Summer Letter to Parents

Dear Parents and Guardians,

With summer upon us we are busy at St. Sebastian’s preparing for school to begin this fall.  In this packet, you will find summer reading assignments, supply lists, student activities and other important information to begin thinking about prior to the school year starting.  You will also find a link to the St. Sebastian School summer reading, which you can also access by clicking here:  Summer Reading List 2015.  Please note all summer reading will be due the first day of school.  Students will have the entire summer to work on their assignments so please help students develop good study habits by pacing them throughout the summer.  The first day sets the tone for the rest of the school year; it is our job as school leaders, teachers and families to help them to have the best start possible.

On August 19th, there will be a new family orientation at 5pm, immediately followed by a dual language immersion information workshop at 6pm for TK and Kinder families.  Both meetings will be held in the school cafeteria.  Parking will be available on the schoolyard.

There will be a used uniform sale on August 19th and August 24th (the first day of school).  New uniforms may be purchased through Dennis Uniform Company.  Their web site is www.dennisuniform.com , please use school code LA00SS. For safety reasons, St. Sebastian students are required to wear athletic footwear with Velcro or laces, absolutely no slip on shoes are allowed.  We ask that the colors be limited to navy, black, or white. 

New to St. Sebastian School this year is our dual immersion program.  Students in TK and K will be part of this program and will be spending 50% of their day in each language, learning all subject content in both English and Spanish.  This is a wonderful opportunity for our youngest learners. Our Dual Language Implementation Specialist, Ms. Patricia Harty will support our new teachers.  Teachers leading the way in this program are Ms. Jennifer Gavina and Ms. Heidi Altenberg (bios included). Ms. Altenberg is no stranger to St. Sebastian School and is returning with her daughter Lucy who will be joining our preschool.

Our DLI team has been busy preparing for the fall, by participating in the TWIN/CS (two way immersion networks for Catholic Schools) conference and collaborating with our sister school, All Souls in Alhambra.  Welcome Ms. Gavina, Ms. Altenberg and Ms. Harty!  We are so happy to have you as part of our St. Sebastian Family!

After much work, consideration and collaboration by teachers and staff, we have come up with a tentative schedule for grades 3-8.  Students in grades 3 & 4 will be with Ms. Sabol for all core subjects except math and science.  Mr. Suk will be teaching these subject areas.  For students in grades 5, 6, 7 and 8, students will be on a rotating schedule for all subjects.  Students will have Mr. Bias for math and science and Ms. Knox for language arts and social studies.  This year, Ms. Sabol will be teaching religion to 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th graders.  Classes that will be multi age are religion, Mandarin, music, art and PE.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call.  A letter will be going home in August with a schedule for students.  Please have your student put their schedule in a visible location at your home so that they can easily see what classes they have each day.

I feel grateful everyday to be a part of the St. Sebastian community. Our students benefit from our work together, and it is this collaborative relationship that helps us to create the most optimal learning outcome possible for our students.  Parents have the most influence over their children.  What a parent values or believes to be important is also important to your child; if you value education so will your child. Let’s continue to work together this summer to encourage learning and review the skills learned in the past school year.

A special thank you to our wonderful parents. We greatly appreciate your unfailing support and involvement in your student’s education. The Parent/Home/School Partnership is a key ingredient to success at St. Sebastian School.

Have a safe and happy summer!

God bless,

Ms. McDugald
Principal
St. Sebastian School
310-473-3337
tmcdugald@saintsebastianschool.com

“God gave himself to you, now give yourself to others”
 St. Sebastian