The Phoenix Flyer: St. Thomas More School Newsletter
June 10-14, 2024
Principal’s Message
Jeremiah 29:11 “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’
Dear Parents and Families,
This week we said goodbye to our 8th graders in style. They enjoyed a wonderful breakfast hosted by our 7th grade students and families – thank you for all of your hard work. Later that evening we celebrated at the graduation ceremony, attended by many past STMS students and teachers.
This final week has been a flurry of activity as enjoy our last bit of time together before the summer break. As we say good-bye to another academic year, I have these words of prayer:
Dear Lord, Thank You for guiding us through this school year. We are grateful for the lessons learned and the friendships made. Please bless our summer with rest and joy. Keep us safe and bring us back ready to grow in faith and knowledge. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
In Christ,
Elizabeth Glaze
Dates to Remember
6/13 Field Day – students wear Faith Family colors
6/14 Moving Up Ceremony (wear your Sunday best); Last Day of School, Dismissal Follows
8/21 Preschool 3, PreK 4 and New Parent Orientation
8/27 First Day of School, K-8, Noon Dismissal
8/30-9/2 Labor Day Weekend, No School
9/5 Parents Club Meeting, 8:30 am
9/9 First Day of School, PreK 4 and Preschool 3, Noon Dismissal
PreK 4 Graduation
Our PreK 4 students celebrated their graduation to Kindergarten last week. Here are some of the (very cute) photos.
Welcome to St. Thomas More!
Catherine Gonzales – PreK/ Preschool Assistant Teacher
Catherine Gonzales has worked for several years as an assistant elementary teacher in a Catholic school. She recently completed her Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education and has been serving as a prekindergarten teacher at a private Christian school during the 2023-24 class year. She loves teaching and laughing with children! She lives in Lynnwood and in her spare time, she enjoys drinking coffee, cooking, playing board games with friends, and going for easy hikes.
Elizabeth Badley – First Grade
Elizabeth Badley joins us as our first-grade teacher after seven years at an Everett public elementary school where she worked with K-5th grade students as a reading room paraeducator and with first graders as an interventionist. Inspired by her love for students and the amazing teachers she worked with, she completed her teaching degree and looks forward to connecting with and serving the families at STMS. She is deeply committed to Catholic education. Her five children (aged 26, 24, 21, 16, and 11 years-old) all attended Catholic school including Holy Names and O’Dea High Schools. Over the years, she volunteered as the speech team coach, extension and art teacher, and soccer registrar at Our Lady of Hope School. She also served for a total of 6 years as a youth minister at Immaculate Conception Church in Arlington and OLOH in Everett. In her spare time, she enjoys keeping score at her youngest son’s lacrosse games, hanging out with the family on the Skykomish River, and visiting her adult children in Montana and North Carolina.
Kelsey Ramos – Third Grade
Kelsey Ramos is excited to join the staff of St. Thomas More as our third grade teacher. Kelsey has been an educator in Catholic schools for nine years (including seven years at Immaculate Conception/ Our Lady of Hope) and has taught kindergarten, first, and third grades. She holds an MA in Teaching from St. Mary’s College of California. Kelsey lives in Lynnwood and spends much of her free time visiting local trails, parks, and libraries with her three-year-old daughter.
Kari Hopper – Fourth Grade
Kari Hopper is so excited to be joining the STMS family this Fall 2024! She has been involved with Catholic Religious Education for over 30 years. She began her elementary teaching years at Immaculate Conception/ Our Lady of Hope School teaching Early Childhood Education. While teaching PreK, Kari felt the calling to teach at the elementary level. This brought her to Northshore School District, where she worked as a Para Educator in Special Education while completing her Masters Degree in Education from Western Governors University. After completing her Masters Degree, she continued to teach at the elementary level in the Northshore School District teaching Highly Capable students in 3rd, 4th and 5th Grades. In addition to her MA in Education she holds a bachelor’s degree from Central Washington University and teaching certificates in Early Childhood and Elementary Education. She considers herself a lifelong learner.
Kari grew up in Edmonds. In Kari’s spare time she enjoys biking, swimming, traveling, reading and spending time with her family. She and her husband just celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary. They have three grown children and 6 grandchildren. Her learning philosophy is to “Make learning fun!”
Referral Program
Would you like to get a month’s tuition for free? When you refer a family and they enroll their child(ren) at STMS grade K-8, once that family completes their first year with us, both the new family and the referring family will receive the equivalent of one month’s tuition (single-child tuition).
Who could you refer to STMS?
2024-25 Calendar Highlights
The 2024-25 Yearly List of Events has been added to the Calendar Page of the Website.
Click the link below.
St. Thomas More Parish Events
Vacation Bible School, August 5-9, 2024. See the flyer below for information on how to register.
STM Vacation Bible School Flyer
Parent Club
We are so grateful to all the parents, students, and families that have volunteered throughout the year in helping make our community events like the Intercultural Festival, Book Fair, Gala Auction, Pixie Shop, Movie Night, Halloween Party etc, and our fundraising activities a huge success! We appreciate your time, love, and contribution to our school and parish! You are the heart that makes this OHANA community so special! Have a wonderful summer!
And to our amazing team of STM teachers and staff – Thank you for your leadership, your dedication, and endless support and care for our children! We are Blessed to be part of such a strong and nurturing community! Those that are leaving, we wish you all the very best in your new chapter and hope this has been a most memorable time with STMS for you!!
Have a fun and restful summer break everyone!! See you at VBS or in the next school year!
Parents Club
Coffee & Donuts
Parents Club
We are looking for more folks to join our team next year, as well as someone to take over for Nick Golla to organize and oversee this program. This role is in communication with Cathy Bellande in the Parish and Principal Glaze to coordinate dates to match up when the school hosts the Masses (usually the 3rd week of the month) as well as organizing the volunteers for each Sunday we host. Super easy and a great way to get those volunteer hours. You will be trained!
Box Top$ for Education
Parents help us raise fund for STMS when you shop. It’s as easy as registering on the BoxTop$ For Education app the scanning your receipts! Please call Mrs. Heather Anderson in the school office if you have any questions (425) 743-4242.
Local Area Events
League Advantage Youth Football Camp with Abraham Lucas
Seattle Seahawk and STMS and AMHS alum, Abraham Lucas, will host the League Advantage Youth Football Camp at Saturday, June 29 at Archbishop Murphy HS from 1:00pm – 5:00pm. This event is free to attend and open to boys and girls in grades 3-8. Please see the link below for more information on registration.
League Advantage Football Camp with Abraham Lucas
Meadowdale Youth Basketball Camp
The Edmonds School District is hosing a 3-day basketball camp from July 8-10 at Meadowdale High School. Please see the flyer linked below for information on how to register for this event, open to students in incoming (2024-25) grades K-9.
Meadowdale Youth Basketball Camp
O’Dea High School Summer Camps
O’Dea High School has a variety of academic and enrichment camps for boys and girls this summer. Please click on the link below for more information or contact: Monter Kohler at odad@odea.org (Athletic camp information) or Lucas Dobbs at Ldobbs@odea.org (Academic camp information).
Summer Camps at O’Dea High School
Mountlake Terrace High School STEM and Journalism Summer Camp
Mountlake Terrace High School’s STEM & Hawkeye Journalism Staff & our MTHS student leadership is sponsoring “STEM & Journalism Summer Camp 2024.”
Dates: August 20, 21 & 22
Times: Session 1: 9am-NoonSession 2: 1pm- 4pm Combo Session: 9am-4pm
Registration: See link to flyer below
There is a QR code on the flyer for sign-up & payment
MTHS STEM & Journalism Flyer and Registration
Hot Lunch
Hot lunch is back!! Please see the link to the printable monthly Hot Lunch form, or stop by the school office for a hard copy.
Please note: The deadline for all hot lunch payments is Thursday. We are not able to accept payments sent in on Friday morning.
Check back for the March Hot Lunch Form
We need volunteers! Please use the Sign Up Genius link below to earn volunteer hours by helping us with our hot lunch.
Patrol
Please see the link to the current Patrol schedule.
Scrip
Thank you all for a great year of Scrip! We were able to raise about and maybe over $15,000 for our school! Congrats to you all!
There are only 2 more in person days to buy Scrip – Friday, June 7th at pick up and Wednesday, June 12th at drop off. Stop by and see us for your end of the year teachers gifts, Father’s Day gifts, other school’s grad gifts, etc! Again, we are now fundraising for our 2024-’25 school year. Our Scrip Team will continue to be selling every other Sunday throughout the Summer.
SPECIAL RECOGNITION
We want to take the opportunity to thank Carrie Verge for her 12 years of volunteer service to the Scrip Program. She started when her daughter, Emerson (STM Alum,c/o ’21)was in kindergarten and was wondering how to fulfill her 40 volunteer hours. Here we are 12 years later, and she’s been there for us every Wednesday morning. Thank you, Carrie, for all you do for the Scrip Program especially piloting our new, lean and effective way of organizing all the cards and our supplies. We will miss you!
NEW ON RAISE RIGHT!
You can now share your Raise Right account with friends and family have them help YOU reach your fundraising goals! We have only less than 5 weeks to reach your commitment of $700!
Just follow these steps:
1. Open up the Raise Right app (you might even have an auto pop up window to send invites)
2. Click on Account at the bottom right of the screen
3. Click on Settings at the top right of the screen
4. Click on the 4th tab down to Invite Friends & Family
5. Choose either email or text to share with Friends and Family. The link shared will be connected to YOUR account. (Not payment, just that what they purchase will go to YOU!
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!
Lastly as always….WE NEED YOU! We are looking to add more members to our Selling Team for next year and onward!
We also need people to learn how to sell Scrip to be on a sub list and we are looking for core sales people for next school year!
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Here is where and when you can buy Scrip:
✨️In the timed parking lot-Wednesdays 8am-9am and Fridays 2:45pm-3:15pm
✨️In the Breezeway-Sundays (every other; 11/26, 12/10) 9:30am-10:30am
✨️Anytime, via the Raise Right app.
Questions, Comments, Concerns? Contact Your Scrip Admin Team:
-Gemma Ardiente (ordering & inventory) gemma_ardiente@comcast.net
– Rachel Rogers (bookkeeping) rrodgers517@gmail.com
-Therese Sarr (volunteer selling coordinator) sarrtherese206@gmail.com
-Nick Golla (communications) nngolla@gmail.com
CYO
Time to get ready for fall CYO sports!
If you are interested in participating in soccer (K-8) or cross country (K-8), please let Mr. Gomula or Lan VoBa (l.p.voba@comcast.net) know! Registrations will be due towards the end of summer, so start thinking about if your child would like to participate. Go Phoenixes!
STMS Spirit Wear
Don’t forget to order your STMS Spirit Wear. Use the link below.
Please note: Only clothing available in the Uniform Code Approved section are to be worn at school.
For questions on ordering, please contact Eric Miller, ericmiller22@gmail.com.
Current Volunteer Opportunities
Requirements for Parent Volunteers
Parents who wish to volunteer will need to be current on their Virtus Training, Protecting God’s Children and complete the Volunteer Handbook acknowledgement form.
For information on how to create your profile and register for a class, please contact Heather Anderson at heather.anderson@stms.org or (425) 743-4242 for instructions. Training and background checks are good for 3 years. If you need to renew your status, you can do so online at Virtusonline.org.
Archdiocese of Seattle – Safe Environment
Volunteer hours
Per our school contract, families are to contribute 40 of volunteer time.
Directions to log hours:
- Log into Family Portal (District Code: St-Wa)
- Click on Family on the left-hand menu
- Find Service Hours on the right side and click “+ Add”
- Fill out the hours and click “save”
- Hours will show up on the family page under Service Hours. You can add more throughout the year.
If you would like me to send more detailed instructions for logging in your volunteer hours, please contact Heather Anderson at heather.anderson@stms.org or (425) 743-4242
COVID, Flu and RSV
As we head into the cold and flu season, I would like to send out a general reminder about health and safety guidelines. We have a host of illnesses circulating, including strep throat, continuing COVID cases, and at least one reported case of RSV.
Recommendations of the Snohomish Health District as we navigate the cold and flu season include ensuring that if students have active symptoms from any respiratory infections and/or have a fever, they should not come to school. Students who have had a fever must be fever-free for 24 hours without the use of medication before returning to school. In addition, The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends teaching children to cover their coughs and sneezes using their elbow or a tissue, and to always wash their hands afterwards.
Also, as we have had a recent case of RSV, I am including a resource provided by the Snohomish Health Department on signs of RSV, in addition to general guidelines and benefits of vaccinations for flu, COVID and RSV.
*If you have any questions regarding STMS guidelines, please contact the school office at (425) 743-4242. Please note that although STMS guidelines are based on the Washington State Department of Health and the Snohomish County Health District, we reserve the right to add extra precautions.
