for the Mass. Please go to the following Google Form to cast your votes. https://forms.gle/rj44GNRe96nhR1cB6
• Celebrate St. Paul’s - Mark your calendar for Saturday, January 27 for an evening of friends and fun here at St. Paul’s! As we approach the feast day of our patron saint, we thought it would be a great time to throw a party! It’s an open adult social in Denning Hall with pizza, light beer, and a feature cocktail. People are welcome to BYOB if you have something special, you’d like to enjoy. We’ll have an interactive DJ playing music, so bring your dancing shoes and your phone to download the app and play along. Plan to join this celebration of our wonderful community!

ESAs for the 2024-2025 School Year

Just to keep families in the loop, we have been informed that the application for the ESA’s (Educational Savings Accounts) for the 2024-2025 school year will be available in April. All families, whether applying for the first time, or those receiving the ESA for the 2023-2024 school year must apply each year. When the link for the application is available, we will be sending it out.

Who will qualify for the 2024-2025 year:

• All incoming Kindergarten students.
• All students who qualified for the 2023-2024 school year.
• New students transferring to St. Paul’s from a public school, homeschool or out of state.
•  Students whose families have an income level of 400% of poverty or below.

Preschool and Kindergarten Round Up

• Preschool Round Up – Wednesday, February 14: Families with students eligible for these programs will be receiving information in the mail in the next week.
•  Kindergarten Round Up – Tuesday, February 20, 6:00 – 7:30 PM. Parent meeting and registration. Kindergarten Student Assessments will be held on Friday, May 3. 2024.
• For more information, please contact the school office at (563) 322-2923 or email Julie.Delaney@st-paul.pvt.k12.ia.us

PowerSchool and Your Child’s Grades

Working as a team is the best way to help your child be successful at school. A wonderful tool for you to participate in your child’s education is the access you have to your child’s grades through PowerSchool. Teachers update the assignments weekly. By checking your child’s grades in PowerSchool on a regular basis, there should be no surprises for you as a parent when report cards come out. PowerSchool is the tool we are using as a school to keep you informed on your child’s progress. If you don’t know how to access your family’s PowerSchool, please contact Katee Bates at Katee.Bates@st-paul.pvt.k12.ia.us.

Report Cards

• Your child’s report card shows two levels of information for each course about their progress.
• There is an overall course grade. Depending on the grade level it be with an Exceeds, Meets, and so on, or an A, B, C and so on. This is the overall course grade that parents are traditionally used to seeing.
• Under each course heading and course grade, there is a series of learning standards listed. Each of these standards also shows a grade. This grade indicates your child’s mastery of a specific learning standard. The purpose of this type of grading is to give you a better picture of how your child is progressing in their learning of specific material.
• It is very possible for a child to have an “Meets” in Mathematics for a course grade, and when looking at the standards, they could have an “Exceeds” in Mathematical Thinking and Reasoning, a “Meets” in Number Operations and Fractions and a “Meets” in Operations and Algebraic Thinking. This tells you as a parent that your child is strong in Mathematical Thinking and are exactly where they should be in the other two areas.
• With our grading system in K-5, a “Meets” equates to your child progressing just as they should as a student and is not a cause for concern.
• The same holds for our 6-8^th grade students. They can have an “A” in Mathematics but have standards that are graded lower. That indicates that a specific standard is an area that your child still has some learning that needs to take place to get them to mastery.

 When looking at your child’s PowerSchool grade book, please contact teachers right away if you see something you don’t understand.

Early Outs, Days Off and Fun Events

January 25 – Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, Mass at 5:30 PM

January 27 – Celebrate St. Paul’s Adult Social in Denning Hall, more details to come

January 28 – Catholic Schools Week Open House and Boy Scout Pancake Breakfast

January 29 – February 2 Catholic Schools Week Celebration Activities

Not New, but Important

ESA Families 2^nd Semester Funding and Payments

ESA funding for 2nd semester is now available. The process to initiate funding is like 1^st semester.   

School action:

• SCCS will review tuition and fees for all current students and adjust the amount to be charged for 2^nd semester, if necessary. 
• In some cases, SCCS may add band, algebra, and/or sport fees, as well as PSAT and/or AP test fees. (These options were not available 1^st semester.) 

Parent/Guardian action:

• Odyssey will automatically notify you that an invoice is available to review
• Review the invoice at Odyssey. If you have questions, please contact Bobbie Goetsch at (studentaccounts@sccsiowa.com or 563-326-5313 ext. 282) 
• To maintain ESA eligibility, approve payment through Odyssey https://iowa.withodyssey.com/ soon as possible. Our goal is to have 100% of our families accept 2^nd semester tuition and fees by January 10th. 

Julie C. Delaney, PhD

Principal

St. Paul the Apostle Catholic School

1007 E.Rusholme

Davenport, IA  52803
563-322-2923

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 

 in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." 

  Proverbs 3:5-6