Friday, March 12, 2021
Dear Parents/Guardians,
We thank all of our parents who participated in our Parent/Teacher/Student Conferences last night. We are so appreciative of your time and effort, and we value the opportunity to work together for your daughters.
Thanks also for your flexibility this week as we received our second vaccination shot and hosted our Cognia accreditation visit. As you may remember from the stakeholder surveys in December, an accreditation review takes place every five years for fully accredited schools like Assumption. A review team from Cognia spent time this week interviewing students, faculty, administration, parents, community partners, and board members as well as reviewing a lengthy report and list of evidence composed by our AHS accreditation team. We are happy to share that the Cognia review team’s findings confirmed that Assumption is an excellent school with a highly respected reputation that is committed to a mission that guides decisions, directs action, and supports life-long learning for all students. The review team also lauded Assumption’s vision for growth into the future as outlined in the 2020-2023 Strategic Plan. Because of Assumption’s commitment to continuous improvement for excellence, we greatly valued this opportunity to participate in a thorough self-study this year and affirm our accreditation status!
COVID NUMBERS: As we did last semester, Assumption will report our number of COVID positive cases and quarantines for any individuals associated with our school on a weekly basis in the Rocket Report. As of yesterday, Assumption’s COVID-19 numbers for this week are: (3/5; 3/8; 3/9; 3/10; and 3/11)
- 2 new positive COVID-19 cases (both students)
- 5 new quarantine cases (3 students and 2 staff)
- 30 total positive COVID-19 cases as reported to our local department of health as of January 5, the start of this semester (26 students and 4 faculty/staff)
It’s important to note that there have been no known transmissions of COVID here at AHS. As a reminder to our parents, Assumption is required to report positive cases and quarantines of all individuals associated with our school to the State of Kentucky, our local health department as well as the Archdiocese of Louisville.
A Special Message from the President and Principal will be sent out on Monday regarding important information for all students and their families regarding Covid-19 updates, school calendar for this year and next school year.
CALENDAR NOTES:
- DAILY SCHEDULE: Next week we resume our traditional hybrid schedule with the addition of a 1:50 p.m. early dismissal on Friday for Spring Open House preparation:
- Monday, March 15 – Day 1: In-Person – Maroon Cohort, Virtual at Home – Blue Cohort
- Tuesday, March 16 – Day 2: In-Person – Maroon Cohort, Virtual at Home – Blue Cohort
- Wednesday, March 17 – LEAD & Learn Wednesday: All Cohorts Digital at Home
- Thursday, March 18 – Day 3: In-Person – Blue Cohort, Virtual at Home – Maroon Cohort
- Friday, March 19 – Day 4 – EARLY DISMISSAL: In-Person – Blue Cohort, Virtual at Home – Maroon Cohort
- 1:50-2:00 p.m. staggered dismissal
- SPECIAL EVENING FOR FATHERS AND DAUGHTERS – MARCH 13: We hope our students and their dads or important father figures are looking forward to tomorrow night! This Saturday, March 13, we invite all Assumption fathers and daughters to spend a special night together. “Dinner & a Movie with Dad” will begin at 6:30 p.m. Information about our planned activities was shared with students at class meetings during this week’s LEAD & Learn Wednesday with more details for your planning shared via email as well. Dads/daughters can look forward to an evening that will open with prayer from Campus Minister MaryAnn Steutermann and include recipe ideas for a homemade pizza dinner, a movie list, and suggestions for movie treat. We can’t wait to see the way pictures of your fun and memorable night!
- REGISTRATION FEE AND TUITION SELECTION VIA MYSCHOOLBUCKS – DUE MARCH 15: Parents or guardians of current freshman, sophomore, or junior students need to make sure they have completed the tuition selection and registration fee by March 15. Parents/Guardians will need to log into their PowerSchool Parent Portal (direct link: PowerSchool) and pay their $225 registration fee using MySchoolBucks, which can be found on the left-hand side library of the parent portal. This is a credit/debit, non-touch payment in which MSB receives a transaction fee that is included in the $225 registration fee. Contact Brent.miller@ahsrockets.org or Kathy.fleischer@ahsrockets.org if you encounter difficulties with logging into PowerSchool and MySchoolBucks. If you are unable to pay the online $225 registration fee or have other arrangements with our finance office, please contact TAMMY FINCH. Detailed instructions with a reminder were sent via Swift Reach last Monday, March 1. The registration fee and tuition selection need to be completed no later than March 15. A reminder: families are not considered for financial aid unless the registration fee has been paid.
CAMPUS MINISTRY:
- PARENT PRAYER: Parent Prayer takes place every Tuesday morning from 8:30-9:00 a.m. via Zoom by using this link and ID/Password: Join Zoom Meeting: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/75488139027?pwd=UDQrM3BDWlZRbElEbWdUL1FQRE4wZz09, Meeting ID: 754 8813 9027, passcode: prayer. All are invited!
- COMPASSION CONNECTIONS: Each AHS family is aligned with a local agency, each of which addresses one or more of the “critical concerns” of the Sisters of Mercy: earth, women, anti-racism, non-violence, and immigration. Families will be collecting requested items for their agencies from March 8 – March 19, and students can earn family points for making a donation. Why then? The week of March 8 is the International Week of the Woman, and at AHS, we know that “compassion inspires.” Our theme is Real. Women. Care. Ask your daughter about her family’s agency and their needs this year. Naturally, no collection is mandatory, but if you would like to contribute to your daughter’s agency, you can send in requested items with her or make a monetary donation via Venmo @AHS-CampusMinistry. Be sure to enter “CC” and your daughter’s family name on the entry so that she earns family points!
LEAD & LEARN UPDATE: During our LEAD & Learn Wednesday this week, students began in homeroom with an opportunity led by student leaders for homeroom connection. Homeroom was followed by independent learning time and class meetings. At class meetings, seniors discussed our upcoming Spring Open House info and received information about our month of Assumption Spirit in April and reminders about our upcoming Dinner and Movie with Dad as well as updates from their class officers. Underclassmen also received information our upcoming Spring Open House, Dinner and a Movie with Dad reminders, and information about our month of Assumption Spirit in April. Juniors began their morning hearing a presentation from one of our Mission Week speakers, Kevin Pearce, followed by discussion in homeroom. Freshmen had the opportunity to participate in their class meeting on campus which included a Mission Week follow up activity. After lunch, sophomores, juniors, and seniors engaged in independent learning time while sophomores concluded their ACTS service.
Next week, students will engage in a variety of activities. After beginning in homeroom with another student leader provided homeroom activity, freshmen and sophomores will focus on independent learning while juniors will each have an assigned time to meet with the college counselors about next steps in the college research process. Seniors will have the opportunity to gather on campus for an important viewing of The Hunting Ground. Additionally, students who did not have their school picture taken in the fall or need a picture re-take can come to school between 12:00-3:00 p.m. to get their picture taken.
SCHOOL PICTURES FOR PINK COHORT/SCHOOL PICTURE RE-TAKES: Students from the Pink Cohort who did not have their photo taken on the picture days during first semester and students who would like their school portrait re-taken need to come to campus (enter via Tyler Lane) on Wednesday, March 17, anytime from 12:00-3:00 p.m. BIG photo will be here to take portraits during that time. Pictures will be taken of students in their school uniforms. Please help your daughter make sure her uniform is clean and in good repair for her school portrait. If you want to purchase your daughter’s portrait, please be sure to have her bring payment with her. Order forms will be available to fill out on site. If you are unable to have your photo made during this time frame, you will need to contact BIG photo at 502-585-3103 to arrange a time to go to their studio located at 640 S. Fourth Street to have a portrait taken. This will need to be done by Monday, April 5. Any questions, please contact KATIE CULVER.
SENIOR ASSEMBLY: Parents of Seniors – During our LEAD & Learn day on Wednesday, March 17, seniors will participate in an assembly centered around the award-winning documentary, The Hunting Ground, from 9:00 a.m.-1:15 p.m. This will be an in-person assembly for all hybrid seniors and a virtual assembly via Teams for all Pink cohort seniors. Current statistics indicate that one in five women will be sexually assaulted in college. The documentary features the stories of several victims of campus sexual assault and shows the emotional aftermath on the victims and their individual journeys for justice. At the assembly, seniors will view the documentary and hear from guest speakers about campus resources, consent, and bystander empowerment. We hope that this program will spark a discussion at home about the prevalence of sexual assaults on college campuses. If you would like to view the documentary with your daughter to foster a follow-up discussion at home, the documentary is available for purchase or rent on Amazon.com: Amazon Link. The schedule for the morning will be sent to the senior class via the senior counselor. If you have any questions about this documentary or the assembly planned for seniors, please contact Kristin Walsh via email at kristin.walsh@ahsrockets.org
LETTERS FROM COLLEGES: Attention, senior parents! Please have your senior daughters submit ALL letters received from colleges regarding admissions decisions, scholarship offers, and admission to special programs and honors colleges to the Guidance Office. The majority of colleges DO NOT provide this information directly to high schools, so your daughter is often our only source of information about this. Her timely sharing of this information is vital to the Senior Honors Celebration as we work to make sure we have all the correct information to celebrate your daughter and the Class of 2021. These letters can be hard copies, faxes, or scanned copies and can be emailed directly to COLLEGE.LETTERS@ahsrockets.org. We ask that students submit all of this information by Thursday, March 25.
COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIP NIGHT: All parents are invited to attend our virtual College Scholarship Night on Monday, March 22, from 6:30-7:30 p.m. The link to the meeting will be shared via email prior to the event. Representatives from various colleges will participate in a panel discussion about college scholarships aimed at helping juniors, and even sophomores, understand what colleges are looking for in a strong scholarship candidate. If you have any questions, please contact LEIGH JACKSON or KIM HABICH, our college counselors.
AP EXAMS: The College Board has recently made changes to their 2021 AP exam schedule. The originally scheduled paper and pencil exams are still scheduled from May 3 – May 17 but College Board has also scheduled two additional weeks of exam administration windows for students who might be unable to test on the original dates. Your daughter’s AP teachers are keeping her informed and full information can be found here: AP Test Information for 2021 Please contact JUDY FIELDHOUSE if you have any questions.
NATIONAL ACT FOR JUNIORS: On Tuesday, April 13, all juniors will take the National ACT at Assumption from 8:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Just like in October, there is no makeup date for this ACT at AHS, no signup is needed on the part of each family, and this test fee is covered by your tuition dollars. Please encourage your daughter to use the test prep program ALBERT provided by AHS for practice over this next month to help her achieve her best score. This score can be sent to colleges and universities and used for admission and scholarship purposes. Please contact JUDY FIELDHOUSE if you have any questions.
DUAL CREDIT SCHOLARSHIP INFORMATION: All students enrolled in a spring Dual Credit course received an email from Mrs. Fieldhouse on Wednesday letting them know that their information has been sent to the state. The state made a change in their process and requested that the school send the information as to what college/university the scholarship should be awarded. This means that your daughters WILL NOT need to go into KHEAA.com and set her scholarship preferences. If your daughter has more classes than available scholarships and needs to pay the school for those classes, you can wait until we hear back from the state to make those payments. When it is time to make those payments, your daughter will get an email and you will be notified via the Rocket Report. For more information see KHEAA information on the Dual Credit Scholarship Program and Assumption High School Dual Credit Information or contact Judy.Fieldhouse@ahsrocket.org.
LUNCH UPDATE FROM FLIK: Please remind your daughter to pre-order her lunch for next week if she plans to have FLIK provide her lunch on her hybrid in-person days. Lunch orders must be submitted by 8:30 a.m. the morning of but can be ordered a week in advance through this link: www.flikisdining.com. Your daughter will receive an email confirmation when the order is placed. If she does not receive a confirmation email, the order was not received by FLIK. For full information about the lunch ordering process, please click on this link: INSTRUCTIONS FOR ACCESSING LUNCH MENU AND ORDERING
- MAIN ENTRÉE LUNCH MENU OPTIONS for March 15-19: Mon-Thurs – steakhouse marinated pork chop on top of rice, quesadilla (cheddar cheese, spicy beef, or chicken cheddar), Spanish rice, roasted corn; Friday (Lenten Menu) – cheddar cheese quesadilla, grilled fish taco with cilantro cream, Spanish rice, roasted corn.
UPCOMING CLUB OPPORTUNITIES: Be sure to ask your daughter to take some time to check out the upcoming club meetings that will continue to be posted regularly on the website calendar linked here: https://www.ahsrockets.org/events/event/
SUMMER ACADEMIC OPPORTUNITIES: Academic opportunities for the summer have been UPDATED. You can find these on our guidance department page by clicking here: Academic Summer Opportunities 2021. There are numerous opportunities available with many costing less than $1,000. Programs are grouped according to areas of interest like STEM or Creative Arts/Design or General Summer Pre-College Programs, etc. Please contact LEIGH JACKSON or KIM HABICH with any questions.
AHS SUMMER CAMPS: We are eager to announce that registration for the 2021 camp schedule will open March 15! Assumption will be offering multiple stimulating academic, enrichment, and athletic summer camps for girls and boys in grades K-9. Please contact LAUREN LEGA with any questions.
SPRING OPEN HOUSE 2021: We will be hosting an in-person Open House on Sunday, March 21 for seventh graders and their families. Registration is available online, and families will follow all Healthy at Assumption protocols. While it will look much different this year, we are excited to offer this opportunity before future Rockets make their high school decision. As a valuable part of the Assumption community, we ask you to personally invite any prospective seventh grader and her family to Open House. Thank you, in advance, for your continued support!
ALUMNAE UNITE: The AHS Advancement Office is excited to announce the Alumnae Unite Campaign taking place April 14-16! Instead of focusing on competition as in past years with #RivalsUnite4Girls, Alumnae Unite is all about collective participation. This year, we have joined with Bethlehem, Holy Cross, Mercy, Presentation, and Sacred Heart to put the spotlight on women’s giving. The purpose is to raise funds for each school’s Annual Fund, which provides vital funding for student programs, activities, and tuition assistance. This year, we are All For 21. Each school will have 60 hours to help their alma mater reach 21% of alumnae giving to their Annual Fund. This campaign begins at noon on Wednesday, April 14, and ends at midnight on Friday, April 16. For more information, click here or contact Abby Blandford.
HOUSE BILL 563 INFORMATION FROM THE ARCHDIOCESE: The Archdiocese of Louisville has asked us to share this message with you: The Kentucky House passed HB 563 last night that included an amendment that would allow non-public school families to participate in Educational Opportunity Accounts fully, including tuition assistance, in counties with populations over 150,000 (Jefferson, Fayette, and Kenton). The bill now moves to the Senate, and CCK is asking us to encourage our stakeholders to contact their state senators to ask them to support HB 563, expand it to include non-public schools statewide, or at least hold strong and keep non-public school families in Jefferson Fayette and Kenton in HB 563.Please contact your State Senator and ask them to expand the bill statewide, or at least hold strong and keep non-public school families in Jefferson, Fayette and Kenton in HB 563. You can contact your State Senator by clicking on the link or calling 1-800-372-7181: Click Here to Contact Your Senator
Gratefully,
Martha Tedesco
Principal