SPJ July Newsletter

Hello SPJ Families,

Let me first apologize for the length of this e-mail (it's a doozy)! I've been doing STREAM Camp at my old home St. PaulSchool for the last two weeks, and I feel detached from all of the great things that have been happening since the beginning of summer break! I will be back around the school this coming week, and will attempt to answer any and all unanswered questions and messages that have come to the office and/ or my e-mail recently! I can tell you for certain, though, that this coming school year is shaping up to be an incredible one! For now, here's a number of news items that you may find of interest.

SPJ 2016 Graduate Wins Tremendous Award!

Juliana Colant, a 2016 graduate of SPJ (who will be attending Central Catholic next year), was the first place winner of the Canal Days Senior Queen Pageant (Category 14 – 18 year olds). To be considered for the competition, she had to write an essay on “Canal Fulton’s Historical Residents and Their Impact on You," complete 10 hours of community service, and submit a record of her grades. She then went through a personal one-on-one interview with the judges who assessed her style (poise and personality), and finally completed an on stage interview and appearance.
Juliana was the youngest contestant and, according to the judges, the first SPJ person in recent memory to participate. In addition to being crowned Queen, she also won two additional awards from the pageant for "Outstanding Essay" and "Outstanding GPA."
What a truly amazing and commendable accomplishment; she has made everyone at SPJ so very proud! /

Canal Days a wonderful day for everyone!

/ What an amazing and beautiful Canal Days we had! Many people visited our booth and got massive bubbles formed around them, talked to our parent volunteers, and got to hear about SPJ! Mrs. Keri Lantz was the person who coordinated the majority of our Canal Days participation, so much appreciation and gratitude goes out to her. Special thanks goes out to all of our booth volunteers, those who helped set up the

tent, Hatfield Realty, parade leaders and participants, and the fine people who helped Mrs. Morber and I arrange a car parking system on Saturday; we earned nearly $1,200 for the school for one day's worth of parking cars!

SPJ Welcomes New Teachers

Let us all welcome Mrs. Beth Hatfield to the SPJ teaching family! Mrs. Hatfield will be teaching Social Studies in grades 5-8 and two courses of religion. Mrs. Hatfield has many years of teaching experience, most notably at St. Clement School in Navarre. She will be a familiar face to all of our SPJ students, as she has been a highly involved volunteer at the school, as well as a frequent substitute teacher. We are truly blessed to add another great teacher to our already amazing staff!

Another highly dedicated and involved SPJ parent & volunteer will be teaching with us this year; Mrs. Keri Lantz will be assisting Mrs. Lavery in the preschool! Mrs. Lantz has also been a regular substitute teacher at SPJ, in addition to being the President of the Home & School Association and heading many key events for the benefit of SPJ.

We will also have a new computer teacher, Mr. Mitchell! In an effort to provide a bit of relief to our already overloaded teachers' schedules, I will be teaching computer on Fridays throughout the year. SPJ's students will be taught the computer curriculum from the Ohio Academic Content Standards, which can he read here.

Hall of Fame Walk

Holy Cross Academy Catholic Schools has the opportunity to walk in the 2016 Hall of Fame Community Parade thisSunday, July 24. Members of the HCA Drama Club will walk and sing Zip A Dee Doo Dah from the musical showcase in October. Other students are also welcome to walk with them during the parade. Drop-off is at1:30 pmon Sunday, with the parade beginning at2:30 pm. Anyone interested (even if you don't attend a HCA school!!) in walking in the parade or additional details should contact HCA Director of Marketing, Kristie Cramer, by email r by phone at330-526-8366.

Bargain Uniform Opportunity

From HolyCrossAcademy: "Sunshine Uniform has gone out of business. They delivered all of their uniform stock, which includes items from Holy Cross Schools, to Goodwill to sell. Brand new uniform pieces are being sold for as low as $2.00 a piece! The three Goodwill locations with our uniform stock are the Waterloo Road location, the outlet on Arlington Road, and the location in Medina on Medina road."

Glory and Praise Event

Remember to mark the date for this year's Back to School Glory & Praise Event on April 11. Mrs. Dolecki and the SPJ staff are busy creating this spectacular event that will be sure to be both exciting and faith-inspiring! Watch your e-mail for more information in the coming days!

School Supply Lists

School Supply Lists for this year can be found here:

Supplies for Success

Mrs. Yingling and the fine people at Bountiful Gifts are conducting a drive to collect supplies for the underprivileged. Please see the attached flyer to read about how to participate.

LED Lighting System to be Installed

Our new LED lighting installation will take place in early August, so when your students return to school, they will find much cleaner, crisper lighting in their classrooms! Praise be to God for everyone and anyone who donated to make this project a reality, especially the Showers Foundation. Also, thank you to the McMahon family for their vision in suggesting this project last summer.

Outside of School to be Beautified

If all goes as planned, the old bushes in front of the school and gym will be removed before the start of school, replaced with lovely perennial plants, flowers, and mulch. More info to come.

2016-2017 Enrollment up from Last Year

The enrollment numbers at SPJ are up from last year already, with hopes that more families will enroll before the end of the summer. Remember to talk about SPJ to your friends and family considering alternatives for their grade school children or a new preschool. You will be credited with a tuition discount for sending them this way. As a side note, those current SPJ families who referred new families for this year will see a change in their balance within the first week of school, once the referred students have begun to attend school.

SPORTS

Physical Forms

From Rod Baca - HCA Athletic Director: Below is the OHSAA PRE-PARTICIPATION PHYSICAL EVALUATION 2016-2017. It is to be used by all 7th and 8th graders participating in sports. I recommend it used for any student athletes in 6th grade or lower.

It can also be found on the OHSAA web page. Please make sure to use the 6 page form. There is a 4 page form floating around. It is out of date.

5/6 Football Cheerleading:

Any girls in 5th and 6th grade who want to cheer this football season, please see the below message from the Western Cheer coach:

"My name is Carrie Competty. I am coaching 5th-6th grade cheer for the Western Warriors this year. I wanted to reach out to SPJ school to see if there would be any girls in 5th-6th grade who would like to cheer. I wondered if you could send an email or a text to your families and share my contact info with them. My email is and my cell # is 330-933-9055. I thank you in advance!"

***Side note: If you cheer for Western football, this does not mean that you cannot be a part of the SPJ cheer squad; you are able and welcome to do both.

7/8 Football Cheerleading

Any girls in 7th and 8th grade who want to cheer this football season, the Western Cheer coach is Tracie Phillips (). I do not believe that she has sent out the call for cheerleaders yet, but feel free to shoot her an e-mail just to let her know that your daughter is interested in cheering for football.

***Side note: If you cheer for Western football, this does not mean that you cannot be a part of the SPJ cheer squad; you are able and welcome to do both.

Grades 3-8 Football

Practices will be starting soon and you will have either been contacted by your team's coach or you will be within the next two weeks. If you do not hear anything by Monday, August 1, please call or e-mail Mr. Mitchell (854-2823 / ), and we will take care of everything.

Grades 5-8 Volleyball

Coaches Aman and Johnson are busy at work putting together their practice schedules; if your daughter is planning on playing volleyball and is in the 7th or 8th grade, please e-mail Coach Johnson at . If your daughter is in the 5th or 6th grade and plans on playing volleyball, please e-mail Coach Aman at .

Grades 3 & 4 Volleyball

Look for future e-mails regarding information on playing volleyball.

Golf - Grades 5-8

While a survey was done in the spring regarding who was interested in playing golf, I want to be sure that I have everyone and pass it along to the coach. So, if your son or daughter is interested in playing golf this year, please e-mail Mr. Mitchell at . If your coach has already contacted you, please disregard.

SPJ Wins 3 on 3 Basketball Tournament

Congratulations to incoming 4th graders Josh, Sam & Brady for taking 1st place in their age division at St. Mary's 3 on 3 Basketball tournamenton Sunday, July 17th!

Yearbooks

2015-2016 yearbooks were finalized several weeks ago, and will arrive before the start of school. Families of last year's 8th grade will have the option to pick them up from the school or have them mailed to them. Current SPJ students will receive them either at the back to school kick off or on the first day of school.

Back to School Kick Off Sunday

Back to School Kick Off Sunday will be on Sunday, August 21 at 1:30. Watch your e-mail for more information.

2016-2017 Dress Code

The dress code will remain in essence the same as it was last year, which can be seen here: --- one variation which is not noted in that dress code is that students in all grades may wear khaki or navy pants.

Please be sure that the navy colors that are purchased are a deep navy and the hunter greens are a true hunter green; please no varying hues of these colors; please do not wear plaids from other schools, as well. Please visit School Belles at (School Code: S0705) to see the proper hues and plaids (it will say "available colors"). Please be sure that, when wearing pants, students are wearing belts (plain belts). No girls should be wearing make up at all, and nail polish should be clear and modest.

On Mass days, boys should wear solid colored ties (blue, black, school plaid) and a white button up shirt. The ties may be clip on or standard. They need not be fancy.

The gym uniform, which was sort of a mish-mash last year, will be solidified and clarified within the next couple of weeks, but it won't be anything extravagant or expensive. It will basically be what is listed in the dress code, but the specifics regarding shirts must be clarified.

Some final notes on the dress code: School Belles is the preferred vendor; you can use their website listed above to buy from if you like. We will have another used uniform sale the week before school begins, so look for information. You are welcome to purchase the shirts and shorts/ pants from whatever vendor you feel is appropriate.

Please write to me to let me know what I missed. Have a beautiful, peaceful and blessed remainder of Summer 2016!

Mr. Mitchell