Category: Blog

We are thrilled to announce that Mrs. Suzanne Blair, All Saints Art Teacher, has been selected by the Prince William Chapter of the Catholic Business Network (CBN) to receive one of two 2019 Catholic Teacher Awards.

This special honor, which will be awarded at the CBN-PW Chapter Meeting on April 10, 2019, is presented to teachers who represent excellence in teaching demonstrated through the creative engagement of students, proven leadership, and a commitment to serving others. Ms. Katherine Bidinger, Special Education Teacher at St. John Paul the Great High School in Potomac Falls, was also selected for her outstanding work as a Catholic educator.

Excellence in Art Education
As an artist with two decades of experience teaching art, Mrs. Blair enthusiastically provides All Saints students with a strong foundation in art. With an appreciation for the abilities of each child, Mrs. Blair gently guides her students step-by-step through each project, the result of which are magnificent examples of student work that showcase their personal expression.

The All Saints Art Room is a vibrant learning space where students are truly engaged and provided with ongoing opportunities to work with a wide range of media. With access to a kiln and a beautiful space dedicated to the study of art, Mrs. Blair’s classroom is much like a workshop where she and her students work diligently to create beautiful masterpieces.

We wish to congratulate Mrs. Blair on receiving this award and let her know of our appreciation for her efforts in guiding, teaching and inspiring our students!

As part of our “Year of Kindness,” we will continue with Kindness to Community.  Our focus is now on community helpers.  The school will be adopting the City of Manassas Police Department and all grades will participate in showing our gratitude and appreciation for everything they do for our community.  The classes will all participate in different aspects of a gift to the police department.  At home you can talk with your children about all the helpers in our community and how you can show kindness to them.

Also, our kindness to community “confetti house” is touring the classrooms this week. The students will fill it with kindness confetti that represents all the different “kindness to community” activities they have done in December, January and February (i.e. food pantry donations, toy drive).  It has been great to see all the different ways the students have given back to the community.

Congratulations to the following students who participated in last week’s Spelling Bee and to Robert Gasser, our school champion. We wish Robert every success as he advances to the next level of the Prince William County competition.

• 1st Place – Robert Gasser
• 2nd Place – Jesus Santos
• 3rd Place – Anthony Olivera

Class Representatives:
Luke Rebholz, Christopher Sheeran, Grace Karcher, Aoife Haggerty. Chimanga Mubanga, Brielle Appiatse, Robert Gasser,  Andrew Horgan, Savanna Loy, Mikayla Loy, Amelia Webb, Jesus Santos, Sofia Villatoro, William Odell, Camden Short, Leona Kun, Joseph Corrigan, Liana Rodriguez, Anthony Olivera, Macallan Greissinger

Now that we’ve reached 75% of our Annual Fund goal, we would like to share some exciting news about our Robotics Program. As noted previously, proceeds from this year’s Annual Fund will be used to purchase two Next-Generation ActivBoards and expand our Robotics Program.

If we attain 100% of our Annual Fund goal, the Robotics proceeds will be used to introduce Robotics to the elementary grades and expand our existing program in the middle school.

Fall of 2019

• The middle school Robotics Club will expand to include sixth grade students along with seventh and eighth graders.
• We will begin offering Robotics as an after school activity for students in fourth and fifth grades. These students will work with Lego® More to Math and utilize our VEX IQ equipment.
• All Saints will host a Robotics middle school tournament together with Seton School which will host the high school portion of the tournament. Details about this event will be announced in the fall!

Fall of 2020

• Our middle school Robotics Team will transition from VEX IQ to VEX EDR, a higher level experience for middle and high school students that will allow our students to compete at VRC competitions. This Robotics platform will better prepare our students for STEM opportunities in high school and beyond. If we meet our goals for the Annual Fund, we will begin administrator training and the purchasing of kits and related equipment in the fall of 2019. The All Saints Robotics Team will then transition from VEX IQ to VEX VRC competitions in the 2020-2021 school year.

DONATE TO THE ANNUAL FUND

In response to parent feedback, I am excited to announce that we will be introducing a new navy polo shirt as part of the summer uniform and phasing out the white polo shirt. It is our hope that this new color will be much easier for parents to maintain and keep clean over time. Additionally, the navy blue shirt will be more modest in appearance.

The new navy blue polo shirt will be available for purchase in advance of the upcoming academic year. The white polo shirt will be “grandfathered” for one year (2019-2020) after which it will be discontinued as part of the uniform.

At All Saints we are also pleased to offer a “Uniform Exchange” program by which parents may purchase gently worn items at affordable prices. As we plan for the year ahead, there will be several modifications to this program that will increase efficiency
while continuing to provide a valuable service to our families.

Beginning in the 2019-2020 academic year, we will host three pre-scheduled sales per year, i.e. August, October and one sale during the spring. “On demand” sales will only be available for new families transitioning into the school and at the request of administration to assist families in need. Parents may continue, however, to drop off used uniforms at the front office at their convenience.

In an effort to streamline procedures and in recognition of the affordability of items, the use of credits for those making donations is being discontinued. Those families who have already received credits may, however, use them through the close of this academic year. The price of items ($1.00-$4.00) will remain unchanged in the year ahead.

I wish to thank Mrs. Danielle O’Neill for her continued management of the Uniform Exchange program. With great attention to detail and dedication to her role, she provides a wonderful service to our school community. Additionally, I wish to thank those parents who shared feedback regarding the polo shirts and the PTO for their efforts in revising the Uniform Exchange procedures.

Congratulations to the following winners of All Saints’ Middle School Science Fair. Thank you, Mrs. Cottingham and Mrs. Woolfrey, for your dedication and guidance throughout the process.

Behavioral & Social Science
1st place: Amara Collins – “Is it Really Childproof?”
2nd place: Krysta Drone – “What Makes Teens Stress?”
3rd place: Macallan Greissinger – “Does Sight Affect Taste?”

Chemistry
1st place: Luke Tessier – “Science is HOT HOT HOT!”
2nd place: Mehek Jamil – “How Bright Can It Glow?”
3rd place: Mary Collins – “Mary’s Cheesecake Factory”

Computer Science
1st place: Robert Harvill – “Chill Out”
2nd place: Matthew Kreitzer – “Fortnite Building Battle”

Earth & Space Science
1st place: Anthony Olivera – “Water Temperature and Hurricanes: What is the Connection?”
2nd place: Jessica Berger – “Surf’s Up”

Engineering
1st place: Kevin Balagtas – “Chugging On Air!”
2nd place: William Odell – “How Much Mass Can a Bridge Sustain?”
3rd place: Taylor Henman – “Does Length and Width Affect Distance?”

Medicine & Health
1st place: Nolen Kristiansen – “See That in the Corner of Your Eye?”
2nd place: Sofia Villatoro – “What You See After an Image”
3rd place: Ryan McGinnis – “There’s No Place Like Home”

Microbiology
1st place: Chris Mills – “The Sugar Wars”
2nd place: Jeffrey Crocker – “Can I Eat That?”
3rd place: Brian Varghese – “Faucet Wars”

Physics
1st place: Will Foster – “Windmills in Motion”
2nd place: Camden Short – “Produce Power”
3rd place: Maggie Horan – “Black is the Warmest Color”

Overall Champions
Grand Champion – Will Foster
1st Runner Up – Nolen Kristiansen
2nd Runner Up – Camden Short
3rd Runner Up – Anthony Olivera

Representing All Saints at the Diocesan Science Fair:
Kevin Balagtas, Amara Collins, Will Foster, Robert Harvill, Mehek Jamil, Nolen Kristiansen, Chris Mills , Anthony Olivera, Camden Short and Luke Tessier

All Saints students in grades four through eight recently participated in the school-wide round of the National Geographic Bee.

Congratulations to our school champion, Robbie Gasser, who will complete an online assessment to determine whether he will qualify to advance to the state level competition. Congratulations to Lucia Miller who won second place, Krysta Drone who won third place, and to the following students who represented their classes in this academic event:

• Luke Rebholz
• Cruz Liu
• Grace Algeier
• Robert Gasser
• Declan Martinez
• Lucia Miller
• Emily Sherman
• Camden Short
• Krysta Drone
• Lavish Ghori