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The Messenger

December 11, 2015
Vol. III, No.16

 
 
St. Michael's Academy
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Our week at SMA was faith-filled and flowing with the Christmas spirit, especially on Tuesday when we celebrated the feast of the Immaculate Conception at Mass with Fr. Mengel in the morning and our first Christmas concert later that evening. Thank you to the families and friends who attended the concerts on both Tuesday and Wednesday of this week at St. Catherine's. Our students have been working hard on the performances, and our efforts paid off.  

Next week we will be hosting the Holly Jolly Christmas store for students in grades K-8, and we look forward to welcome the grandparents of the 3rd graders to our SMA community on Wednesday for the percussion performance. 

In the meantime, have a great weekend, enjoy the weather, and here's to two weeks until Christmas.

Peace.

Mr. Aaron Piotrowski
Assistant Principal

Important Dates To Remember!

Please make note of these important upcoming dates:

Violin - every Tuesday
Banking - every Wednesday
Drumming - every Wednesday

PLEASE NOTE:

Monday, December 14, 2015 
Holly Jolly Christmas Store Opens!
Runs December 14, 15 and 16

Wednesday, December 16, 2015 at 9:30 a.m.
Grade 3 Grandparent Event
Drumming Recital
SMA Gymnasium


Admissions

 
Did you know that you are receiving a discount on your child's tuition?
 

Even though tuition at St. Michael's Academy is currently $3,950 per year, the actual cost to educate a child this year is $5,100, creating a deficit of $1,150 per student. If you multiply that by the number of students (478), that amounts to almost $550,000 in tuition assistance that is given every year. Wow - who knew?
 
How does St. Michael's Academy continue to offer such an outstanding education and maintain such a reasonable tuition? There are several different avenues of revenue, in addition to tuition dollars, that help the school meet its annual operating budget. The school receives financial support from the Diocese and contributions to The Fund for SMA are crucial. The school has also established an endowment fund which earns interest. These funds are not only used for operating expenses but also allow us to offer families additional SMA tuition assistance.
 
We have also been careful in choosing our student fundraising efforts and only ask students to participate in two major efforts per year; the Walk-a-thon and the calendar raffle during Catholic Schools week. These two efforts provide significant assistance without the need to continually ask students to participate in fundraisers. 
 
St. Michael's Academy is quite a bargain...
why would you go anywhere else?


Academics/Classroom Happenings - 

Keeping Track of Data

Miss Wuller's 4th grade students have been learning about different types of graphs and how they are used. Here they are creating their own bar graphs.



Christmas Around The World

Mrs. Senecal's 5th graders were busy creating their "Christmas Around The World" cards.




The Giver

Mrs. Nicoliello's 7th grade blue group has been reading The Giver and learning about a society claiming to be utopia, but the students all agree it doesn't seem like a perfect world to them.




O Holy Night

The stars were brightly shining at the annual Christmas Program held on Tuesday and Wednesday evening this week at St. Catherine of Siena Church. What a beautiful job each and every St. Michael's Academy student did! You should all be very proud of the wonderful performance you gave.





Catholicity

Thank you Fr. White for celebrating the Immaculate Conception Mass with our school!



And thank you to all the SMA families who donated over 500 pairs of socks to Fr. White and the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel parish mission!


Perfect Attendance

Congratulations to our perfect attendance dress-down winners! In order to qualify for the weekly drawing, a student must have no absences, tardiness or early dismissals the previous week of school. We select one from PreK - 2nd grade, one from 3rd - 5th grade and one from 6th - 8th grade. Congrats to this week's winners!

        Savanna - Gr. 2A                                 Brandon - Gr. 4C


Devin - Gr. 6



Calling All Drama Kings and Queens!


Mark your calendars! St. Michael's Youth Players from St. Michael's Church, 53 Somers Road in East Longmeadow will be holding open auditions for its production of Cinderella on January 20 and 21, 2016. All boys and girls, aged 7-17, are invited to audition.

For further information, contact Mr. Malmborg.in Grade 4A.

Parish News


Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church, 123 Williams Street in Springfield - Voices in chorus and solos, instruments, and handbells will all celebrate the joy of Christmas in a concert in Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church on Friday, Dec.18 at 7 p.m.  Relax, listen, watch, meditate to the sacred sounds of this blessed season. And in so lovely a setting. No tickets, freewill offering.


Also from Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church -reminder to Mt. Carmel Parish children to bring their home Nativity Infant Jesus to Mass this weekend. 

On this REJOICE SUNDAY of Advent, Pope Francis blesses children and their Infant Jesus figures in Rome. We do that too, at OL Mt. Carmel Church.  It's a Bambinelli Sunday custom.
 



LAST CALL!  Holy Cross Church, 221 Plumtree Road in Springfield will host "Breakfast with Santa" on Sunday, December 13, from 9-11 a.m. in the St Michael's Academy gym, sponsored by the Holy Cross Knights of Columbus.  

Pancakes, bacon, coffee, cocoa and juice will be served. There is something for the whole family to enjoy, including a prize raffle. Children are invited to take part in crafts, as well as a "Keep Christ in Christmas" poster coloring contest. Professional pictures with Santa are available for a small fee. 

Prices are $5 for Adults$3 for Children, or $10 for the FamilyTickets will be sold after Mass at Holy Cross, or may be purchased using credit/debit or paypal by visiting holycrosskofc15864.groupspaces.com.
Please call Tom Voudrin 788-5115 or Frank Ryan 782-5730 with any questions. 

Prayer Corner
St. Michael the Archangel, pray for us!  rosary-beads.jpg
 
We pray for all St. Michael's Academy students, families, faculty, and staff, and their special intentions. 

Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Fallen
Mr. and Mrs. Jim Murphy
Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Dunn
Goldie Newman
Mr. and Mrs. John Ashey

And we pray in a special way for all our dearly departed.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen. 
 
Our prayers continue to be with Mr. Rancitelli, who is undergoing treatment for a cancer recurrence. Each week, a different homeroom sends him cards. If your family would like to send a card, please send it to school with your child, clearly marked for Mr. Rancitelli. His family has set up a blog to write about this experience.Click here to read the blog. 
 


Thank you for your interest in St. Michael's Academy. To ensure receipt, please add [email protected] to your address book. 

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St. Michael's Academy 
153 Eddywood Street - Springfield, MA 01118
www.smaspringfield.org
413.782.5246 office 
413.782.8137 fax