The Principal’s November 2024 Newsletter

The Mission of St. Joseph Catholic School is to develop the whole child through an excellent education that is rooted in gospel values and the traditions of the Catholic Church. We strive to work in partnership with committed families and parishes of North Central Washington to form effective servant leaders and intentional disciples of Christ.

Greetings School Families,

It is hard to believe that two months have passed since the beginning of the school year, and we now find ourselves in the month of November. October was a terrific month of celebration and honoring our Holy Mother Mary as well as honoring our loved ones who have passed on. The Trunk or Treat was a huge hit and a beautiful time to come together as a community. Thank you, Parents’ Club, for sponsoring this fun event! Thank you to parents and teachers for coming together during Parent/Teacher Conferences this week in collaboration for the growth of our children; it is always so very nice to have our families join us for these meetings.

November will be full of special events as well. This coming week, our 3rd-6th grade students will have the opportunity to teach the community about the saints they have been studying over the month of October at our annual Saint Fair that will be Monday, 11/4, at 5:30 pm in the school gym. We hope to see you there. Next Friday, 11/8, we will honor our veterans at our special Veterans’ Day Assembly, led by our 4th grade class. The assembly will be in the school gym at 12:30 pm. Our honor choir will also have the amazing opportunity to sing at the Veterans’ Day concert on Monday, 11/11, at 6:00 p.m. at Saddle Rock Presbyterian Church. This concert is free and open to the public! A little later in the month, we will come together for our very special Grandparents’ Day Mass and program on Tuesday, 11/26. The school Read a Thon, Parent Club’s biggest fundraiser, will take place over the month as well.

The faculty has been hard at work digging into the WCEA Accreditation process as we work on our Self Study. This is a time when we celebrate our successes and recognize the areas in which we can continue to grow. From these discoveries, we can accurately set goals and prioritize our actions. Your input is very important in this process, as you are part of our team. We are grateful for your survey input and for those who are surviving on committees during this process.

We congratulate our 5th grade homeroom/5th & 6th math teacher, Judith Torres, on her recently earned Master’s Degree in Curriculum & Instruction. Way to go, Judy! I would also like to highlight the work that our Director of Teaching and Learning, Erin Stitt, is doing. She meets regularly with our teachers in support and works on coaching cycles with set goals for improvement in areas that the teachers choose for themselves. She has really been a great support for our teachers. We are grateful for our wonderful staff and teachers that go above and beyond each day.

This month we have added an abundance of enrichment activities to our program such as Strings, Baking Club, Drama Club, Math is Cool, Folkloric Dance, and Robotics. It is a pleasure to see our students so engaged and interested in trying new things. We thank our teachers and parent volunteers for taking the time to make all of this happen. We continue to plan for the addition of 7th grade next year and plan to have a parent meeting during November. We will also open enrollment for the 2025-26 school year this month in an effort to best budget based on an accurate student count as early as possible. We will also be making a purposeful outreach effort with our surrounding parishes in order to invite more families to our Catholic school. Sharing your personal testimony of your experience at St. Joe’s and how you think our school is worth the investment is the best way to attract new families and grow our dedicated and vibrant community! We appreciate you making the effort to do this. Have a most blessed month.

Peace-Lisa Martinez