What a past seven days! 

Some years we have zero "snow days" and bemoan our wimpy winter weather in the Ohio Valley. And then we go through brutal snaps like recently where we learn useful new phrases like "Polar Vortex". However you slice it, I think last Friday was St. Francis at its best.

We were victims of bad timing as the snow moved in after our buses were rolling, and the weather was worse than predicted. I'm sure my "story" is no different than many of yours as it took me 80 minutes to get to school from southern Indiana. What struck me most was just how positive the vast majority of our parents and teachers were towards our communal predicament. I went out for carpool (such as it was!) and parent after parent offered encouragement and words of understanding towards the "no-win" decisions we are forced to make. On top of that, several parents offered to stick around and "sub" for teachers who were still struggling to get to school. But, as usual, our faculty stepped up for each other, volunteered to do carpool duty, and made sure the kids had as normal as day as possible after the unsettling start.

It somehow seemed fitting that later that day we had our annual Martin Luther King, Jr. assembly to remind our students about the accomplishments of this great man. We listened to a song from Ms. Aberle and our 3rd graders, heard the "Dreams" of our 2nd graders, saw pictures from the "Jim Crow" era vividly illustrating the lack of equal rights and divide between the races, heard a five-minute clip of the "I Have A Dream" speech, and ended with students singing "We Shall Overcome" on stage. I am sure students of all ages left the assembly understanding why we had a day off on Monday. In fact, I heard that one Lower School student remarked after the assembly, "No wonder we came to school today."

And then this week, we got hit with "Round Two". Again, worse than forecast conditions (except we had a little more warning!). We are now up to four days of school missed, and we want you to know we are very aware of instructional time. If one views "snow days" as an aggregate average, we probably come in around 1.5 days missed a year (very unscientific, mind you, but we have had several years with no missed days in recent memory). Also, by moving from 34 to 35 class periods a week this year without taking anything else away from the schedule, we in effect, added five days of instructional time to our calendar. We added a few days, in addition. Our instructional day, from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., is also longer than many other schools.

Additionally, we were toying with the idea of having only one March parent-teacher conference day rather than two as in the fall. After our December days missed due to poor weather, we went ahead with that decision, thus gaining another day back. Elsewhere in this newsletter, you'll see the main dates for 2014-15 - we've added even more instructional days to the calendar!

So, take the kids sledding, enjoy some hot chocolate, but know we're keeping a close eye on instructional time all year round!

GET YOUR TICKETS TODAY for this fiery event!

Get your tickets now to join us on Friday, January 31, at 6:30 p.m. at the Henry Clay for this year's Imagine! Art Auction and Scholarship Fundraiser.

100% of the funds raised go directly toward the School's need-based scholarships.
Click IMAGINE! to get your tickets, preview the art, make a donation, and even purchase a VIP raffle ticket. MONDAY IS THE FINAL DAY TO GET YOUR TICKETS.

Only 25 tickets will be sold for a chance to win a week at the Maison Rose, an incredible French villa.  We sold out last year, so get yours now!

And we still need a few live auction items and some volunteers for the event.
So if you have any travel destinations or tickets to great events you are willing to part with OR if you have some time you can donate on Wednesday (1/29), Thursday (1/30), or Friday (1/31), please email Emily ASAP. Thank you! 

Before the Holiday Break, our 4th graders dedicated a day to raising money for Water for Children Africa by conducting a
Read-a-Thon.  We are happy to say that our Read-a-Thon was a huge success! 

The students raised over $1,200, which is more than enough to purchase a water tank for a village in Africa. They are thrilled! 

The extra money will be put towards drilling a well or repairing existing pumps. Congratulations to the kids, and thank you to the parents for helping make it happen!  

Last week we were fortunate to have Vickie Butcher, Executive Director of Water for Children Africa, come and speak to us about the organization and what they do in Africa. The kids were inspired by her presentation.