August 31, 2014
Dear St. Raphael School Families and Parishioners,
I hope that the temperatures have cooled off a bit by the time you read this letter ? these nearly 100 degree days are pretty unbearable outside. But they do remind us how fortunate we are at St. Raphael to be fully air-conditioned! While other schools are calling off school in the afternoons due to heat, we are comfortable inside, learning and working. Thanks to our wonderful parents and parishioners for their support!

As you heard at Back to School Night, we are beginning the School Improvement Process this fall. You will be hearing lots about this process over the next two years, but basically, the idea is that we have an opportunity to take a hard look at what we are doing well, and where we need improvement as a school and school community. We will be asking for your participation and involvement all along the way. I encourage you to start thinking about what you love about St. Raphael, and dream about where you?d like to see us go as a school. We?ll be asking for your input soon. Many thanks to Tom Finan, School Board President, who has agreed to chair this School Improvement Process (SIP), and to members of the School Board, who will be leading the various committees and projects that are part of the process. It truly takes collaboration between all members of the school community to have a successful SIP, and I am confident that SRA is up to the challenge!

In another example of collaboration, we have begun a Professional Development program this year for our teachers at SRA, along with all of the teachers from St. Joan of Arc, St. Stephen, and Our Lady of Sorrows. All four faculties met together the week before school started, and were treated to a presentation on Formative Assessments, a teaching technique and tool that is one of our top priorities for development this year at SRA. We are scheduled to meet again four more times throughout the school year. At these meetings, teachers will be grouped into grade level or subject area Professional Learning Communities (PLC?s). They will learn new techniques, share information about their own successes and failures in the classroom, and offer support and guidance to one another. We have already been using this professional development format for two years at SRA, and we are excited to branch out and continue using PLC?s successfully with teachers from other schools. We believe that all teachers will benefit from these connections and guidance from their colleagues at other area Catholic schools.
A quick note about our online gradebooks on Fast Direct: Normally these gradebooks are up and running by now, and parents and students can check the gradebooks online at any time. However, our gradebook set-up has been a bit delayed this year with our transition to Standards-Based Grading. I am working with Fast Direct to have the system we need in place, and it should be up and running by next week, the first week of September. Online grades should be available for you to see sometime next week. Remember that these grades will be on the 0-4 Scale, and they will not be averaged, as I explained on Back to School Night, and as is explained in the ?Parent Guide To Standards-Based Grading at SRA, 2014-2015.? Please feel free to contact me and/or your child?s teacher(s) if you have any questions about grades and our new system of grading. Please keep in mind that the purpose of grades is to determine the level of student learning at that particular time. This is a shift in thinking for all of us, so let?s all be patient with one another!

Enjoy this long weekend when we pay tribute to all those who labor , and we will see everyone back at school on Tuesday morning, September 2 ^nd.
Peace and Blessings,
Kim Vangel
Principal