Rocket Report – Friday, October 1, 2021
Dear Parents/Guardians,
On Sunday, we were excited to celebrate the academic achievement of students at our annual Academic Awards Celebration. We honored the academic accomplishments of the following groups of students – sophomores, juniors, and seniors who earned a 4.0 GPA during the 2020-2021 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 applaud all of our honorees listed in the awards program linked here: ACADEMIC AWARDS CELEBRATION PROGRAM!
HEALTHY AT SCHOOL: There’s some good news surrounding COVID this week. Cases are decreasing both at the state level and in Jefferson County. The statewide positivity rate has dropped to just over 10% and the incidence rate in Jefferson County has decreased to 77.7/per 100,000 cases. While this is certainly a welcomed change from a few weeks ago, we are not out of the woods yet. Jefferson County and much of the state remains firmly in the red zone – which indicates a high level of community transmission. But for the first time in a long time, we can report that there we no cases on campus this past week!
As we mentioned in last Friday’s Rocket Report, we will be reporting our COVID cases on campus on a weekly basis. This will include cumulative cases since the start of the semester as well as cases for that week. We believe this provides a truer picture and is a better way to keep parents informed of our COVID numbers. This will be in lieu of the notifications that were being sent which were causing some confusion regarding the exact number of cases at any given time.
- Since the start of the school year, we have had 32 total COVID cases.
- This week (reporting Friday to Thursday) there were 0 COVID cases.
The percentage of students vaccinated continues to rise and now stands at 65%. We know that vaccination is the surest way to avoid quarantine and serious illness and we continue to encourage everyone to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Let’s hope that this next week we continue to see a decline in COVID for our entire Louisville community.
CALENDAR NOTES:
- NATIONAL ACT FOR JUNIORS: All juniors will be taking a National ACT on Tuesday, October 5. Juniors will not attend any of their classes on this day and will be dismissed at approximately 12:30. This test is offered at no additional cost to our families and can be used to send to colleges and universities, but it mostly serves as a baseline and goal setting score for the April National ACT also given to juniors during the school day. Please help your daughter remember to eat a good breakfast, check her calculator battery, and to bring her favorite #2 pencil.
CAMPUS MINISTRY:
- ASSUMPTION PARENT PRAYER: Our parent prayer group will continue to meet each Tuesday morning from 8:30 – 9:00 a.m. in our new chapel. Please park in any open space and enter the school through the main entrance. Please join us for any or all of these opportunities!
- DRESS DOWN DAY: The dress-down day sponsored by the Global Outreach Club to support our school in Cambodia has been moved to Wednesday, October 27. A group of AHS students who graduated in 2010 raised the money to build a school in rural Cambodia while they were still in high school as a way of addressing the lack of educational opportunity there, especially for girls. Since that time, AHS has supported its programming. COVID has ravaged the countryside, and school cannot take place in person. Instead, teachers visit students in their home villages in an attempt to continue instruction. For a minimum donation of $3, students can “dress down” following the guidelines in the handbook. If parents would like to support this cause, please send in a donation with your daughter on October 28.
- GRANDPARENTS MASS: All Assumption students and their families are invited to celebrate a special Mass with their grandparents on Sunday, October 10, at 2:00 p.m. at St. Raphael Church. We hope our school families will extend the invitation to all grandparents, and the whole family is welcome for this special celebration. We do ask that all in attendance wear masks and to spread out in the church when choosing seating.
NOTES FROM THE ACADEMIC DEANS:
- PARENT/TEACHER/STUDENT CONFERENCES: Conferences are scheduled for Tuesday, October 12, from 5:00-7:30 p.m. in order to give students and parents the opportunity to meet with teachers about students’ progress. We will be offering the opportunity to schedule either an in-person or a TEAMS conference with your daughter’s teachers. Please use this link: Fall Conference Signup to schedule a conference with your daughter’s teacher. All parents are invited to attend, but parents of students with a D or F in in a class or classes as of October 12, the date of the conferences, are required to attend. Our next official grade update will be on Friday, October 1. We recommend, however, that you check your daughter’s grades on PowerSchool between October 2 and October 12 to make plans to attend if needed. If you have any questions that cannot be addressed at parent/teacher/student conferences, please contact your daughter’s dean – JUDY FIELDHOUSE (students whose last names begin with A-K) or THERESA SCHUHMANN (students whose last names begin with L-Z)
- TESTING DAY: Wednesday, October 13, is the National Testing Day for all freshmen, sophomores, and juniors. It is a late arrival Wednesday, with the tardy bell ringing at 9:15. We will dismiss at approximately 12:30 p.m. So as to not disturb any testing, we wait for all rooms to finish before we dismiss. If your daughter is in our Learning Differences program and qualifies for extended time testing, please ask her what time she will finish. Juniors will be taking the PSAT by reservation (please respond to this form if you have not already done so PSAT TEST FORM), sophomores will be taking the PreACT or PSAT (depending on their English class), and freshmen will be taking the PreACT test. Please encourage your daughter to maximize the benefits of this day by getting a good night’s sleep, eating a healthy breakfast, and bringing her calculator and pencils with her on Testing Day. There is no make-up day for these tests and no replacement for the valuable feedback they provide for both the school and your daughter, so attendance on this day is very important.
- TESTING DAY FOR SENIORS – Attention, Senior Parents: Since seniors are not involved in taking standardized tests on Testing Day, Wednesday, October 13, they are excused from coming to school on this day. We strongly encourage seniors to use this day for making college visits. Since Thursday and Friday of that week, and Monday of the following week, are Fall Break days, this is a great opportunity to make a visit to an out-of-town college.
- TESTING DAY FOR JUNIORS – Attention, Junior Parents: You received a special message last week with important information regarding testing days in October. If you have not already read it and responded to the survey, please do so here: LETTER TO JUNIOR PARENTS – PSAT & ACT
LEAD & LEARN UPDATE: During LEAD & Learn Time this week, students had the opportunity to participate in activities for direction and engagement. On Monday, all students were in homeroom to participate in suicide awareness programming developed by our counselors and implemented by our homeroom teachers. On Tuesday and Thursday, classes alternated between participating in class meetings covering a variety of topics and a homeroom activity welcoming fall in which they decorated pumpkins. On Friday, they prepared for our first annual Family Night Halloween Door Decorating Contest.
Next week, during LEAD & Learn, students will participate in activities focused in the areas of engagement and direction. On Monday, homerooms will execute their plans from this Friday’s planning session to create door decorations that will be used as part of our Alumnae Halloween Night later in October. These door decorations will be used to decorate doors throughout the school when our alumnae and their children come to trick or treat. Decorating contest winners will earn bragging rights and points for their family as part of our ongoing Family Competition. On Tuesday and Thursday, our focus will shift to success in standardized testing. On Tuesday, our juniors will take the first of two National ACT tests this year. In homeroom and class meeting on Tuesday and Thursday, freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors will take place in targeted activities to help with preparation for success on standardized testing as we look toward our testing day on Wednesday, October 13. And on Friday, all classes will participate in mindfulness activities that they can use when faced with stressful situations, including testing.
Save the Date! EVENT/DANCE DATES FOR THE 2021-2022 SCHOOL YEAR: We want to keep you updated on our plans to continue to offer opportunities for all of our students to come together and connect as a community outside of school hours and to help them enjoy some of the normal traditions of high school in what continue to be less than normal times. This week, the junior and senior class officers announced their plans to co-host a new event – an informal, outdoor All-School Social Event for our students on Saturday, October 23, from 8:00-10:30 p.m. at the Assumption Green. The girls will be receiving finalized details about the event next week including information about event activities, casual attire, ticket sales, and more. Students are encouraged to attend with their AHS friends but are also allowed to bring one guest to the event as well. Tickets will be $10 per person.
Additionally, we have updated our calendar with plans for our traditional school dances second semester. Our planned dates for these events are:
- Saturday, February 12: Father-Daughter Dance
- Saturday, March 19: All-School Semi-Formal Dance/Junior Prom
- Friday, May 13: Senior Prom
We are hopeful as we look to the future, but, of course, we will continue to monitor the progress of the pandemic both at Assumption and in our community as we make plans.
SCHOOL PICTURES: Today during LEAD and Learn time freshmen, sophomores, and juniors received their school pictures if they placed an order. If a student did not have her portrait taken or she would like to retake her photo, she can do so on Thursday, October 28, during her study, lunch, or before school. School pictures can also still be ordered online at shop.studioillumination.com. Simply enter “AHS” plus your daughter’s Assumption ID number as the code to access your daughter’s picture. Orders can be made online until December 1.
2020-2021 YEARBOOK DISTRIBUTION: Yearbooks have arrived and will be distributed next week! Students will have a chance to pick up their books during their lunches on the following days: seniors – October 5, juniors – October 7, and sophomores – October 11. Students cannot pick up books for friends or students who are absent; everyone must pick up her own book. If your student is absent on the day she is supposed to pick up her book, then she will be able to get one from the Media Center beginning the day we get back to school from Fall Break on Monday, October 19.
GOVERNOR’S SCHOOL FOR ENTREPRENEURS (GSE) – INFORMATION MEETING: The Governor’s School for Entrepreneurs is a three-week residential summer program where young entrepreneurs, working in teams, take an idea and utilize STEAM and enterprise skills to create a service or product. Interested freshmen, sophomores, or juniors may apply. On Wednesday morning, November 17, Assumption has invited the executive director of GSE to come and speak to interested students. This is a LEAD and Learn day, and the meeting will take place before school at 8:30 a.m. in the theater. Besides being a dynamic summer learning experience, students selected for the program pay no tuition or fees and can earn scholarship money to 14 different Kentucky colleges and universities. Even if a student is not enrolled in a business course, we encourage any freshman, sophomore, or junior to attend. For more information about GSE, go to https://kentuckygse.com/. Further questions? Contact SANDY MAXTED or KELLY KIRWAN.
FROM THE GUIDANCE & COUNSELING DEPARTMENT: September is National Suicide Prevention Month, so this week students had a suicide prevention program during LEAD & Learn Time. The program focused on destigmatizing mental health and providing students with a roadmap for resources and help. As you continue to dialogue with your daughter on the topics of mental health and suicide prevention, we wanted to provide you with some helpful resources:
- Mental health from a teen’s perspective: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BByqa7bhto&t=11s
- Suicide Prevention Lifeline: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
- Crisis Text Line: https://www.crisistextline.org/text-us/
In addition to these resources, please reach out to your daughter’s school counselor if we can provide any support or assistance in the area of mental health.
FROM MARKETING & ADMISSIONS – DISCOVER ASSUMPTION DAY: On Sunday, October 3, at 1:00 p.m. we will host Discover Assumption Day for sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade prospective parents. Please let all future Rocket parents know that we would love to see them on this fun afternoon of “discovering” all that Assumption has to offer. To register, click here or contact KELSEY GUNTER for more information.
ASSUMPTION FAMILY HALLOWEEN NIGHT: The Assumption Alumnae Association and Marketing & Admissions office have teamed up to host the annual Family Halloween Night on Wednesday, October 20, from 5:00-7:30 p.m. This event is open to all AHS alumnae, families, faculty, staff, and future Rockets of all ages! There will be free activities including trick or treating, coloring, and more. Parents are invited to donate a bag of candy that would be used to support the event. Click here to sign up to donate candy. For more information about the event, please contact ABBY BLANDFORD.
NOTE FROM ATHLETICS: WINTER SPORTS TRYOUTS INFORMATION: A current, complete physical is required to try out and participate in any Assumption sport: KHSAA PHYSICAL FORM. Please note: two parent and two student signatures are required on this form for it to be considered complete. In addition, an athletic fee of $200 is required for participation. If you have questions regarding the physical form, please contact Christy Hulsewede at (502) 271-2555 or Christy.Hulsewede@ahsrockets.org
- Archery: October 28 from 6:00-7:30 p.m. at Highland Hall. Parent meeting to follow immediately after. Please email Archery Co-Head Coaches Jake and Emily Lomax with any questions: archery@ahsrockets.org
- Basketball: Varsity/JV Tryouts: October 18-19 from 6:00-8:30 p.m. in AHS gym. Varsity team will be announced on October 20. Varsity parent meeting immediately after practice on October 21. Freshman Tryouts: October 26-27 from 6:00-8:00 p.m. in AHS gym. Freshman parent meeting immediately after practice on October 27. Please email Coach Stacy Pendleton with any questions: stacy.pendleton@jefferson.kyschools.us
- Swimming: October 4 from 6:45-7:45 p.m. and October 5 from 7:45-9:15 p.m. at St. Xavier pool. Please email Coach Rick Stewart with any questions: stewart@ahsrockets.org
ROSE AWARD NOMINATIONS: Current parents, past parents, alumnae, students, faculty, and staff are invited to nominate a current administrator, faculty, or staff member who has made a significant difference in their lives or the lives of their daughters. The Rose Award is a $5,000 grant endowed by an anonymous donor to recognize an Assumption employee who serves as a role model and is a positive influence in our community. Past winners are Katie Hughbanks, Cindi Baughman, Kelly Kirwan, Kathy Fleischer, Dawn Deweese, Angela Lincoln, Barry Haworth, Jackie Metry, Beth Hicks, Doug Sumey, Judi Erskine, James Sutherland, and Mary Ann Steutermann, along with several other retired faculty and staff members. These individuals aren’t eligible to win again. Nominations may be submitted here THE ROSE AWARD and are due by Friday, October 22. Nominations must include a detailed description (three-paragraph minimum) supporting your nomination. The award will be presented at the Thanksgiving Celebration on Tuesday, November 23. If chosen, your nomination submission may be read at the prayer service.
Gratefully,
Martha Tedesco
Principal