NEW! Thank You - Many, many thanks to Virtuoso Kids Music Academy for their generous donation to our gym audio project! Our donations for this project have reached 50% of our goal...please consider supporting this exciting upgrade to the aging system. This will have a significant impact on our masses, musical and drama presentations, sporting events, assemblies, and award presentations. Contact Marta Nissen at [email protected] for more information!
November No School Days -- Please mark the following NO School Days on your November calendar:
- TOMORROW! November 11: Veterans Day
- November 24-26: Thanksgiving Break
NEW! December and January Calendar Notes -- Looking ahead to December and January, we have a few schedule notes for your calendar:
- Our last day of school before Christmas vacation will be Friday, December 17.
- Our first day back to school after Christmas vacation will be Monday, January 3.
- There will be NO After Care/Cafe on either campus on Friday, January 7 so that our faculty and staff may have their well-earned Christmas party.
- We will have NO school on Monday, January 17 in observance of Martin Luther King Jr Day.
Parent-Teacher Conferences - Parent-Teacher conferences will take place the week before Thanksgiving. Upper campus conferences will be held the evening of Wednesday, November 17 and lower campus conferences will be held the evening of Thursday, November 18. You will receive more information from your child’s teacher.
NEW! School Portraits Update -- A few families have reached out to ask when we will receive our school portraits from O’Connor Studios. In the past we would have received our pictures at about this time. We spoke with our representative at O’Connor who explained that they are experiencing production delays caused by supply shortages for raw materials as well as recent personnel shortages at their lab. These circumstances are very unusual for O’Connor and many other businesses dealing with the same obstacles right now. They share our frustration and are committed to completing our orders as soon as they are able. O’Connor Studios appreciates your patience and hopes to have our print photographs and digital uploads ready sometime between November 26 and November 29. Given how close that is to our scheduled Retake/Absentee Day on December 1, we are pushing that date back one week to allow families enough time to review their photos before deciding whether they want a retake. The new Retake/Absentee Day is on Wednesday, December 8 at both campuses. We will keep you posted if there are any more changes. Please feel free to reach out to Carol Fiore at [email protected] with any questions.
NEW! Board of Directors Web Page - We have added a Board of Directors page to our website. The page features short biographies of each of our Board members, as well as meeting minutes and a form for contacting the Board with questions. You can find the page by clicking HERE.
NEW! Wear Your Uniform to Mass this Weekend! - The Diocese of Manchester Catholic Schools celebrate NH Catholic Schools Week from November 14-20 and students are invited to wear their school uniforms to mass at any parish this weekend! Snap a photo and share on our Saint Chris Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/SaintChrisAcademy or use #nhcsw21 on Instagram!
NEW! Lower Campus Water Bottles - Installation of our lower campus water bottle fillers is underway! We are waiting on some final installation details and we hope to have them operational after Thanksgiving. We will let you know when they are ready for use!
In the meantime, please be sure to send your child in with a reusable water bottle...or two...FULL of water. Provide water bottles or bottle refills for all students at the lower campus is cost prohibitive and we continue to have all water fountains blocked in accordance with our COVID protocols. Thanks!
UPDATED!! Upper Campus Tri-County Basketball Tryouts (Grades 6-8) -- Tonight is the final night of tryouts at the upper campus. Thank you to all of our student athletes for their good sportsmanship and hard work this week!
Upper Campus Wrestling and Spirit Teams -- We are currently looking for coaches for the middle school wrestling and spirit (non-competition) programs. Along with trying to fill these vacancies, we are still working behind the scenes to get all this information put together so we can relay it most effectively to the parents of those interested students. More information on these teams will be given shortly, and we will hold a separate brief informational meeting for these teams. Exact start dates are still TBD.
NEW! Education Freedom Awards - We have been notified that Education Freedom Accounts awards are being actively processed and awarded to eligible families who applied for the program. Parents should look for an email from the Children’s Scholarship Fund for more information.
LIBRARY NEWS - Changes to the Lower Campus Birthday Book Program - This year we will be approaching the Birthday Book program a little differently since the books are taking a very long time to come in! If you would like to order a book for the library in your student's name commemorating their birthday, please send an email to me and let me know. Your student will choose a library bound book and I will send home a slip with the book name and cost, usually between $10-$15. Once the book comes in, I will process it with a bookplate which will include your student's name, their birth month and school year. The bookplate will be placed on the inside cover.Your student will be the first to check it out! I will be sending home notices in November and January. You do not need to wait for a notice. The sooner we get the orders in the better! Thank you so much for supporting our school library. Happy Reading!
SCRIP for Christmas! – Did you know that you can purchase gift cards to most popular retailers and restaurants quickly and easily online through the Shop with Scrip Program…AND benefit St. Chris at the same time? Click HERE, create an account using our school code 751C7D6L13155, order gift cards from a long list of retailers and restaurants and the gift cards will be shipped directly to the school. You’ll usually receive your gift cards in under a week, and the school receives anywhere from 1.25% to 14% of your gift card purchase! Christmas is a perfect time to give the program a try, with gift card options like Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks, Target, and Barnes and Noble! SCRIP also has an app for your phone! Makes ordering and managing gift cards soooo easy! Check out RaiseRight by ShopWithScrip!
Donation Drives -- Helping others less fortunate than ourselves is always a priority of our Saint Chris community, especially as the challenges of winter approach. To that end, we have two important donation drives happening over the next few weeks at both campuses:
Socks and Underwear Drive - Student Jack Foster is coordinating a drive to collect new socks and underwear to benefit at-risk veterans and those who are homeless within our community through the Officer Sean A. Collier Memorial Fund. Collection bins will be available in both lobbies until November 19. Please see the flyer HERE.
Coat Drive - We will also be collecting new or gently used warm coats for children and adults as part of the Coats for Kids and Families Coat Drive hosted by Anton’s Cleaners. There will be a box for collections in the lobbies of both campuses from November 8 through November 15. Please see the flyer HERE for more details.
Lower Campus Birthday Treats - A reminder to lower campus parents that when sending in birthday or holiday treats for your student’s classroom, ALL treats must be individually wrapped, commercially-prepared, prepackaged items. Things like Rice Krispie treats, juice boxes, small individual bags of chips or pretzels, candy, carrot stick and dip packets, etc. are fine. Home baked items, even if individually wrapped, or communal fruit or veggie trays are not allowed. (Note: Non-food items are also a great choice! Think pencils, sticker packages, etc.) These restrictions are necessary to eliminate any potential COVID or other virus exposure. Thank you!
NEXT WEEK! Hot Lunch Orders for December - Ordering for December’s Hot Lunch is now open and runs through midnight on Monday, November 15th on Booli.com. Please be sure to place your order early in case of technological difficulties. You will receive an email confirmation once your order has been placed….if you do not receive that email, your order has not yet been placed and your child will not receive Hot Lunch for the month.
Applications for 2022-2023 - Do you know a family who would like to join the Saint Chris community next year? Do you have a younger child who will be ready for PreK or Kindergarten next year? Applications are now being accepted for new students for the 2022-2023 school year! Veteran families can complete a new student application through their Family Portal. New families should start the process HERE. Note: Reenrollment for all current students will take place starting on January 1, 2022.
Happy Hearts Day Care - Happy Hearts Daycare, located across the street from the lower campus at 12 Cushing Ave, has two openings for extended care. The hours are 6:30 to 8:30 AM and 3:00 to 5:30 PM. They accommodate students on snow days, two hour delay, early release, no school days (except for the major holidays) and even if there is a power outage :) They also provide care on the Christmas, February and April vacation weeks. If interested, please call...880-6575.