AUGUST 12, 2022

At Assumption, we know that there is nothing more important to you, as a parent, than the health and safety of your daughter. To that end, AHS has dedicated significant resources over the past several years to enhancing the overall safety and security of our school – including our campus and facilities as well as education and training for our entire school community.   

This past week, we invited Dan Orman, Training Coordinator for the Kentucky Center for School Safety, (KCSS), back to Assumption to review with our faculty and staff best practices for keeping our school safe. Having served in schools for over 30 years and as a trainer with KCSS since 2015, Dan is considered an expert in school security and safety. We first came to know Dan during a presentation he gave to school leaders that was sponsored by the Archdiocese of Louisville. After that presentation, we invited Dan to conduct an in-depth audit of our campus which yielded a number of recommendations. Some of those recommendations we were able to implement immediately such as covering all windows in classroom doors for emergencies. Other recommendations involved substantial changes to our facilities and served as the basis in planning for our new expansion. We are proud to say that security features such as including gates around our courtyard, enhanced camera coverage throughout our campus, and the design of our new main entrance, including the security vestibule, are all the result of KCSS’s audit from a few years ago.      

When Dan returned, he was impressed with what he found and commented, “When our small group from KCSS first visited Assumption almost four years ago, the list of things to do to make AHS safe was a very long list. What I see today is the result of a team effort – a team with exceptionally talented leadership – with a common and essential goal: work to make this school safe and secure for everyone. 

This is the difference between simply filling out a checklist versus a commitment to a higher calling. It is one of the best examples of ‘commitment over compliance’ I have ever witnessed. Everyone connected to Assumption High School should be very proud of everything – from the state-of-the-art entrance to the protected outside areas to the beautiful and inspirational chapel.”

In one week, we will be hosting Safety Week with all of our faculty, staff, and students including detailed instruction, training, and practice of our safety and security drills. In this way, we can all work together and reinforce our commitment to keeping our school community safe.   

This week we celebrated newest and oldest Rockets in our building! We welcomed the Class of 2026 as they started the year with their Freshman First Day and the Class of 2023 with their Last First Day at Assumption. We can’t wait to see how the year unfolds as they take off with new experiences and as the leaders of the school!

9:15 WEDNESDAYS AND SPIRIT WEAR MONDAYS: For the next two weeks, we will follow our regular 8:15 a.m. schedule each day. We will begin our 9:15 Wednesday schedule on Wednesday, August 31. On Monday, August 15, we will be celebrating our opening liturgy at St. Raphael. Students should wear their uniforms to school on Monday – NOT SPIRIT WEAR. Spirit Wear Mondays will begin on Monday, August 22.

BEFORE- AND AFTER-SCHOOL SUPERVISION REMINDER: The school doors open at 7:15 a.m. each school day, and supervision is provided in the cafeteria before school from 7:15-8:00 a.m. (until 9:00 a.m. on 9:15 schedule days) and after school from 3:15-4:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday and until 4:00 p.m. on Friday.    

MANDATORY PARENT ORIENTATION MEETINGS: We are excited to welcome you to our campus for parent orientation meetings. Each meeting will last 1-1½ hours. All orientations will also be livestreamed for those parents who prefer the convenience of attending virtually. A virtual link will be sent via email on Monday. Important information about the school year will be shared at these meetings, and you will have the opportunity to meet with other parents and our administrators and staff.  

  • Monday, August 15: Freshman and Sophomore Parent Orientation Meetings, 6:30 p.m.: The freshman parent meeting will be held in the cafeteria, and the sophomore parent meeting will be held in the theater.
  • Tuesday, August 16: Junior and Senior Parent Orientation Meeting, 6:30 p.m.: The junior parent meeting will be held in the cafeteria, and the senior parent meeting will be held in the theater.

 FRESHMAN PARENT MASS – Save the date! This Mass is a beautiful way to celebrate your freshman daughter’s high school journey as part of a community of faith. It will be celebrated on Sunday, September 11, 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!

ASSUMPTION PARENT PRAYER: Our parent prayer group will begin meeting on August 30 from 8:30 – 9:00 a.m. in the AHS chapel and will continue to meet each Tuesday morning throughout the school year.  Please park in any open space and enter the school through the main entrance.  During the year, we pray for every student by name twice.  Please join us for any or all of these opportunities!

RETREAT UPDATES: We will kick off our retreats after Labor Day: You can find the 2022-2023 retreat schedule HERE. We are so excited to continue our tradition of freshmen, juniors, and seniors heading to Mount St. Francis for their retreats and our sophomores will be returning to the Earth & Spirit Center for the second year. We are pleased to add two-day retreats at Earth & Spirit Center in addition to one-day retreats. Students should keep an eye out for an email with information on registering for sophomore, junior, and senior retreats and for freshman retreat assignments with their family homerooms.

LEAD & Learn is a 25-minute co-curricular period that is generally held each day except for 9:15 Wednesdays. During LEAD & Learn, students will meet in grade-level homerooms, attend class meetings, participate in family activities, and engage in a variety of advising, counseling, and leadership programming. Homeroom teachers collaborate with class officers and family program reps to foster a sense of community within each homeroom.    

During the first few days of school this week, homeroom teachers reviewed school policies and guided students in preparing for active participation in our opening liturgy by introducing songs to be sung at the service on Monday. Activities for freshmen also included meeting their Homeroom Mom and several getting acquainted activities. Next week, students will be in homeroom during LEAD and Learn time to continue a review of policies and procedures, including our safety and evacuation plans, culminating in our first fire drill of the year on Thursday. Freshmen will also work on a homeroom cheer for an upcoming family spirit contest.

CARPOOL & TRAFFIC FLOW REMINDERS: Thank you for your patience and cooperation in the carpool drop off/pick up line yesterday and today. There is always a learning curve for all of us on the first few days! If you haven’t already, please be sure to review this link for detailed information about the proper way to drop off/pick up your daughter to and from school:  CARPOOL AND TRAFFIC FLOW INFORMATION & MAP If everyone follows the rules, everything runs much more smoothly! Important Note: the paved shoulder along Bardstown Road in front of Assumption is used as a turning lane/waiting area for vehicles prior to entering the carpool lane on campus. Those queueing on the shoulder must be sure not to block the Bardstown Road/Tyler Lane intersection. A few tips:

  • If you can, please come earlier in the morning or later in the afternoon; we begin supervising students at 7:15 in the morning and provide after-school supervision until 4:30 in the afternoon (4 p.m. on Fridays). If you arrive before 7:30 in the morning or after 3:15 in the afternoon, the traffic is much lighter and you can breeze through the carpool line.
  • When traveling to/from campus for drop-off and pick-up, avoid Bardstown Road and Tyler Lane as much as possible. For example, instead of turning left from Bardstown Road to get in the carpool line, use the neighborhood streets to get to Bardstown Road north of Tyler Lane and then head south on Bardstown Road so you can turn right into the carpool lane. Here’s an annotated map of our neighborhood streets that can help you work out an alternate route that will help you avoid Bardstown Road and Tyler Lane and save you time:  NEIGHBORHOOD STREETS AROUND ASSUMPTION
  • When you are exiting campus, TURN LEFT on TYLER, instead of turning right and going to the light at Bardstown Road. When you turn left, go to Eleanor Avenue, the first cross street, and then turn left (to take you down to Gardiner Lane for easy access to the Watterson Expressway) or right (to take you up several blocks before making another right to access Bardstown Road away from all the traffic).
  • You can avoid the carpool line all together by making a quick stop at Gardiner Lane Shopping Center to drop off or pick up your daughter. They don’t mind as long as it is a quick stop and you don’t use the parking spaces near the stores that they need for their customers. It’s very short block and a safe walk for your daughter from the shopping center to Assumption.

POWERSCHOOL VERIFICATION & HANDBOOK AGREEMENTS DUE TODAY: PowerSchool is our first line of communication to students and parents/guardians regarding grades, course registration, and attendance records. Please review this link with the directions on how to access PowerSchool and make sure you know your username and password prior to the start of the year:  POWERSCHOOL INSTRUCTIONS:  Your daughter’s current personal information and contact information is listed here as well. We ask you to review it and make any necessary corrections no later than Friday, August 12. You will also be asked to review the STUDENT-PARENT HANDBOOK 2022-2023 with your daughter and as a part of your PowerSchool student information form you will be asked to to select the drop-down box verifying that you have reviewed the handbook as part of the legal agreement between you and Assumption High School.

OTHER BACK-TO-SCHOOL FORMS & INFORMATION: Please be sure to complete the forms that were mentioned in the summer back-to-school email.  This information can be found on our website through this link:  Back-to-School Information Page

FRESHMAN AND TRANSFER APPLIED DIGITAL LEARNING CLASS: A reminder to our parents/guardians of freshmen and transfers: Lessons for the Applied Digital Skills online technology course will start at the beginning of each week with assignments due at the end of each week. The next lesson will go out at the beginning of next week on Monday, August 15.   

DROP/ADD DEADLINE: Our drop/add period for classes ends on Friday, August 19. If you or your daughter has questions about her schedule, please contact the appropriate dean of studies: Student Last Name A-K:  JUDY FIELDHOUSE, Student Last Name L-Z:  THERESA SCHUHMANN

TEXTBOOKS:  All students should have their textbooks at this time. If your daughter still needs textbooks, please access her booklist through this link: https://bnck-12.com/ahsrockets.

COUNSELING CONNECTIONS: The Assumption Guidance and Counseling Department invites you to join them on Facebook and/or Twitter to stay up to date with deadlines and counseling programming for students of all grade levels. On Facebook, “like” the Assumption Guidance Parent Page. On Twitter, follow @AHSGuidanceDept.

FLIK LUNCH ACCOUNTS – Information from FLIK: If your daughter plans to buy lunch at school beginning on Thursday, August 11, then please be sure to review these links: FLIK MEAL PLAN INFORMATION and FLIK LUNCH MENU. MySchoolBucks, the company that handles the Flik online deposits, is accepting online payments now at www.myschoolbucks.com. All of the balances that were left from last year have been carried over to the new school year. Please sign up on the website to get low balance emails. If you plan to write a check for your daughter’s lunch account, please be sure to make the check payable to FLIK and to include your daughter’s name and ID number in the memo line, especially if your last name is different than your daughter’s. Please note: if you choose a meal plan for your daughter, then only payment by check is an option. Your daughter can drop off the check in main office or the cafeteria drop box during school hours. 

WORK STUDY SUPERVISOR: Assumption is hiring a supervisor to oversee students who are a part of the Work Study Program. The program begins August 15 and will run through the end of the school year. The position would be from Monday – Friday from 3:15 – 5:15 p.m. when school is in session. Duties include training students on cleaning classrooms, tracking and submitting students’ hours, and ensuring that students are completing the necessary work in an effective and efficient manner. No experience is necessary – we will train you. If interested, please reach out to Mary Lang and she is happy to discuss it with you further.

ROCKET NIGHT: Join us on Tuesday, August 23 to celebrate past and future Rockets at our Volleyball Rocket Night. Watch the Rockets take on St. Henry with freshman at 5:30 p.m., JV at 6:30 p.m., and Varsity at 7:30 p.m. The first 100 alumnae and future Rockets will receive a FREE t-shirt! Enter through the main entrance for your shirt and free admission.

Please join us at The Assumption Green for field hockey and soccer games, at the gym for our volleyball home games, and at the courses for our cross country meets and golf matches. All of our athletic team schedules can be found on the Athletics page of our website:  ATHLETICS.  

To purchase admission tickets to home games, visit https://gofan.co/app/school/KY6124. If you are interested in purchasing a $50 season pass for all home Athletic events (excludes post season), please email Christy.hulsewede@ahsrockets.org.

Congratulations to:

  • The soccer team kicked off the season with a 10-0 win over Collegiate.
  • The golf team has been in full swing with top finishes over the past several weeks!
    • Placed fourth out of 17 teams at the tournament in Danville. Junior Geriann Ackerman shot 78 and finished 9th overall and received all-state points.  A top 10 finish gets these girls all-state points. 
    • Placed fifth in a Tier 1 tournament in E-town. Geriann Ackermann shot 85.
    • Finished fifth in Shelbyville with Geriann Ackerman leading at 82.
    • Finished fifth at Madison Central Tournament with Geriann Ackerman leading at 86.
    • Finished second at the Cherokee Tournament with Geriann Ackerman winning the tournament shooting a 77! Senior Hannah Bradow came in third with a 82, junior Kaelin Stull 89, freshman Kemper Kleinholter 93.

Next week in Athletics:

Tuesday, August 16

  • Volleyball @ Male. Freshmen at 5:00 p.m., JV at 6:00 p.m., Varsity at 7:00 p.m.

Thursday, August 18

  • Soccer vs Bardstown. JV at 6:00 p.m., Varsity at 7:30 p.m.
  • Volleyball vs Presentation. Freshmen at 5:00 p.m., JV at 6:00 p.m. and Varsity at 7:00 p.m.

August 19-27

  • Freshmen, JV, and Varsity Field Hockey @ Sacred Heart Apple Tournament

August 20 & 21

  • Soccer @ Meet Me in the Middle Classic in Murfreesboro, TN

Please follow Rocket Sports on Social media for schedule updates and scores!