What's New?

What's New? What's Due?

Mrs. Weinheimer's 5th grade class News and activities from Mrs. Weinheimer's 5th grade class... Click HERE for more info and pictures.

PSIA Competition St. Mary’s School hosted the District 7AA Private School Interscholastic Association (PSIA) Competition Saturday, February 23rd. 600 students from 8 schools participated in the competition.

40 Days for Life Campaign St. Mary's Catholic School participated in the 40 Days for Life Campaign by praying the rosary in hopes of ending abortion. Click HERE for more info and pictures.

Extended Day Phone A reminder to all extended day parents. The extended day phone number is 889-3914. Please call this number if you need to contact the staff after office hours.

VISITOR SIGN-IN Every adult on our campus must have a name badge. Staff members will be wearing badges, and we ask every parent or visitor to come to the office to receive a badge whenever they are present.

WELCOME FATHER ENDA AND FATHER EDWIN Monsignor Enda McKenna is our pastor and Reverend Edwin Vigil is the parochial vicar for St. Mary’s Parish and School. We welcome them to the St. Mary’s School Community!

"No Cost To You" way of financially supporting St. Mary's Catholic School. Click HERE for more info.

TUITION ASSISTANCE We do have tuition aid money available for our families – please contact the school office for more information. The parish aid is available to both Catholic and non-Catholic families who request assistance. The Archbishop’s Appeal Tuition Grant is available only to Catholic students in grades K to 8. The Parish program is open to all students at all grade levels, and there is no deadline for application.

LAND'S END Uniforms with the official school logo can be ordered from Land's End. St. Mary’s Catholic School gets a 3% rebate on all orders placed using the Preferred School number. However, if you purchase them with Land's End Scrip cards available at the school office, St. Mary's receives a 9% return on the scrip cards! Since you cannot get both deals we would prefer that you use the Scrip Cards. You can order by phone or online. Click HERE for more information.

TEACHER'S WEB SITE Did you know you can access your teacher's web site for homework and other information? Go to the Contact Information page to access it.

FRIDAY T-SHIRTS Students may wear the Apache Spirit T-shirts on Fridays with uniform shorts or pants.

Reminder: All students from Kindergarten on up should go directly to the cafeteria if they are dropped off at school before 7:45 a.m. Only 3K and 4K students should come to Room 3 in the Elementary Building.

Statue of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament On Sunday, May 13, 2007, the members of St. Mary’s Parish unveiled a hand-carved, marble statue of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament. The statue, which rests in the garden next to the school’s circle drive, was dedicated in honor of out-going pastor, Fr. Tony Vilano. Fr. Tony blessed the statue after the 9:00 a.m. Mass. Mr. Forrest Rees presided over the ceremony and recapped Fr. Tony’s time at St. Mary’s and described how much Fr. Tony is loved and how much he will be missed. CLICK HERE for more photos.

Show your Apache Pride by purchasing a commemorative stadium seat cushion and help out the SMS Choirs at the same time. Click HERE for more info.

Before/After School Routines

We will have our circular drive in front of the gym this year for drive-through pick up and drop off. This drive will staffed be by school personnel before and after school. Drivers must remain in their vehicle. A parent must pull into a marked parking space if the parent wants to leave the car to go into the school building.

We will continue to use the “Loading Zone” area in front of the High School Building for drop off and pick up. We will have school personnel available outside to monitor this area. All drop-offs and pick-ups will only be allowed if the car is traveling north on Orange Street, and children will only be allowed to exit the vehicle from the passenger(curb) side of the vehicle. Drivers must stay in their vehicles during the drop-off and pick-up times.

Students may be dropped off or picked up in the parking lot behind the high school, however the driver must pull into a marked parking space in the parking lot before picking up or dropping off a child.

Students in 3K and 4K may enter the west door of the Elementary School as early as 7:00 a.m.; we will provide supervision for these students until the classroom teacher arrives.

Students in 5K to 8^th grade may enter the cafeteria as early as 7:00 a.m., and we will provide supervision until the students move to their classroom at 7:45. All students on campus should be in the cafeteria or the 3K or 4K area.

We have several designated pick up areas after school; please see the enclosed form for the options.

Food and Nutrition During the School Day

The 2007-2008 school year brings new guidelines to all schools that participate in the School Lunch Program. The highlights of these guidelines are:

Parents may continue to bring or send lunch or snack items of their choice for their own child(ren). Parents may not bring snack or lunch items for other children.
Only the cafeteria may sell food items during the school day to the children. The vending machine and other food sales will only be available after school has dismissed for the day.
Foods of minimum nutritional value - candy, soda, ice cream, popsicles, etc. may not be provided to any child at school until the end of the last class of the school day. There are two exceptions to this guideline: The Birthday Cupcake Rule - a child may bring cupcakes or other snacks for their classmates to celebrate his/her birthday. These snacks may not be consumed until 30 minutes after the last scheduled lunch period - 1:30 p.m. Three Days of Exemption - A school may choose three days of celebration during the school year that will not have to follow the guidelines. We have chosen the days of our Halloween, Christmas, and Valentine Parties to be the three days of exemption. Children may have traditional treats during the day during these days.
Field trips are also exempt from these guidelines - students may purchase or be provided various types of food during their one scheduled field trip.
Most other guidelines affect how food is prepared by the cafeteria; also, the cafeteria will have fresh fruit and/or vegetables for sale whenever any meals or snacks are provided.

Policies/Procedures

The tuition policy is nicknamed “no pay, no play” and it indicates that if a family is not current in tuition payments, the children of that family will not be eligible to participate in school team competitions or performances.

The 3:15 dismissal procedure will have students from 3K to grade 2 remain in their classrooms until they are picked up by parent or parent designate. Students in grades 3, 4, and 5 will remain on the front steps of the high school building until a parent or designate is there to pick them up. Students in grades 6,7,8 will be released from PE class near the concession stand. Students registered for extended day will be escorted to those locations. Please note the following qualifications/exceptions. If a student in grades 3, 4, 5 has a sibling in the elementary building (3K to grade 2) – we can escort that student(s) to the younger siblings classroom. If it is a hardship to climb the stairs to pick up a child in Kindergarten, 1^st, or 2^nd grade please indicate so on the form, and we will have your child meet you at the front door. If a child is to walk home or to a business location please sign the short note authorizing the school to release the child for the walk.

We do have some traffic congestion at the elementary building – but that is temporary. As the gym project is completed, we will have additional parking and a “U” pick up drive in front of the gym.

Parents must sign a Policy Acknowledgement Form and return it to the School Office.

Please print, read, sign and return the Policy Acknowledgement Form

Click Here to review the Student Handbook

Pray likes everything depends on God. • Work like everything depends on you.