The Phoenix Flyer: St. Thomas More School Newsletter
February 13-17, 2023
Principal’s Message
Building Community – One Body, Many Parts
1 Corinthians 12:12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.
Dear Parents and Families,
We had an amazing Catholic Schools Week! We kicked off the week with guest speakers at all Mass celebrations over the weekend and our Open House on Sunday. A special thank you to alum Makayla Vu, the Meucci Family (Devin, Jackie, Kendall, Gianna and Nolan) and 7th grader, Audrey Rehberger for their amazing speeches. The dress up days were a big hit and even the staff got into the fun. Our Faith Family activities and Catholic Olympics were a wonderful way for our older students to demonstrate their leadership skills. We ended the week with a Student Appreciation Assembly that included an enthusiastic competition between 8th graders and staff. The Book Fair and the events during the week were also a huge success. Thank you for your help and support as we celebrated the reasons we love teaching and learning at St. Thomas More School!
ཞི་བདེ Zhi-Bde (“Peace” in Tibetan),
Elizabeth Glaze
Catholic Schools Week Picture Gallery
Intent to Return
We are beginning the planning process for Registration for the next school year. In order to assess availability for new families, we would like to know the status of our current families. Please let us know if your student(s) will be returning for the 2023-2024 school year.
Dates to Remember
2/20 No School (President’s Day)
2/22 Ash Wednesday Mass, 9am
2/26 6th/ Kindergarten Mass, 10:30am
2/27 Noon Dismissal (teacher in-service)
Auction Update
Invitations to the Dream Big Fly High – Step Into Spring Gala have been sent home, here are a few details for the event:
RSVP for the Gala here: Gala Registration (ejoinme.org)
Embassy Suites Hotel Room Block: Embassy Suites Hotel Room_STMS Auction Gala
Shout Outs!
Auction Catalog recognition ads are a great way for parents, families, and friends to recognize and commemorate students, teachers, staff, and volunteers. Go ahead and send them love and recognize their achievements, milestones and show gratitude!
Full Page: $50
Half Page: $25
Deadline date to turn this is on Wednesday, February 8, 2023.
STMS Auction Catalog Shout Out
Jessica Lang | Auction Procurement Team | St. Thomas More School
Cell (425) 890-5891 Email: jessica@nvllaw.com
Follow Along @stmsauction
Judges Needed for Speech Tournament
On March 8 and 9, we will hold our Speech Tournament for grades 3-8. We are in need of judges for the different speech events. Parents who do not have a student in the competition are welcome to participate and earn volunteer hours.
If you or someone you know can help judge the tournament, please contact the school office.
Parent Club
Another win for STMS!!
Congratulations to our STM Speech Team for their tremendous hard work and dedication! They competed against several catholic schools in the State and they did an incredible job at the Speech Tournament at Seattle Prep this past weekend!
Our STM students were eloquent, confident, and poised in their presentations!
Huge Shout out to Miss Watters and Jay for their time, care, and leadership and our appreciation to the entire Speech Team! Way to rise Phoenix! We are so proud of you!!
Yummy Chocolate!
Our Chocolate Fundraiser is coming up! Thank you to Tara Meucci for leading this event and to Fadia Kassab for all your continued support! Stay tuned for more details!!
Have a fantastic short week and enjoy your Friday off!
Francesca and Suzi
Scrip
SCRIP NEWS!
Plan your Valentine Dinner, Activities, and Gifts with Scrip this February!
IN PERSON SALE TIMES:
Wednesday 8-9am
Friday 2:45-3:30pm (not on half days)
Every other Sunday 9:30-10:30am – Feb 5th & Feb 19th
FEBRUARY CHALLENGE:
LOCAL VENDOR HIGHLIGHT:
Buy Scrip & Check out Fat Pig BBQ just down the street in Perrinville! YUM! https://www.eatfatpigbbq.com/menu
SAFEWAY GIFT CARDS
Safeway cards currently in our inventory are no longer reloadable. NEW reloadable cards will NOT be purchased until the current ones are sold out. So we’re having a CLEARANCE SALE! All Safeway Cards purchased from Feb 8th until we are out of the non-reloadable cards will EARN 8% REBATE! Get them while they are still available!
*Shout out to Therese Sarr and Marietta Daily, two of our newest Scrip volunteers who stepped in on Friday afternoon in the wild rain to sell Scrip! Thank you!
Email us at stmpsscrip@gmail.com for questions and to join our team!
Speech Team
Congratulations Speech Team!
The STMS Speech Team just completed their third and final tournament at Seattle Prepatory High School in Seattle last Saturday.
Congratulations to:
Jasmine and Sara, finalists in Duo
Blen, finalist for Impromptu
Amaya and Olivia, 3rd for Duo
Amen, 3rd for both Impromptu and Ed. Com
Mia, 2nd for Humorous Interpretation
A big thank you to Samantha Locke and Jay Laush who volunteered their time throughout the year to coach the Speech Team with Miss Watters.
Local Area Events
Thursday, February 9, 6:30-9:30pm: St. Brendan’s is hosting a middle school (7th and 8th grade) dance and has invited STMS students. Please see the details in the flyer below – the flyer also includes the permission slip, which is required of all students, as well as their ID card. St. Brendan’s has provided the following information regarding safety and security for the event:
The dress is casual (please see the flyer for further dress code reminders). The cost of the dance is ten dollars per student. Students will need to bring their student ID and a signed permission form (attached). Additionally, we will be selling concessions, so students are welcome to bring extra spending money for that.
St. Brendan’s Dance, February 9
Book Fair
A Clifford-sized THANK YOU to everyone who supported the Book Fair this year.
It was awesome to be able to bring back our Family Night with the Space Stations.
About twenty 3rd & 4th graders entertained families with their storybooks at the “Reading Under the Stars” event.
Many classroom teachers received new books for their libraries thanks to you. We raised and purchased $340+ worth of books for Hugs for Ghana and the library will receive approximately $2000 in benefits for new books and materials for the school library.
THANK YOU especially to the many volunteers!
We can’t put on these events for the school without you.
Specialist Spotlight
Our specialists work hard to provide a variety of interesting and engaging activities for all of our students. We would like to share some of the highlights of their work, as well as a little bit more about each of them.
Miss Watters thinks she has the BEST job at STMS – librarian! Miss Watters came to St. Thomas More in 2008. She moved here from the small town she grew up in and where she had spent seven years teaching high school special education before getting her Library Media endorsement. Despite being away from her family, she found family and community here at St. Thomas More. It is support and sense of community that Miss Watters appreciates most about St. Thomas More.
One of the best things about Miss Watters’ position is getting students excited about books and fostering their love of reading. One of her greatest joys is when students are so excited for the next book in a series or they find one that they are so excited for that they can barely contain their excitement waiting to get it. Miss Watters loves seeing the smiles on their faces as they check out books or when she brings them that special book they’ve been waiting for.
Miss Watters also teaches students how to use the library and how to find and use information. For her lessons, Miss Watters pulls from Common Core English and Language Arts Standards and the Washington Library Association’s Library and Information Technology framework. For middle school, Miss Watters uses Common Sense Media’s Digital Citizenship curriculum.
Besides Librarian, Miss Watters gets to wear other hats at STM. She has and is currently teaching the 8th grade Honor’s Literature class. She loves the focus on novel study and getting to experience the books with her class. For approximately ten years, she has been the Student Council advisor guiding them in decision-making and stewardship activities for our school. She has been a Speech Team Coach in some capacity since 2008. Speech Team is an extracurricular activity for middle school students to compete at tournaments sponsored by Archdiocese high schools. For the last three years she has taken on the role of Yearbook Advisor, so this is why you will often see her with a camera around school.
Miss Watters loves all the different hats she gets to wear at STM both figuratively and literally. She loves to dress up for all the spirit days. It was her love of school and learning that made Miss Watters go into education so she does all she can to instill this to as many students as she can through the library and her many other roles STM.
Hot Lunch
All pizza lunches will include choice of drink (water, soda, juice) and a treat.
Hot dog lunches will include choice of drink (water, soda, juice) bag of chips and treat.
Cost is $5 per lunch extra slice or hot dog is additional $1. Please see the link below for the order form.
If you volunteer to help with our Hot Lunch fundraisers, please use the Sign Up Genius below:
STMS Hot Lunch Fundraiser – Volunteers Needed
Hot Lunch Schedule through March
Feb 10 NO SCHOOL | Feb 17 Pizza | |
Feb 24 Grilled Cheese | Mar 3 Pizza | Mar 10 Pizza |
Mar 17 Grilled Cheese | Mar 24 Pizza | Mar 31 Pizza |
School Mass & Assembly Schedule
This year each grade level will lead the 3rd Sunday Mass (or Saturday vigil Mass), which coincides with Coffee & Donuts (with the exceptions of December, April, and June). Please see the table below for Mass times and participating grade level . All participants and attendees in school uniform will get a free dress pass. Please note we have made revisions to the scheduled Masses.
Feb 22, 9am | Ash Wednesday Mass |
Feb 26, 10:30 ** | 6th Grade and Kindergarten |
Mar 19, 10:30* | 3rd Grade |
April | Spring Break |
May 21, 10:30 | 5th and 1st Grades |
*The February date has been changed from 2/19 to 2/26 to not conflict with President’s Day weekend.
**The March time has been changed from 8:30 to 10:30
Volunteers
Parents who wish to volunteer will need to be current on their Virtus Training, Protecting God’s Children and complete the School Volunteer Agreement attesting to their vaccination status. Parents wishing to volunteer inside the school building will need to be fully vaccinated.
Here are some upcoming training dates that are nearby (register on Virtus):
2/16 St. Madeleine Sophie, Bellevue, 6pm
2/18 St. Mary Magdalen, Everett, 9am (Vietnamese)
2/28 Holy Family, Kirkland, 6:30pm
3/15 St. Mary Magdalen, Everett
Trainings are good for 3 years. If you need to renew your status, you can do so online at Virtusonline.org.
CYO
3rd Grade Girls Basketball 3 on 3 Half-Court
League Games: Apr. 21/23, 28/30, May 5/7, 12/14, 19/21, Jun. 2/4
Game Locations: Parish gyms Registration Deadline: 3/10
Coach: Coach needed Practice: depends on the coach’s availability
Practice Location and Time: TBD
4th Thru 8th Grade Track and Field
(3rd Graders may run if we do not have enough 4th graders)
Prelim Meet 5/6, Relay Meet 5/13, Qualifying Meet 5/20, Championship Meet 6/3
Meet Location: Highline Stadium (400 S 156th St. Burien)
8th Grade Pentathlon 5/21 West Seattle Stadium (4432 35th Ave. SW Seattle)
Registration Deadline: 3/31 Coach: Jerome Angeles, need assistant coaches
Practice: TBD Practice Location: Meadowdale Middle or Alderwood Middle
Register at: https://www.teamsideline.com/seattlecyo
***We still need coaches for 3rd Grade Girls Basketball and Track. If you would like to volunteer, please contact Karen Pena at kjpena77@gmail.com
Please contact Karen Pena at kjpena77@gmail.com for questions.
School Commission – Committee Members Needed
The School Commission is looking for parents interested in joining the committees designated to work on school priorities. If you are interested in joining any of the committees, please email Vickie Jarman, “Vickie Jarman” vljarman@hotmail.com or Maria Houser, “Maria Houser” maykahlo34@yahoo.com.
- Safety/ Facilities & Maintenance: Review facilities for safety concerns; help make recommendations on needed services and materials.
- Technology: Review tech needs and make recommendations.
- Fundraising: Review fundraising efforts for viability and make recommendations for future fundraising activities.
- Grants: Research grants that meet needs of school. Write grant proposals.
- Strategic Planning: Assist with long-range school planning based on accreditation goals.
Guidelines for COVID, Flu and RSV
Please continue to keep your child at home if they are ill. We will continue to follow the advice and recommendations of the Snohomish Health District as we navigate the cold and flu season. If students have active symptoms from any respiratory infections and/or have a fever, they should not come to school.
Please see the letter published from the Snohomish Health District from November 18, 2022.
St. Thomas More School is following the COVID guidelines published by the Washington State Department of Health and the Snohomish Health District. As of the end of October, STMS had 7 reported cases of COVID-19 positive test results to date.
The Snohomish Health District has recently revised their guidelines. The link to the guidelines can be found below:
If your child exhibits COVID-19 symptoms at school, they will be asked to wear a mask, and we will call home. We have COVID-19 testing available and may require proof of a negative test prior to their return to school. The options for testing are:
- Testing is conducted at home by the parent, and a copy of the negative test is sent to the school.
- Testing is conducted by the parent at STMS with our testing supplies.
- Testing is conducted by one of the office staff at STMS.
If your child tests positive, the quarantine period is 5-10 days. If after 5 days, your child is symptom free he/she may return to school (wearing a mask) as long as you provide proof of a negative test result. Negative tests should be emailed to the STMS office staff. Siblings of a child who test positive, or if a child is exposed to someone else in the home who tests positive, may return to school as long as there are no COVID-19 symptoms with proof of a negative and remain masked.
Patrol
Anyone looking for volunteer hours? We can always use your help in patrol!! You will receive 1 hour for every AM or PM day. Please contact me (Robert Trias) for which days you are available and either mornings (AM) or afternoons (PM) or both. You contact myself @ (206)353-2000 or TRIAS0175@yahoo.com , I will also be doing patrol every Monday (PM), so you can talk to me at school.
Thank you!!!
Coffee & Donuts
Please see the links below to sign up. We need more people to sign up for the 8:30 Mass.
Website
We are continuing to revise and improve the website. You can now access the calendar under the Parents tab for to see upcoming events. There is also updated Auction information. We will continue to keep you informed of updates and improvements throughout the year.