Updates From St John Bosco School Community

08-07-2020Weekly Flocknote MessageFr. James Aboyi, V.C.

Our school administration has been busy all summer preparing for the fast-approaching reopening of school. The teachers returned to campus earlier this week to make final preparations for their students and classrooms. They began celebrating Mass here at St. Benedict followed by a beautiful Staff Retreat and Reflection on campus, carefully following sanitary and social distancing guidelines, of course. They will continue their virtual classroom training next week, taking advantage of the initial IT system upgrades put in place over the summer. Our investment in technology is paying off handsomely.

We held a wonderful New family Night last week also where we welcomed many eager new members to our school community. We are thrilled to welcome back our students in one form or another on Monday, August 17th. Our littlest learners (preschool) will be coming on campus for in-person instruction. I don’t know who’s more excited – the children or the teachers!

Our kindergarten through 8th-grade students will start off with virtual instruction on the same date. This will be live, interactive instruction with their regular teachers, including special classes of Spanish, music, library, and even P.E. The administration is simulating as closely as possible a regular, on-campus school day. Students will wear regular school and P.E. uniforms when logged in to their virtual classroom at the start of the school day and have the same regular breaks as if they were on campus. And Mass will be live-streamed each Friday. To get a sneak peek at what our virtual classroom will look like, click on this YouTube video of our staff addressing parents’ most commonly-asked questions: youtu.be/MRxgxz9hAW0.

We are joyfully awaiting a directive from the Diocese of Phoenix to allow the “big kids” to join us on campus. This order will be based on safety guidelines from the CDC, AZ Dept. of Health Services, and local health benchmarks. The SJB administration will continue to send out regular updates to school families on the status of on-campus instruction. Please join us in prayer for a healthy, happy, and productive new academic year and a continued decline in our local infection rate so that we may open the school for all who wish to join us on campus.

Update on Offertory Matching Opportunity.

I thank our parish families that have participated in the offertory matching opportunity so far. The report presented to me on Thursday this week indicated that 143 families have participated in the matching opportunity. I will give you a full report with the total amount raised and matched by August 31st. I appeal to those who have not yet participated to please consider doing so as soon as possible. It is very critical that you participate before August 15th. This is because, any donation scheduled from August 16th to August 31st will be credited to us by Faith Direct on September 4th, which is already after the deadline of August 31st.

One of the most significant donations we received this week was a $5 donation from a 9 years old student from our St John Bosco School. It touched me so much to know that children are paying attention to the needs of our parish community and that they care. I really appreciate his “Widow’s Mite.” I have witnessed several similar surprises recently from our SJB students who demonstrated their willingness to respond to the needs of our school and parish community. This gives me joy to look forward with hope to a brighter future of the Church. I thank parents and teachers for helping our children develope the virtue of a sense of ownership of their faith and commitment to the community.

I appreciate everyone's sacrificial giving and thank you so much again for helping our parish take advantage of this rare opportunity presented to us.

Please take a moment and watch this brief video below (12:25 min) from our SJB community.