Dear St. Raphael School Families and Parishioners,

I hope everyone has enjoyed Spring Break and that you are refreshed and ready to come back to school on Monday, March 23rd. This will be the start of our 4th Quarter of school. Please note that 3rd Quarter Report Cards will be available for viewing online on Fast Direct on Friday, March 27th by 3pm. There was some confusion about this earlier in the school year. Since everything is available online, we no longer print hard copies of Report Cards unless you specifically request it. Look for a Flock Note from me on March 27th to let you know that 3rd Quarter Report Cards are open for viewing on Fast Direct.

One of the great things that happened on Grandparents Day was achieving greater awareness of our Library and its needs. Thanks to Mrs. Marti Finan for overseeing this effort! Mrs. Finan offered books to be purchased and donated to the Library on Grandparents Day, as well as the ability to make generic donations. She created book plates to permanently install into books, naming the donor, and to whom the book is dedicated. The response from our Grandparents and Special Friends was overwhelming! In this way, we were able to add high quality and much needed books to our Library, and recognize our donors in a meaningful way.

If you’ve seen our Library on the first floor, you know that it is a small and cozy space. However we have big dreams for this Library. We are planning to digitize the entire collection this summer, enabling us to use electronic records for check-out and check-in of books. Mrs. Finan and I are working to upgrade the quality of titles, and to increase the number of appropriate titles for our older students. We are exploring creative ways to increase the number of titles in our cozy space, perhaps by utilizing some mobile storage and scheduled rotation of books. These are exciting changes ahead for our St. Raphael School Library; please let Mrs. Finan know if you would like to help contribute!

Looking Ahead…

• Saturday, March 21……….Mouse Races fundraiser for 8th Grade

• Monday, March 23rd……..School Resumes

• Wednesday, March 25…...Special 8am Mass, Annunciation of the Lord, 1st Grade

• Friday, March 27th……….Report Cards available at 3pm; Science Fair Projects due today; Stations of the Cross at 2pm

• Saturday, March 28th…….Bellarmine Speech Meet at St. Raphael

• Sunday, March 29th……….Family Mass at 10am; Science Fair Projects on display in cafeteria

• Wednesday, April 1st……...Spring Picture Day

• Thursday, April 2…….Noon Dismissal

• Friday, April 3………..No School Preschool - 8

• Sunday, April 5……….Easter Sunday

• Monday, April 6……...No School Preschool - 8

Peace & Blessings,

Kim Vangel

Principal