Oh What A Homecoming!

A hearty thank you to all parents, alumni, faculty, staff, coaches and students who dove headfirst into making Homecoming Week on the Ledge very special this year!  The shortened week for students was loaded with special afternoon assemblies that occurred in Hutter Gym and on our new turf field.  With so many hands helping, Homecoming festivities last week really allowed the Springs community to shine.  On Saturday, the varsity football game was the “icing” on our spirited week, as we were able to showcase our beautiful campus in an inspiring new way by hosting alumni and families and even visitors from Omro!  There are too many awesome servant leaders to thank, so please accept my sincere general gratitude for making Homecoming 2021 one to remember for the ages…and for all the right reasons! Go Ledgers!

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

Type 2 Fish Farm Permit

Thanks to science teacher, Mr. Greg Zimmer, the St. Mary’s Springs Environmental Science classes will be doing experiments with live fish in a 55 gallon aquarium this school year now that we received our Type 2 Fish Farm Permit.  The permit will allow the classes to raise either brook trout, brown trout or rainbow trout from egg stage to 3 inches in length.  Water quality experiments will be performed while the trout grow. The plan is to raise Brook Trout as part of the (Trout Unlimited) Trout in the Classroom program. However, this is subject to the availability of trout eggs this fall. If we are unable to get trout eggs this fall, the permit allows us to keep bluegills in the tank instead of trout.

Whether trout or bluegills, we are grateful to Mr. Zimmer and the Natural Science department  for their enthusiastic vision and execution of this plan to advance learning opportunities for our students on the Ledge. 

Our Lady of the Ledge, pray for us! 

Friday, October 15th – Freshman Retreat Day at Camp Vista

Tuesday, October 19th – ACT Test for seniors only

The Music Department’s Fall Concert will take place on Wednesday, October 20th at 7:00 p.m. at Holy Family Church. This concert will feature: The Concert Choirs, The Concert Band, The Jazz Band, and The Vocal Jazz Ensembles.

All those interested in playing High school hockey for the 21/22 season, please mark your calendar for the Player/Parent meeting which will be held on Wednesday, October 27th from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. in Korbie Commons (SMSA Cafeteria).

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.

The deadline to order a 2022 yearbook will be December 1, 2021. Prices will be $50 before the deadline and $65 for any payments after December 1 until April 15th, then they will end. To order, visit SMSA’s website homepage, scroll down to the bottom where you will see a “yearbook” banner. From there, the banner will redirect you to Walsworth where you can order a yearbook, and for senior parents, order a personal ad.

This year we will be using “yearbook snap,” an app that allows students and parents to submit photos from the year. After downloading the app from Google play or the App Store, select Saint Mary’s Springs Academy as your school and use this access code-SMSA2022. You will then be ready to submit photos from your camera roll!

“Sick” In 2021

As always (but especially in these times) when students are not feeling well, parents are expected to keep them home from school.  If feeling sickly or ill but intending/likely to return to school within a day or two, students are coded as “Ill” in Skyward attendance for each day missing – just like in pre-pandemic times.  In these cases, students will NOT have access to synchronous (live) virtual learning.  Students can, however, keep current with assignments and class expectations asynchronously through the Google Classroom of each teacher/course.   Students may apply to be  live virtual learners (see below) but each approved virtual learner will be coded as such for a minimum of one full week of school (5 school days). 

Virtual Learning Applications

A change from last year is that parents may not spontaneously (day-to-day) declare students as virtual learners.  Students who are in-person learners (undeclared virtual learners) shall be marked absent on any school days when they are not present in-person, similar to attendance practices prior to the pandemic. Students who are home ill for a day can expect to keep up with classroom expectations via Google Classroom, but not as live/ synchronous virtual learners. As has been previously communicated, in 2021-22, all requests for the virtual learning option must be approved by the administration. The application form can be obtained at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSftkx27Emt5Q-qucO24SqctLwIbgh4_sVlklRrglJ5O280L_w/viewform   or by contacting Mrs. Amy Pickart at apickart@smsacademy.org. 

Soles Walk 2021 – Drum Roll Please…

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.”

A “hot topic” in many of my college planning meetings is paying for college. That’s to be expected; college costs a lot of money. Inevitably, the conversation turns to scholarship money; specifically, where to find it and how to get it.

I’m not joking when I say that colleges will pay students to attend their institutions! The first (and best) place students should begin looking for scholarship dollars is from the colleges they apply to. Many schools will award students automatic merit scholarships based solely on their cumulative GPAs and composite ACT scores. For example, a student with a 3.40 cumulative GPA and a 24 composite ACT score can receive $18,500 per year from Rockhurst University. That same student can receive $13,000 per year from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Additionally, both schools offer additional scholarships that students can apply for to receive additional funding. Examples include Rockhurst’s Finucane Service Award of $1,500 per year for students that demonstrate a strong record of community service and Nebraska’s Chancellor’s Leadership Class Scholarship of $1,000 (non-renewable) that’s awarded to students who’ve demonstrated passion for leadership and involvement in activities during high school.

If paying for college is a big issue, financial need or not, start by jumping on colleges’ admission websites and doing some research about the types of scholarships they award, noting any special criteria to receive those awards, and whether they’re automatically awarded (with or without meeting certain criteria) or if there are competitive application processes involved.

Local, state, and national scholarships should be pursued to supplement school-specific awards. This is because:

• These awards are rarely awarded automatically to students. These awards involve competition with other students. Local scholarships may be easier to receive than larger, national scholarships because the applicant pool for local scholarships is generally smaller.

• These awards are rarely large. Scholarships of $500-$2,500 are common for local and state awards. National scholarship amounts can be larger, but as I mentioned above, the competition for those dollars is more intense.

• These awards, specifically local awards, may not always be renewable for all four years where scholarships awarded by schools often are.

• These awards often take a student’s financial need into consideration in the application process. As such, they’ll ask that some basic financial information from the student’s family be provided with an application to determine whether or not the scholarship dollars are going to students from families with limited financial means.

There’s lots to consider when looking for scholarship money and a lot of places to look. I’m always happy to have conversations about the “how’s” and “why’s” of scholarships!

Qapla’!

Mr. Stamatakos

Coordinator of College & Career Planning

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Join The Pizza Ranch Team

If you, or a friend, are interested in applying for a position at Pizza Ranch Fond du Lac, please go to www.pizzaranch.com/careers to apply.  Our management team will contact you for an interview.

Pizza Ranch Fond du Lac is offering:

• Competitive Pay
• Great Team
• Scholarship Opportunities
• Fun Work Environment
• Flexible Schedule 
• Free Food!!

Pizza Ranch Fond du Lac:  920-929-8800

Boys and Girls Club

The Fond du Lac Boys and Girls Club is hiring.  Please click here to view their flyer.  Please click here to view their video.

Blanck’s Lake Aire

Blanck’s Lake Aire Supper Club is looking to hire:

• 14 or older
• nights and weekends (willing to work w/school schedules & sports)
• Part-Time (2-4 nights a week)
• Employee Benefits
• Starting bonus after 3 weeks

Please click here to view their flyer.

Festival Foods

Click here to view our flyer.

Red Cabin at Green Acres

We are looking for full and part time positions and are willing to work around your schedule with school, sports, family and church.  We are doing a hiring incentive. $100.00 to the person hired, after being with us for 30 days.  Click here to view our flyer or call and ask for Sara or Kathy at 920-906-9110.

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