August 26, 2022

The first month of school has been an energizing one as our student leaders have been hard at work setting the tone for the 2022-2023 school year! Our student leaders were eager to introduce the school theme for this year: “Beautiful Moments.”  In choosing the theme, our leaders reflected on our community and chose to celebrate the beauty of the everyday at Assumption – the person who holds the door for you, the person who says something kind to you, the teacher who encourages you – the everyday magic that happens here. They have encouraged all of us this school year to spend time appreciating beautiful moments but to also be a part of creating, collecting, enjoying, living, sharing, and inspiring beautiful moments. And we have already witnessed so many truly beautiful moments!

One such moment was our first family competition of the year – the freshman family cheer off! This annual tradition started nearly two decades ago when freshman homerooms created and performed spirit cheers with their entire class. One by one, each of our nine families shares their family and class spirit with the class. The cheer off is each family’s first competition against one another and their opportunity to earn family points. Most importantly, this experience offers the homeroom a fun bonding event early in the semester to collaborate and celebrate with one another. Congratulations to our winners: 3rd place, Booterstown; 2nd place, Limerick; and 1st place, Tullamore!

On Tuesday we celebrated Rocket Night at the volleyball game! We had a great turnout of nearly 200 Future Rockets and 60 alumnae. Our guests received an exclusive t-shirt, enjoyed Rocket popsicles and music in the courtyard, went on tours with current students, and of course got in on the action in the gym. Our new video boards in the gym were a huge hit and created a college game day-like atmosphere. These video boards were donated by our gracious donors. Special thanks to our Recruitment Team and Athletic Department for making it a wonderful night!

9:15 WEDNESDAY SCHEDULE: We will begin our 9:15 Wednesday schedule next Wednesday, August 31. Before-school supervision will be available in the cafeteria beginning at 7:15 a.m. for any student that is dropped off prior to 9:15 a.m.

WORK IT WEDNESDAY IS BACK! Next week the Achievement Center will be hosting the first Work It Wednesday on August 31 for this year in the Media Center from 7:45 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. This is a great opportunity for students to receive extra support in their classes from peer tutors, study groups, or the AC teachers. It is also the perfect environment to work on homework and projects. Students will receive an email this Monday, August 29, to reserve their spot.

SCHOOL PICTURES: School pictures for freshmen, sophomores, and juniors will be held on Tuesday, August 30,and Wednesday, August 31, during study halls.  Pictures will be made in your daughter’s school uniform. Please help your daughter make sure her uniform is clean and in good repair for her school portrait. All students must have their pictures taken for our yearbook. School picture orders will be available online through Studio Illumination after portraits have been made.

COLLEGE INFORMATION NIGHT FOR SENIORS AND PARENTS: To further assist seniors and their parents with the college process, there will be a college information night for all seniors and parents on Wednesday, August 31, from 6:30-8:00 p.m. via Teams. The link for the program will be sent out prior to the event. 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 Kim Habich or Leigh Jackson.

MOCK SCHEDULE NIGHT: We will have our annual Mock Schedule Night for parents/guardians only on Thursday, September 1, beginning at 6:30 p.m. and ending at 8:40 p.m.; parents/guardians should report to their daughter’s homeroom for opening prayer and announcements. We will be asking your daughter to text you a picture of her schedule and her homeroom number by the end of the school day on September 1 so you can have it handy for Mock Schedule. You will also receive an email from Assumption on Thursday morning with information about the evening and event times as well.  Please plan to park at any open space at Assumption or St. Raphael and enter the school at the closest door. Ambassadors will be available at the doors and in the hallways to assist you in finding your way the entire evening.

DRESS DOWN DAY FLOOD RELIEF DONATIONS: Thanks to the generosity of our students, faculty, and staff we will send $3,368 to our neighbors in Eastern Kentucky who are trying to rebuild their lives after the devastating flooding that took place in July. All the money collected on Friday, August 19, will go to the Team Eastern Kentucky Flood Relief Fund. Catherine McAuley, foundress of the Sisters of Mercy, said that “the proof of love is deed,” and we are proud of our community for showing how we love our neighbors.

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!

Last week students practiced a variety of safety drills, including a tornado drill and an earthquake drill. Additionally, students learned valuable information about safety and keeping our campus doors secure. On Friday, students experienced a mental health break by having an open LEAD and Learn time in which they could work on homework, rest, etc. Next week, freshmen will learn about the process of hosting eighth-grade shadows on Monday. Students will also learn more next week about our overall LEAD and Learn vision, and all students will learn about our club opportunities and how to engage in club meeting opportunities planned during school on September 6 and September 8.

BEFORE-AND AFTER-SCHOOL SUPERVISION REMINDER: The school doors open at 7:15 a.m. each school day (even on Wednesdays!), 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.   

ATTENDANCE REMINDERS: Below are a few reminders about attendance:  

  • ABSENCES & EARLY DISMISSALS: If your daughter is absent or coming in late on any day, please call the attendance line at 502-458-9551, press 1, and report the absence/late arrival before 8:30 a.m. If you need for your daughter to be excused early for a medical appointment, please send a note with your daughter the morning of the early dismissal and have her bring it to the attendance office before 8:05/9:05 a.m. This helps us keep classroom interruptions to a minimum and protects the time for instruction of our students.  
  • GOING HOME SICK: On a related note, if your daughter contacts you during the day telling you that she is sick and needs to come home, please do not just come to school to pick her up; instead, please call the attendance office at 271-2507 and make our school nurse, Mrs. Burnam, aware of the situation. She will find your daughter, assess the situation from a medical perspective, and then give you an update and let you know if you should come to take your daughter home, make arrangements for her to be seen by a doctor, etc.
  • REQUESTS FOR EXCUSED ABSENCES: Also, please bear in mind that absences not related to illness/medical appointments need to be approved ahead of time to be excused. To request an excused absence in advance (for something like driver’s testing, a club team competition, a family wedding, etc.), you may email your request to attendance@ahsrockets.org. Requests need to be submitted one to two weeks in advance of the planned absence; we cannot excuse absences if requests are received the school day before or the day of the absence. Remember to review the handbook for all attendance-related information in the  STUDENT-PARENT HANDBOOK 2022-2023.

REMINDER ABOUT DELIVERIES: In an effort to teach our students about being accountable for their own belongings as well as to limit the number of visitors to school during the day and effectively monitor those visitors coming into the school, we have a policy that does NOT allow for student deliveries. Parents, please do not bring items (lunches, homework, bake sale items, sports equipment, presentations, papers, etc.) to school to drop off for your daughters. Our main office staff and athletic office staff have been instructed not to accept those deliveries. Thank you for your cooperation with these efforts.

REQUEST ON BEHALF OF STUDENTS WHO PARK AT STRATHMOOR PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH: Please do not wait in the Strathmoor parking lot across Bardstown Road from Assumption to pick your daughter up at dismissal. Parents who do this are forming their own carpool lane of sorts and this blocks our students who rent spaces at Strathmoor into their parking spots which has already caused some of them to be late for medical appointments, jobs, etc. If you don’t want to pick up your daughter from the Assumption carpool line, please use the “Gardiner Lane Shopping Center Option” mentioned in last week’s Rocket Report and shared with parents during our parent orientation sessions.

Tyler Lane Safety Concern: After dropping off or picking up your daughter, if you are on Tyler Lane headed for the light and want to turn left or go straight at the intersection, please don’t pull out to the left to get around the line of cars waiting to turn right onto Bardstown Road to get to the left lane. You need to wait until the road widens and the left lane actually begins. When you pull around the traffic, you are actually driving on the wrong side of the road and you are risking having a head-on collision with cars coming from the other direction on Tyler Lane. This problem most often happens in the morning as faculty, staff, and students come down Tyler Lane to turn in at the two-way drive to get to their parking spaces on campus. When leaving campus after dropping off or picking up your daughter, please consider turning left on Tyler Lane and using Eleanor Avenue or other neighborhood streets to get to your desired route. If you choose to turn right and go to the light at the intersection, please wait patiently in a single line of traffic until you get to where there are actually two lanes.

FRESHMAN AND TRANSFER APPLIED DIGITAL LEARNING CLASS: A reminder to our parents/guardians of freshmen and transfers: the second online lesson was sent out at the beginning of the week. Students must complete four short assignments that are designed to teach about the four different types of online assignments that teachers can create as well as learn a little more about Assumption. The assignments are due today, Friday, August 26, by 4:00 p.m.

40 BOOKS CHALLENGE: As the school year begins, we once again have launched our 40 Books Challenge. This program encourages students to read for enjoyment and rewards them for meeting goals for independent reading. Our challenge is for our students to read at least 40 books during their four years at Assumption, with incentives awarded for meeting the yearly goal of 10 books and the ultimate goal of 40 books. Reading for pleasure is one important key to helping students unlock their academic potential.  You can encourage your daughter to spend some of her leisure time curled up with a book and work toward meeting her goal in this year’s 40 Books Challenge!

TERRIORISTIC THREATENING: State law requires all schools in Kentucky to inform students and parents about laws regarding terroristic threatening and its potential penalties. When students or others make threats to harm other students, school staff, or even school property, whether the threat is a “serious” one in which the person truly intends to do harm (terroristic threatening in the first degree) or whether it is a “hoax” threat made without any real intention to carry it out (terroristic threatening in the second degree), such threats are extremely disruptive to the school and the educational process and are upsetting and cause fear among students, parents, and school personnel. Regardless of the intention of the person making the threat, school officials and law enforcement officials may be forced to close schools to investigate such threats that had been made, and the emotional, instructional, and financial impacts of these acts are incalculable.

We will review the information below with our students as part of our ongoing Student-Parent Handbook review process, but it would also be helpful for parents/guardians to review it and then discuss it with their daughter—please stress with her the importance of alerting an adult who can make sure appropriate action is taken (you, her counselor, an administrator, one of her teachers) if she ever hears or sees anything in person or via social media, group chats, etc., that might qualify as a terroristic threat.

According to Kentucky state law (KRS 508.078), a person is guilty of terroristic threatening in the second degree when he or she intentionally makes false statements by any means, including by electronic/online communication, for the purpose of:

  • Causing evacuation of a school building, school property, or school-sanctioned activity;
  • Causing cancellation of school classes or school-sanctioned activity; or
  • Creating fear of serious bodily harm among students, parents, or school personnel.

A threat directed at a person or at a school does not need to identify a specific person or school in order for terroristic threatening to occur. Usethis link to read the full text of KRS 508.078. Terroristic threatening in the second degree is a Class D felony punishable by one to five years imprisonment and/or a $1,000-$10,000 fine for adults (KRS 532.020) or, for juveniles, a fine not to exceed $500 (KRS 635.085), with fine assessed at the court’s discretion in lieu of commitment to the Department of Juvenile Justice.

Terroristic threats cause widespread fear throughout a school community and totally disrupt the educational process. Any such threats to Assumption students or employees are totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated. The administration, in coordination with responding law enforcement agencies, will pursue legal charges for felony terroristic threatening in the second degree, to the absolute fullest extent of the law, against anyone who makes such threats, including students. Moreover, the administration will strongly advocate that the prosecution of these individuals be swift and their punishment be severe. A student suspected of making terroristic threats may be placed on home study pending the results of an investigation; appropriate disciplinary action (suspension, dismissal) will follow if warranted.

DUAL CREDIT COURSE REGISTRATION: Attention, parents of students enrolled in dual credit (DC) courses: If your daughter is enrolled in DC English, she began her registration for this course through University of Louisville this week, and parents will be receiving an email from UL to confirm this enrollment that they must sign and return by next week. All other students enrolled in dual credit classes will be enrolling in the next two weeks. In late September, your daughter will want to keep an eye out for an email from KHEAA to take advantage of the Dual Credit Scholarship, which pays for two classes for every student in the state of Kentucky for BOTH her junior and senior year. If you have questions regarding registration or paying for dual credit courses, Dean of Studies Judy Fieldhouse will be in the cafeteria on Mock Schedule Night to answer your questions. Please stop by and see her!

POWERSCHOOL GRADES: PowerSchool grades are available for your view via your PowerSchool account. The following reminders are important to keep in mind:

  • PowerSchool grades are provided as our first line of communication to our families regarding your daughter’s progress, but it is important to keep in mind that no first semester grades are final until January 2023.
  • As indicated in the Student Parent Handbook, if a student is absent or misses class due to retreat or any other school-related function, we use a PLACEHOLDER ZERO to help her remember to make up this work. This PLACEHOLDER ZERO will be replaced with the actual grade once the student completes the makeup work and the teacher is able to enter it in PowerSchool.
  • Teachers are asked to have grades as up to date as possible by the 1st and the 15th of each month. 
  • If you or your daughter have a question regarding a grade recorded in PowerSchool, please have your daughter reach out to the teacher with her question. You are always welcome to follow up with the teacher as well.

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!

COLLEGE INFORMATION NIGHT FOR SENIORS AND PARENTS: Kim Habich and Leigh Jackson, college counselors, visited every senior English class August 22 through August 26.  Our counselors provided detailed information about the college application process to every senior. To further assist seniors and their parents with the college process, there will be a college information night for all seniors and parents on Wednesday, August 31, from 6:30-8:00 p.m. via Teams. The link for the program will be sent out prior to the event. 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 Kim Habich or Leigh Jackson.

JUNIOR ACTS: During the junior Catholic Social Teaching classes last week and this week, Katie Culver, the service-learning director, reviewed the Junior ACTS (A Christian Through Service) requirements. Each junior will need to complete 15 hours of service at one agency that serves a marginalized population or do service work around a particular justice issue. They will need to track their hours in MobileServe as they have previously done. All of the details are linked here: Junior ACTS Syllabus. If you have any questions, please contact Katie Culver at katie.culver@ahsrockets.org or 502-271-2597.

ADDITIONAL ACTS SURVEY: Thank you so much to those of you who filled out the survey sent about your daughter’s ACTS agency placement. Your

FRESHMAN ACTS: Over the course of this week and next Katie Culver, service-learning director, visited each of the freshman theology classes. She spent time teaching the students about our legacy as a Mercy school and the goal of creating a servant’s heart in each of our students. Additionally, she informed the students of their freshmen ACTS (A Christian Through Service) service requirement. They also learned how to log and verify their service hours through the program MobileServe. All freshmen are required to complete five (5) hours of service before Spring Break (March 31). All of this information and directions on how to use MobileServe can be found in the Campus Ministry tab in Student SharePoint, and an information sheet is linked here: Freshmen ACTS Information. If you have any questions, please contact Katie Culver at katie.culver@ahsrockets.org or 502-271-2597.

MANDATORY FRESHMAN GUIDANCE PROGRAM: Freshman parents, please mark your calendars and plan to attend one of our mandatory Freshman Parent Drug/Alcohol Education Programs on Wednesday, September 7, at 6:30 p.m. in our Media Center, OR Monday, September 12, at 6:30 p.m. in the Media Center. 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 about 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 one of these meetings. 

A big congratulations to junior May Scott, whose ceramic art project won a third-place ribbon at the Kentucky State Fair in the “Arts and Crafts” category, grades 10–12 division. May’s art project was a clay rattle inspired by her mother’s childhood pet rabbit, Rocky. The rattle is fully functional, and May made it in Ms. Wicke’s Ceramics I class last semester.

Congratulations to:

  • The soccer team for starting the season with a 6-0 record, which includes a win over Baylor School, a top program in Tennessee.
  • The volleyball team continues an undefeated season with a 4-0 record, which includes a thrilling five-set win against St. Henry on Rocket Night.
  • Both JV and Varsity Field hockey teams will compete for the championship of the 50th Apple Tournament.
  • The golf team defeated Oldham County 180-127 and Mercy 175-227.
  • Senior volleyball player Whitney Woodrow has been placed on the AVCA All-American Watchlist.
  • Senior field hockey player Tyler Everslage broke the career goals record of 73. This record was previously held by Assumption great and current math teacher Teri Campisano ‘91.
  • Senior Caroline Unruh committed to play softball at Centre College.

Next week in Athletics:

Friday, August 26

  • Field Hockey @ Sacred Heart JV, 5:00 and Varsity 7:45 p.m. for the 50th Anniversary of the Apple!

Saturday, August 27

  • Golf @ LaRue County Invitational
  • Freshmen and JV Volleyball @ Bulldog Bash @ Paul Dunbar HS
  • Cross Country @ Bourbon County Charger Challenge 9:00 a.m.
  • Soccer vs Notre Dame Academy JV 10:00 a.m., Varsity 11:30 a.m.

Monday, August 29

  • Golf @ Jefferson County Invitational

Tuesday, August 30th

  • Volleyball @ Sacred Heart. Freshmen 5:00, JV 6:00, Varsity 7:00 p.m.

Wednesday, August 31

  • Varsity field hockey vs Highlands Latin @ King Louie’s 7:00 p.m.
  • Varsity soccer vs Brown 6:00 p.m.
  • Cross Country @ St. X JV Meet @ Champions Park

Tickets for all home sporting events can be purchased at: https://gofan.co/app/school/KY6124. Assumption students get in for free!

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