September 3rd Newsletter

New Safe Environment Program through Virtus Please read the flyer about the new Safe Environment program for the Archdiocese of Seattle. The background check and training are required to volunteer with children. Records for returning families have been uploaded into Virtus, and all returning families should have received an email (sent for the second time today) from Safe Environment Program for the Archdiocese of Seattle (system@virtus.org), with your login information. Please take a few minutes to set up your account now, so that you are ready to volunteer on fall field trips, on the playground, at the Halloween Carnival, and more! New families will find information in the flyer about how to set up an account.
 
Fall Extracurriculars  Information and a registration email will be sent home early next week about this fall’s after-school extracurricular offerings – including chess, tennis, science, art and more! Today, you received a flyer about the art program from Smart with Art in the FCE. That flyer listed the price for the clay class that we hope to offer later in the school year. The fall art class will be Visual Arts, and the correct price will be $155 for the 8-week session. Again, registration information for all of the fall extracurriculars will be emailed out next week!  

With the start of the school year comes the School Fund Drive, our annual appeal to support tuition assistance, staff professional development, endowment investment and continuous improvement at our excellent school.

OLG depends on support from every school family for the Fund Drive, especially this year as we continue retrofitting the building with new windows and blinds. The Sparkle auction in February gave us a great start, with new energy-efficient windows in the library, stairwells and ends of the hallways. These will cut our energy bills permanently and keep everyone more comfortable and focused on learning.

At $15,000 per classroom, upgrading windows and window coverings is expensive. Two grant makers have said they’re interested in helping us, but they need to see significant community buy-in first. We would love to get at least three classrooms completed this school year — ideally more.

Pledge cards and invitations to our Oct. 10th Benefit Dinner will be arriving in your mailbox soon. Please prayerfully consider what you can afford, remembering that you can space payments out over 10 months.

And no matter what you can afford, do give! Every gift makes a difference, and the higher our participation, the more likely a grant maker will help us.

Questions? Contact Carrie Morrissey, OLG school development & marketing coordinator, 206-935-0651 ext. 124.