Rocket Report – Friday, August 27, 2021
Dear Parents/Guardians,
Students, faculty, and staff had their first opportunity of the school year to come to our beautiful chapel for a special moment this week! All were invited to attend a “Time Out Tune Up” offered by our Campus Ministry department during the first five minutes of their lunch period on Wednesday. We had great participation; 91 students and 7 faculty/staff members took advantage of the opportunity for this quick spiritual booster shot and earned some attendance points for their families. The families with the greatest participation this week were Kingstown, Cork, and Birr. This will be offered at the beginning of each lunch period on Wednesdays throughout the year.
HEALTHY AT SCHOOL: As of today, 57% of our students are fully vaccinated. We continue to encourage individuals to get vaccinated not only to avoid the possibility of catching and spreading COVID but also to decrease the risk of quarantine. If your daughter has been fully vaccinated, and you haven’t already done so, please send a copy of her vaccination card to attendance@ahsrockets.org. Having her card on file will avoid delays with trying to obtain this information from the health department and allow her to continue attending school and participating in athletics and other activities without interruption.
CALENDAR NOTES:
- SCHOOL PICTURES: School pictures for freshmen, sophomores, and juniors will be held on Tuesday, August 31, and Wednesday, September 1, 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. Information on how to order and purchase your student’s photo will be communicated soon.
- 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, September 1, at 6:30 p.m. via Zoom. 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 LEIGH JACKSON.
- MOCK SCHEDULE NIGHT: We will have our annual Mock Schedule Night for parents/guardians only on Thursday, September 2, beginning at 6:30 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 2 so you can have it handy for Mock Schedule. 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. Masks must be worn by all guests in our school building.
CAMPUS MINISTRY:
- ASSUMPTION PARENT PRAYER: Our parent prayer group will begin meeting on August 31 from 8:30 – 9:00 a.m. in our new 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!
- TRACKING SERVICE HOURS: We track students’ community service hours with MobileServe, and have access to each of our students’ accounts so that we may assist your daughter with reporting and monitoring her service hours. Mrs. Moore, our Service Learning director, will be visiting all freshman theology classes in September to instruct students how to use MobileServe, and copies of all needed materials can be found on your daughter’s theology class OneNote. Additionally, paper copies of directions on how to use MobileServe can be found in Campus Ministry. Please contact KATELYN MOORE with any questions.
REMINDERS FROM THE MAIN OFFICE:
- 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.
- CARPOOL TO SCHOOL REMINDER: If you are still in need of finding a carpool – or help on 9:15 Wednesdays – please know that we do offer an online service called CARPOOLTOSCHOOL. This online service creates an Assumption-only network that allows parents and students to set up and organize carpools to and/or from school. Users can create their own carpool option and open it to other families. Users also have the option to request to join another AHS parent-organized carpool or a carpool to/from school that has already been set up by an AHS junior or senior who drives to school. If you still need a carpool and need the email invite again, then please email ANGIE DUSCH.
- 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.
- 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 are coming 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.
- 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. Since they are dismissed first in our staggered dismissal protocol, many of them are having to wait as long as 20 minutes to be able to get out of their spaces, 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.
NOTES FROM THE ACADEMIC DEANS:
- 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 Monday, August 30, by 4:00 p.m.
- 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 should have signed and returned this 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 throughout her high school career. 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!
- ACT PREP: TorchPrep is offering a couple of options for prepping for the ACT in September and October. We had a great group of AHS students participate in the June workshop and had amazing results. Please visit their website for additional information about their five-week boot camps and the “Weekend Warrior” program: TorchPrep
LEAD & Learn Update: Throughout the opening of the school year, we have been using our LEAD & Learn time in a variety of ways to help our students learn to lead, engage, and advocate and to provide important direction activities as well. During last week’s LEAD & Learn Times, homeroom teachers reviewed important start of school information and routines and highlighted important aspects of the handbook which they will continue to do over the next few weeks. Additionally, each class had their first class meeting where they engaged in a class bonding activity. Sophomores, juniors, and seniors were led by their class officers and freshmen participated in the annual freshman cheer-off to show their family and Assumption spirit! While in homeroom, student leaders led an activity to help homerooms reconnect after the summer.
During LEAD & Learn Time this week, we have been focused on school safety and have practiced each of our designated drills, fire, earthquake, tornado, and lockdown so that we are prepared in case of an emergency.
Next week’s LEAD & Learn Time offers a variety of activities. On Monday, families will celebrate their spirit by wearing their family t-shirt or family color with spirit wear on Monday and will take their first family picture in our new family suite spaces. In addition, homerooms will celebrate August and September birthdays in homeroom. On Tuesday, students will learn more about what our LEAD Program has to offer including a new series of leadership programming that we will introduce this year called Leadership Education Opportunities (LEOs). On Thursday and Friday, classes will be in class meeting and homeroom on alternating days.
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 help 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!
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 8, at 6:30 p.m. in our theater, OR Monday, September 13, at 6:30 p.m. on Zoom. 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. If you choose the Zoom option on September 13, please look for a link which will be sent out via email to all freshman parents prior to the event.
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 daughters—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. Use this 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.
ROCKET PARENT NETWORK (RPN) NEWS: If you are interested in planning events and meetings for the Rocket Parent Network, we invite you to attend our first meeting of the year on Monday, August 30, at 6:00 p.m. on Zoom. Here is the link to join the meeting: JOIN RPN ZOOM MEETING ON AUG 30 AT 6PM
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!
MOUNTFEST at MOUNT SAINT FRANCIS – Save the date! Mt. St. Francis invites the Assumption community to this year’s MountFest, which will take place on Saturday, September 18, from 12:00-8:00 p.m. In conjunction with the Southern Indiana Arts Alliance, there will be artists booths, food trucks, live music, raffles, a butterfly release at 4:30, and an expanded Kids’ Zone. The chapel will also be open for tours by the friars, and there will be a photography exhibit in the Mary Anderson Gallery. This is a great way to support our beloved retreat center! For more information, go to their website at: https://mountsaintfrancis.org/the-monarch-festival-at-mountfest
Sincerely,
Martha Tedesco
Principal