September 5, 2013

Hello Notre Dame Families:

Welcome back to school!!!!!   Having the children return to school is like fireworks!!!  The building
comes alive and it puts a little extra spring in everyone's step. I anticipate that enrollment has grown to somewhere between 225 and 230 students (up 10% over last year).

  

As you return to school you should notice many improvements.  The "Hard Drive" campaign was a major success!!! (A major thank you goes to Alisa Conway and the fundraising team!!!)  ND was able to purchase new computers for both the elementary school lab and middle school lab (over 60 pc's and google net books).  Every classroom now has some form of advanced display technology (Smartboards, Elmos, Mimios). There are several phases under way (delivering fiber between both buildings and making both buildings completely wireless)! I will keep you posted. Thank you Michael Cuene, Jody Laehn, and the technology team for your efforts.

  

Another major improvement is the new web-site.  Stacy and David Richards (Burnham Richards) and their team did a fantastic job!! Way to go!!! We continue to focus on improving communication with our families.  The newsletter will be more focused on events (mostly academic/spiritual and some other) related to school that I think are important.  Links will be provided for other important events that will take you directly to our "new" awesome web-site so you can read more about those things that are of interest to you.

Click ND Website for information about the following items:

• Featured News: ND Family Golf Classic
• Featured News: Raiderwear on sale now through September 12
• Recent News: St. Mary & St. Francis Packer Party
• Recent News: New Youth Minister & Campus Ministry Room  
• Recent News: Virtus Training (Required for all volunteers)  
• Recent News: NDA Dance Team Clinic 

  

This year ND purchased new language arts text books for fourth through eighth grade (Thank you to Jessica McCarthy, Terri Martin, Carrie Weiss, Nancy Welch, and Bonnie Blaylock for working on this team) Last year, in grades K through three we rolled out phonics "Fundations" (which obviously makes sounding out words fun and helps with spelling, we also have silly words that cannot be sounded out ie. who, what, and where.)  In Math, two years ago ND purchased a new middle school math series. Last year we purchased Math Expressions for grades K through 1.  This year we are extending Math Expressions into grades 2 through 5. Both the the math series and language arts series have complete on-line versions with turtorials.   We continue to look at upgrades that offer the quality, state of the art and rigorous education your children deserve with religion being taught that delivers Catholic values across the curriculum.

  

Parking:  Please be very careful with drop off and pick up of your children.  We had a close call this week and the two to three extra minutes it takes to make sure our children are safe are worth it!  Also please do not use the Great Harvest parking lot for school.  Great Harvest gives us "free" cookies sometimes and we would like to be good neighbors.

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