Please Pass the Tape

Next Friday, February 17, if you happen to come by school, you are sure to find me hanging around the Pavilion...literally. Our students brought in their spare change over the last month as part of a homeroom competition to raise funds to off-set the cost of meals for our hunger project this past Friday.

                               Duct taping test run today to let us know how many rolls of tape we'll need!


I am so proud of our students, who organized bake sales, sold water/snacks during Gasparilla and scoured the depths of their couch cushions to bring in money for Feeding Children Everywhere. All of that spare change meant we got to package over 40,000 meals that will be distributed to food banks locally and to our partners in Haiti.

The homeroom that produced the most change, 4A, will be duct taping me to to a column or wall in the pavilion as a reward.  Although I thought duct taping Mrs. Lowrey would have been a much better reward, they didn't agree. I did agree to stay suspended one minute for every $100 raised. Even though the final meal has been packaged (40,320 was the final count), the money is still coming in to the office, so I am not sure exactly how long I'll be taped, but I do know it is long enough that if you stop by, feel free to toss me a bottle of water!

                             

#CSW2017

Today marks the start of National Catholic Schools Week--a time when we celebrate the teachers, students and families that make up our school community. Some of the events at CKS include Salesian Spirit Day tomorrow, the Feast of Don Bosco Mass celebrated on Wednesday and our Feeding Children Everywhere school-wide service event on Friday. 

As we celebrate Catholic Schools this week, I also want to begin the follow-up process on the recent parent and student surveys. We used the "Ultimate Question" format to allow respondents to express their own feelings rather than pushing responses towards a predetermined agenda. Although slightly harder to categorize and analyze, we have received some good, thoughtful feedback. 

One obvious place to begin analysis is with the ranking. Of the 135 parents that responded (a response rate of approximately 45%), 76% rated the school a 9 or higher on a scale of 0-10. That number jumps to 90% when you look at those who gave a response of 7 or higher. The follow up question allowed people to dig a little deeper by asking for an explanation of the ranking. Survey Monkey ran a text analysis to determine most commonly used words:

Parents Most Frequently Used Words

Mrs. Lowrey and I also surveyed our students in 5th-8th grade using a similar electronic survey.  Of 219 students, 36% ranked CKS above a 9 (students are a tough crowd), and that number jumps to 84% when ranking a 7 or higher. See below for words students used most: 

Students Most Frequently Used Words

These word clouds are obviously just a snapshot...  a first impression rather than a detailed analysis.  While I am pleased with this first glance and think CSW is the perfect way to celebrate the successes of our school and show our Joy for CKS, I believe it is also a time to reflect on how our school community can continue to grow.

I appreciate that so many of you took time to give us your feedback and look forward to sharing more information about the survey in future communications.

Thank you for your continued support of Catholic Schools and CKS. 

Number Talk

In South Tampa, it seems we measure time in January with beads--Gasparilla beads. At Christ the King Catholic School, we enjoy the Gasparilla festivities but we measure time in January by enrollment activities. If you have children in EC4-7th grade, you received an email from me today providing details for enrollment for the 2017-2018 school year -- the most important detail being that the process begins next Monday, January 30 and closes Friday, February 10.  We begin offering available spaces to prospective families after this date.

Speaking of prospective families... word-of-mouth advertising is the best way to spread the word about CKS and our families are doing a great job of letting the community know about our school!  Check out the latest numbers from our Admissions Office regarding prospective students for next year:

15

Fifteen represents the average number of tours given per week over the last three months. You can put away the calculators!  That's approximately 180 tours of our school campus. 

2 for 1 

Sorry to disappoint, but this number does not reflect a new tuition plan! Instead, it represents two applicants for every one available spot in EC4 and Kindergarten. 

131

This number represents the total number of applicants in every grade level for next school year. 

These numbers are also an important reminder to follow the re-enrollment procedures and adhere to the deadlines. We allow our parents the opportunity to re-enroll before offering available spaces to our applicants. 

Thank you for your support of CKS!

2017-18 Tentative School Calendar

It is officially tentative--summer no longer includes the month of August! It does, however, solidly include the months of June and July. After looking at the proposed calendar for the Diocese of St. Petersburg, along with those of the public schools in surrounding counties and our local high schools, we have tentative calendar dates for next year.

The date all parents want to know -- our start date for students in 1st through 8th grade -- will be Wednesday, August 9, 2017.

The date all students want to know -- our end date -- is May 25, 2018. Read below for other important dates:

August 7, 2017--Open House and Back to School Bash
August 9, 2017--First Day of School (1st-8th grade)
August 10, 2017--First Day of School (Kindergarten)
August 11, 2017--First Day of School (EC4)
September 4, 2017--Labor Day
October 9, 2017--Teacher Professional Day (no school for students)
October 20, 2017--Teacher Conference Day (no school for students)
November 18 - 26, 2017--Thanksgiving Break
December 22, 2017--Early Release Day (No Aftercare Available)
December 23, 2017 - January 8, 2018--Christmas Holidays
January 15. 2018--Martin Luther King Jr Day Observed
February 8, 2018--Teacher Professional Day (no school for students)
March 16, 2018--Teacher Conference Day (no school for students)
March 29, 2018--Holy Thursday, Early Release Day (No Aftercare Available)
March 30, 2018 - April 8, 2018--Good Friday and Easter Holiday
May 25, 2018--Last Day of School, Early Release Day (No Aftercare Available)

The full calendar, including dates for Auction, Carnival and other important events is still being finalized and will be available soon.

Be a Hunger Hero

Last year, as part of Catholic Schools Week, we partnered with Feeding Children Everywhere to package meals that went to local food banks and to Haiti. Together, our students helped package and provide 30,000 meals. I am pleased that we will be participating in this program again as a culmination to Catholic Schools Week, Friday, February 3, 2017.

Our mission collections for the month of January will go towards paying for the meal supplies. We are also asking students to bring in change, starting tomorrow, to fill jars in their classrooms. Because we love a little friendly competition, the homeroom that contributes the most change will get a special treat--which I will reveal at assembly next week (here is a hint, though: it involves duct tape).

This event was a huge success last year, as our students had the opportunity to provide "hands-on" service try packaging meals together for children and families who desperately need food.  From ages 4 to 14, our students were happy to be hunger heroes!

If you are interested in being a key volunteer and running one of our packaging assembly lines that day, please contact Mrs. Welsh in the Advancement Office at dwelsh@cks-school.org.  

Tell Us What You Think

Happy New Year!

As difficult as it probably was to get everyone up and out the door this morning, I'm happy to report that by 7:45 am all of our students were wide-awake for our morning pledge, vision statement and prayer, eager to get the 2017 portion of our school year underway. Admittedly, having spent my life either attending or working in schools, I always feel like I have two new years (the calendar year and the school year). 

While we are halfway through this school year and at the beginning of the new year, it is a great time to reflect and plan ahead for the future. Recently, I completed a SWOT analysis with the staff to gauge their perceptions of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of our school community. Many businesses use this tool for long term strategic planning. In fact, continuous improvement and planning require ongoing feedback from the families that we serve, so I hope you will complete our very short 2017 satisfaction survey using the link attached here.  

This survey includes what many business researchers have determined is the ultimate satisfaction question, but more importantly, it gives our parents a direct and anonymous (if you prefer) avenue to provide feedback to administration about what you think about all aspects of a CKS education.  It also helps our continuous improvement efforts in our curriculum, facility, communications, culture, etc. to ensure we are consistently upholding the values of our mission and vision. 

Thank you for your input and for your commitment to CKS!

Weekend Warriors

As many of our students prepare academically for midterms this week and spiritually for reconciliation tomorrow, some had an opportunity to test other skills honed through the fires of preparation in other ways this past weekend.

On Saturday, our Girls Basketball team successfully completed their run and repeated as champions of the Hillsborough Catholic Youth League. This is their fourth championship in five years--forget about the Belichick and the hoodie, it cannot compare to Kroll and the brooch.  

However, no matter how talented the coach, the players still need to play the game and our girls did an excellent job. They were losing at halftime and quickly came out to take the lead in the 2nd half and withstood a late run by Nativity at the end of the game to win 35 to 31. The difference in the game was the team work and toughness of our girls diving after loose balls, getting back up after hard fouls and keeping calm during the intensity of the game--all attributes we hope to instill in all our students. Attributes that will make them champions:

On Sunday, I had the opportunity to see our students participate in a different kind of performance--a musical one. In addition to the vocal music instruction our students receive during music class at CKS, many students receive instruction on musical instrumentation from Matt Jeffries both at school and at his studio. Yesterday, he held three different concerts, one of them just with CKS students. 

It was amazing to see students from 5-15 years old enjoying their time in the spotlight--from banging on the drums to the White Stripes, playing Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker Suite," and even one student writing his own guitar solo. I was proud of them for sharing the gift of music they developed through practice and preparation.

CKS 4th Grader (on left) Performing his Original Song

CKS 1st Grader Getting Set for a Drum Solo
Click Here for video

Advent is the season of preparation for Jesus. As we head in to Christmas, thank you for all you have done this semester to contribute to our success. Enjoy the break and time of preparation for the 2nd semester.