Saint Peter’s Postings – News from Saint Peter School in Somerset

St. Peter School’s 2019-2020 school year kicked off on Tuesday, August 27th. New and old faces provided the sunshine on a rather soggy day. But our spirits could not be dampened especially when our friend, Ian Rosenbaum, got off the bus and walked into his classroom for the first time since his diagnosis last fall! Talk about a holy moment! Ian’s smile and the outpouring of excitement to have him back with us truly gave us all more reasons to embrace this new year as a blessing! An Opening Day Mass was led by Monsignor Tomaselli and with that the year was in full swing. This year’s theme is “Called to be Saints…the Superheroes of God!” We will study and celebrate the saints throughout the year as we look for those “holy moments” in our days when we too are called to be saintly in what we say and do. We will continue with our Faith Families this year and plan to have Faith Families and Homerooms adopt a patron saint for the year. One of our new initiatives is the new online practice program called Moby Max. With it, students will be able to log on and practice skills in all core subjects (except Religion) and with teacher input, those skills can be differentiated as needed for individual needs. More information about this will be sent home in the coming weeks. We also were able to purchase many new STEM items for our school for all grades including Lego’s, Dot & Dash, Little Bits and many others. We will be rotating items in classroom this year. Special thanks to the Diocesan office for help with this project! We also want to thank our Maintenance and Rectory staffs for their help in preparing the school for the new year including new security cameras that give us extra views of the outside of the school and new lighting in the Library classroom as well as many other improvements. Here’s to a great year of learning and growing in faith each day!

The St. Peter School PTA is starting the year off with lunch and supper opportunities for busy families! This month they are leading our school’s Marianna’s Sub and Pizza Fundraiser! What a great time to knock off a few dinners or lunches with these items as fall sports, dance schedules and homework rev up again. All families received order forms in the first Family Folder and forms and money are due by September 10th. Items will be delivered to the Parish Hall and available for pick-up on Friday, September 20th. If successful we hope to offer this fundraiser monthly so be sure to spread the word! The PTA will hold it’s first meeting on Monday, September 16th at 7pm in the Parish Hall. This year’s officers include: Co-Presidents: Mandie Acey and David Sube; Co-Vice Presidents: Jenn McKelvey and Karen Menser; Secretary: Ann Stoy; Treasurer: Lindsey Swearman. The officers will be on hand at the Open House on Monday evening, September 9th, for parents to sign up for different events coming up this year. We also extend a sincere thanks to the PTA for their purchase of eight MacBooks for the faculty this year and the acquisition of two new mounts for Smart Projector installment. The PTA, in partnership with Mrs. Harris, has also been leading efforts to acquire some grant money to upgrade and extend the Ipads in the school for classroom use. Be sure to find out how you can use your gifts and talents to help our PTA. There will be event sign-ups at the Open House, the PTA Meeting and we will send surveys home as well.

Many of our seasoned volunteers who have been around for a while will soon be notified that they need to update or renew some of their clearances and background checks to continue to volunteer at our school. It has been almost five years since many of us completed these and the state extended the three year expiration to five years in 2017. So if any of the required clearances are older than 2014, they will need renewed. Since 2014 there have been many changes to the requirements including the addition of Act 126 Mandated Reporter Training and the return to the “Virtus” diocesan format. Volunteers should be notified by email when their clearances need updated. You can also call the school and find out as well. As always, we ask that if you are renewing clearances of any kind, to please submit any and all paperwork or certificates to the school office or at least copies to the office. We will then submit them to the diocese after making copies for our records. Very often throughout the school year, parents will call and ask for a copy of a clearance for volunteer coaching or other activity then we have copies here. It is also a good idea to keep copies for yourself when and if possible. The new Act 126 Mandated Reporter Training is now required for all volunteers (only when it is time to renew clearances.) The free video course is quite lengthy but can be paused and completed at different times. We also anticipate an “in person” combined workshop of VIRTUS and Mandated Reporter Training in the early spring. Again, volunteers will be notified by email or other means when and if clearances and trainings require updating or renewal. As always, we thank our volunteers for their efforts in acquiring all the needed clearances and for their valuable time and commitment to our school. Feel free to always call the school with any questions or concerns.