St. Joan of Arc School

It’s time to lock it all up for the summer! Thanks a bunch to all my faithful readers! If anyone has anything that needs to get out to the school families over the summer send it along to me at connell@sjalisle.org and I can either pop it up on the blog or send an email blast. I do go upnorth for the summer and don’t always have an Internet connection but I make it a point to run into town to the coffee shop at least once a week. Be sure to come on back as the 2009/2010 school year gets close as we’ll begin to post pertinent information.

Til then…………

Jane Connell

One of the most enjoyable and rewarding aspects of my first year as pastor at St. Joan of Arc parish has been the opportunity to be involved in our elementary and jr. high school. I never cease to be amazed at the dynamic array of events that foster such a well rounded educational experience. The classroom learning, the athletic events, the extracurricular opportunities and especially the religious and spiritual exercises represent, in my opinion, a balanced formation program that all of us can be proud of.

I am extremely grateful to Sr. Carolyn, OSB and the dedicated faculty and staff who are committed to promoting the Christian approach to education that is the hallmark of St. Joan of Arc school.

I am also grateful to our students who are so vibrant and who respond so eagerly to the formation that they are offered here. They are an inspiration to me which is why I found my involvement in the school to be a rewarding feature of my ministry. These young people are signs of hope and laudable reflections of the many households of faith that comprise this and other Catholic parishes.

And finally, I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to you parents who nurture the Catholic faith in your children and who make untold sacrifices so that your sons and daughters can keep our school alive. Your efforts will not go unrewarded.

May all of you have a very safe and enjoyable summer. I know that I will see many of you at the Sunday liturgies. When you see me, please take a moment to let me know how your summer is unfolding. (I know they always go sooooo quickly.) May I also encourage all of you to be a part of our 85th Anniversary Parish Directory. My goal is to get ALL our families photographed so that I can continue to put faces and names together.(Please help me out here, this is such a big parish.) Photography sessions will begin on July 6, and run through July 19, in the parish center. Sign up now to get your preferred session time. (See the bulletin for more information or call the parish office.)

And mark your calendars now for our parish picnic on Sunday, August 16, 2009.  It’s a wonderful social event that brings us together to celebrate the good things that God is doing in St. Joan of Arc parish.

God bless you all, and may God bring to completion the good work He has begun in us.

Fr. Gabriel osb

Again it’s June. It seems that we just opened the doors on the 2008/2009 school year - and it’s over. Congratulations and my very best wishes to the graduating class 0f 2009 and their parents and families.
May God fill you with wonder.

I certainly cannot say enough to thank Fr. Gabriel, the school board, the PSO, Mr. Wind and my office staff for their untiring efforts to keep this great ship afloat.
May God bless you and hold you in His hands.

I gratefully thank my entire faculty and staff for another year of hard work. They are a unique group of people who all compliment and bring out the best in each other. Some are moving on and they will be sorely missed.
May God smile on you.

I would like to thank all the other students and their parents from preschool through 7th grade for another fantastic year. It is a pleasure to travel with you on your journey toward your educational goals.
May God show you the wonder and mystery of all His creations.

I wish I had room to to personally thank all the committees volunteers, groups, event chairs, hot lunch moms, rec moms, ice cream serving dads, science parents, and on and on and on. What you do and how you do it makes St. Joan of Arc a truly wonderful place where our children grow and learn by your selfless actions. We couldn’t do any of it without you.
May God reward you a thousandfold for all you have done.

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Blessings,
Sister Carolyn

The calendar for 2009-2010 can be found here.

Welcome to SJA Communicator, a weblog resource for parents, students, teachers and staff of St. Joan of Arc School, Lisle IL.

Congrats to all the graduates, remember to take the LORD with you into high school…

Congrats to the new 8th grade, be the leaders that I know you can be…

Congrats to the new 7th grade, next year will be fun and will challenge you, you’re not the new kids any more and oh, by the way you have the science project and Constitution test next year

Welcome to the new 6th grade! Elementary school is done and soon you will begin your Junior High journey, do not worry, it will be awesome!!

To my former 6c…stay wonderful and close, remember to visit once and awhile.

To all parent(s) and guardian(s): Thank you for sending your children to SJA, someday they may understand the tremendous sacrifice you all have made for them so they may get their education in a Catholic loving environment.  God bless your time for volunteering, your donations and all that you do big and small for our community.  Have a safe and blessed summer.  Love and blessings to all, Mr. F

Click here for church bulletin.

The Rummage Sale Committee would like to thank the parish members, school parents and service hour students who donated their items and time to help make the Rummage Sale such a huge success. It is because of your efforts that were able to raise over $6000 for Adopt-A-Student!

We would like to give special thanks to:

The Kwak Family for donating the use of the trailer

Jon Jardine/ Victory Packaging for donating the MANY BOXES

Mrs. Blakemore and Mrs. Wenzel for letting us invade your space

Our Junior High Teachers for giving us your classes’ help on 5/29!

Our families for doing without us for weeks

The Parish Center Staff

Jeanne Maday

Sister Carolyn

Father Gabriel

Thank you so much for your support of this cause!

The Rummage Sale Team

Patti Cady

Steve and Kristin Christ

Kim Clements

Susan Crabtree

Marta Jurckzykowski

Lori Kmet (volunteer from the parish)

Meggie Kramer

Ellen Lucke

Rasa McCarthy

Lisa and Phil Wolfe

LAST WEEK TO ORDER BRICK PAVERS FOR SUMMER 2009 INSTALLATION!

The June 5 deadline is fast approaching to place your Brick Paver order!  Submit your order by June 5 to ensure Summer 2009 installation.

Click on the link www.sjalisle.org and complete the order form in the Brick Paver section.  You can send the order form to the School Office in an envelope marked “Brick Paver.”

Questions? Please call Steve O’Reilly at 630-527-0755.

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Summer Reading

Educational research supports the need for children to read at home on a regular basis.   Fifth graders who read independently for 10 minutes/day end up reading a total of 622,000 words/year while those who read 20 minutes/day read 1,823,000 words per year!  [Reading Research Quarterly, 23(3)]  This directly impacts the size of their vocabularies, their reading comprehension levels and their overall reading ability!!

The Rebecca Caudill Young Readers’ Book Award  was developed to encourage children in grades 4-8 to read for personal satisfaction.  It is an Illinois award presented to an author for outstanding literature for young people and is sponsored by the Illinois Reading Council, the Illinois School Library Media Association, and the Illinois Association of Teachers of English.
Click here for more info.

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FYI
The Chess Club will continue next year for 5th-8th graders on designated Thursdays 2:30-3:30p.m.

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Junior High Battle of Books “Parent Information Meeting” will be held Wednesday, June 10, in the PAR  We will also have the first book review: Holes by Louis Sachar.   The book review begins at 7pm followed by refreshments and parent information meeting at 8pm.  Please contact Sue Jennings, diverrtj@comcast.net  to receive information for participating in this great reading program!

Congratulations to the 24 students who earned 100 points or more on our Accelerated Reading Program! We celebrated with a pizza lunch. This year we set a record!! The last quarter 41 kindergartners qualifies for the AC breakfast. These students have read 12 books and passed the quizzes.