Dear Parents and Guardians,

Let me be the first to congratulate our 8th graders in completing their final year at St. Ignatius, as yesterday was their last day for instruction and lessons. While we have completed the year in remote learning, we are proud of them and their accomplishments: Many students in this class have attended our remarkable school for nine years. 

As a group, they have received over $1.1 million in scholarships. 

They have selflessly served the parish as servers and Eucharistic ministers and been positive leaders in our school. 

To the class of 2020, I thank you for your years of service, hard work, commitment, and compassion shown to students and staff.

This time of the school year is also a time of transitions. Students are completing their studies and preparing to transition to the next grade. In addition, some staff will begin transitioning to a new chapter in their lives. It is with a heavy heart for St. Ignatius but happiness for those that have decided to retire after serving this community for a
combined time of over 175 years. Please join me in celebrating the careers of Mrs.
Roseann Engel, Mrs. Sylvia Hudepohl, Mr. Bill Magness, Mrs. Linda McGowan, and Miss.
Deb McLaughlin. These Catholic educators and mentors have tirelessly taught
thousands of children, nurturing them in their faith, motivating them in their studies, and challenging them to be the best version of themselves. These committed educators
have enriched the lives of many children, parents, and staff. 

In addition to these retirees, Mrs. Tasha Aragaki will be leaving St. Ignatius to be at home.  Mrs. Andrea Schinkal and Mrs. Christy Criswell will also be leaving to care for their families. Mr. Grayson Rhoades will be headed to Roger Bacon as an intervention specialist and basketball coach.  We are very grateful for all these staff members and their years of service to St. Ignatius.

As we are deeply grateful for our teachers transitioning for next year, we are very
excited to announce the new community members and teachers at St. Ignatius.  As
announced earlier, we are adding a fifth kindergarten teacher and class for next year, and this new teacher is Mrs. Katie Hungler. She is coming to us from The Nativity of Our Lord School, where she served as a kindergarten teacher for five years.  

In grade 3, we are happy to announce that Mrs. Liz Banta will be joining our staff. She is currently teaching at St. Veronica school, and she comes to us with ten years of experience.

Mrs. Meg Egbers will join our 4th-grade team teaching math, science, and religion with Mrs. Siemer. Mrs. Egbers currently teaches at St. Vivian's and is very excited about
getting started as a Wildcat in her 4th year of teaching.

 

Mrs. Erica Bowling will join our 5th-grade team teaching language arts and social
studies. She is coming from Roger Bacon as an intervention specialist, and previously as an elementary teacher for four years.

Another addition to the 5th grade is Mrs. Kelly Oliverio, who will be teaching math. Mrs. Olverio has taught math for nine years at the college and elementary level, and is
currently teaching at St. Jude. 

 

Other new additions to the middle school team bring us Mr. Aaron Edge, who will be teaching 6th and 8th-grade social studies.  Mr. Edge recently received his Master's degree and has served at Mount Notre Dame for the past year.  

Mr. Matt Holt will take over music instruction. He has extensive music background
as well as years of working with students.

 

Mr. Steve Heglin will cover our technology classes. He comes to us from St. Teresa to share his talents with us. 

And last, but not least, is Ms. Megan Pacitti, who will teach grade 6 and 7 language arts.
Ms. Pacitti comes from St. Margaret of York and has six years of experience.

A few internal moves will also happen next year: 

Ms. Krystine Zimmerman will be moving from grade 5 to grade 4, teaching language arts, and social studies.  

Miss Chrissy Eiser will move from grade 5 to grade 6 as an intervention specialist.  

Mrs. Ann Shoemaker, intervention specialist, will join the 8th grade team from the 7th grade team.

Mrs. Sam Timmons, intervention specialist, will be on the 7th grade team coming from the 6th grade team.  

Finally, Mr. Darren Renner will move from the 6th grade team to the 7th grade team, teaching 7th and 8th grade social studies.

I am looking forward to the 2020-2021 school year with this exceptional staff in place.  Our new hires are are positive, energized, highly qualified, want to partner with teachers, on fire to be at St. Ignatius, and most of all to support our students to be the best version of themselves. I look forward to witnessing all of our staff promoting collaboration, compassion, and academic competence. In addition, and the most important, it will be a fantastic year as all of us nurture our students to meet, know, love, and serve Jesus Christ.

I continue to pray for our students, staff, and parents during this difficult time. Each day I attend many of the live zoom sessions that our great teachers provide for the students. Seeing the children's faces, witnessing their discussion of new concepts, hearing them say hello to each other, and then greeting me has made these last nine weeks tolerable. These last couple of months have been a foreign territory for our teachers and students. Research shows us repeatedly that students do best when they can build positive relationships with their teachers, and where they receive meaningful feedback. While it was a challenge, I believe all have risen to the occasion to make it the best that we could for the children. For everything you have done to support the students and teachers, I am very grateful. 

In Christ’s Peace,

Kevin Vance

Congratulations to the following students who won our sidewalk chalk art contest :
AJ G. and Ruby G., Hudson B., Camille R., Sam B., Willow B., Drew and Alli B., Tess and Josie R., Katie S., Emma I., and Cooper D.

Congratulations to the following 8th graders who won the Carnival Cake Competition:
WINNER: Alyssa M. (Fox Cake)
1st Runner Up: Natalie R. (What a Wild Ride)
2nd Runner Up: Tess R. (Cactus Cake)
3rd Runner Up: Kinsey S. (Covid Cookie Monster)
Honorable Mention: Abbey S. (Let’s Taco Bout 8th Grade)
Honorable Mention: Caitlyn W. (Ice Cream Drips)
Thanks to Velvet Smoke Barbeque for providing gift certificates as prizes!

Our school psychologists and counselor have been collecting and creating some great resources for students during this time of remote learning and social isolation. Go to this webpage to see the many resources and videos.

**The last day of instruction for preschool through grade 7 is Friday, May 29.

**Packing Up Classrooms/Lockers. The homeroom teachers will pack the students' materials in plastic bags with their names on them. If your child had any medications at school, they will be placed in the plastic bag with your child’s other materials.

**Returning St. Ignatius materials. On the day assigned to your family for pick up and drop off, you will need to bring all books, materials and/or technology that belongs to St. Ignatius back to school and place it on the table designated for the homeroom of your child.

Pick Up and Drop Off of Materials will be over a period of 5 days from noon until 6:00pm.
**Monday, June 1: Families with last names starting A through E 

**Tuesday, June 2: Families with last names starting F through J 

**Wednesday, June 3: Families with last names starting K through O 

**Thursday, June 4: Families with last names starting P through T 

**Friday, June 5: Families with last names starting U through Z 

**As part of the Lenten practice of almsgiving, we sent home baby bottles to collect donations for the Pregnancy Center West. Please return the bottles during the materials pick up and drop off date in June.

Congratulations to Lilian S. who won an Honorable Mention at the Mount
Notre Dame Thomas Geier Creative Writing Contest.

2020 Summer is right around the corner and that means we are getting closer to the 2020 St. Ignatius Summer Festival!

When: August 21,22,23 

Where: On the parish grounds, church parking lot 

Who: YOU!

The festival leadership team still has several nightly booth chair spaces to fill including: 

• Kids Games: Crazy Ball, Fat Cats, Football Toss, Goldfish, Plinko, Potty Pitch, Rides and Score Four 

• Adult Games/ Gambling: Main Award 

• Straw Market: Straw Market needs your help. We are looking for new chairpersons to take it over, and make it their own. The former chair is available to consult with you to get you going. We also need straw market items, including but not limited to, gift cards, memorabilia, electronics, sports tickets, etc. We need all of you to help to make this year’s festival the best ever. 

Please contact Festival Chair Bob Buchman at festivalchair@sainti.org or 225-2333 for more details.

Please go to the following links for each category.

Thank you to everyone for your generous donations and support to the Book Booth every year. We are currently working on plans for a safe and great book sale this year and anticipate finalizing our plans in June. We ask that you do not drop donations off at the parish office and to please keep your donations at home until we finalize the details. Thank you!