Kindness to the Community

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.

Andrew Horgan Wins Veterans Day Essay Contest

During a surprise presentation before the entire student body, All Saints Catholic School fifth grade student Andrew Horgan was awarded first place in the newly established Northern Virginia “Veteran’s Day Essay Contest.” Andrew won both the 7-10 age group and 1st place overall in the contest for his patriotic telling of Veteran Duke Netko’s story as a United States Marine Corp pilot. Duke was on hand at the event to congratulate Andrew for a job well done.

Andrew’s essay focused on Duke’s twenty years of military service, and how learning about Duke’s duty assignments and acts of bravery helped Andrew better appreciate the sacrifices made by our American patriots. The “Veteran’s Day Essay Contest” was founded by Karen Theobald Conlin to help students learn more about our nation’s veterans. In Andrew’s award letter, Ms. Conlin noted that, “Marine pilot Duke Netko will be forever remembered for the many missions that he completed. You, Andrew completed a very important mission by gathering and sharing his story.”

As part of the Veteran’s Day Essay Contest award, Andrew was presented with three history books for his personal library. Additional copies were also provided to All Saints Catholic School in honor of Andrew’s winning essay.

Major Expansion Planned for All Saints Robotics

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

Uniform News: New Navy Polo

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.

Science Fair Winners Announced

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

National Geographic Bee

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

All Saints Spreads Kindness to the Community

Last year, our Student Ambassadors introduced the theme of “Spreading Kindness like Confetti.” In December, we will put the focus on “kindness to community.”  As this is the season of giving, we would like our students to learn about giving to people in need in the community.  Let us show our children how to help others through kind words, kind acts and generosity.

We have sent a flyer home with each child with ideas of how to spread kindness in the community.  Please consider doing a kind act in our community as a family.  For every kind act, please fill out a piece of confetti (back of the flyer) and put it in our “kindness jar of confetti” in the front office.  Did you donate shoes to House of Mercy or donate food to Bethany Food pantry?  Don’t forget to write those acts of kindness down and bring them to the front office too. Let’s see how our small acts of kindness add up to make a big impact in our community!

Middle School Announces House System

The mission of the All Saints Catholic School House System is to create a middle school community where students work together and support each otheras they grow in their Catholic faith.  The purpose of each house will be to guide and support the spiritual, academic, social and personal development of each student during their time in middle school.

Our middle school will be comprised of ten houses, each named after a saint.  Each house will be facilitated by a faculty advisor and include students from grades six, seven and eight.  Students will be assigned to a house at the beginning of the year and will remain a member throughout their middle school years at All Saints.

Each of the houses will focus on four specific areas: Advising of Students; Faith & Service; Leadership; and Community Involvement.  Students will be provided opportunities to grow in these areas through weekly meetings during which they will complete team-building exercises and service projects.  Additionally, through a Points System, student efforts will be recognized and a good-natured rivalry among the houses will be fostered.

Race for Education Results

Yesterday we celebrated the success of the 13th Annual Race for Education, our largest fundraiser of the year.  I am pleased to share with you that, to date, we have received $49,396.29 in contributions.  In the week ahead, the PTO will process the paperwork to generate a check for 10% of the proceeds which will be donated to St. Jude’s.  Once again, thank you students, parents, relatives and friends for your wonderful support of All Saints!

The following is a list of winners from the 2018 Race for Education. 

Lap Winners:
K – 2: Eli Sorbet (20 laps)
  Keira Reynolds (15 laps)
3 – 5: Sedemm Agbolosu-Amison (17 laps)
  Aoife Haggerty, Carmenita Bright, Cecilia Vazquez (18 laps)
6 -8: Joey Munsell, Will Foster, Chris Mills (19 laps)
  Amara Collins (19 laps)
Class Winners – $100 in Educational Materials
PK-2: Mrs. Pryor – 2B (Total Contributions – $2,964.33)
3 – 5: Mrs. Honkus – 5A (Total Contributions – $3,906.33
6 – 8: Mrs. Cottingham – 6B (Total Contributions – $2,748.00)
Raffle Ticket Drawings – $50 Checks
PK – 2: Jack Volkert (2A)
3 – 5: Ahtziri Ramirez-Ramos (3A)
6 – 8: Joey Munsell (6A)