Learning, Loving, and Leading through Christ | |
Follow Us on Social Media! | |
|
|
Dear St. Alphonsus Families,
We hope you have been having a great summer! There's still lots of time left to enjoy the sunnier, longer days and time with your families.
We have been hard at work all summer getting ready for the new school year, so we wanted to send you this quick newsletter with some updates & tips when it's time for you get ready for back to school. Please also make plans to stop by the Greendale Farmers Market on Saturday, August 17 and again on Saturday, September 28, as St. Alphonsus will have a booth! We also had a booth in July and it was great fun to be out in the community talking about our school.
Some quick notes from the Leadership Team specifically:
The office will reopen for the fall on August 12. Hours at the beginning will be limited, so please call ahead before stopping in.
Second, a reminder that our emails have changed! Well, just slightly. ALL staff emails are now first initial last name @st-alphonsus.org. So, for example, Ms. Parey's email is no longer taimi@st-alphonsus.org; it is tparey@st-alphonsus.org. Not to worry if you forget this, however--our old emails are still forwarding to our inboxes, but this is the email nomenclature we will use going forward so it will be easy for you to get ahold of your child's teachers.
As we mentioned in late June, we are excited to be fully staffed for the upcoming school year! Our new teachers will share their bios & photos with you in early August.
We will start to email you information for the new school year in the beginning of August. This includes things like Cougar Club Calendars, enrollment paperwork, etc., but be sure to check out information about things like uniforms & school supplies below!
Have a great rest of your summer and we will be back in your inboxes in early August!
Best regards,
Ms. Parey, Principal
Mrs. Schermetzler & Mrs. Bruhn, Leadership Team
| |
Dress Code Updates: Our New School Store is Now Open!
We are so pleased to be able to offer you a new online school store! Here, you will find everything from uniform shirts to spiritwear and more. All the items listed in our school store are uniform-code approved, but we have two important notes.
First, for Mass this year, we will be wearing embroidered sky blue polos. ALL students in grades K-8 must purchase a mass polo. You have a couple of different sizing options, but the mass polo MUST be the sky blue color and will be worn every Wednesday in lieu of unity shirts. This was discussed more in our 2024-2025 school year plan released last spring.
Second, for grades 5-8, a gym uniform is also required. Only one gym uniform purchase is required, but students will be required to wear the uniform each time they have gym. You may purchase as many as you'd like for your student to be able to wear the uniform to gym class each time they have it. In addition, the store also offers a cute drawstring bag which many of our students like to use to carry their gym uniforms!
You will find both of these required uniform pieces in the Required section at the top of the school store.
Other school store notes: we will still have Unity shirts! They are just not going to be worn during mass. Unity shirts and uniform bottoms will be worn on MONDAYS and will also be used for special all-school events throughout the year. As in the past, school will provide one unity shirt for each student. You may order additional shirts through the link in our school store.
Please click this link to give us your child's size for Unity Shirts. Unity shirt sizes must be entered by August 1.
Last but not least--the best part! Anything you order from the store between now and August 8 will be available for you to pickup at our Meet & Greet Night on August 22. The store has a fast turnaround and will be open all year. Orders will turn around within two weeks and always be dropped off at school for you to get. St. Alphonsus Catholic School will also get $1-$2 per item for anything you purchase from the school store (except on the required items) so it's an easy way for you to support our school!
Please note that the rest of our dress code is NOT changing. You can continue to order khakis & pants, shirts, etc. in our regular colors. We will have an updated Family Handbook for all families in August, but you can see our dress code in our current family handbook here!
(P.S. I know no one wants to think about snow, but these tote bags were added to the store specifically for how great they are for toting snow gear! They are big bags that hold boots, snowpants, hats & mittens perfectly!)
| | | |
School Supply Lists Are Now Available!
School supply lists are also now available on our website here. Please note that the brand names listed are just suggestions; you may purchase generic items as well.
| | | |
Important Dates to Remember | |
|
08/07
Summer Dine Out Night
Cousins Subs
Details Below
08/22
Meet & Greet Night
School Pictures, Drop Off Supplies, Meet Your Teachers & More!
3-5pm
08/26
First Day of School - THIS IS A FULL DAY
Regular School Dismissal at 3:00pm
08/30
Early Dismissal
11:30am
09/02
No School
Labor Day
| |
Gateway Organization Milwaukee is again offering band and orchestra lessons at St. Alphonsus this year!
Students in grades 3-8 are eligible for Orchestra. Students in grades 4-8 are eligible for Band.
The registration timeline is as follows:
- Signups for band/orchestra lessons will open August 1 and close September 4.
- Scholarship applications will open August 1 and close September 6.
- Lessons will tentatively begin the week of September 16-20.
You can get more information from the flyer above or check out their website here.
| | | |
Fall Extracurricular Registrations Now Open
Some of our most beloved extracurriculars are now open for registration! Check out the information for Chess Club, Coding Club, and STEAM Club below.
You can click on this link to register.
| | | |
Battle of the Books List: Out Now! | |
|
Battle of the Books is a lively academic competition that improves reading comprehension, builds vocabulary, introduces students to new books & authors, and teaches teamwork, commitment, & sportsmanship.
The program culminates in a tournament in April with other area Catholic Schools.
How It Works
Teams of three students each from Grades 4, 5, and 6 read 45 pre-assigned books (15 books each) from October-March. Titles are from varying genres with a wide range of reading levels and subjects.
Teams will gather after school once or twice a month starting in the fall for practice battles and to determine St. Alphonsus School’s Tournament Champs (one team per grade level). The Tournament Champs will go to the program-wide tournament in April.
Next year, St. Alphonsus School is HOSTING the tournament, so it is a great time for your students to join!
The pre-approved list of Battle books for the 2024-2025 school year can now be released. You can find a copy of it here.
We will have more details about how to sign-up for the program in the fall.
| |
Thanks for Attending the Milwaukee Milkmen Game! | |
St. Alphonsus had a fantastic time at the Milwaukee Milkmen Game! It was great to see everyone and raise a little money for our school through the 50/50 raffle and ball toss. Thank you to all of our volunteers and helpers who made this night such a success, including Home & School President Tricia Williams who threw out a beautiful first pitch. | |
|
Get ready to sign up for SCRIP!
SCRIP is an easy way to earn money for our school and tuition credit for yourself! We are excited to again be offering SCRIP for the 2024-2025 School Year. We will have more information in our family packets during Meet & Greet Night, including a new sign-up code!
Until then, check out this testimonial from a school family:
Hello St. Alphonsus Family and Friends,
I would like to share how our family was easily able to raise hundreds of dollars for our school and for tuition reimbursement for our kids' education here at St. Alphonsus. Last fall at Back to School night, I heard the SCRIP presentation and thought that it seemed like a good idea to really delve into the program. So, I did! I downloaded the app, asked Vickie Major some questions, and off I went. Our experience has been really great. We use a combination of physical gift cards and e-gift cards. We started by using them for purchases at Pick 'N Save, Woodman's and Kwik Trip. Then I started paying attention to all the retailers that we could buy gift cards from and now whenever we have the opportunity to use one, we do! All our favorite retailers are available: Target, Walgreens, Home Depot, Starbucks, Children's Place, TJMaxx, Panera, Qdoba, etc. It's great when Kwik Trip runs bonuses of 7% on gas or 15% on groceries, or even better is the 19% bonus Bath and Body Works!
What I really love about the program is that the app is super convenient, and allows us to buy gift cards whenever we need them. We have access to them instantly and they are all in one place. There are hundreds of retailers for almost any spending category available. The very best thing about this Scrip opportunity is that it doesn't require us to buy anything we are not interested in. We literally have the freedom to spend our money on exactly what we want to. All of the purchases have added up and we are so happy to report that our family alone has raised more than $650. You can, too! Join us!
| |
|
Signing up for SCRIP is easy! Stop by the SCRIP table when you see it after Mass, or use the app!
We will have a new enrollment code in August! You can also check out our Enrollment Forms and FAQ on our school website. If you would like to order via paper order form, you can find that here.
Any questions, please call or email our SCRIP coordinator, Vickie Major at 414-704-0526 or via email here.
| | | |
Calling All Fun Run Sponsors!
Our only fall fundraiser—the Fun Run—will be back this October! In order to make this Fun Run the best one yet, we need your help getting T-shirt sponsors this summer. There are four levels of sponsorship: $100, $250, $500 and $750. All sponsors receive their logo on the official Fun Run T-shirt and recognition in the weekly school newsletter throughout the fall.
Sponsors can be the company you or a family member works for, or a local business that you frequent. Not sure about making the ask yourself? Send us your ideas and we’ll do the legwork!
Please contact Olivia Hartley with your donations and ideas, and thank you in advance for your support!
| | | |
|
Mark your Calendars for our last Summer Dine Out Night at Cousins Subs!
Be sure you mark your calendars for our last Summer Dine Out Night at Cousins Subs on
Wednesday, August 7th.
Dine in or carry out from 3:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Franklin location, 7700 S. Lovers Lane Road. 20% of the sales will go to support St. Alphonsus. Save your receipts from each of these summer Dine Out Nights and there will be special out of uniform days at the beginning of next school year.
Thank you for all the support of this year's Dine Out Nights!
| |
Parish & Community Updates | |
|
National Eucharistic Pilgrimage Visits St. Al's & Greendale
The National Eucharistic Pilgrimage has been making its way across the country, and in June it made a stop in Greendale via St. Al's!
You can learn more about the Pilgrimage here.
One participant from St. Al's said, "I cannot tell you what an amazing experience this was! It was so moving to see the bystanders along the way literally stopping to kneel in front of our Lord as we walked by. I'm so grateful that we got to witness and be a part of this unique journey across America."
We hope you enjoy some of the photos of this amazing event as it stopped here at St. Alphonsus and wound its way through Greendale!
| |
|
St. Al's Youth Ministry Kickball Thursdays
Are you going into Grades 6-8? Want a good game of kickball? Want some ice cream?
Want to grow closer to Jesus while combining kickball and ice cream (well, not at the same time, that would be dangerous)?
Kickball games have been happening on Thursdays for kids in grades 6-8 from 6-7:15 in the St. Al's parking lot. Keep an eye on parking lot construction, however. We will try to play a game yet this week, but as the parking lot gets worked on we will have to postpone, so keep an eye on the St. Al's Facebook page for more information!
| |
|
Do you have items for the newsletter? To submit them or for questions and submission guidelines, please contact Amy Schermetzler.
Please note that submissions are due by 12:00pm Fridays.
| | | | |
