Dear Parents,

St. Therese 2nd Annual Read-A-Thon
Our 2nd Annual Read-A-Thon, to support Children’s Hope International and Nothing but Nets, was held on March 6, 2008 and was a great success. We raised nearly $2500 for Nothing but Nets and nearly $1000 for Children’s Hope. Independently, our children raised $1085.59 for the Rice Bowl 2008 collection. Congratulations, and thank you for your support for these worthy causes.

Look/Hear Grant
Thanks to a grant from Big Shoulders Fund, our children at St. Therese were able to participate in a free vision and hearing screening for all children grades 1 – 8. (Our early childhood screening for PK, JK and K, called ChildFind, includes a vision and hearing screening.) For any child who failed the vision portion of the screening, they went on to receive another screening and fitting for free glasses from Lenscrafters! Those glasses will be delivered to the school sometime later this month.

TerraNova Results
The TerraNova summary results for grades K – 8 are enclosed in this month’s packet. If you have any questions regarding you child’s score, please send me an email or arrange a time to with me and/or your child’s teacher. The TerraNova results were very good, particularly in the upper grades, but they are only one measure to determine a snapshot of a child’s learning.

Promethean Boards and a Report on our First Technology Open House
Thank you to all the school board members, alumni and friends of St. Therese who helped celebrate our first Technology Open House on April 22nd. The enthusiasm regarding our technology enhancements resonated with the presentations and the direction of the overall project. I am pleased to announce that more Promethean Boards will be arriving before the end of the year. Grades PK, 1, 2, 3, and 4 will soon be receiving their ActivBoards. In addition, a large 95” Activboard designated for our technology room will also be installed by the end of the school year. Additional desktops with flatscreens will be brought in to classrooms PK – 2nd grades. All of these enhancements were made possible through the generosity of our alumni, friends, parents and focused fundraising efforts of our school board. THANK YOU.

Security Updates and an Intercom
Over the spring break we had the camera surveillance system installed thanks to a safety block grant from the State of Illinois. The system will monitor more closely the activities within the building, around the building and the parking lot. We are now examining costs to install an intercom system within the school. We believe this will occur over summer.

Uniform Fittings
We are switching uniform providers to Martinelli’s. They are located at 3517 W. 95th Street. They will be here on May 14th for uniform fittings at 8:15 am. In addition, they will carry our gym and school uniforms in stock at their store. During the year, I believe it will be easier for our families to travel to this location to buy what they need than do a mail order.

Afterschool Snack
I encourage you to continue to send a healthy snack and drink with your child if they attend any afterschool program. I am very concerned that our older children do not always have a snack with them. Lunchtime until 5 pm pickup is a very long stretch of time.

Sincerely,

Ms. Cavallone
Principal