The price is set on the lavish summer, June may be had by the poorest comer.

-James Russell Lowell

Dear Parents,

Experts agree: Children who read during the summer gain reading skills, while those who do not often experience learning losses. Struggling readers, in particular, experience a serious loss if they do not practice during the summer months. Try some of these strategies to help your children improve reading over the summer.

• Five to ten books to summer success: Research shows that reading just five to ten books during the summer may keep a struggling reader from regressing. Our Bookworms summer reading list has been specially chosen for your child’s age and ability. If your child is interested in more complex books that’s great.
• Read everyday. Have your child read aloud to you. Reading aloud helps a child to become more fluent – able to read at an appropriate speed, correctly, and with good expression.
• Read aloud to your child no matter their age. Reading aloud helps the struggling reader enjoy the written word and it’s a wonderful way to bond with your child. Reading aloud promotes listening skills and improves focus. Read your children the books you loved as a child, “Little Women” anyone?
• Visit the library and take advantage of the summer reading programs sponsored by your library, McDonald’s Barnes and Nobles, Pizza Hut, Scholastic, etc …
• Discuss the books with your children, make reading fun, organize a family book club. Quiz each other on characters, setting and plot. Act out a scene from the book if your children are budding thespians. They won’t even realize that their comprehension skills are increasing exponentially.

As our school year rapidly comes to a close I’d like to thank you, parents, for all your generosity toward St. Francis Academy. It is an honor to spend our days with your children. To our graduating families, we will miss you. Know that you will always be a member of our Franciscan family. Have a happy and healthy summer.

Pax et Bonum

Deborah Savage

Dear Parents,

As Mother’s Day approaches, we at St. Francis Academy feel especially blessed by the presence of so many wonderful mothers in our midst. We are filled with gratitude to the outgoing Parents’ Guild Officers who have worked so diligently for the benefit of our children and school. We welcome the new guild officers with admiration and appreciation for their willingness to say yes to a demanding volunteer position. I personally wish to commend each parent of St. Francis Academy, every day as I greet the students I clearly see the tremendous effort you expend in the raising of these lovely children. They are smiling, happy, and healthy, well fed and well rested. Their uniforms are clean and freshly pressed, shoes shined, and their hair is neatly styled. Once in school they are curious and energetic, ready to learn and participate in a variety of activities. They receive from you the guidance, self confidence, and nurturing every child deserves.

Once they enter the doors of St. Francis Academy they are surrounded by the maternal presence of our holy sisters and dedicated teachers. These wonderful women and men give a fine example to our students by encouraging them to do their very best in all their endeavors and are role models for living a life based on service to others.

Our lunch volunteers never let anyone go hungry, they make certain all have a napkin and a kind word during lunch. Particularly on Mother’s Day we must recognize the three women who dry the tears, wash the boo – boo’s, and give the hungry and the thirsty a cup of cold water or a peppermint. Mrs. Cafaro, Mrs. Gonzalez, and Mrs. Lapine mother everyone who enters our doors with kind words and smiles.

The students of SFA know they are most fortunate for they have an angel watching over them, our dear Mr. David Rivera. We celebrate his first anniversary in heaven on May 4th. There was no better mother for our students than Mr. Rivera.

As we dedicate ourselves to Mary during this month of May let us pray for those who have no one to mother them and bless all who help to mother the children of the world.

God bless you,
Deborah Savage

Dear Parents,

An Irish priest, newly arrived in New York City, decided to visit the section known as the Bowery, haven for homeless alcoholics and addicts. As he walked along one of the Bowery’s streets one dark night he suddenly felt a gun in his back. A raspy voice said, “all right mister, give me all your money.”

Quickly he reached for his wallet and, as he did, the holdup man noticed his clerical collar. The thief was overcome with shame. “Forgive me, father,” he said, “I didn’t know you were a priest.”

To which the victim replied, “That’s all right, laddy, just repent of your sin. Here have one of my cigars.”

“Oh, no thank you, father, said the thief, “I don’t smoke during Lent.”

During the month of March we celebrate the great feast of St. Patrick’s Day as we continue on in our Lenten journey. Like the anecdote above these two important times of the liturgical calendar seem contradictory, but I assure you they are not. St. Patrick journeyed in the desert, like Christ, during his six years as a slave in Ireland. Patrick returned to the land of suffering, fearlessly defied a king, and passionately enkindled the Easter fire spreading the light of Christ throughout Ireland. The feast of St. Patrick’s Day is most appropriately celebrated during the Lenten season of fasting, almsgiving, and prayer.

Here at SFA we honor so many of our wonderful sisters, past and present, who hail from the Emerald Isle on this holy day in their homeland. We ask St. Patrick to bless all at SFA, particularly our dear students and families with these words:

Bold Blessed St. Patrick
Lovingly smile upon us your sons and daughters.
May we be graced with your holy eyesight
to find good in everything around and within us
and to use all for the greater glory of God.

Peace,

Deborah A. Savage

“The family that prays together stays together”
– Servant of God Fr. Patrick Peyton CSC

“Catholic Schools – Dividends for Life” is the theme selected for Catholic Schools Week 2010. Catholic Schools Week is an annual celebration sponsored by the National Catholic Education Association and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. According to Dr. Karen Ristau, NCEA president, “Catholic Schools provide good things for students and families – high expectations and daily experience of faith. In these challenging times the theme also reminds parents that the dividends of a Catholic School education – students prepared in faith, knowledge, morals, and discipline – last a lifetime. There is no better way to invest in a child’s future – or the future of our world.

“Catholic Schools Week is an active time here at SFA. The students and teachers are diligently preparing for our many activities. A welcome addition to our busy Catholic Schools Week schedule will take place on Wednesday, February 3rd, immediately after dismissal in the chapel. Our students will be leading the Family Rosary. I strongly encourage you to be present if possible. Parents, grandparents, and caregivers who pick up students each day are warmly welcomed to join us in what Pope John Paul II called “simple yet profound, it (the rosary) still remains, at the dawn of this third millennium, a prayer of great significance, destined to bring forth a harvest of holiness.” (Rosarium Virginis Mariae)

The rosary will begin at 2:40 PM and will be interspersed with musical meditations provided by our choir and various students. The Family Rosary will end at approximately at 3:30 PM. Our lower playground will be open throughout Catholic Schools Week for convenient and safe parking. Children who are chosen to recite the rosary prayers or participate at Pasta Dinner Mass will be given a note this week, please ask your child if they received one. I hope to see all of you at the Family Rosary, Pasta Dinner and Mass, Mass with Bishop Donato on First Friday and all the wonderful activities we have planned for Catholic Schools Week. What better example can we give our children than to pray with them. As always, the sisters, faculty and staff thank you for choosing Catholic education at St. Francis Academy.

God bless you,

Deborah A. Savage

All my possessions for a moment of time. (Elizabeth I)

Dear Parents,

Wishing a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year to you and your family. It’s difficult to believe that ten years have passed since the start of our new century. The swift passage of time is all too apparent here at St. Francis Academy. Our alumni often visit and to my astonishment they are seniors in high school and college. How can this be when I clearly remember them as adorable first graders greeting me with a big smile and a good morning each day.

The days of childhood fly swiftly. Perhaps this year of 2010 our resolution should be to look at our children with new eyes, accepting them for who they are, quirks and talents. Resolve to spend more time listening to their dreams and fears; spend quality time without the incessant hi-tech chatter that accompanies modern life. Studies have shown that eating dinner as a family three days a week lessens the likelihood of teen drinking, drug use, and sexual activity. Nourish their souls by attending Mass as a family each week creating a bond that time will never erode. Read books, play board games, take a walk, listen to their stories and concerns, their disappointments and successes. Don’t allow time to dampen their innocence and enthusiasm for God’s creation with worldly concerns and cares. Above all don’t allow them to be spoiled with an unquenchable desire for material goods ensuring an inability to ever be happy or satisfied.

Time can cause us to forget what is most important as the following story illustrates. A young family was blessed with the birth of a baby boy. When the parents came home and placed the baby in his crib their three-year-old daughter asked to speak to the baby alone. The parents were baffled but since the nursery was equipped with a speaker system they allowed the request. Listening carefully they heard the little girl greet and welcome her new baby brother to the family. She informed her brother that she had been waiting for him so she could ask a very important question. She said, Tell me all about God, I’m starting to forget Him.

In partnership with you, dear parents, time here at SFA will be well spent developing morality, knowledge, discipline, and faith to carry your children through the joyous and trying times of their lives. May I extend my sincere gratitude for all the beautiful gifts, cards, prayers, and thoughts I received during the Christmas season. Your generosity and kindness is overwhelming.

God bless you,

Deborah A. Savage