Submitted by VCMS Vice Principal and Science Teacher June Poling

Last Saturday, Jan. 28, 15 middle school students represented Valley Catholic at the BPA Regional Science Bowl. The three teams of five competed valiantly against middle schools from all over Oregon and Southern Washington. This year there were over 400 students competing. Participants from VCS included:

Eighth-graders: Tristan Jong, Austin Ketterer, Max Nepokroeff, Adithya Srikanthan, Iain Byrne, Christopher Douglass, Alex Zdanowicz and Joshua Cheng

Seventh-graders: Lakshya Bakshi, Kunal Bhattacharjee, Raymond Man, Steven Yang and Brandon Baunach

Sixth-graders: Aditya Sharoff and Adelin Alfred

Valley Catholic came close to making the cut into the afternoon round of 16 schools. Despite the loss, the teams were rewarded by a presentation from special guest speaker and NASA Astronaut Stanley G. Love, Ph.D. Dr. Love shared video and stories of his mission aboard Atlantis in 2008. After the presentation, Dr. Love fielded questions from the audience about topics ranging from his scariest moments aboard the International Space Station to how toilets work in space.

If you have questions about life in space, the VCMS Science Bowl team will be happy to share the stories they heard.

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Dr. Love and students from VCMS.

Getting ready for competition.

Spring sports will begin Feb. 27. If you have an athlete who plans to participate, they must have a current physical on file in the athletic office. Physicals are valid for two years. Each athlete must have a signed consent and emergency form turned in, as well as the $100 spring athletic fee.

Athletic forms can be found here. >

All three items must be in the athletic office by Friday, Feb. 24 in order to participate in practices or try-outs on Feb. 27. If you have questions, contact Jeff Gallagher in the athletic office at jgallagher@valleycatholic.org.

The Valiants are on a roll!  Read about it in this article published by the Beaverton Valley Times.

Read about the Valiants’ efforts to be the best team in the league in this article posted by Beaverton Valley Times.

Submitted by Alumni and Donor Relations Assistant Grace Le Chevallier

The Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon and the SSMO Ministries Foundation staff will be hosting Kaffee Klatsches at local parishes throughout the year during the traditional church coffee hours.

In the German tradition, a Kaffee Klatsch is casual gathering for coffee and conversation. This time of connection and conversation is a long-held tradition in the Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon Community. The Kaffee Klatsches will give the Sisters and the foundation staff an opportunity to express their gratitude for the years of support offered by local parishes and their parishioners and the many ways they have impacted our ministries.

The first Kaffee Klatsch will be held at St. Edward’s Parish Hall in North Plains this Sunday, Feb. 29 after the 9 a.m. Mass.

Next week is one of the most important and exciting weeks on our campus: Catholic Schools Week. All across the country, Catholic education will be celebrated with various events, liturgies, and activities that help commemorate the significant accomplishments and impact that these schools have on a daily basis.

As of this year, there are currently just under 7,000 Catholic schools in our nation, serving over 2,000,000 students each day. In Oregon, there are 40 Catholic schools serving students in grades K-8 and 10 Catholic high schools.

These stats are meant to help demonstrate the enormous impact that Catholic schools have both in our country and locally. This year’s Catholic Schools Week theme of “Faith. Academics. Service.” is very appropriate to our campus at Valley Catholic. Each day our students, faculty, staff and parents help us carry out the mission of the Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon by making faith, academics, and service our priorities.

There are various events on campus for the coming week to help celebrate Catholic Schools Week, highlighted by the all-school Mass on Wednesday, Feb. 1 at 9:25 a.m. in the Valiants’ Gym. This gathering will be a terrific display of Catholic education at work on our campus. At the conclusion of the Mass, I will be announcing our Distinguished Alumni Award winner for the year. This award has been given out on various occasions in the past, but we are now establishing it as part of our annual Catholic Schools Week celebration.

I hope that each of our families can find a way to celebrate this special week on our campus. I know that without parents, Catholic schools would not exist or be as successful. At Valley Catholic, we are very grateful for our parent community and we look forward to this very special week.

A great way to kick off your Catholic Schools Week activities would be to attend Saturday night’s Family Mass and Banquet. I hope to see many of you on Saturday night.

Finally, I wanted to follow up on last week’s announcement of the tuition rates for the 2012-2013 school year. I appreciate the feedback I have received since last week’s announcement and I wanted to clarify one area that was brought up to me. The registration fee for students will not increase. The amount was raised last year to the current rate of $200 per student. Before last year’s increase, this fee had not increased in several years and I do not anticipate the fee increasing from its current rate of $200 for the next several years.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions about this information and I will get back to you as quickly as possible. Enjoy your weekend and I hope to see you on campus soon.

Dear VCES Community,

January has been a busy time for our school, but it has also been a time of great excitement and energy. In the last week, we’ve had two major events – our Grandparents & Special Friends Day and our Open House. Both events have showcased our school and the great work that’s being done here by students, teachers, staff, and parents. We’ve had terrific crowds for both, and it’s been such a privilege for me to share the school and our community with our visitors. It’s one of my favorite parts of the job! Thank you to all grandparents and special friends who attended our event last week. I also don’t want to neglect this opportunity to say thank you to our parent community.A t both events, I heard, time and time again, from grandparents and prospective families of the high esteem you have for this place. At Saturday’s Open House, many different prospective families mentioned our current families as the reason they chose to check our school out. Thank you for sharing with your family, friends, and colleagues the great things that make Valley Catholic so special!

Remember that next week is Catholic Schools Week, and we have all kinds of events and activities planned to celebrate “Faith. Academics. Service.”—the nationwide theme for the week. Please feel welcome to join us for Wednesday’s Mass, Thursday’s parent prayer service followed by coffee and doughnuts, and our community night at the high school boys’ and girls’ basketball games on Friday evening. If you haven’t yet joined us for a Mass, a parent prayer service, or coffee and doughnuts, let Catholic Schools Week be your catalyst. We’d love to see you here and celebrating Catholic education.

Before I sign off for this week, kindergarten teacher Lauri Davis and her family let me know they’d like to share some words of appreciation, and I’d like to assist her in passing them along:

“My family and I would like to thank all of you for the cards, gifts, attendance at the funeral, hugs and overall support during the loss of my father. It has been so meaningful that even those who never met my father would offer such kind words and love during a difficult time. I feel truly blessed to be a part of such a wonderful faith community.”

We hope to see many of you on campus next week as we celebrate Catholic education here at Valley Catholic!

Blessings,

Joe Manning
Principal

THE WEEK AHEAD:

Saturday
All-Campus Family Mass & Banquet – Convent Chapel & Eagles’ Gym – 5 p.m.

Monday
Recess Supervisors: MaryBeth Wolfe, Peter James, & Maria Cober

Tuesday
Free Dress for $1 Day to Benefit St. Malachy School – Los Angeles, CA
Early Dismissal – 2:05 p.m.
Recess Supervisors: Natalia Gurzhiy-Hughel & Julie Decker

Wednesday
All-Campus Catholic Schools Week Mass – Valiants’ Gym – 9:25 a.m.
All-Campus Initial Called to Protect Training – HS Library – 6 p.m.
Recess Supervisors: Rajendran Manickavach & Laura Kuhner

Thursday
Spirit Dress Day – Students will wear VC shirts/sweatshirts/uniform tops. All other clothing will be in accordance with the free dress guidelines.
Second Quarter Report Cards Distributed
Recess Supervisors: Stephanie Matthews

Friday
No School – Archdiocesan Faith Formation
Community Night at HS Basketball Games – Come to cheer on the HS basketball teams and participants from our ES and MS CYO teams who will play at halftimes of each game – Girls: 6 p.m.; Boys: 7:30 p.m.

Submitted by SSMO Foundation Development Director Sharlayne Buuck

The Elementary School was bustling with curious grandparents and special friends on Friday, Jan. 20. The fun-filled afternoon began in the Valiants’ Gym where approximately 200 grandparents and special friends gathered. Many traveled quite a distance to be the honored guest of one of our students. Principal Joe Manning gave the welcoming address and introduced VCS President Bob Weber.  Mr. Weber had a few words to share, spotlighting what a vital role grandparents and other adult role models play in the lives of our students.

The prayer service which followed gave our students an opportunity to share their faith. Mr. Ron Guenther, Oregon State University Professor and grandfather of third grade student Miguel Rodriguez, was our featured speaker. Following the prayer service, students proudly led their guests on tours of the new school, enjoyed tasty refreshments, and had photographs taken with their guests. It was a wonderful event where lasting memories were created.

The following poem, written by fifth-grader Sofia Deatherage, is one of the heartfelt tributes read by students during the program. Sophia added a little Spanish for her grandmother.

Special friends (Abuelos, y amigos espesiales),

Grandparents are nice, grandparents are fun,
and they’re old and wise and number one!
They can help you with math,
help you follow the right path,
so you won’t feel your mother’s loud angry wrath.
They comfort when ill,
pay for the bill,
and clean up after your big sticky spill!
“Go to your room!” says your mom standing tall.
But your grandmother says, “Hey grandchild, let’s play ball!”
Gardening, knitting, jogging or weeding;
your grandma will play without any pleading!
Loving, caring, kindness and joy
your grandparents give to girl or boy!
Though the toddler may cry, and the children may whine,
our grandparents love us, and that’s how they shine.
So God bless our grandparents and our special friends,
’cause they will be with us in our hearts ’til the end!

¡Abuelos, Abuelas, y amigos especiales los queremos!

Special thanks to Joe Cramer for taking photos and sharing them with us:

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Submitted by VCMS Math and Science Teacher Stephanie Shields

Catholic Schools Week
Fun Middle School Activities:

Submitted by Communications Specialist Danielle Tomich

The fourth-grade students in Ms. Pausz and Mrs. Flint’s classes got a special treat on Thursday.  Heather Ferguson from the Washington County Museum paid them a visit—and brought with her a mobile museum of Lewis and Clark.

Students were able to touch and handle objects just like those that Lewis and Clark might have been carrying with them across the country on their way to the Pacific Ocean.  Blue beads, steel and flint for starting fires and metal pots were among the things they traded to the Native Americans that the students got to investigate.  Lewis and Clark also packed things to take back home: the students got to see and touch a bobcat skull and other animal “souvenirs.”

The students formed groups and rotated to three stations, one being the “mobile museum.”  At another station, Ms. Pausz played a trivia game about Lewis and Clark with a group of students.  At the third station, students learned how to read a compass with Ms. Ferguson.  Each child got to hold his or her own compass and practice reading it.

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