ICS Newsletter: Thursday March 19, 2015

Upcoming Events

3/19 - Family Supper, Feast of St. Joseph
3/20 - NO SCHOOL, ICS teacher in-service 
3/21 - ICS Family Fun Run, 8:30 a.m. (1 mile and 5K)
3/23 - ICS Chick-fil-A Spirit Night, 5:00 - 8:00 p.m., W. Waters Ave.
3/25 - National Junior Honor Society Inductions after Mass
3/27 - End of the 3rd Quarter; Spring Picture money or pictures due back to the office
4/1 - Household Mass, 8:30 a.m., ICC
4/2 - 1/2 day of school, Holy Thursday
4/3 - 4/10 - Easter Break, NO SCHOOL
4/16 - 4/19 - Spring Funfest (Incarnation Carnival)
5/14 - ICS Easter Concert, 7:00 p.m., St. Michael Hall


Prayers
We pray for Mrs. Maria Casanas and her husband as they mourn the loss of Mrs. Casanas's mother-in-law. May God surround the Casanas family with His loving arms and usher them comfort, strength and peace during this difficult time.

We pray for the family of Sophia Castro, who passed into eternal life earlier this week. May God give Sophia's family strength and guidance as they mourn.

We pray for all families suffering from and affected by the effects of cancer. May God speed the discovery of a cure for this and all illnesses.

We pray for the unemployed and the under-employed. May God grant everyone the dignifying blessing of work. 

Have a prayer request? Send it to: icsmzele@icstampa.org. Prayers will run for two weeks unless otherwise specified.


Thank You
We once again thank the many families who attended last week's State of Incarnation meetings. Just under 50% of our PreK - Grade 7 families were able to attend. Please know how much we appreciate your partnership and how committed the faculty, staff and administration of ICS is to continuing to advance and enhance the Catholic education at our AMAZING school!

For information about the content of the meetings, please see below. 


Congratulations
Congratulations to the following students honored last week at our March Morning Assembly:

-St. Sebastian Student-Athletes of the Month: Daniel Cifuentes (Gr. 6) and Jennifer Pham (Gr. 7)

-Crossfit Leadership Award: Maureen Tanner (Gr. 8)

-Red Ticket Drawing Winners: Gianmarco Vera (Gr. 2), Jonathan Padilla (Gr. 3), Maria Paula Owens (Gr. 7)

-Incarnation Inspiration Awards: Kara Artz, Sandro Lopez, Katrina Otis and Sophia Sargeant (Gr. 5); Melvin Carvalho (Gr. 6); Logan Capuano, John Coulman, Nicholas Do, Sebastian Gomez, Allison Kramer, Ethan Ostrander, Maria Paula Owens, Jennifer Pham and Sarah Torres (Gr. 7); Carter Campbell, Max Hernandez and Steven Sargeant (Gr. 8)

Special recognition goes out to Principal for the Day Kamila Muraharisetti (Gr. 3) for her assistance with Friday Morning Assembly on March 13! Principal Muraharisetti visited classrooms, wrote notes to teachers and administered tickets to students displaying positive behaviors. Great job! 

Go Irish!

ICS Athletics

Flag football, baseball and softball are underway! Contact Coach Garofolo for details about these Irish sports!

The baseball schedule is as follows:
-Practice: 3/23
-Games: 3/19, 3/24 and 3/26

The softball schedule is as follows: 
-Practice: 4/13 and 4/22
-Games: 4/14 and 4/24

Volleyball workouts are on Wednesday's after school. For more information, contact Coach Garofolo. 

For more information about the Irish Athletics Program, especially for a list of the upcoming schedule, please visit Coach Garofolo's Coach's Corner website. Go IRISH!

ICS Family Challenge

-Hebrews 12:11

Please know that ICS faculty, staff and administration strive to support ICS families as they train their child(ren) to become disciples of Jesus. The root of discipline is "disciple" and we are honored to work so closely with you to help form our students into the people that God created them to be! Keep fighting the good fight and know that the loving discipline bestowed upon your children from both home and school is helping to form them into disciples of Christ!

We pray today in a special way for all ICS fathers and father-figures in honor of the feast of St. Joseph! St. Joseph, pray for us and our dads!

Morning Drop-Off
To ensure a consistent and effective traffic flow in morning carline, parents should remain in carline rather than parking to walk students across traffic. If you need to visit the office, please park and cross at the crosswalk near the flagpole. Crossing in front of St. Michael Hall causes delays for families within carline and creates an unsafe environment for our school community. School personnel will be available to help coordinate safe crossing. Thank you in advance for your attention to this. 


Box Tops for Education
The final collection of the school year ends on May 27. Start to collect now and submit to the Main Office.

Payday Sweepstakes
The Payday Sweepstakes drawing is off to a great start. Congrats to our growing list of winners!

Winners thus far:
Bonus drawing - Stevens Family (Gr. 6)
3/2 - Donna Quiones (PreK)
3/3 - Daryl Kramer (Gr. 1, 5, and 7)
3/4 - Nicole Mitchell (K)
3/5 - Vivian Gendes, sold by the Robinson / Rivera family
3/6 - R. Caldevilla, sold by the KA Rivera family (*FRIDAY WINNER!)
3/9 - Melinda Bickel, sold by the Maher Family
3/10 - Candance Amato (Grade 4)
3/11 - Janice Capuano (Grade 7)
3/12 - Claudete Marcal (Grade 1)
3/13 - Denise Beall - sold by Roland Clemente Briceno (Grade 1)
3/16 - Spinnato Family (Grades 5 and 7)
3/17 - Tran Family (Grade 5)
3/18 - Candance Amato (Grade 4), *first repeat winner! 

Mondays - Thursdays = $100 prize
Fridays = $250
Grand prize (April 1) = $1000

Tickets are $10 each and families have been given 15 tickets. Should you need more tickets, please just let us know. Tickets can be sold to anyone - we do not necessarily expect families to incur the cost of the tickets. Consider co-workers, neighbors, friends and relatives in this event that offers the chance of a big ROI (return on investment)! It only takes one ticket in the tumbler to win!

Finally, please remember the distinction (for ICS families who are ICC parishioners) between the Payday Sweepstakes drawing and the Carnival Raffle. If you are a parishioner of ICC you received a book of tickets for the Carnival as well. Please note that the raffles are not affiliated with one another and there is no obligation for ICS families to sell Carnival raffle tickets. Sorry for any confusion. 

If you have questions, please contact the school office. 


Matching Gift
Please consider helping us maximize the matching gift of $5,000 for our class set of iPads and a mobile cart to house them. 

Please contact Mr. Zelenka (icsmzele@icstampa.org) or send a check, payable to ICS, to the office (memo: tablet cart), if you are able to make a donation. 

Parents, you may consider following up with the grandparents of our ICS students to help with this cause. 

In advance, we thank you for your consideration and generosity!


State of Incarnation Recap and Re-registration
For any families not able to attend last week's sessions and for any that did come but may be in need of a refresher, here are the main points:

-Academic Programs: Visit this link for details about our academic programs for next year: http://incarnationcatholicschool.blogspot.com/2015/03/state-of-incarnation-letter-to-ics_11.html. If you have any questions or would like additional information, please contact Mr. Zelenka.

-Tuition 2015 - 16: 1.5% increase, no hidden fees, importance of Mass attendance and Church support to qualify for in-parish rate.

-Finances: 5th year of financial stability, enrollment stability over the past three years, improvements and enhancements have continued even while keeping close tabs on our budget - SMART Boards in all classrooms, projectors, renovated Media Center, added an Early Childhood Playground, moved to a full-time Assistant Principal, full-time School Counselor, full-time Spanish teacher and full-time Media Specialist

-Home and School Association: Two years ago we revamped our Home and School Association so as to solicit more involvement from more families. Unfortunately, we extended this committee chairperson approach into this school year as well. We need to establish a leadership board for the 15-16 school year. Anyone interested in helping should contact Mr. Zelenka.

-Progress: Incarnation Catholic School is a school that is advancing in all facets. Our Middle School standardized test scores demonstrate drastic improvement over the past three years as students progress from 6th through 8th grades. We have paid specific attention to students in Upper Elementary grades in need of remediation and have offered it to them in various ways this year. We added VPK to our PreK program. We have solidified our Primary literacy program with our Superkids Reading Series. We have increased the number of sports offered while also adopting an inclusive and competitive approach to our athletic program. We've renovated the entire physical plant over the course of the past 5 years. Teachers continue to excel and focus on constant improvement and enhancement. We have fostered a greater sense of community with our Household / Priory Program. We have embraced a formative system of discipline with our PBIS management program. ICS has made a concerted effort to focus on our Catholic faith and the spiritual development of its students. 

-Next Steps: We will add a three year old program either next year or for the 2016 - 17 school year. We will continue to increase our educational technological hardware. We have plans to incorporate a STEM component to our curriculum. We will continue to enhance our After School Program. We will look to offer electives for Middle School students. We will search for opportunities for students to serve each other and the community. We will look to offer more retreats for students. We hope to offer parent development programs and more opportunities for you to be supported with resources and chances to enter into community with others. 

-Incarnational: We hope to be Christ to you and your children in all that we do. We hope that you see Christ's hands and feet in our interactions with you and our students. This is why we have moved from discipline to making disciples; from a teacher-dominated classroom to a student-centered one; and from exclusivity in our sports to developmentally appropriate inclusivity. It is why we will work tirelessly to provide the most academically excellent Catholic education possible. It is why we are putting God and Christ first in all that we do and that we are making sure our actions fall in accordance with this belief. It is why we consider our relationship with you to be a partnership. It is why we focus on the relational aspects of working with families, students and each other. God is with us here at Incarnation. We are Incarnational. 


Family Fun Run
On Saturday March 21, ICS will host its 3rd annual Family Fun Run. 

Many thanks to the sponsors for this event: 
-Tran Contracting
-Fantasy Academy
-Tanner Family
-Muraharisetti Family

Due to lower numbers this year, we will start the 1 mile and the 5K at the same time: 8:30 a.m. Check-in will start at 8:00 a.m. in the Pavilion. 

If you would still like to participate, please plan to join us on Saturday morning at 8:00 a.m. Cost is $15 per participant and will include a t-shirt and race goodies. 

If you would like to volunteer for this event, please contact Mr. Zelenka: icsmzele@icstampa.org  

On your mark. Get set. GO!


ICS Carnival 2015: Spring Fun Fest
Please follow this link for important information regarding ICS Carnival 2015: Spring Fun Fest. Check back for updates. 


Home and School Association
Any family / parent who is interested in helping ICS to reorganize Home and School should contact Mr. Zelenka: icsmzele@icstampa.org.


Spring Pictures
Friday March 27 is the due date for the payment of this school year's Spring Pictures. Please note that if you do not want to purchase them, please just return the actual pictures to the Main Office. So, either money or pictures are due next Friday March 27. 


Be blessed. Be bold. Fight for JOY!

IN KEEPING WITH OUR TRADITION, WE AT INCARNATION CATHOLIC SCHOOL:

Inspire life-long learners,

Challenge each individual to be a disciple of Christ, and

Strive to live our Catholic faith through service to each other and the community.