IMMACULATE CONCEPTION SCHOOL HOME SCHOOL ASSOCIATION

NOVEMBER 2011 NEWS

Weren’t our children awesome in October! We had a wonderful turn out for the Columbus Day Parade with students from all grades participating. They had so much fun with their Halloween parade and parties. Junior High looked great in their class themed costumes! Did you see our pictures in the Journal News and the Bronxville/Eastchester Patch? Fall is a busy time at ICS. Jump in and get involved in whatever events interest you!

Here are the updates from our November HSA meeting:

UPCOMING EVENTS

LORD & TAYLOR SHOPPING EVENT - Invitations are still available for this event on November 10th. They are $5 and are available in the office. You can shop with your discount any time up until the event date, however items must be picked up on November 10th.

CABERET - November 18, 19, 20. Bet you didn’t know these ICS parents had so much talent! Who is in the show? Which recent alumni are coming back to perform? Look for upcoming announcements. Bring your own dinner. Snacks, dessert and soda will be provided. Tickets are now available. CAN YOU BAKE SOME HOMEMADE GOODIES for the event? CAN YOU DONATE SODA? Contact the HSA at icsisthebest@yahoo.com.

CHRISTMAS BOUTIQUE – The boutique will be held on December 15th & 16th. Each class visits the boutique and students will have the opportunity to purchase low priced Christmas gifts for their family members. Family members are welcome to shop at the Boutique as well! Volunteers are needed for tagging sale items on December 13th & 14th afterschool, as well as for assistance during the event itself.

BREAKFAST WITH SANTA - will be held on Saturday morning, December 17th. The event will consist of a pancake breakfast, crafts, games, and a visit from Santa. Santa will be available for photos so please remember to bring your camera! Volunteers needed to decorate the cafeteria afterschool on Dec 16, as well as during the event itself.

CURRENT ANNOUNCEMENTS

NOVEMBER CALENDAR: Remember there is no school on Wednesday November 9th. or Friday November 11th. Dismissal on November 23rd is at 11:30 and this begins the long Thanksgiving weekend. There is no aftercare on November 23rd. November 28th will be early dismissal for parent/teacher conferences. There is no aftercare on November 28th.

Be sure to read announcements and check the calendar for early dismissals and days off in early December.

RAFFLE BOOKLETS will be distributed prior to Thanksgiving along with Report Cards. Books cost $250 with tickets sold for $10 each. This is our one mandatory fundraiser.

CHRISTMAS AT ICS: SAVE THE DATE for our Christmas Show! Wednesday, December 21st at 7 pm in the Main Church. All grades will perform on one night this year. (Note: this date is revised from the original calendar).

With Christmas fast approaching, the HSA wants to take a moment to clarify the school’s policy for Christmas gifts to teachers. The HSA conducts a collection each year and provides all classroom and specials teachers with a gift from the student body. A notice regarding this will be sent home to all families. This is the only Christmas collection that may be conducted in our classes. There are no “class gift collections”. If individual families wish to provide their teachers with an additional gift on top of the school collection that is up to their own discretion.

When you are doing your own Christmas shopping, please remember the Boxtops Online Marketplace. If you access your online retailers through the Boxtops website a percentage of your purchase comes back to ICS. Also consider making any of your gift card purchases at Stop & Shop using your Stop & Shop card. Those purchases will be counted toward our A+ Bonus Bucks program. Some families purchase no fee gift cards at Stop & Shop for retailers they know they will be shopping at. Amazon gift cards are one of the more popular purchases.

REVIEW OF FALL EVENTS

The YANKEE CANDLE SALE was a big success again this year. We sold over $14,000 in candles raising approximately $6500. Delivery is expected by the first week of December.

Our UNIFORM SWAP did very well raising $500. We are in need of larger uniform pieces. If you have size medium, large or above, send them in when our Spring sale is announced. Pre-K families … we have MANY sets of clothing in very small sizes with lots of life left in them. Uniform is not required for Pre-K, but if you would like to purchase a sweat suit or shorts/t-shirt for a few dollars you can have an easy, neat looking outfit and it won’t matter if paint is spilled all over it.

YOUTH NIGHT was held in mid October for our junior high students. A fun night was had by all!

HALLOWEEN was great fun as well, despite the challenges posed by the snowstorm. We received such good feedback from the contingency parade route that we’re going to hold the parade indoors again next year!

ICS COAT DRIVE UPDATE Keep those coats coming in through the end of November! ICS is collecting used coats (in good condition) in collaboration with Burlington Coat Factory and Good Morning America’s “One Warm Coat” drive. Coats will be distributed through the Westchester County Coalition for the Homeless. Donation boxes are located at the entrance to the cafeteria as well as in church. Drop off all kinds of coats: Men’s, Women’s, Children’s, Infant’s, winter weight, light weight, even rain coats.

A WORD FROM OUR PRINCIPAL

Ms. Harten reported that there are a number of initiatives under way to further involve our students in service. School families met this week. Students prepared cards for service members and seniors. Excess Halloween candy is being collected and will be sent to service members along with the cards. Items are also being collected for the Little Sisters of the Poor nursing home. Students will deliver these items along with the cards in December. Students also will participate in our annual Thanksgiving Food Drive and in our Jesse Tree activities.

The Archdiocese IRIS alert test scheduled for last week was delayed due to data input issues. ICS tested its own system on Halloween with the changes to the parade. If you did not receive those messages, please contact the office. We are in the process of setting up an internet safety program for both students and parents with the Eastchester police. Children are facing problems with Facebook and other new social networking sites. Parents need to be as aware of changes in technology as their children are. They need to monitor it. It is highly advised that students do not have their own Facebook pages (did you know the legal age is 13 to even have a page). The school does on occasion monitor student social networking and students will be asked to open their pages. The school’s code of conduct extends to what students do off campus and online. Families are also strongly advised to not allow student computer use in their bedrooms, including hand held devices/phones

 

A WORD FROM OUR PASTOR

Father Raaser reported that he received an anonymous letter this week. He made very clear that he does not read nor respond to anonymous letters. He has an open door policy and is always willing to discuss any issue directly with those who wish to contact him. The amount of gossip being conducted in our parking lot lately is of concern to him as well as to the Home School Association. If you hear of an issue you should go to the source or to him directly. You also may always contact the Home School Association at icsisthebest@yahoo.com. Gossip has the potential to hurt our children and wreck our school. If you hear gossip in our parking lots or at events, consider the source and discourage others from spreading information that is not true.

Developments on the GYM - final details are being worked out with the architect. A parent committee will be formed to look over the final plans. If you are interested please let Father Raaser know. Approximately 37 companies have expressed interest in bidding on the project and we expect to break ground in the Spring. We will soon begin a new collection campaign. If we are able to raise another $1.5 million, we would be able to build the gym without a mortgage. Father Raaser thanked the HSA for all of their hard work in raising funds to date.

Regionalization - The Archdiocese will hold a town meeting regarding regionalization plans on Tuesday November 15th at 7 pm at Archbishop Stepinac High School. Anyone interested is invited to attend. It is highly recommended that those attending plan to carpool as parking is extremely limited.

OTHER ITEMS

PARKING LOT ISSUES: Once again we bring up parking lot issues. We are at a loss of what to do to have school families drive safely in our parking lots. We communicate our safety procedures repeatedly yet they are blatantly ignored by many.

The time for being nice is over when our children are in danger. We need YOU … the families who are conscientious of children in our lot … to point out to other families when they are behaving in an unsafe manner or just being clueless.

Every morning, we continue to see children being dropped off at random places in the main lot. This is incredibly dangerous. NO child should be dropped off anywhere except in the drop off line. Anywhere else in the lot, the parent MUST park and walk their child to the top of the stairs. This is regardless of the age of the child.

There are ROWS along the sides of the lot and between the rows of parking spaces. These are for driving. Please use them. DO NOT cut through the middle of the lot across the parking spaces as a short cut. There are too many families with children walking through the lot at drop off & pick up time for cars to be coming out of every possible direction.

There is NO left turn into the lot in the morning. This is ILLEGAL. We are receiving complaints from the neighborhood that we are blocking traffic on rt 22 in the morning. We also are blocking a bus stop. The local police will begin to randomly monitor the area and do give out tickets.

PLEASE also get off of your cell phone and pay attention.

The next HSA meeting will be held on Wednesday, December 7th. Please contact your class reps if you have any questions. You can also contact the HSA aticsisthebest@yahoo.com.

We wish you and your family a blessed Thanksgiving.

The Home School Association.

CHECK US OUT ONLINE www.icschoolonline.org for the school www.icshsa.org for the Home School Association icsisthebest@yahoo.com is the email address for the Home School Association