Thursday Announcements

December 3, 2020

Families in Need

In the spirit of giving, we would like to continue our tradition of helping those in our Jaguar community with some Christmas gifts. We ask for a $2 donation for each family as a way to provide a little Christmas to fellow Jaguars. Money can be delivered to the main office.

Thank you for keeping the spirit of Christmas alive in a year when we need it most!

Important Calendar Update

Please read below! In the interest of protecting each and every student who walks through these doors and in consultation with the St. Matthew Board of Education, we have made an amendment to our 2020-2021 school calendar. Please know that I do not take decisions like this lightly and I value your dual working households immensely, but in that same breath, I have to ensure that we are putting the health and safety of students and staff at the highest level possible. On Thursday, December 3rd the St. Matthew Board of Education passed the following motion:

St. Matthew Elementary School Board requests the following changes to the 2020-2021 school calendar for purposes of health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic:

Monday January 4th and Tuesday January 5th will be no school days
Monday January 11th school will BE in session**
Monday January 18th will remain a no school day in honor of Martin Luther King Day

** This was originally scheduled as a XCS professional development day

Our goal with these changes is to allow as many days between Christmas and our return to school as possible. With the new CDC guidance, we feel confident that if individuals choose to gather on Christmas and over the Christmas weekend, we can safety return 10 days later and know that we are being responsible to bring everyone back together.

Please note, this calendar change does NOT include time built in for families to gather for the New Year holiday so we are hopeful that decisions are made for a safe return to school on Wednesday January 6th. While this may not be perfect, we realize that these days will be beneficial in limiting the spread of COVID-19 at St. Matthew.

I would be remiss to tell you that this plan is DIFFERENT than other Xavier Catholic Schools and for that I am sorry. Some of the other schools are taking off Monday and Tuesday December 21st and 22nd but are returning to school on January 4th. As a collective group, we felt the days after Christmas were better suited as days off when compared to the days leading up to break. We will be offering drop-in Jaguar Xtension care for $20/day for those two days and we encourage you to consider this option.

Due to this change we are only losing one day of instruction; our calendar was built with 11 extra days so we feel confident that a change of a day will not affect the end of the year. Now we will pray for a mild and less snowy winter.

Thank you for understanding. Please know this was not an easy decision but one that I feel will strongly mitigate COVID at St. Matthew. If there is anything I can do to help your family with this change, please let me know.

UPDATED St. Matthew 2020-21 Calendar - 12/03/2020

COVID Update

From Linn County Public Health - 12/03/2020

As you have probably heard on the news, CDC changed their Quarantine Guidance. We are updating our website and various letters, however effective immediately, these are the quarantine guidelines we well be implementing moving forward. Here is the new CDC Quarantine:

This new guidance is for close contacts to a case of COVID-19. This does not apply to those diagnosed or suspected of having COVID-19.

CDC currently recommends a quarantine period of 14 days. However, the following options to shorten quarantine are acceptable alternatives. If an alternative option is used, it is important for the close contact to continue with self-monitoring for symptoms AND with strict adherence of facial coverings until 14 days from the last date of contact with the infected individual has passed.

Quarantine can end after Day 10 without testing AND if no symptoms have been reported during daily monitoring.
- Resume normal activities on day 11.
- Quarantine begins on the last day of contact with the infected individual.
- If living in the same household, and the close contact is not able to separate from the infected individual, the quarantine will begin after the infected individual has met the recovery criteria.
- If the close contact develops symptoms, begin the isolation procedures for individuals with confirmed OR suspected COVID
Quarantine can end after Day 7 if a diagnostic specimen (antigen or PCR) test is negative AND if no symptoms were reported during daily monitoring. The specimen should be collected and tested 48 hours before the time of planned quarantine discontinuation (e.g., in anticipation of testing delays), but quarantine cannot be discontinued earlier than after Day 7.
- The earliest time for testing will be at day 5 from last contact with the infected case.
- The close contact must remain in quarantine until a negative test result has been obtained AND 7 days of quarantine have been completed.
- Resume normal activities on day 8.
- Quarantine begins on the last day of contact with the infected individual.
- If living in the same household, and the close contact is not able to separate from the infected individual, the quarantine will begin after the infected individual has met the recovery criteria.
- If the close contact develops symptoms, begin the isolation procedures for individuals with confirmed OR suspected COVID-19.

Please know that Mrs. Conlon will be walking you through this process to aid in your decision making. Additionally, the CDC website below shares additional information.

CDC Information Here

Giving Tuesday

In case you missed it and will still like to give, the link is still live. Thanks to those who have already contributed, we raised $500 to help offset COVID-19 costs.

Give Here

Reverse Advent Calendar

Below is a list of items we will be collecting tomorrow (Friday) and next week.

Friday - Hand sanitizer (wipes or bottles)
Monday - Jar of pasta sauce
Tuesday - Toothbrushes
Wednesday - Toothpaste
Thursday - Box of pasta
Friday - Box of razors

Thanks for considering providing for those in our community in need.

Times for the Turkey Trot

930-1010: 1st Grade (Sitter & Watson)

1020-1100: 3rd Grade (Adams & Worley)

1110-1150: 5th Grade (Bacon & Wareham)

1230-110: Kindergarten (Kane & Driscoll)

120-200: JK & 4th Grade (Moser & Smith)

210-250: 2nd (Nepola)

GivingTuesday is held annually on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. On this day, individuals across the country give generously to transform their communiities and the world.

December 2020 - Lunch