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Archdiocese of Hartford |
August 1, 2013 |
Office of Catholic Schools e-Newsletter |
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Stay Connected
 
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Greetings!
Please enjoy the August issue of Vision published by the Office of Catholic Schools, Archdiocese of Hartford. For more information about Catholic schools, please visit our website: Office of Catholic Schools. You may stay connected to us on Facebook and Twitter.
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Welcome to the 2013-2014 school year, as we embark on a new look for Vision. This monthly newsletter is a vehicle to communicate with constituents our shared interests as a way to educate, inform, and encourage. We invite you to forward this electronic newsletter to other interested parties so they, too, can subscribe to Vision.
Educating the mind, heart, and soul is the core of Catholic education. With a strong purpose and vision, supported by a ministerial plan, 20/20 Vision: An Eye on Our Future, the Catholic school becomes the vehicle for students to experience excellent formation in faith, as well as the development of their God-given talents for academic achievement. Through the formation of community, the Catholic school is the impetus for students to participate in faith-in-action for social justice, to celebrate God's love through the sacraments, and to foster opportunities for living the Gospel values. Through the strong leadership of priests, the dedication of consecrated religious, lay educators, and school board members, students in Catholic schools become lifelong learners who value education, while being prepared as productive, virtuous citizens who will fashion a more humane and just world.
Essential to the Catholic school experience is the passion and dedication of the Catholic school educator. The profile of the educator is one who is well-versed in the Catholic intellectual tradition; a sincerely reflective thinker who may challenge the Church, but is never without the Church; and a lifelong learner who consistently engages in the most relevant professional development to support effective teaching and learning. Ultimately a great Catholic school educator is one who a student remembers and cherishes for a lifetime. These educators have a long-lasting impact on the lives of their students, and the greatest Catholic educator inspires students toward greatness, service, and a profound love of God.
As this new school year begins, may you have the grace to be an authentic witness to faith in Jesus Christ.
Dale R. Hoyt, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Catholic Schools
Archdiocese of Hartford
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Welcome to Katherin Sniffin, who was appointed by Rev. Gerald H. Dziedzic as Principal of St. Joseph School, Meriden.
Welcome Mary Roberts, Director of the Connecticut Federation of Catholic School Parents.
Congratulations
Congratulations to Joseph Bechard and Artur Zielinski, eighth grade students at Sacred Heart School, New Britain, who were awarded first place in their grade division of the eesmarts Student Contest recently held at the State Capitol building in Hartford. The eesmarts Student Contest, part of the Energize Connecticut initiative, invites students in grades K-12 from across Connecticut to enhance their skills in science, writing and technology. Now in its ninth year, the 2013 eesmarts Student Contest drew over 1000 entries.
 Congratulations to Makayla Naranjo, a seventh grade student at St. Mary - St. Michael School, Derby, who won the 2012 Family Day Poster Contest, sponsored by the Office of Catholic Schools as part of the Archdiocesan-wide effort to promote "Family Meal Day". An iPod will be presented to Makayla in September.
Congratulations to St. Dominic School, Southington, for hosting a benefit pasta dinner for Dominic Ranieri (Class of 2012). Over 250 people attended the event. St. Thomas School supported their neighbors by sponsoring a dress down day. Together, the two Catholic schools and churches in town raised $10,000 for the family. Please keep Dominic and his family in your prayers.
Prayer Requests
Please pray for Sr. Patricia Barry of the Sisters of Mercy, who entered eternal life on Saturday, June 22, 2013. She was dedicated to Catholic education for more than 50 years; positions held included the Associate Director and Deputy Director of the Commission on Independent Schools in the New England Association of Schools and Colleges for the past 16 years, Regional Director of Elementary Schools for the Archdiocese of Boston, Superintendent of Schools, Diocese of Norwich, and principal and teacher. May the soul of Sr. Patricia Barry, rest in peace!
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 Mission Formation and Evangelization |
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On June 28, 2013, Pope Francis released his first encyclical, Lumen Fidei (The Light of Faith). Educators are encouraged to read this encyclical as part of their faith formation. The Archdiocese of Hartford provides many resources during the Year of Faith, which will conclude on November 24, 2013.
Fun in Faith Contest: Celebrate the Year of Faith by encouraging students to express, in written or visual format, how living their faith is fun and enjoyable for them. Entries are due on September 30 and will be welcomed from four different grade levels. The contest is in partnership between the Office of Catholic Schools and The Catholic Transcript. Information regarding the contest including prizes will be forthcoming.
Adult Faith Formation: Registration for Cycle 6, September 1 through October 5, is open now until August 28. Specific information on site-based courses will be sent out to the administrators by email shortly. Participants may access the Virtual Learning Community for Faith Formation at the University of Dayton.
Adult Faith Formation for Catholic School Leaders: The final presentation (rescheduled due to weather from March 7) by Joan Kelly, Ph.D. on Our Catholic Heritage: Cherishing Roots is scheduled for Monday, September 30, 2013 at the Archdiocesan Center. A hot breakfast will be served at 8:30 a.m. The presentation will begin at 9:00 and end at 12:00 noon. Please RSVP to Gayle Keene by September 13, 2013.
Archdiocese of Hartford Sponsored Pilgrimages: During this Year of Faith, pilgrimages are being held on August 26 to the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy and October 23-25 to Catholic Shrines in America. Please pass this information on to school constituents who may be interested in attending either of these pilgrimages.
Catechetical Sunday: "The Church will celebrate Catechetical Sunday on September 15, 2013, and will focus on the theme Open the Door of Faith. Those whom the community has designated to serve as catechists will be called forth to be commissioned for their ministry. Catechetical Sunday is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the role that each person plays, by virtue of Baptism, in handing on the faith and being a witness to the Gospel. Catechetical Sunday is an opportunity for all to rededicate themselves to this mission as a community of faith" (USCCB).
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| Leadership and Governance |
Convocation 2013 with Reverend Joseph O'Keefe, S.J., Ed.D.
Administrators in the network of Catholic schools will gather at Water's Edge for the annual Convocation on August 12 and 13. This year's theme, in support of the Year of Faith, calls Catholic school leaders to re-awaken their faith.
Father O'Keefe holds degrees from the College of the Holy Cross, Fordham University, Weston School of Theology, and Harvard and currently serves on the staff at Boston College. Last school year, Father O'Keefe was a presenter and facilitator at the 2012 Educational Forum for the Archdiocese of Hartford and delivered insights and best practices on Leadership and Governance. Registration and social begin at 8:00 a.m. on August 12 and the Convocation begins promptly at 9:00 a.m. We are grateful to SMART Tuition and Catapult Learning for sponsoring the Convocation.
School Board In-Service: Pastors, secondary and elementary school administrators, and their board members are invited to join us on Wednesday, September 4, 2013, between 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at Corpus Christi School, Wethersfield. Table conversations will involve The Leadership Manual; committee structure; term limits; and conflicts of interest. Any school registered by August 2, 2013 and in attendance, represented by the pastor, administrator/principal, new board member, board chair, or committee member-at-large, will receive a very special gift for the school from the Office of Catholic Schools.
School Board TIPS: School boards should be publicly commissioned or installed as they begin work at the start of the school year. Schools should have a designated page on their website listing the names of board members and goals for each standing committee. The Boards and Council Department of the National Catholic Educational Association provides resources for local school boards.
UPDATE: Administratrors can expect weekly updates from the Superintendent of Catholic Schools regarding events, due dates, and other information not covered in Vision. The due dates section has now been removed from Vision.
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| Excellence in Teaching and Learning |
New Teacher Orientation 2013: All newly employed teachers, religious and lay, are required to participate in an orientation program sponsored by the Office of Catholic Schools (Policy 3.401). We are grateful to St. Timothy Middle School, West Hartford, for hosting this two-day orientation for new teachers on August 19 and 20, 2013. Administrators are asked to send in the Notification of Personnel Hired Form to ensure the approved candidate list is current and updated, and to ensure that information is sent to new hires regarding details of the New Teacher Orientation. For more information, please contact Val Mara.
Archdiocesan Curriculum Commission: Applications are now being accepted for elementary and middle school teachers who hold master's degrees and have a desire to form curriculum design and instruction, and have a voice in curricular decisions in the Archdiocese. The application can be found on the Administrators' Login of the Office of Catholic Schools' website. Application deadline is September 13, 2013.
School Community Communication System, SchoolReach: As planning for the new school year is under way, this is a great time to consider adding or updating programs to your school parent communications and overall school safety and preparedness measures. SchoolReach is a partner of the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA), and is a leading rapid notification provider for Catholic schools, utilized in approximately 50% of the schools within the Archdiocese of Hartford. SchoolReach is offering elementary and high schools in the Archdiocese an introductory offer of two months free. Whether for school cancellation announcements, changes in events, or to announce a lockdown, SchoolReach enables schools to reach parents instantly and affordably. For details, reply to vconrad@schoolreach.com.
 August's Top FREE Apps for Learning: Each month, we will list free apps that have been recognized as most useful in fostering Excellence in Teaching and Learning, Pre-K through grade 12. These are not listed in order of preference; explanations in quotes represent developers' descriptions. We welcome suggestions from teachers who have used apps that they have found to be useful and beneficial to students and/or teachers. Enjoy!
Khan Academy This app is available for an iPad and accessible on a PC. Khan Academy's materials and resources (over 3,500 videos) are available completely free of charge. These are perfect for flipping your classroom!
BrainPOP Featured Movie "...explore more than 750 Science, Math, Social Studies, English, Engineering & Tech, Arts & Music, and Health subjects right on their (students') mobile devices. All movies are closed-captioned, so it's easy for them to read along."
Pocket Body Lite "(This) full body app, with its elegant design and nine layers of musculoskeletal, neurovascular, and internal organ visual content, contains over 70,000 words of learning material."
Video Science "A growing library of over 80 hands-on Science lessons that are great for home and the classroom. These short videos demonstrate inexpensive and easy ways to recreate experiments that are designed to inspire and excite kids of all ages."
Evernote "Evernote is an easy-to-use, free app that helps you remember everything across all of the devices you use. Stay organized, save your ideas and improve productivity. Evernote lets you take notes, capture photos, create to-do lists, record voice reminders, and makes these notes completely searchable, whether you are at home, at work, or on the go."
See.Touch.Learn This app enables teachers to build custom, picture-card lessons and automatically track students' responses. This includes a starter set of stunning, high-quality images and 60 exercises created by a certified assistant behavior analyst.
Sight Words for Reading HD "This app helps students learn sight words, the most common words in children's literature. It covers a few words from both the Fry and Dolch lists. Words are presented in context in fun videos. This helps learners understand the meaning of the words, which aids in reading comprehension."
Pocket "When you find an interesting article, video or web page that you want to read, watch or view later, put it in Pocket. Once it's in Pocket, it automatically syncs across to your phone, tablet and computer so you can view it anytime on any device, even without an internet connection."
EarthViewer "What did Earth's continents and oceans look like 250 million years ago, or 1 billion years ago for that matter? Can we say anything about Earth's climate as far back as our planet's origin? Use your fingertips to scroll through Earth history for the last 4.5 billion years."
MyScript Calculator "Easy, simple and intuitive, just write the mathematical expression on the screen then let MyScript technology perform its magic converting symbols and numbers to digital text and delivering the result in real time." (This one was shared by teachers at our June workshop... Thank you!)
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| Operational Vitality |
 Enrollment Management Best Practices: Schools are encouraged to submit press releases and pictures to local newspapers and The Catholic Transcript to promote school functions and successes; expand the Marketing Committee to include those with marketing expertise, faculty members, and students; ask parents to display school lawn signs, targeting addresses that receive the most traffic; distribute school promotional items (mugs/totes/decals) at Open Houses or to registering families; and advertise with billboards and banners in key locations.
Office Staff Seminar: School administrative assistants, secretaries, and office staff are invited to enjoy a morning of prayer and professional development at the Archdiocesan Center, on Tuesday, September 10, from 9:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m., as Cathy Donahue of the Partners in Mission consulting firm demonstrates how important these staff members are to school marketing and how they can support school viability. RSVP's are due September 3 to Anne Clubb via Linda Serafin.
 HOPES Collection: The HOPES Collection will be taken in all parishes in the Archdiocese on the weekend of September 21 and 22, 2013. Administrators are asked to display the HOPES poster in a well-traveled area of the school to promote participation.
HOPES Dinner: We look forward to seeing the elementary schools at the 36th Annual HOPES Dinner on Sunday, September 22 from 4:30 - 7:30 p.m. at the Aqua Turf Club in Plantsville. Schools are asked to submit their St. John Neumann Award honorees by September 6 and their dinner reservations by September 9.
"You Could Be in Pictures": Every few months, different school photos will be featured in the new Vision, so feel free to submit high quality digital shots for consideration to Anne Clubb.
Best Practice Question: Is Our Cash Position sufficient before starting the new school year? A simple computation by the school's business manager will answer this question.
Cash remaining for operations from the 2012/2013 school year....................... $XXX,XXX.XX
(This number EXCLUDES prepaid tuition for 2013/2014)
Subtract from this number:
Payroll (If contractually required) for teachers for July & August ($ XX,XXX.XX)
Benefits (Required in all cases) for teachers for July & August ($ XX,XXX.XX)
Payment of any 2012/2013 bills still unpaid at July 1st ($ XX,XXX.XX)
If the remaining cash number, after subtracting the three possible items above is positive, the school is positioned properly for the 2013/2014 school year.
If the remaining cash number is negative, a cash flow deficit exists before beginning the new school year. This fact should be discussed with the finance committee of the school board to discuss options to address this cash flow deficit in the future. If it is not addressed, it will continue to affect the cash position of the school for the coming year and future years as well.
2012-2013 Compilation Reports: As schools' fiscal years end and final adjustments to the books are being made, this is the opportune time to contact a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) to prepare this report. The report is required for all elementary schools in order to comply with the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) accreditation requirements. The due date for this report is October 1, 2013. Upon request, Ken Przysiecki, CPA will provide names of CPA's who have done similar work for our schools.
Final Elementary School Budget Template for 2013/2014: The budget template for 2013/2014 (revision date of 8.1.13), along with supporting documents, is now on the Administrators' Login. Please DO NOT use earlier releases of this budget template.
Asbestos Annual Notification Letter: Principals are reminded that the annual Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA) letter should be published in the first month of school, and a copy should be forwarded to Larry Duffany at the Office of Catholic Schools. A sample letter is available on the Administrators' Login.
Renovations, Upgrades, Removal or Demolition Projections: When planning facility projects that involve the disruption, damage, or removal of building materials, principals/chief administrators should first call Larry Duffany at the Office of Catholic Schools, 860.242.4362. Such projects are covered under policy #2.203 in the Handbook of Policies and Procedures for Catholic Schools and by federal regulation, particularly the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP). As a reminder, "no (asbestos) repair or abatement projects beyond three square or linear feet may be undertaken without a response-action or abatement plan that has been prepared by an accredited plan designer and reviewed by the Office of Catholic Schools..." (Procedure, Policy 2.203).
Employee Criminal Background Checks: All new hires must have fingerprints submitted to Larry Duffany within the first 30 days of employment. The submission should consist of the State Applicant (green) card and a fee of $74 payable to the Office of Catholic Schools. Please note that the FBI (blue) card and the three page authorization are no longer required.
Criminal Background Checks for Volunteers: Volunteers should complete the Mind Your Business form prior to commencement of service. These forms should be sent directly to the Office of Safe Environment with a fee of $18.50 per person payable to the Archdiocese of Hartford.
Virtus Training: There will be a Virtus Training Session on Tuesday, August 20, 2013, at St. Timothy Middle School, West Hartford, at 12:30 p.m. Please register with Larry Duffany. Additional sessions are being scheduled and will be published in the September edition of Vision.
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| Calendar of Events |
AUGUST
5 New Administrators (First Year of Service) Meeting, Office of Catholic Schools, 10:00 - 2:00 p.m.
12, 13 2013 Administrators Convocation, Water's Edge Resort, Westbrook, (Two day session)
15 Feast of the Assumption (Holy Day of Obligation)
19, 20 New Teacher Orientation, St. Timothy Middle School, West Hartford, 8:00 - 3:00 p.m.
SEPTEMBER
2 Labor Day (Office of Catholic Schools Closed)
4 School Board In-service, Corpus Christi School, Wethersfield, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
10 Office Staff Seminar, Archdiocesan Center, 9:00 - 11:30 a.m.
12 PACE Meeting, Office of Catholic Schools, 10:00 - 1:00 p.m.
19 Foundation for the Advancement of Catholic Schools, Board of Trustees Meeting,
Chancery, 4:00 p.m.
20 Administrators Meeting, Secondary schools, Sacred Heart High School, 9:30 - 2:00 p.m.
21, 22 HOPES Collection, All Parishes of the Archdiocese
22 HOPES Dinner, Aqua Turf Club, Plantsville, 4:30 - 7:30 p.m.
24 Administrators Meeting, Waterbury Vicariate, St. Mary Magdalen School, Oakville, 8:30 - 3:00 p.m.
25 Administrators Meeting, New Haven Vicariate, Sacred Heart Academy, Hamden, 8:30 - 3:00 p.m.
26 Administrators Meeting, Hartford Vicariate, St. Timothy Middle School, W. Hartford, 8:30 - 3:00 p.m.
29 Catholic Youth Spectacular, Archdiocesan Center, 12:00 - 7:00 p.m.
30 Adult Faith Formation, Our Catholic Heritage: Cherishing Roots, Archdiocesan Center,
9:00 - 12:00 Noon
30 Archdiocesan School Board Meeting, Archdiocesan Center, 6:30 p.m.
(Note: Change of Date from September 9)
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Copyright © 2013. All Rights Reserved.
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