Save the date for Back to School Night at Valley Catholic High & Middle School!

Please join us Wednesday, Sept. 21 from 6:45-9:10 p.m. This is a wonderful opportunity to meet all your student’s teachers and see each of the classrooms.  Teachers will discuss their curriculum, classroom procedures and provide a syllabus for each class.

Middle School parents/guardians will meet in the VCHS Auditorium and be welcomed by Principal Jennifer Gfroerer while the High School parents/guardians will be greeted by Principal Ross Thomas in the Valiants’ Gym.  Please arrive in each location by 6:45 p.m. so everyone can hear opening remarks before attending all of your student’s classes.

ATTENTION PARENTS:  Please sign on to PowerSchool at http://ps.valleycatholic.org to obtain schedule information to complete this form and bring it with you on Back-to-School Night.

If you don’t already have PowerSchool access:

• MS Parents will receive paper instructions that are being sent home on Friday with their students.
• HS Parents will receive an email with log on instructions prior to Monday.

As many of you know, the husband of one of our first grade teachers, Mrs. Kiefer, passed away last month.  One of the needs she has expressed is for meals for herself and her eighth grade son. As a school community, we thought this would be a great thing for our community to come together to offer her. If this is something that you and your family would like to do, please contact Mrs. Harvey for a sign up schedule or email her at aharvey@valleycatholic.org.

If you’re interested in joining the elementary and middle school cross country running club, it will meet for the first time on Wednesday, September 14. Club meetings are every Monday and Wednesday from 3:25 to 4:25 – this is a change from the information sent home before the school year began. Local races (in the Portland metro area) are held mostly on Tuesdays and Sundays. For more information, pick up a packet in the office or from Mr. Holstrom or download it here and print it. Permission slips need to be turned in to the office prior to attending club meetings. For more information email Joe Manning or Eric Holstrom.

Memo from Sr. Adele Marie Altenhofen, President, SSMO Ministries Corp.

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I’d like to give everyone an update on where we stand with the hiring of a few open positions in the SSMO Foundation. We are continuing in our search for a Foundation Executive Director to replace John Lauerman who retired in March.  Our search for this person will continue until we feel we have found the right person for this very important job on our campus. I continue to meet with prospective candidates and with experienced development professionals in the Portland area and look forward to another round of interviews with our search committee and a new set of finalists in July.

In terms of the Development Director, Alumni Manager and Auction Coordinator positions, previously held by Melissa Maxwell, Kira Kvamme and Danielle Tomich, I will make it the first order of business for the new SSMO Foundation President to hire personnel in those key areas. During our search, our plans are still intact to run an annual fund to support all of our campus ministries, seek funding for capital projects, bring alumni back to campus and hold an annual auction April 14, 2012.

Thank you for your understanding and patience as we continue with this important work of seeking qualified and effective employees to support all of our missions on the campus of the Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon.

For those who want to learn more about the organization moving in on the island of property at the edge of the SSMO campus in July, the Salvation Army invites you to their Open House on June 22 from 4-7 p.m.

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On Saturday, June 18, Shauna Jasperson, the Elementary School librarian, will head up a group of Valley Catholic volunteers to move the materials from our current library into the new Elementary and Middle School building. The move begins at 10 a.m. this Saturday, June 18, and volunteers should gather on campus by the entrance to the current Elementary School.

Parents who volunteer for this effort will receive triple service hours from Elementary School Principal Sue Friesen.  The hours can be applied to this year’s requirement or families can get a jump on next year’s hours.  A few parents have already offered to bring pick up trucks to assist with the move so all that is needed at this point is some willing helpers.

A few parents have asked if they can bring their children with them to the move.  Because the boxes of books are fairly heavy, it is not likely that children will be able to assist with the project.  However, parents can bring their children with them as long as they are supervised during the move.

After the move, all volunteers (including children) are invited to a BBQ by the Valiants’ Gym.  This BBQ represents a small token of our appreciation to all the parents who have helped with this event and all the other projects on our campus throughout the school year.

This summer, Susan Honeyman will fill the role of registrar for Valley Catholic’s new Elementary and Middle school. Starting in late June, she will be working with VCES secretary Dede Morris as the school transitions into its new building.

Honeyman is no stranger to the Valley Catholic campus. Her son Kevin graduated from VCHS in 2007, and her sister Kathy Johnson teaches English at the high school. Excited to return, she says it will be “fun to see the other side of Valley.”

Before coming to Valley Catholic, Honeyman worked for the past nine years at St. Mary’s Academy in Portland, her high school alma mater. As the Administrative Assistant for the Counseling Center, she worked primarily with two college counselors to assist students and parents through the college application process. Among other responsibilities, she organized supporting documents for applications, maintained student records, and assisted the school in transitioning to an electronic submission process. Her work was not confined to helping juniors and seniors, however; Honeyman offered support to students of all grades as they sought guidance from the Counseling Center. In her years at St. Mary’s, Honeyman also served as Library Assistant and Attendance Secretary.

Prior to her work in education, Honeyman held jobs in Portland’s advertising industry after graduating from the University of Oregon.
As her new job approaches, Honeyman says she has enjoyed the welcoming atmosphere and looks forward to becoming part of this community. Best of luck at Valley Catholic, Susan!

Submitted by Lisa Wilson ‘11

Eighth grade students presented their animal projects this week in the high school auditorium.

As part of the 8th grade science curriculum students conducted scientific research on an invertebrate following research protocols while using animal models. Much like real scientists, student generated experimental designs and were required to undergo a review by the animal care and usage committee and gain approval before experimentation began.

Once approval was acquired, students were issued their animals on which to care for, house and perform experiments. Experiments were conducted to gain a better understanding of the animal to benefit the animal, scientists and/or society.

Students begin with a question, for instance, if slugs preferred grass or rocks to move over, and then went about experimenting to see if their research supported their hypothesis.

For one week, the students had crickets, slugs, pill pugs, earthworms, planaria and crayfish living happily in the classroom zoo. Almost as if on queue, the students had “escapees” that caused some added excitement to the activity. Fortunately, the keepers were quick to respond and return the animals to their proper houses.

Submitted by June Poling & Thomas Kohler

Thursday June 9 was a big day for 8th grade graduates and their families, and especially for the two graduates who were honored to be chosen to give graduation speeches: Jessica Campbell and Varsha Kalavar.

In the morning a graduation Mass with Fr. Freddy Ocun presiding was held in the SSMO Motherhouse chapel. Many eighth graders participated in the Mass as altar servers, lectors and cantors. The seventh grade students were in attendance and those in the choir provided the music, accompanied on the organ by Sr. Juliana Monti. Jessica Campbell gave her graduation speech at the end of the service.

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We now have an exciting and new way to support Valley Catholic School doing something many of you are already doing — shopping online! For the last several months, we have been working with representatives from the Patron Company to customize an online shopping site specifically designed to bring in funds for our school called the Valley Catholic Patron Store. Read the rest of this entry »