Dear Parents, 

Today, we wish Assumption High School a very happy birthday!  On September 6, 1955, Assumption began life as a school as 130 freshmen and 50 sophomores walked through the front doors for the very first time.  We are so grateful that Assumption was born.  Happy Birthday, Assumption! 

 CALENDAR NOTES:   

• FRESHMAN PARENT MASS:  This Mass is a beautiful way to celebrate your freshman daughter’s high school journey as a community of faith.  It will be celebrated on Sunday, September 8, at 2:00 p.m. at St. Raphael Catholic Church.  Please come even if your family isn’t Catholic.  Siblings are invited as well – please bring the whole family!   
• GRANDPARENTS DAY:  This holiday is celebrated nationally each year on the first Sunday after Labor Day, but at Assumption, we celebrate it in a special way in October.  Please invite all grandparents – and the whole family – to mark their calendars for Assumption’s Grandparents Mass on Sunday, October 13, at 2:00 p.m. at St. Raphael Church.   
• MANDATORY FRESHMAN GUIDANCE PROGRAM:  Freshman parents, there is one more opportunity to attend our mandatory Freshman Parent Drug/Alcohol Education Programs on Monday, September 9, at 6:30 p.m.  You do not need to pre-register; just come on the night most convenient for your schedule.  This is an important program designed to familiarize you with the school philosophy and policies in the area of drug and alcohol prevention. We know that what parents say and do makes a difference in the choices their daughters make.  At this meeting, you will hear from Cindi Baughman, dean of students, and a local therapist from Innerview who will present vital information in the area of drug and alcohol prevention.  It is a program that will be worth your time and attention.  At least one parent or guardian is required to attend.  The program will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Media Center and will last approximately one hour.  

CAMPUS MINISTRY:   

• PARENT PRAYER BEGINS ON SEPTEMBER 10:  All AHS parents are invited to begin the day in prayer once a week on Tuesdays from 8:15-8:45 a.m. This year our prayer will take place across Tyler Lane in the chapel at St. Catherine’s Convent.  Upon exiting campus after carpool, follow the signs directing you across the street. During these times, we pray for EACH student, faculty, and staff member at AHS by name while parents at Sacred Heart, Trinity, and St. Xavier share the same weekly prayer that we do.  Please join us every Tuesday or just any Tuesday you can make it!  No need to RSVP!  We will begin on Tuesday, September 10.  If you are unable to attend but would like the group to pray for a particular intention, please email it to our campus minister at MARY ANN STEUTERMANN. We hope you find comfort in knowing that we are praying for your intention even if you can’t be present. 

REQUESTS FOR EXCUSED ABSENCES:  If your daughter needs to miss school for a reason that is not medically related, the absence must be approved in advance for it to be excused and make-up work completed. Requests for driver’s testing, college visits, participation in club sports or other activities, etc., need to be made in writing and received at least a week ahead of time if at all possible. Your daughter may bring your written note to the attendance office or you may email your request to attendance@ahsrockets.org (as long as you are making the request in advance).   Please do not contact your daughter’s teachers directly to ask them to excuse her from class because absences must be approved by the administration and not individual teachers. 

REQUESTS FROM THE ATTENDANCE OFFICE/SCHOOL NURSE: 

• EARLY DISMISSALS:  If you know when your daughter comes to school in the morning that she has a medical appointment during the school day that will require her to leave school, please send a note requesting the early dismissal with your daughter that morning and have her bring it to the attendance office before school. If you are making an appointment for your daughter after she leaves for school in the morning, please email Mrs. Burnam or call her in the attendance office to let her know AND tell your daughter to stop by to see Mrs. Burnam between classes to get information about the appointment and an early dismissal slip.  
• GOING HOME SICK:  If your daughter emails or otherwise contacts you during the school day to tell you that she needs to come home sick, please tell her to see Mrs. Burnam in the health room/attendance office before you jump in the car to come get her. Mrs. Burnam is a fully licensed RN who can assess your daughter’s health situation and consult with her to determine if she does, indeed, need to leave school because she is ill. If this is the case, Mrs. Burnam will then contact you to come to school and pick up your daughter.  She can also advise parents, based upon her professional analysis, if the student’s condition seems to be worthy of a doctor’s visit. 

The unannounced pickups mentioned above require Mrs. Burnam to leave the attendance office/health room to find students, and we simply do not have a surplus of office staff to cover the attendance office/health room in her absence. More importantly, when she has to leave the health room/attendance office unattended, other students who need her services are unable to get them.  Thank you in advance for your help with these issues–you are helping us make sure that the health needs of all our students are being met. 

CLUB WEEK:  Is your daughter looking for a way to get involved at Assumption?  Here is her chance! Club Week will take the place the week of September 9 and three of our RocketTimes will be devoted to getting involved at AHS.  On Monday, September 9, all students will meet in homerooms during RocketTime to receive information about all the clubs and organizations Assumption has to offer, including information about club membership and meeting dates.  Whether she is an animal lover or an adventure seeker, we have a club for your Rocket!  Students will have the opportunity to attend two introductory club meetings of their choice during PM RocketTime on Tuesday, September 10, and Thursday, September 12.  Please encourage your daughter to take full advantage of this chance to explore new opportunities.  We hope you will also mark your calendar for September 9-12 and touch base with your daughter about the clubs that she found interesting.  A list of the clubs offered is available in the STUDENT-PARENT HANDBOOK.  Any questions, please contact THERESA SCHUHMANN. 

DUAL CREDIT REGISTRATION FOR FALL 2019: If your daughter is enrolled in a DC (Dual Credit) course this semester, Mrs. Judy Fieldhouse has been into her class to get her registered and enrolled at JCTC (Public Speaking), UL (English IV) and WKU (Personal Finance, Spanish III & IV, French III & IV, World History).   Therefore, she is enrolled and has applied as a dual credit student to the college/universities involved.  The remaining steps are to pay and then request transcripts once your daughter has chosen the college where she will be attending.  Each course is 3 credit hours and will be approximately $160.  You will receive a bill from the college/universities where your daughter is taking the dual credit class.  If your daughter has not yet used the TWO Dual Credit scholarships available through KHEAA, she can use that to pay for her course.  The Dual Credit Scholarship application will open sometime in early September and will need to be submitted by October 15.   She will be informed at school when the scholarship application is available.  Please use the handout at the following link as a resource and a convenient place to store your password information: DUAL CREDIT INFORMATION SHEET.  If you have additional questions, please contact JUDY FIELDHOUSE. NOTE:  DC PreCalculus and DC Calculus will not register until January. 

KEES (Kentucky Educational Excellence Scholarship) GPA:  Parents receiving KEES reports from the KHEAA may notice a difference in the GPA reported on their daughter’s KEES Scholarship report verses the Assumption High School student transcript mailed home to you in July.  KHEAA (Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority) and the state of Kentucky use a different GPA scale than Assumption High School; therefore, when calculating your daughter’s GPA for her KEES scholarship money, you will need to use whole numbers for all calculations: 

A+, A, and A- = 4.0 

B+, B, and B- = 3.0 

C+, C, and C- = 2.0 

D+, D, and D- = 1.0 

F = 0 

Please refer to the KHEAA website for more information at KHEAA WEBSITE.  Detailed explanations of Assumption’s GPA, grading scale, quality points, and weighted GPA information may be found on page 51 of the 2019-2020 STUDENT-PARENT HANDBOOK. You may also contact our registrar KATHY FLEISCHER regarding any questions about your daughter’s transcript. 

TB TESTS FOR CLASS OF 2022: Attention, parents of sophomores: The CDC has released an updated guideline regarding tuberculosis screening, testing, and treatment. This recommendation suggests a re-evaluation of testing strategies and is focusing on more of a risk assessment and less on skin testing or blood testing.  Our process at Assumption has involved skin testing of all students prior to their service learning project. However, given these new CDC recommendations, we have adjusted our requirements accordingly, and we will only be testing students who are assigned to agencies whose individual facility policies still require volunteers to provide record of their TB skin test.  More information will be available after students receive their agency assignments in November. Please contact KATELYN MOORE with any questions. 

COLLEGE INFORMATION NIGHT FOR SENIORS AND PARENTS:   To assist seniors and their parents with the college process, there will be a College Information Night for all seniors and parents on Wednesday, September 11, at 6:30 p.m. in the theater.  Admission representatives from a variety of colleges and universities will discuss the college application process.  This panel will provide helpful hints and advice to seniors as they begin their own college process. If you have any questions, please contact LEIGH JACKSON. 

COLLEGE FINANCIAL AID INFORMATION NIGHT:  On Monday, September 23, we are hosting a College Financial Aid Information Night beginning at 6:30 p.m. in our theater for our seniors and their parents.  Lindsay Driskell, Director of Financial Aid at Jefferson Community and Technical College, will be our guest speaker and will walk seniors and parents through all they need to know about financing their college education.  If you have any questions, please contact our college counselors, LEIGH JACKSON or KIMBERLY HABICH. 

ACADEMIC BANQUET:  Invitations were sent out Wednesday morning to parents via email for our annual Academic Banquet on Sunday, September 29, at 1:00 p.m.  At this banquet, we honor the academic accomplishments of the following groups of students: sophomores, juniors, and seniors who earned a 4.0 GPA during the 2018-2019 school year; newly inducted Beta Club members; newly inducted National Honor Society members; freshman McAuley Scholars and newly inducted McAuley Scholars; and seniors recognized by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.  We ask parents to check their email closely for information about attendance and the RSVP deadline of September 18.  Due to space limitations, we limit guests to two per student.  If you have any questions, please contact  KATHY FLEISCHER, registrar.  

GUIDANCE PODCAST – link available on website now! Our Guidance Department has so much information they would love to be able to share with parents. However, we know our Assumption families are busy. While Guidance will continue to offer valuable in-person programming (and we encourage you to attend), we wanted to find a way to make information available to our parents that wouldn’t require attending another meeting at school. Enter our new Guidance podcast, AHS Counselor Conversations! Podcast episodes will focus on a variety of topics such as mental health, technology, brain development, family relationships, drugs and alcohol, academics, and college & career preparation.  We are excited that this resource will make information accessible to parents at their convenience with just a couple clicks of a button; we hope it will help you in your efforts to give your teen the support she needs to grow into the best version of herself. Starting next week, you will be able to access the podcast through iTunes (with Spotify and Google Play coming soon). A link is now available on our website through this link:  AHS PODCAST.  Questions and comments are welcome at GuidancePodcast@ahsrockets.org.  

ARCHDIOCESAN PARENT PRESENTATION:  The Archdiocese of Louisville invites all parents to a special presentation by Dr. Leonard Sax titled “Instagram Ate My Daughter and My Son Won’t Stop Playing Fortnite—What Parents Need to Know to Improve the Odds for Their Children” on Tuesday, September 17, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Mercy Academy.  Please see the flyer in this link for more information: DR LEONARD SAX PARENT PRESENTATION 

SEPTEMBER BUS SCHEDULE FOR TRANSPORTATION TO THE GREEN: Below is information for our fall sports athletes regarding after-school transportation to practices/games at the Green. 

ROCKET NIGHTS:  There will be two Rocket Nights to celebrate past, present, and future Rockets this fall.  The preseason #3 nationally ranked Rockets volleyball team will take on preseason #2 nationally ranked Mater Dei from Santa Ana, California, during Volleyball Rocket Night on Thursday, September 12. The game is at 6:00 p.m. in the Assumption gymnasium. The Field Hockey Rocket Night is on Tuesday, September 17, with JV playing at 6:30 and varsity at 7:30 p.m. vs Male. All grade school students and alumnae will receive FREE admission, and FREE limited-edition t-shirts will be given out to the first 150 future Rockets or alumnae at each night. For more information, click here. 

DANCE & CHEER CLINICS:  The dance and cheer teams will offer clinics for future Rockets who are interested in learning new skills from our nationally ranked dancers and cheerleaders! Dance will be held on Saturday, September 14, from 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. and cheer will be held on Saturday, September 28, from 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Both clinics will provide participants the opportunity to show off their dance and/or cheer moves at an Assumption game following the clinics. Click here for more details and registration information.  

METRO UNITED WAY AND UPS:  Do you, your spouse, or a family member work for UPS?  If so, you have an opportunity to help Assumption.  As a UPS employee, you can designate your Metro United Way gift to AHS. Whether you give through payroll deduction, cash, check, or stock gifts, you may designate your gift to AHS by simply writing in Assumption’s tax ID, 61-1133759, on the MUW pledge form. Your gift will be included in our annual Fund for Assumption campaign to support need-based financial assistance and school programs. Please consider directing your gift to:  Assumption High School, 2170 Tyler Lane, Louisville, KY  40205, Tax ID number:  61-1133759.  Many thanks for your support of Assumption! 

ASSUMPTION PARENT ORGANIZATION (APO) NEWS:   

• Class Representative Message:   You will soon be receiving an email from your APO class representative. Throughout the year, your APO representative will be sharing important AHS information and updates with you along with opportunities to become involved in your AHS community. If you have any questions, feel free to email them with your questions or suggestions. 
• Rocket Raffle and Walk for Assumption – Walk Day: Friday, September 27. Be on the lookout for additional information on incentives and important dates.  Rocket Raffle ticket and Walk waiver distribution will take place on Friday, September 13.  Please check with your daughter for details and exciting incentives. All proceeds from The Walk for Assumption benefit the financial needs of our students. Our goal is always 100% participation from our students! 

• Rocket Spectacular Benefit Dinner and Auction – Saturday, February 1, 2020: Plans are underway for an exciting evening with the “Roaring Twenties”.  Not only are we playing off of the past, but we look ahead to what 2020 has in store for us! Rocket Spectacular is the largest fundraiser for Assumption, raising funds for financial assistance. The event would not be possible without the support of our AHS parents. If you would like to volunteer with soliciting donations or helping with decorations, please contact Laura Matis – lauramatis@yahoo.com 

EXPLORE FRANCE & SPAIN – SUMMER 2020:  Bonjour and Hola!  Please consider signing your daughter up for our May 31- June 8 trip to Paris, Biaritz, the Basque Country, and Barcelona.  The link to view the all-inclusive itinerary and register for the trip is: www.Worldstrides.com/enroll and the Trip ID needed to access the itinerary is Shirley-2021.  Please join us for an informational trip meeting on Sunday, September 8, at 3:00 p.m. in room 111.  Please enter through the main doors at Tyler Lane.  If you have any questions, please contact JENNIFER SHIRLEY. 

FLIK – new app!  FLIK, our food service, has a new mobile app.  Please see the linked flyer to learn all that the app has to offer:  FLIK MOBILE APP 

Sincerely, 

Martha Tedesco 

Principal