Communication with Families
Our faculty has made a group effort this year to give parents timely information in a user-friendly form about assignments and topics being studied in school. We hope that you have noticed some improvement, and we want to make sure that you know where to find the information that our teachers have been posting.
It's all on the Parent Portal, the online grading/assignments tool used by archdiocesan Catholic schools. Our goal is to post homework each day in the assignments section of the Portal and to show parents what the class is currently studying on the class summary page. Parents can read general information on the class in class files.
The "unit ahead" in class summary should tell you something about the the topics that your children will be studying over the next few weeks, chapters they'll be reading, problems they'll be solving, projects they'll be doing, tests they'll be taking. The lower-grade class summary pages resemble class newsletters. The class summary may tell parents when, generally, the next test will be. When the teacher determines a specific test date, the teacher will post the test date in the assignments section.
To see the unit ahead, you first must log in to the Parent Portal. At the top of the SJB website, there is a sign in prompt that will take you to the Parent Portal.
When you are on the Portal, look for your child's name and then look for a "Classroom" tab to the right. If you don't see a Classroom tab, select "More..." and then you should see the Classroom tab.
After selecting Classroom, select the name of the class from the drop-down list, and then select Class Page. You should see a Portal page with the Class Summary, Announcements, Files and Links.
Here is an image of an 8th grade student's social studies class summary page.
If you are having difficulty navigating the Portal, drop in to see Mrs. Irwin, our technology director, during parent-teacher conferences. Mrs. Irwin has offered to give tutorials to parents during conference times.
In addition, we will provide supervision of children for the duration of your scheduled parent-teacher conference. We will provide more detailed information about child care next week.
Updated -- Parent Conference Schedule Posted
Here is the update parent-teacher conference schedule.
Wednesday, Nov. 7
| WED 11/7 | K | Grade 1 | Grade 2 | Grade 3 | Grade 4 | Grade 5 | Grade 6 | Grade 7 | Grade 8 | PK |
| 3:30 | Strong | Calis | Hazleton | Chance | Puri | Park | Damiano | Gammage | ||
| 3:40 | Sanders | Ngo | Okanla | Lappin | Langan | Cullen | Cunningham | Davis | ||
| 3:50 | Igbe | Lombardo | Chance | Makonnen | Calis | Hazleton | Krzywucki | Bundi | Auguste | |
| 4:00 | Lappin | Haile-Michael | Zuniga | Strong | Barberena | Langan | Caporizzo | |||
| 4:10 | McCabe | Igbe | Nguyen, K | Lombardo | Auguste | Zuniga | Calis | Hazleton | Athiogbey | |
| 4:20 | Haile-Michael | Golding | Barberena | Dugroo | Shourds | Thomas | Enweze | |||
| 4:30 | Alexander | Douglas | Rattanavadee | Nguyen, W | Nguyen, J | Diaz | Kimathi | Borbon | ||
| 4:40 | Louis-Charles | Ionata, N | Campagnari | Monge | ||||||
| 4:50 | Barberena | Lai | Alexander | Edoro | Brady | Quintanilla | Duru | |||
| Break | Break | Break | Break | Break | Break | Break | Break | Break | Break | |
| 5:30 | Joseph | Margiotta | Bahn | |||||||
| 5:40 | Gomez | Tebebe | Margiotta | |||||||
| 5:50 | Assad | Joseph | Gomez-Napier |
Thursday, Nov. 8
| 2018 P/T Conf. | ||||||||||
| THU 11/8 | K | Grade 1 | Grade 2 | Grade 3 | Grade 4 | Grade 5 | Grade 6 | Grade 7 | Grade 8 | PK |
| 3:30 | Refsland | Oladotun | Heard | Freeman | Dang, Peter | Ebanks | Anthony | Croff | Chin | Obikwelu |
| 3:40 | Himpelmann | Pittas | Dawit | Dang, Paul | Eaton | Conlon | Heard | Nguyen, A | ||
| 3:50 | Theophin | Smith | Obikwelu | Refsland | Oladotun | Corraya | Vinson | Freeman | Anthony | Zakarias |
| 4:00 | Oswell | Himpelmann | Conlon | Vinson | Ellong | Taylor | Gardner | Sigg | ||
| 4:10 | Roberts | McCarthy-Pratt | Nebesky | Anthony | Obikwelu | Dang, Jayden | Oladotun | Mekonnen | Jenkins | Oswell |
| 4:20 | Chapa | Zakarias | Theophin | Hwang | Yiesak | Carr | Botkin | Shelton | ||
| 4:30 | Vinson | Irwin | Vasquez | Dang, N | Nebesky | Konan N'da | Obikwelu | Oladotun | Watson | |
| 4:40 | Vu | Fry | Yiesak | Ramgolam | Trebel | Barry | Botkin | |||
| 4:50 | Haskell | Konan N'da | Fry | Irwin | Wondimu | White-Ortiz | ||||
| Break | Break | Break | Break | Break | Break | Break | Break | Break | Break | |
| 6:00 | Pham | Dickerson | Nene | Aghazu | Green | Ionata, A | O'Hara | Ober | Fitzgerald | |
| 6:10 | Anteneh | Spencer | Pham | Amador | Zalalutdinov | Clark | O'Hara | Hippchen | Ramkumar | |
| 6:20 | Maslov | Mitjans | Fitzgerald | Nazir | Charles | Aghazu | Nene | Zalalutdinov | Coleman | |
| 6:30 | Abraham | Johnson | Caslani | Arulefela | Anteneh | Brioso | Williams, W | Yohannes | ||
| 6:40 | Spencer | Charles | Hickey | Schnell | Branch | Fitzgerald | Draper | Williams, V | Cunningham | Tran |
| 6:50 | Parker | Charles | Wood | Yohannes | Brown | Rodriguez-Arraiz | Abraham | |||
| 7:00 | Draper | Cook | Wright | Tankoua | Breeden | Vasquez | Garcia | Chan | ||
| 7:10 | Chak.-Lodge | Chisam | Grant | McElwee | Hromalik | Hickey | ||||
| 7:20 | Rangelova | Cook | Bentley | Nguyen, N | Maloy | John Ayi | Dawit, A. | |||
| 7:30 | Chisam | Chak.-Lodge | Ribas | Gomez | ||||||
| 7:40 | Nguyen | Maloy | Nguyen, N | Zukic | ||||||
| 7:50 | Ribas | Tassara |
Breakfast with Santa Ticket Orders
Here is your first chance to complete a ticket order for Breakfast with Santa, which will take place on Saturday, Dec. 1. Fill out a ticket order now to make sure that you get your seats for the 8:30 am or 10:30 am session. Send your form to Tanya Pittas at tipittas@gmail.com.
Breakfast with Santa is a major event sponsored each year by the Home and School Association and a highlight of the Christmas season for school families, alumni, and parish families. Volunteers have already begun meeting and will be gathering in the gym this Sunday both to sell tickets after Mass and to start organizing the decorations. There are many opportunities for participating in this fantastic event from helping with ticket sales, donating to the Secret Santa Shop, decorating, helping with day-before preparations and assisting on the day of the event. Please consider signing up for at least one slot. This event will serve several hundred attendees, and it takes many volunteers to make it a great event. The Sign Up instructions are here. Please contact HSA President Rachelle Amador with any questions. She can be reached at rachelleamador815@gmail.com. Thank you for your continued support of this wonderful community building event.
Donations for the Secret Santa Shop
Thank you to those who’ve already signed up to donate gifts! We’re still looking for more and are accepting them until 11/29. Please drop off items at the school office and drop a note about it to Crystal Vinson (cryspyfry@gmail.com / 240-997-3650) or Jen Margiotta (jenbmargiotta@gmail.com / 240-432-6478) for pickup. Many thanks for your generosity.
Summer Uniform Season Is Over
The "summer uniform" season ended last Friday, the last day of the 1st Quarter.
What does that mean? No more shorts.
On regular school days, boys must wear long khaki or navy pants, and girls have options of wearing long pants, skirts, or jumpers. On PE days, students wear long PE pants and jackets over their PE shorts and T-shirts.
Teachers will continue to give warnings for infractions this week but will enforce the uniform code next week.
Register Now for SJB Intramural Basketball Leagues K-8th
Registration for SJB Intramural Basketball is now open for all students in grades K-8th. The grades 3rd-6th Boys League, informally referred to as the Starbucks League, will play Saturday mornings beginning Dec. 8. The Grades 3rd-6th Girls League will also start on Dec. 7 or 8. The Co-ed League for 7th and 8th graders will be held on either Friday or Saturday nights beginning the weekend of Dec. 7. Kids in grades K-2nd will start playing on Saturdays in January. No practices, just games! Registered CYO players also are encouraged to sign up for intramural hoops -- the more court time, the better! It's fun and it brings the SJB Community together. All intramural games will be played in the SJB gym. The leagues are open to all grade appropriate students, parishioners, and any age appropriate player from any other school. Register or learn more at SJB Athletics. Let's hoop it up, SJB!
Apply Now for Tuition Assistance
Tuition assistance applications are now being received by the Archdiocese of Washington (ADW).
To apply for tuition assistance for the 2019-20 school year, go to the Catholic Schools tuition assistance information page.
The deadline is Saturday, Dec. 1.
All families are encouraged to apply for tuition assistance through the Archdiocese.
Completion of an Archdiocesan (ADW) application is a requirement for families seeking parish or school assistance.
Last year, 41 students received ADW tuition assistance awards for a total of $37,380 for the current school year. That's $911 per ADW award.
An additional $21,100 was awarded through school and parish tuition assistance accounts, which are funded by contributions.
Tell Your Friends About SJB Open House
Tell a Potential SJB Family About Us!
Open Flyers to Go Home Soon... SJB Stickers and Car Magnets Are Available in the School Office... Just ask
Do You Need to Update Your Virtus Certification?
If you became Virtus certified in 2013 or earlier, you will need to update your volunteer certification by getting a new background check. The process doesn't take long. Call Martha Kerley in the Parish Office at 301-622-1122 and schedule a background check. Bring two government ID's for your appointment, and you should be finished in under 10 minutes. The new background check became necessary when the Archdiocese Child Protection Office started using a more advanced digital background check system in December of 2013. Thank you for your cooperation in the name of child safety.
Steps in Process of Re-Enrolling Children
1. Make registration payment of $500, which counts toward next year's tuition, when you re-register on TADS in January.
2. Complete re-registration for each child (but just one $500 payment).
3. Complete the parish verification form in March and send it to the school office. It is parish policy that this form must be completed each year for a parish discount.
4. Complete Tuition Agreement in April.
- Email from TADS will contain link to tuition payment proposals
- Respond to email by following link to TADS to review tuition payment proposals
- Contact Karen Kuzemka in Parish Office if you have a question about the tuition you've been charged. Please note that credit for tuition assistance may be applied after the agreement has been submitted.
- Select the tuition payment proposal you prefer and accept the agreement.
Parenting Workshop
If you are interested in parenting guidance from the church, there's a Nov. 8 workshop that might interest you. Learn more here about catechism for family life.
Sign Up For Lunch Duty
The lunch-duty signup link can be found on the Volunteer page and on the School Lunch page.
Here is the direct link to sign up for lunch duty.
Just follow the link, select an available date, select an available classroom, and then sign up for the open slot.
There's no need to register.
Thank You For Your Service
Thank you, parents, for helping each of our classes collect food for the St. Camillus Food Pantry. Your donation made a difference to nearby families in need.Thank You for Your Spirit
Thank you, parents, for coming out to cheer on the kids during the Halloween Parade. The costumes were terrific, and the cheering crowd really made it a success.