It is finally started to feel like the season of autumn in Forest Hills. As our TerraNova testing has wrapped up, we are excited to get back to business in Grades 3-8!

Breast Cancer Awareness Day 

Once again, I would like to thank the Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Academy community for contributing to Ms. Revette Hinkson’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk. We raised $752 from our dress down day. An additional $725 was also donated directly to Ms. Hinkson’s website by parents and faculty members. Your generosity and support for this important cause gave Ms. Hinkson even more enthusiasm for her walk. Thank you for helping to raise awareness to this very important cause. As our mission statement goes: “OLMCA is committed to academic excellence that is rooted in the Catholic faith, affirmed by the teachings of Jesus Christ, and centered on our services to God, family, and community. On behalf of Ms. Hinkson, thank you for participating in this special cause and sharing your stories with us.   

If there is a cause that is near and dear to your heart, please let us know.

Sixth Grade’s Mathletics Space Race

I want to congratulate Ms. Feeley and the Sixth Grade class on their recent 2^nd place win in the Mathletics Space Race competition. The students have been working hard to enhance their math skills! Mathletics online courses are aligned to the math standards and used by our teachers in grades 1-8. It’s designed to address all different learning styles with a variety of questions. Mathletics empowers learners to feel confident and motivated to think critically, make learning choices, and reflect on their learning.

The Sixth Grade competed with all 50 states and Canada so this is an awesome achievement!  We want to continue to encourage our students to keep earning those points! 

Picture Day

All information about Picture Day has been distributed. Class picture day will be on Monday, October 22.  All students are to wear their full and complete school uniform. Students are not to wear gym uniforms.

Individual pictures will take place on Tuesday, October 23.  Students are to dress up to have their picture taken.  Students may also wear their school uniform. All students will have their picture taken.  The option to purchase the picture package is up to each individual parent.

Home Academy Association

Thursday, October 18 is our second Home Academy Association meeting. Come and hear all about how you can make a difference and meet an incredible group of parents. We will be meeting in the Church Basement (Parish Hall) at 8:15a.m.  

If you have not signed up for a HAA committee, please do so through the Sign-Up Genius links.

Box Tops

My name is Kristine Lindo and I have two children attending OLMCA this year. This will be my third year helping out with the Box Tops fundraising efforts. I will also have the continued help of Mrs. Roy (3^rd grade teacher) and new parent, Gustavo Ventura with collection and counting of this year’s Box Tops for Education Submissions. This year’s goal is to reach $1,000 worth of Box Tops. OLMCA has a lifetime Box Tops earning of $8,099.53.

Box Tops are easy to find—you may already have them around your house! Each Box Top is worth 10 cents—Bonus Box Tops can be worth even more! Please see the attached list of participating brands and products. Just clip the little Box Tops, and have your child submit them to his or her teacher. This year, you may use the collection sheets to submit Box Tops, for easier counting by the Coordinators.

All proceeds from Box Tops will go towards money being raised for school needs, such as air conditioning for the gymnasium or a play space for the children.

The deadline to submit Box Tops this month will be October 26, 2018.

Halloween: Save the Date!

 OLMCA will be celebrating Halloween on Wednesday, October 31. We are looking forward to another fun-filled Halloween. We are hoping for a beautiful Fall Day for our Halloween parade around the block. Here is the schedule:

Nursery-Grade 1: 9:00 a .m.

Grades 2-8: 9:30 a.m.

A flyer with more detailed information will be sent home tomorrow! We will also be hosting a Halloween dance for our middle school students after school on Halloween.

Enjoy the rest of your week. We look forward to seeing you at the HAA meeting and all upcoming events.

A special weekly liturgy geared specifically to children through fourth grade, featuring the Gospel according to Puppets and an age-appropriate explanation of the Word.

During 10 AM Mass at Our Lady of Mercy in the Parish Hall. Parents are welcome to join their children downstairs.

Dates: Oct. 14, 21 and 28

Adult and teen volunteers needed as well. Please email chrischildrensliturgy@gmail.com for more information.

October Breakfast Menu

 

October Lunch Menu

October 2018

Dear Parents and Guardians,

September has been an exciting and eventful moment at OLMCA. Our students have been enjoying art class with Ms. T. Some of their artwork can be seen outside of the main entrance and along the convent walls. Ms. Loscalzo has been working with all of her library students on enhancing their literacy skills. Our new Musical Residency program for first and second grade with Betina Hershey begins next week!

Home Academy Association

Thank you for your AMAZING support and huge turnout during the OLMCA Back-to-School Night! Let’s continue that enthusiasm next Thursday night, September 27th at 7:00 p.m. Please join us for our first Home Academy Association meeting of the year! Please look for more information to go out next week!

At Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Academy we want parents to get involved in the lives of our school and community. This platform gives families the opportunity to join in making OLMCA the best it can be. We value your input and need your help to achieve all our goals!  

Safety Concerns

We have a safety problem at our school and need your help. As you know, we now have a yellow school bus as well as an increased student population. During drop off and pick up, there has been an increase in illegal parking. Safety is our number one priority and we do not want to see any of our students hurt, or worse, at OLMCA.

What can you do to help?

Please Do Not: 

• Double park
• Park on the sidewalk
• Park in no parking zones 
• Block crosswalks
• Block school entrances 
• Honk your horn repeatedly
• Drive aggressively 
• Drive fast

Thank you in cooperation in this matter. Your input is always appreciated and we would love to hear any input from the parents. Thank you for keeping the area around OLMCA safe for our students.

OptionC Parent Alert System

OptionC is our learning management and parent alert system. It provides an online homeroom for students and parents to retrieve information such as grades and attendance records.

Our school will begin using a parent notification system through OptionC.  The system will allow us to send you messages via voicemail, email, and text messages.  We will be able to notify you of important information, school closings, delayed starts and other types of emergencies automatically. We are working on updating all the family contact information in our database prior to the first time sending a message.

We will be sending out a parent survey next week for you to review your personal information and determine what types of alerts you would like to receive. Please look for this information in your child’s folder by next Monday.

OLMCA School Masses

Beginning with this academic year, the monthly OLMCA school Mass will be the regularly scheduled 8:30 a.m. on each First Friday.

This will allow students to begin understanding of the Sacred Heart devotion as well as provide a consistent schedule for all involved so more of our parents and families may attend. Following Mass, certain grades will return to school while others will remain for the five minute prayer service for Exposition

We look forward to sharing these masses with our Parish and school community. Our next monthly school Mass will be on Friday, October 5 at 8:30 a.m. for students in Grades 5-8. All dates will be posted on the school calendar.

Virtus and Lunch Duty Volunteer Training

All volunteers must be Virtus trained and present a certification of completion to be kept on file in the school office.   All volunteers and visitors must sign in with a staff member, whenever volunteer time is served and a receipt will be issued as well as kept on file. 

All lunch duty volunteers must complete a mandatory training to review policy and procedures for cafeteria and Juno Street Duty. The fourth training will take place at Monday, October 1 at 1:00p.m. The meeting will be conducted by Mr. Seubert in the computer room.

Thank you for being a volunteer! You are making a difference!

September Lunch Menu

September Breakfast Menu

 

Welcome to the start of a brand new school year! I hope you had a wonderful summer and I look forward to seeing you all again. We have many new families joining our loving OLMCA family. I know that our returning students have already made our new students feel welcome. Many of you may remember that we were working on earning accreditation from AdvancED last school year, as required by the State Education Department. I am delighted to announce that we are have received full accreditation. Thank you to all the parents, teachers, and community members who helped us with our journey of continuous improvement.

Please join me in welcoming Mrs. Tiziana Fefzullaj to the OLMCA faculty. Ms. T joins us from St. Pancras School. Her many years of experience in Catholic education and artistic talents will be sure to add to our art program. I would also like to share that Ms. Alyssa Loscalzo will be our school librarian. Ms. Loscalzo’s love of reading and writing will be sure to permeate with all our students.

Back to School Night for students in Grade K-8 will be on Thursday, September 13. Our K-8 teachers eagerly await the opportunity to meet the parents of their students! We will gather in the school gymnasium where I will address the parents regarding parent communication and special events at OLMCA.  After my brief presentation, you will go upstairs to meet your child’s teacher! Parents will go directly to the classrooms for 15-minute sessions, with three separate sessions available for parents with multiple children. If you have a child in grades 6-8, you will remain in the gymnasium.

Please make sure that your emergency card has been filled out. This will allow for the most effective communication between the office and you! We will continue to use the OptionC Learning Management System for all students and parents. This system provides an online resource for students and parents to retrieve important information. You will receive a username and password on Back to School Night. This will allow you to view grading information and attendance for your child. It is very easy to use and will be a means of communication between the academy and you and your child/children.

We are extremely excited about our Facebook page. This is another tool to keep you connected with the exciting events at OLMCA. We will use this page as a tool to communicate with our current families while reaching out to our extensive alumni base. Be sure to like our page and share it with your friends and family!

You can access our page at: https://www.facebook.com/ourladyofmercyca/

Thank you so much for entrusting us with your children. We look forward to another amazing year!