Enrollment: Early Bird registration is from February 1st-16th. You can log-in to your FACTS Family Portal to access your re-enrollment packets. And, if you refer another family and they enroll, there will be a discount on your tuition. Please read Monday Mail for more information regarding enrollment and referring families. Contact Sara Westrich at sara.westrich@sascolts.org or (901) 386-3328 for more information. For our Hispanic families, Mrs. Westrich is fluent in Spanish.
WiFi: After several years in use, the WiFi system final gave out, which means we had to replace our WiFi system. Since our firewall is Meraki, we purchased a Cisco Meraki WiFi system. We purchased it on Wednesday and it arrived on Thursday. Our IT director, Mike Green, installed it that same day and our WiFi is up-and-running. The new Cisco Meraki system should take us to 2030 before having to be replaced.
A special thank you to the P.K. Seidman Foundation for funding the purchase of the new WiFi system. The cost of replacing the WiFi system was over $19K.
Bandwidth: Since St. Ann is 1-to-1 with tablet technology, we have been working for several months now to increase the current bandwidth from 100 Mbps (Megabits per second) to 250 Mbps. This is taking so long because AT&T is not being very helpful. They have sent us three servers so far that don't work. The first one was dead on arrival and the other two were misconfigured. My guess is that they are so big that one school is not important to them. Unfortunately, because of E-Rate (government funding for connectivity), we have no choice but to go with AT&T.
Catholic Schools Week (CSW): This year's CSW will take place January 31st through February 6th. The theme is "Faith. Excellence. Service." It goes along well with the St. Ann mission statement. Angela de Jong has created the schedule of activities for the week and will share it at our staff meeting this week. Later this week, we will publish the schedule on our website and social media.
COVID-19 Vaccination: Our faculty and staff have signed up for the COVID-19 vaccination. We were hoping to receive it this past week, but Shelby County is already experiencing a shortage on vaccines. We are hoping it happens this week. We are getting closer and closer to putting an end to this pandemic.
COVID-19 Transmission: I cannot stress this enough, our parents are the key to keeping COVID-19 out of St. Ann. And, our parents have been AWESOME! The communication between our parents and the school office has been fantastic. Parents aren't taking any chances. A headache, runny nose, stomach, low-grade fever, or just not feeling good and our parents have been keeping their child(ren) home. Even if there is someone at home not feeling well, parents are keeping their child(ren) home. Thank you parents! Because of you and the great work by the faculty, staff, and volunteers, we have created a safe and COVID-free environment for our students.
Fundraising: Hopefully, you know by now, one of my main goals is to keep St. Ann affordable and not raise tuition unless absolutely necessary. Angela de Jong and I are constantly in advancement mode in fundraising for the school so that we don't have to raise tuition. The more support we receive, the more funds we have available to help families afford St. Ann.
On this fundraising note, we have received yet another $10,000 matching challenge. If we raise $10,000, it will be matched. So, as part of Catholic Schools Week we plan to kick-off yet another St. Ann challenge. So, please be ready to help us meet our match.
God bless you,
Didier Aur, Principal
Great job by you, the St. Ann staff, and the St. Ann community. God Bless you all.
ReplyDeleteMindfully with you and the staff every morning as I pray and write. God bless to all!
ReplyDelete