November 7th, 2024
Principal Corner
God is in control. It is something we say, but our actions many times say just the opposite. I know in my own life; I have not always lived like God was in control. How could the Lutheran High School, where I took my first call, close? It was God’s timing. It took me to some different places in my life, and eventually to a 6th grade position in another Lutheran school. It also allowed a Lutheran high school to start right after we left to take the position here in Minnesota. The Lutheran high school started with a different model and has been very successful and is still going strong today. I am thankful that a Lutheran high school in Hickory, North Carolina is now thriving. How can God let things happen in this world? Maybe He has a different plan that will be better for us. We have waited 5 years for a Senior Pastor since Pastor Griffin retired from Trinity. That is approximately 1/3 of the time of my ministry here at Trinity. God has brought us a Pastor to help shepherd us and lead us and I am excited to move forward with his leadership. As our theme states, “Lead on Good Shepherd”, help us follow God’s lead and the lead of his shepherd He has placed here with us.
PARENTS WANTED - FRIDAY NOV 22nd
NLSA Team will be here completing our accreditation process from Nov 20-22nd and we need some parents willing to answer some questions from the team. You’ll get parent service hours. We need you available at 8:30 am on Friday, Nov 22nd. Please let the school know if you’d be willing to come for this part of the process. It should only take about 30 minutes of your time.
WEEKLY REMINDERS
If you arrive or your children arrive after 8:20, please have them report to the office. We still appreciate them getting signed in with the Procare App but we need a report to the office first. Thankyou.
Please be mindful and help reduce interruptions. If you arrive at the school - go to the office. We will grab the student or deliver an item or message. You may think it’s just a quick visit or you are doing no harm, but a small view of a visitor causes more disruption than you can imagine. Please be respectful and check in with the office, even if the class or teacher, knows you are coming.
Make sure you are notifying the school via Procare or email that your child is leaving early ahead of time or will be absent. We can coordinate best and make the most of your time if we can plan ahead. Middle school schedules are very different than they have been so knowing ahead of time will help reduce delays for everyone.
Jacqie leaves for a break between 11:15 & 12:00 every day. Please try to avoid stopping by at those times if you can help it. If you do, please be patient and wait outside while she answers the doorbell and talks to you via the intercom. Sometimes directions need to be given or information needs to be gathered, so please do not expect other staff to open the door for you. They have their own jobs, caring for their students.
If you are here to pick up your children early or have something to drop off to them, please help minimize interruptions in the classroom by stopping by the office. Same goes with dropping things off for teachers, please stop in the office.
Please wait outside the school until 3:05 pm and have your children come to you EXCEPT for Preschool parents.
Make sure that you are paying Tuition in separate payments from SAC/WAC care. Tuition is reported differently than childcare for taxes. Therefore we ask you do not lump them together when making payments so that we can accurately report your totals at the end of the year. Preschool however, is reportable on taxes as a childcare expense.
COMMUNICATION IS KEY! Please keep all communication with teachers within emails or Procare. Their cell phones are only for emergencies in very limited situations. Please contact the school for any last minute changes to your child’s routine. Procare is not made to alert the teacher or distract them from their job, teaching, but it is a great tool for notifications and conversations. As always, we appreciate and can help facilitate a mid-day pick up if we know ahead of time. Try your best at notifying the school and teachers by messaging in Procare. It’s the BEST way that everyone that needs the message, gets the message.
NEED TO REFERENCE THE HANDBOOK?
Our handbook is posted on the website, along with other policies and forms you may need to reference or have.
It’s under the Parent tab on the main page of the website
> Forms & Documents
Feel free to explore other parts of the website. It can be very handy.
CHAPEL OFFERING
This month our Chapel Offering goes toward paying to ship Samaritan Purse shoeboxes!
We have premade boxes for you! We have found that the sizes that have been brought in the past have been too variable and it is much easier to provide the requested size, so we got the shoeboxes for you! Please let us know if you want to fill one and you can either pick it up in the office or we can send it home with your child. All boxes will need to be filled and dropped off to the school by Thursday, November 14th. As a school we will pray for the children receiving the boxes and they will be delivered to a drop off location. Plus we like to take a picture of all the boxes our students contributed to! You’ll get a label with your box and can then pay for the shipping of the box if you’d like. Our chapel money goes toward sending the boxes but we love it when we can send money to Samaritan’s purse for this as an additional gift as well!
LOTS OF BOXES TO BE FILLED! PICK ONE UP AT CONFERENCES TONIGHT OR REQUEST ONE (OR MORE) TO BE SENT HOME WITH YOUR STUDENT.
COMING SOON
Outside the Kindergarten room there is a bulletin board in the hallway. So far this year, there has been articles posted of our new teachers’ interviews with the paper. But a change is coming……
Starting next week you’ll see a display of paper lights! This will be our Teacher Christmas List. You’ll be able to take a lightbulb and get something for the teachers they really want or need for their classroom for Christmas! A way to “ Light up their World”. Make sure you stop in to grab something from their wish list or ask and we can have your child pick something to bring home.
LOOKING AHEAD
Athletic Calendar is up to date! ALL teams have practices scheduled. CHECK THE CALENDAR HERE If you did not receive an email specifically addressed to a sports team, it means your child has not turned in their permission form. Practices have started and they need a permission form to practice.
Free dental care for students is NEXT WEEK. Let’s Smile helps provide dental care and we arrange with them appointments so the students can be evaluated while they are at school! See the flyer below. Forms are due November 8th.
We are in need of help with Cheerleading. Please contact us if you are interested.
Farewell to Pastor Bjornstad & Installation of Rev. Jason Wolter November 10th. See below and the calendar for more information.
6th-8th Grade Choir Sing in church November 17th
Bulldog Basketball Tournament Concessions - Bulldog Basketball rents our gym during they tournament every year and we provide concessions. During this time, we allow 5th-8th Graders to earn money towards their 8th Grade trip and it allows parents a chance for service hours. We require 2 adults work with 1-3 middle school students for each shift, the point being the students are not running it by themselves. The sign up can be found at the red button - subject to change. Times have not been confirmed.
No School Nov 27th - 29th - Thanksgiving break
CHRISTMAS CHOIR & BAND CONCERT @ 6:30 PM - Friday, December 13th - Grades 3-8 - SAVE THE DATE
LIVE NATIVITY - K-8 - WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18th - STARTING at 6:30 pm - MORE DETAILS TO COME - SAVE THE DATE
SAVE THE DATE - TRIBUTE TO TRINITY WILL BE FRIDAY APRIL 4th - Lots of fun and service hours can be attained by being a part of the committee. Anyone interested in joining the committee for Tribute to Trinity should contact the school.
TEACHER FEATURE
1st Grade FALL PARTY
First Grade had a LEGO themed fall party! A few even exclaimed that “the LEGO glasses really work!”
Return of a familiar face….
Toby, a student favorite from Mrs. Steel’s 2nd grade class, made an appearance with the now 3rd Graders recently. He’s still going strong and very loved at the Schoenfeld home.
Great Communication Tool + More
A lot of staff and parents love using Procare. It’s a great communication tool AND it serves multiple purposes for staff and behind the scenes tracking. It is the required sign in and out needed for our Childcare/Preschool and our SAC programs. It is a great way to calculate and bill and get other invoices paid from families! It has helped streamline many processes for us. One this it is not, is an EMERGENT messaging system. Please, and this has always been the case, if you have a last minute change or message to get to your children, try to call the school and do not be afraid to leave a message. A Procare message is not an alert system for last minute changes. We want our teachers teaching, not staring at their phones for notifications constantly. We encourage you to use it for everything else.
HELP WANTED
Substitute Teachers: Have you ever considered being a substitute teacher at TLS? We occasionally need A substitute teacher throughout the school year. If you are available during the day and would be willing to be a substitute teacher, we would welcome you, here at TLS.
Requirements: You must have a background check done by our school prior to subbing.
Helpful qualifications: Love working with children, good at following directions, some experience or classes in education, has discernment in understanding when students may be stretching the truth, willing to ask when not sure what to do.
Librarian Sub - We have a wonderful librarian, Jan Stockman, but she will be gone for a longer amount of time during the winter months. Looking for someone willing to come in once a week to do the library program for our elementary students. She does more than just check out books and would love to see that continue while she is absent. This is a volunteer position.
Calling all FB users. We need your help! You will notice that we are beefing up our Facebook presence (Instagram soon) and while we work hard to put the content up, it’s you that can make the REAL difference. When you see TLS posts, please take a minute to LIKE, COMMENT on, or SHARE the content. Every time you engage with our FB page it spreads our message further and further. We have something so special here at Trinity and we want everyone to know about it.
COLDER WEATHER GUIDELINES
Here are the guidelines we use to determine what the students should wear outside. Be advised that these are guidelines, many things come into play with weather. But being prepared for the cooler weather with layers is always a good day.
Below 55, they need long sleeves
Below 45, they need a sweatshirt or jacket
Share Your Photos
We are always on the lookout for photos to put in the yearbook and you could’ve captured a great one! Below are the links to add photos to two of our Google Photo Albums! One for the Fun Run and one for everything else! Please don’t hesitate to share! We can always use more photos in the yearbook! This is for staff and parents!
SAC - School Age Care
Welcome back! We are excited to provide care for your kiddos after school this year. SAC hours are from 3:05-5:30pm. Snack and homework help will be provided daily for kids who are here after 4 pm. When picking up, look for the posted sign on the side sac entrance so you can find our location.
What is SAC? SAC is before and after school care for all students, K-8. (Preschool has a separate before and after program, because they have their own childcare license). If you signed up for it during registration, you are all set! You just need to let us know if your child is a regular or not and we have heard from most of you.
If you did not sign up for SAC, here some more information:
AM SAC - just give us a heads up you’ll be using it and show up! AM SAC is from 7:00 am - 7:45 AM. Enter through the gym doors and please sign your child in using the Procare App. ALL students should enter through the gym doors if at school before 8:10 am.
PM SAC - We are available, but because it is after school, with limited staff, we still need to be in a safe student/adult ratio. We request, wherever possible, it be asked about your child getting added to PM SAC a week prior so we can ensure to have enough staff, deadline the Friday before the week you request your child to attend. We do understand that some things happen last minute and we will always try to accommodate. Please check with the school office before you send your child to SAC.
BOXTOPS
Another great, easy way to earn money for our school is through Box Tops! They have a fantastic app for scanning in paper receipts, linking online accounts to add box tops automatically (like Walmart), or submitting online receipts and earning cash for our school! It’s super simple.
Hy-Vee Receipts
Earn money for your school by keeping and dropping off your Hy-Vee receipts! They can only be dated 9/1/24-6/1/25. They can only be from the two Mankato locations. More information and frequently asked questions about what is accepted by clicking on the Hy-Vee logo. For the 2023-2024 School year, we earned just over $400 because of Hy-Vee Receipts! That money goes to the school and activities for the students!
UPCOMING EVENTS!!! See Calendar below! You can also check out the Google Calendar under Parents > School Calendar to subscribe.
Parent Service Hours
Trinity Lutheran School would not run or function without our families and all your hard work! We strive on showing our students a great work ethic and a drive to help and volunteer! Because of this, we ask that each family completes 10 hours of volunteer hours throughout the school year (if you only have a child in the Preschool, we only ask you complete 5 hours). Many events put on by PTL, Athletics and just helping around at the school provide plenty of opportunity to help out! Please don’t hesitate to check out the volunteer page on the website: https://seal-leopard-8yt2.squarespace.com/volunteer
NEED VOLUNTEER HOURS???
CHECK HERE
PTL SPONSORED UPCOMING EVENTS
check back soon……
Please see the Sign-Up Geniuses which are located on the school's website under Parents and then Volunteer.
If you are able to help or have any questions, please contact Tina Schoenfeld.
Email: trinityjanesvilleptl@gmail.com
JANESVILLE COMMUNITY
Click the poster to get the form to fill out! They can also be requested from the office. We need forms turned into the office by Wed, Nov 6th.
