Dear Parents/Guardians,                                                       

Thank you for your continued partnership in our journey this year at SMSA.  Thank you for participating in Parent/Teacher conferences this week.  Building a relationship between parent, teacher and student has many benefits as we all work together to grow future leaders rooted in Christ’s teachings to meet global challenges of tomorrow.

As we travel through the school year, it will come with opportunities for us to pivot as we continue to navigate through Covid-19.   Thank you for understanding and trusting in the decisions to create the best outcome for SMSA to remain in person at its greatest capacity. 

Thank you Parent Connectors committee for organizing treats for the teachers during conferences, supporting the MS Halloween dance and leading Trunk or Treat.  Your love for our school is a true blessing.  You bring numerous smiles and bountiful joy. 

Thank you for your continued partnership with SMSA .  Together we will create a path for tomorrow’s children to achieve amazing dreams. 

God Bless,

Steven Kelnhofer

skelnhofer@smsacademy.org

Elementary Principal, SMSA

Catholic Social Responsibility Guidebook

Last week, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee released a new publication for school leaders, reinforcing Catholic Social Teachings and other key resources of the Church in light of their importance to Catholic education.  Specifically, this valuable new resource focuses on four main contemporary challenges and their relevance for Catholic schools today: culture, racism, civic participation for the common good, and economics. The Guidebook is designed to provide educators with clear guiding principles for Catholic social responsibility, Catholic theological resources that correspond to the four contemporary challenges, and alignment of Catholic Social Teachings to current Archdiocesan curriculum, policies, and accreditation standards.

In each age, the Church and its schools have responded to the signs of the times with a renewed proclamation of the Gospel, often adapted to the language and needs of the era.  Parents are invited to review this document, now uploaded to the SMSA Website.  The Catholic Social Responsibility Guidebook will provide all teachers with one stop shopping and the appropriate context for living out their vocation as educators in a Catholic school.  CatholicSocialResponsibilityGuidebookforCatholicSchoolsFinal9.22.21.pdf

First Lego League:  Below you will find a letter from Sany Schwoerer 

Hello from FIRST Lego League! 

I am Sandy Schwoerer, SMSA parent of a 5th and 6th grader.  I, along with my co-coach Mary Jo Rammer, started a new Lego League team of 5th and 6th graders. During this Lego League season, teams are given two missions: 1) build and program a robot to complete Lego missions, and 2) conduct research on a topic (this year’s topic is transportation), discover a problem that can be improved, and come up with an invention to help solve the problem.  

While Mary Jo and I are comfortable with research, we are not well versed in coding and programming.  We are looking for someone who might want to help the students in this area. The time commitment is flexible: anywhere from coming to one meeting, to coming to all our meetings.  Anyone looking to help may want to just be available to the students to answer questions and give suggestions on what they are working on, or teach them a specific skill that will help them in their mission. 

Anyone interested in learning about our team, our needs, and ways to help, please email sandyschwoerer@gmail.com.  

Thank you so much for considering this!

Sandy Schwoerer

Important Dates

October 14th – Parent Teacher Conferences

October 29th – Halloween classroom parties

October 29th – Halloween MS dance 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. in Baker gym

Standards Based Grading

The objective of the video series is to educate parents in short videos to unpack Standard Based Grading.  The series intends to deliver an education and mindshift to understand Standards Based Grading, why Standards Based Grading is best practice, and how Standards Based Grading functions with the parent and teacher supporting the student’s journey.

Please select the following six links to see the box set of SBG at SMSA.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC85kS-z_Mk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tecnwN4dXLU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7ejwOMhkAg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7jww2J7RJs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQO1AVjoMJ0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1jIyS7wso0

Today, October 14th from 2:30 to 7:30 p.m. and Friday, October 15th from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. are your last chances to shop in person for our Scholastic Book Fair and vote for your favorite pumpkin!

If you can’t make it to our book fair, you still can shop online until October 24th. Feel free to share this link with family members (great for holiday shopping!) as all orders ship directly to you! Just visit the homepage at: https://www.scholastic.com/bf/stmarysspringsacad and click on the shopping link.

Thank you for your support to help build our classroom libraries and stock our school library with more books!

All students in grades 6-8 are welcome to attend a Halloween Dance on Friday, October 29th from 4:00 to 6:00 pm. There is no admission, but please let your homeroom teacher know by Friday, October 22nd if you plan to attend. 

Bring your costumes to school and get ready for an evening of music, games, and pizza!  All students who attend are expected to stay until 6:00 p.m. unless a parent has contacted Christa Lewis at clewis@smsacademy.org or Lisa Holz at lholz@smsacademy.org to arrange plans.

We are excited to bring back this SPOOKY event!

Big Money Raffle – Blue And White That’s Right!

The new “Blue and White Big Money Raffle Tickets” have been distributed and are available for purchasing! Please be sure to throw away the pink tickets and only sell the blue and white BMR tickets for the January 14, 2022 drawing!

We appreciate your support in selling and/or purchasing the new blue and white tickets and returning them to school on or before Friday, January 14, 2022. Your participation is vital to the success of this fundraiser and reaching our goal of raising $100,000 for our school. We cannot wait to pull the $20,000 winning ticket on Friday, January 14, 2022 at noon.

Additional tickets may be purchased at the North, South and Scrip offices at SMSA or you can contact Kristin at kzitlow@smsacademy.org or 920-322-8006.

Trunk or Treat is back! We are very excited to celebrate Halloween with our SMSA family in a safe and fun way! Mark your calendars for Thursday, October 28th from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. This event will take place in the upper green parking lot. Students will dress up in their Halloween costumes and trick or treat to each car. Make sure to bring lots of candy and decorating your car is encouraged.

Click here to view the flyer.

Please watch for more information on this fun dress up day!

The Principal’s Pen is an opportunity for teachers to recognize students who consistently demonstrate The Ledger Way with a focus on faith, learning, respect for leadership, community and responsibility.  The students chosen will attend a special breakfast with Mr. K and Mr. Fisher, receives a certificate with a brief sentence on how they followed The Ledger Way, and a principal’s pen. 

The following students were honored at the Principal Pen’s breakfast this week:

Henry Kant – Grade 4 – Henry was recognized for his leadership.  He helps others when they need help and treats others with respect. 

Rudy Vanden Avond – Grade 4 – Rudy was recognized for his positive attitude.  He participates in class and is always kind to everyone. 

Isaac Schneider – Grade 4 – Isaac was recognized for his learning. He shows outstanding effort and determination during virtual learning.  He always tried his best and had an amazing attitude.

Click here to view their photo.

The Soles for Catholic Education Walk Spirit Wear Day was a huge success! In the total, the System raised $1,477. Your generosity, along with donations made by texting SOLES1252 to 71777 or by visiting our donation page through the Archdiocese, click here to visit, has helped us exceed our goal of raising $5,000. We are excited to receive our maximum match donation provided by generous Soles Walk supporters through the Archdiocese.

Visit our Facebook page this week to view pictures from our Spirit Wear Day and of our students walking during gym class to reach “The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception” in Washington, D.C.”

Click here to read the October Specials Newsletter.

None at this time.

No news at this time.

Would you like to get more involved as a parent at SMSA? On supply drop off day, you will be receiving a Parent Connectors Volunteer Form. Please fill out this form with the ways you would be interested in helping and return it to school by Friday, September 17th. You will then receive emails regarding upcoming events and ways to assist throughout the year. Thank you so much! We couldn’t do this without our amazing volunteers. If you have any questions, please reach out to Andrea Nuss, alnuss@charter.net.