The Principal’s September 2024 Newsletter

Greetings School Families,

It has been a truly blessed start to the 2024-25 school year! Thank you all for your continued
support, involvement, and prayers. It is through this collective effort that our program flourishes.

This is a very special time at St. Joe’s, as we expand our offerings to the middle school level. Our inaugural 6th grade class is just returning from three nights away at Cispus Learning Center in Randle, WA. They have had an excellent time participating in outdoor educational activities, bonding as a group, and growing in their faith. We are thankful for this opportunity and for the teachers and parents who took time out of their busy schedules to attend and help at camp.

As our student body grows in numbers and in grade level offerings, we will be in need of a more permanent middle school space. Because of this need and the need for a larger space for all faith related activities at the church, there are plans to finish the lower level of Kuykendall Hall as the St. Joseph Faith Formation Center. The school will use these classrooms during the weekdays, and the rooms will be used for adult and youth faith formation on evenings and weekends. The capital campaign to raise $3,000,000 is currently kicking off, and we have already raised over $200,000! We believe that we can reach this goal and hope to be able to start construction this year. We will need help in these efforts. Please consider how you can offer a gift that will aid in realizing this dream that will serve a multitude of beautiful purposes for a great number of people over many, many, years to come. HERE is more information about the project. We invite all families to attend our upcoming school-led Mass, with students dressed in Friday Mass uniforms, on Sunday, September 15, at 9:00 a.m. Our choir will be there to sing and we will have student readers as well. This is also Catechetical Sunday, a day that all teachers of the faith are honored. All students in attendance will receive a free dress day coupon for a designated date in the future-please come represent the school!

We are so very grateful for all of the children we serve, for our dedicated and skilled faculty and staff, and for our families and supporters. In an effort to always include our families as team members in the educational process, we invite you all to our upcoming Curriculum Night at the school on Wednesday, September 18, starting at 6:00 p.m. in the school gym. We will start with an WCEA Accreditation update and self study timeline as well as sharing our updated mission statement. We will also address additional schoolwide material and introduce staff. Following this whole group time, there will be very important short presentations in classrooms that will cover curriculum, schedule, routines, opportunity to sign up to volunteer etc. The evening should conclude by 7:30 p.m. This event is not for students, but for parents and guardians. We hope to see you all there!

My door is always open, and I greatly appreciate collaboration. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to me so we can set up a meeting. Have a wonderful month.

Peace & Blessings,
Lisa Martinez
Principal