From Mr. Stone’s Desk

Greetings Friends of Saint James Catholic School,

Open enrollment for the 2020-2021 school year has

begun. Catholic schools often look to have updated

registration materials ready to go by Catholic Schools

Week, which we just completed. Aside from ‘nuts and

bolts’ matters such as tuition rates, service hours, etc.

now is the time that school staff members – principals,

pastors, marketing and development people, and other

related parties of interest – tend to examine thoughts

such as, “How can I/we encourage families to consider

our school for their child?” “How do our mission and

our values get promoted?” “Do our recruitment/referral

efforts reflect the quality of our program – spiritually,

academically, morally, extracurricular offerings, etc.?”

So, families, teachers, staff members, volunteers:

Why Saint James Catholic School?

As a community do we share common ideals and a

common mission, beyond a baseline desire for good

academics? Beyond a need for employment? Beyond

simply wanting our youngsters in a safe environment

that seeks to teach Catholic values?

What is it that we are committed to?

Faith-based values, tuition, volunteer hours, job/staff

duties and responsibilities, collaboration…what else?

Saint James Catholic School is not comparable to

going through a cafeteria line where you may pick and

choose what you like and pass up what does not

interest you. Choosing to be part of this community

(yes, it is a choice that each of us makes) involves

making a commitment. Such thinking subsequently

prompts us to reflect upon just what it is that we are

committing to, beyond our individual interests.

Saint James Catholic School has a motto, mission,

vision, and philosophy. We have a Parent-Student

Handbook and each classroom has class rules,

expectations, a designated prayer area, etc. However,

our primary objective might best be represented by a

‘Christ is the reason for this school’ kind of message

that I commented upon last week. Collectively,

whether your family is Catholic or of another

Christian denomination, whether you are a parent,

student, or employee, by choosing Saint James

Catholic School you become part of a community that

is committed to building the kingdom.

People have asked me what my vision is for Saint

James Catholic School. Academically we are going to

focus more on grade level standards. Next year we

are going to look at implementing leveled math

classes for our 5th-8th grade students. We will

continue to make progress toward offering a 1:to:1

device (chromebooks) program for our 5th-8th grade

students, perhaps accomplishing such as early as the

start of next year. Our Specials – Art/Music, Spanish,

P.E., and Technology – will continue to receive newly

prioritized emphasis regarding content taught and

evaluation of student learning. Our faculty and staff

will be looking to implement Google Classroom.

Service to school, parish, and community will be

receiving additional emphasis. Reaccreditation will

be successfully accomplished.

Ultimately, however, my vision is to have the talented

faculty and staff members of Saint James Catholic

School do all we can to help youngsters get to

Heaven.

Please don’t misunderstand me insofar as of course

academics are very important. Still, wanting to help

students develop their personal relationships with

God, learning faith-based values, and ultimately

wanting to help instill a foundation within students

that will help them get to Heaven is what makes

Saint James Catholic School special. This is also what

makes Saint James different from so many other

public, charter, or private school education options.

With faith and prayer I offer the following five

summary characteristics of our commitment.

You and I, having chosen Saint James Catholic

School, we are committed…

1. To work as a community in our shared objective

to provide a faith-centered Catholic education

Cougar Paw Prints

A Publication of St. James Catholic School – 2019-2020 Edition 21

Enter to Learn. Go Forth to Serve. Visit us at: www.sjcstx.org

Est. 1878

for our students so that they may grow toward

their fullest, God-given potential. “Faith”

2. To live and learn today, recognizing that the

future brings change and learning to live and

thrive with that change. “Knowledge”

3. To understand that most everything is interrelated

and connected, thus learning to think and live with

a mindset that considers interrelatedness and

connection. “Critical Thinking”

4. To recognize, develop, and integrate the spiritual

dimension of ourselves and each member of our

community. “One Mind, One Body”

5. To learn how to be responsible for each other;

we are all together on this planet and we must

have a mindset that is inclusive, with an attitude

that together we will be more whole, but

isolated we are diminished. “Community”

These characteristics form the basis for what we do in

the classroom, how we handle behavior matters, how

we treat each other, and why we offer the program(s)

we have. All aspects of what we offer are infused

with these five characteristics, some more than others,

but they are present in everything we do. This is what

each of us must commit to when we choose Saint

James Catholic School.

Initially, some may have chosen SJCS for a whole host

of reasons. Catholic values, academics, employment,

safe environment, etc. Undoubtedly much thought went

into the choice which you made. Now that you’ve

been here awhile I encourage you to reflect on the

commitment which your choice truly represents.

‘Christ is the reason’ and I look forward to building the

kingdom with you. Thank you for your commitment to

Saint James Catholic School. Serviam, -David

Good Job These expressions,

Well Done Nope while nice,

Good Effort simply won’t do.

GREAT JOB! AWESOME! SUPER FABULOUS!

Co-Chairs Erica Taft and Kay Lynne Prochaska, along

with Jennifer Williams, Stacey Jacobs, Diane Barnard,

and Tommye Engelke, put in many hours over months

of time to put on one of the most successful fundraiser

events in the history of Saint James Catholic School.

02/06 – Mid 3rd Quarter Progress Reports Go Out

02/07 – Early Release at 12:00p.m. (Afternoon free

for teacher Arch PD time in San Antonio).

02/10-02/14 – No lunch program offering.

02/14 – Valentine’s Day

02/17-02/21 – Random Acts of Kindness Week

02/17 – No School – President’s Day

02/18 – Anticipated start to new Dilly Deli Lunch

Program – See related information below.

Lunch Program Update:

We informed School Eatery of our intent to terminate

lunch program services with them, with Friday, Feb.

07th being our last day. School Eatery informed us

yesterday that Feb. 04th was their last day of service.

Please do not order via School Eatery.

We are continuing our transition efforts with Chef

Jimmie of The Dilly Deli of Seguin. At this point we

anticipate starting up our in-house lunch option on

Tuesday, February 18th.

Note: Thus, there will be no lunch program

offering the week of February 10th-14th.

A ‘rest of February’ lunch menu, ordering, and billing

parameters are below. We appreciate your patience

and we will keep you informed. Thank you.

That is not hyperbole or enthusiastic exaggeration.

Final ‘net’ numbers will take a little while to process,

however with over 300 attendees, and having looked

at the current gross revenue and expense figures, this

year’s ‘Peace, Love, and Country Music’ night will

undoubtedly go down as one of the biggest ‘come

support our school’ events SJCS has ever facilitated.

When you get a chance I hope you might consider

taking a moment to say ‘thank you’ to the folks who

worked so hard to make this such a successful event.

Of course, SJCS also thanks the Knights of Columbus

for use of their Hall, evening of the event helpers such

as Drew Engelke and Fr. Greg, and definitely Clint

Taft and the Buckwild Band for their awesome music!

Attention SJCS Community: Please enjoy this submission provided on behalf of PK2 – PK3 – PK4:

* * * * * *

Class News

Featuring:

PK2, PK3

and PK4

Kiddie Korner

WHAT WE’RE LEARNING – PreK-2

We are a growing class here in 2K! We welcome three new students and their family this past month. Our 2 year olds enjoyed having their loved ones here on campus for Grandparents Day and Catholic Schools Week. A special thank you to the ones who donated books to our class from the book fair. Our littles love story time and are already enjoying our new classroom books! We are busy going over colors, shapes, numbers, and the alphabet daily. Also art is a part of our everyday activities. We are excited and getting ready for 2K’s Valentines party coming up in a few short weeks.

WHAT WE’RE LEARNING – PreK-3

We pray for the continued recovery and healing of Ms. Lawrence. May God’s strength be upon her as she looks forward to returning back to school. Mrs. Arce and Mrs. Smith are doing a wonderful job helping the children continue to learn and grow. Last week the children worked on activities and discussed the letter R. This week they will be exploring with the letter S. Thank you for the books donated to the classroom from the book fair. We are enjoying reading them to the class. The children will slowly begin writing their names and recognizing what they look like. We will begin to prepare for the last 3K Mass on March 6

th.

WHAT WE’RE LEARNING – PreK-4

In Religion, we have discussed how Jesus, Mary and Joseph are called The Holy Family and how our families are holy too. We love, share, grow and learn together following God’s teachings just as the The Holy Family did. We will begin preparing for our last 4K Mass of the school year which will be on February 28

th, the 1

st Friday in Lent. In Phonics, we are moving along with our letters, sounds, sight

words and now we are beginning to write sentences. In January, we discussed letters B, U, Z. In February, we will discuss C,E,Y and D along with completing arts and crafts with each letter. In Math, we have been working with our student clocks, identifying the hour and minute hands and recognizing time to the hour as well as writing the numbers on the clock. We are using pennies to identify amounts, use graphs/charts to identify information, identify a cube and match the amount of dots to number with one to one correspondence. We have used geoboards to create shapes. We will soon begin to use dimes and count by 10s. In Science/Social Studies/Health, we discuss more on exercise, how important it is to keep our bodies healthy and the different organ functions. We stress daily to wash hands, sneeze and cough in elbow. We will discuss more how germs can spread and the importance of keeping ourselves and others healthy as well as those people who help us stay healthy and well….parents, doctors, nurses, coaches and teachers. We greatly enjoyed the activities of Catholic Schools Week last week. We celebrated the 100

th day of school, a pep rally, buddy reading and a

buddy lunch. It was so awesome to see the 4K students interact with the older students. Thank you to those families who donated books to our classroom from the book fair. We have an upcoming field trip to the San Antonio stock show on February 18

th to view and explore in several agriculture exhibits and

presentations. March 23-27 the 4K students will have the opportunity to have swim lessons during the school day from 12-1:30 p.m. at the Schertz YMCA sponsored by the Miss Tristan Foundation of San Antonio. We are very blessed and excited about this amazing opportunity. In January, Rey Morales joined our class and on Monday we welcomed Malena Maddi. We are a very happy class of 23 students!!!! Preschool Rocks!!!

Lunch Program Hoopla:

What:

The Dilly Deli’s Chef Jimmie will be utilizing our

facilities to provide in-house lunches.

Start Date:

Lunch program to start on Tuesday, February 18th.

Menu:

A menu will be put out on RenWeb at the end of a

current week for each ensuing week. The remainder

of February’s standard menu is here.

Possible options to a day’s standard menu will be

additionally listed via the more complete menus listed

on RenWeb. It will be important for a family to

choose exactly what they wish to order for their

child’s lunch on a given day as ‘day of’ substitutions

when in line for lunch will not be facilitated.

Price:

$5.25 per student lunch, includes drink (milk or juice)

$6.50 per adult (staff/parent) lunch, includes drink

Billing:

Via ‘Pay Now’ option – more info on this to follow.

Ordering:

The following week’s lunch menu should be available

on RenWeb by later Thursday of the preceding week.

Each family will need to order by the end of business

on the following Tuesday for the next week’s lunches.

Example:

Lunch Menu for February 18th-21st will be available

by later Thursday, February 06th. Families would then

have until end of business on Tuesday, February 11th

to order lunches for the February 18th-21st week.

Note: No ‘day of’ orders will be taken. Chef Jimmie

orders food once or twice a week, based on pre-

planned orders. Hence, we will not be able to

accommodate last minute additions. Thank you.

SJCS Points of Contact:

Erica Villareal and Gloria Valdes will be the two

primary school personnel members overseeing our

school lunch program.

Credit Back?:

If a student is absent, has a parent bring them a special

lunch, etc. and they also ordered school lunch for that

day no credit back will be possible. Again, due to the

pre-planned ordering of food supplies for x number of

daily lunch orders made vs. cost(s) are pre-calculated.

February 18 February 19

Meatloaf with Gravy Cheese Pizza

Mashed Potatoes Corn

Peas N Carrots Small Salad

Chocolate Pudding Yellow Cake

February 20 February 21

Steak Fingers with Gravy Chicken Salad Sandwich

Roasted Potatoes Chips

Mixed Veggies Green Beans

Cookie Chocolate Cake

February 24 February 25

Cheeseburger Spaghetti w/Meat Sauce

Tater Tots Garlic Bread

Lettuce, Tomato, Pickle Glazed Carrots

Lemon Cake Fruit Cocktail

February 26 February 27

Roast Beef with Gravy Chicken Nuggets w/BBQ

Mashed Potatoes Cheesy Potatoes Sauce

Cucumber Slices Green Beans

Spice Cake Cookie

February 28 – No Lunch – Half Day of School

Subject: Scholastic Book Fair Thank You’s

Thank you, St. James families, for your support of our

Scholastic Book Fair! Thanks to generous purchases

from our parents, grandparents, friends, faculty, staff,

and students, we raised over $2,000 for our school's

library. A special thank you to all the volunteers who

helped us set up the Fair, run it daily, and pack up all

those books: Terri LaCroix, Johanna Lopez, Sara

Edwards, Paula Soukup, Dana Hermes, Erica

Villarreal, Jennifer Velez, Gloria Valdes, and Mr.

Stone. A super special thank you to our own Mrs.

Fisher who not only ran the Book Fair daily, but keeps

our library running every day and had students ready

to check out our books the day after the Fair ended!!

If you weren't able to visit our Book Fair, or if you are

just shopping for a good book, you can still shop our

Scholastic Book Fair online. Please shop Scholastic

from the link below and St. James will earn rewards

from your purchases.

https://www.scholastic.com/bf/stjamesseguin

Happy reading! – Counselor Jennifer Spencer

Saint James Catholic School Motto:

“Keeping God in Everything We Do.”

Saint James Catholic School Mission Statement:

Saint James Catholic School exists as a gift to God’s

children, to prepare them to live a life of faith with

Jesus the Good Shepherd as their teacher and friend.

Inspired by the Holy Spirit, our school seeks to foster

in each student spiritual growth, academic excellence,

and a sense of service with moral integrity.

Saint James Catholic School Vision Statement:

The vision of Saint James Catholic School is to

develop and inspire within its students faith-based

values that represent the service nature of a Catholic

school; to treat others with love and kindness as Christ

loves each of us. Our service to others will give back

to the community while fostering our Catholic

identity. Saint James will also strive to maintain

sound and transparent fiscal policies which will enable

our school to continue to grow and provide a quality

education to all those we serve.

2019-2020 School Year Theme:

Indescribable Joy

Unshakable Faith

Unstoppable Love

“With GOD all things are possible.”

Matthew 19:26

Tasks include minor repairs in plumbing, painting,

building upkeep, electrical repairs, and HVAC system

maintenance. (Some prior experience is required.)

Must be able to prioritize work/projects with vendors

and contractors. Other duties as needed.

For initial consideration please submit a resume via

the school office. SJCS FAX: 830-379-0047

Start Date: As soon as possible.

Maintenance experience, reliability, and ability to

work with different community members ranging

from employees to volunteers is desired.

Job Type: Part-time Salary: $14.00 to $15.00/hour

An Archdiocesan Application, Background Check,

and VIRTUS will all be required prior to hiring.

* * * * * *

* * * * * *

Position: General Maintenance

15-20 hours per week, Monday-Friday

Occasional Evenings and Weekends

Prayer for Saint James Catholic School:

Dear Lord, bless our Catholic school. Help us to

continue to be a humble source of wisdom, always

yearning to learn more about your tremendous love

for us. May all who enter Saint James Catholic

School be filled with the gift of your Holy Spirit,

coming to know you in a more meaningful way.

Guide us as a community that respects and

welcomes everyone. May Catholic education

continue to grow so that your good news can be

taught to children throughout the world. Amen.

“Beloved sons and daughters of the Catholic Church,

brothers and sisters in the faith: Catholic education is

above all a question of communicating Christ, of

helping to form Christ in the lives of others.”

– Message of St. Pope John Paul II to the National Catholic

Educational Association of the United States, April 16, 1979

All of us, together…

Attention SJCS Families: NOW is the time to apply to Hope for the Future Tuition Assistance!

There is more money available for early applicants. Questions? Mrs. Gloria Valdes is available to help.

NOW! Now is the time to apply for a Hope for the Future Tuition Assistance award!