HSA Introduction Letter
Dear fellow St. Joseph’s- Yorkville families,
On behalf of the Home School Association (HSA), we are very excited to welcome you to a brand new school year! We wanted to take the opportunity to introduce ourselves and give a quick overview of HSA and its role at St. Joseph’s, as well as, introduce some upcoming activities and volunteer opportunities for parents.
We are: HSA President Nicole Casey, mother to Colette in Grade 3-1; HSA Secretary Cheryl Mango, mother to Evangeline in Grade 4; HSA Treasury Maura Miller, mother to Desmond in Grade 7; and Dad’s Club President, Michael Bohan, father to Michael in Grade 4, Kate in Grade 3-2, and Nora in K-1. We represent the HSA and the Dad’s Club, and we sincerely look forward to working with all of you to make this unprecedented school year the best it can be!
The Home School Association at St. Joseph’s is a parent-run organization that supports the students, faculty and administrators of the school. We are also a resource for parents through which you can ask questions and become more a part of the school community. In a traditional school year, we host multiple events that promote family relationships, offer the children fun experiences, and assist in fundraising for the school. For new families joining the school this year (welcome!), our traditional school year includes a Back-to-School Picnic, the Halloween Social, Breakfast with Santa, Book Fair, Street Fair, Ice Cream Socials, Appreciation Events for our teachers, and our Annual Gala...the list goes on....For all of these, parents are welcomed and encouraged to be as involved as you are able. But as you are all aware, the nature of this school year is making it necessary for us to continue to navigate change and think outside the box. We are excited for the challenge of bringing together the St. Joseph’s community within safe social distancing guidelines. We are going to start off slowly and focus on a fall event that is near and dear to the families at St. Joseph’s— the Halloween Social. For those new to the school, the Halloween Social is an age-based celebration of the season with fun games and treats. Because of restrictions, the Social may look different this year, but we are confident that we can still maintain our spirit of community and show our children fun celebrations. We need your help! Do you know a talented virtual DJ to spin some spooky songs, have ideas for games/activities or love a good scary story? We would love to hear your creative ideas to make this event fun and engaging for the children! Once we have volunteer information, we will have a zoom roundtable to brainstorm ideas for the event. Stay tuned...
The Home School Association also serves as a bridge between home and the classroom. In the coming couple of weeks, each class will be assigned designated class parents. The duty of the class parents is to communicate school or classroom news from the administration and/or teacher to parents. The HSA works closely with the school administration to publish notifications of important information including upcoming events and important dates. Please look for and read these communications thoroughly to stay up-to-date. Our first school year event took place Wednesday, September 22nd in front of the school selling gently used uniforms. It was a big success due to our signature teamwork. Parents were available, too, to help download the BOX TOPS & AMAZON SMILE APPS (see weekly for more information). Monthly virtual HSA meetings will continue to take place. Everyone is welcome to attend. Our first meeting took place yesterday with a large turnout. We hope you can join us at October's meeting!
Please don’t hesitate to email with any questions and we will do our best to answer them for you. All of our contact information can be found in the signature below.
Again, we are excited for a new school year and are looking forward to doing everything we can to make it a memorable one for you, your children and our St. Joseph’s community. We are grateful for any time and talents you can share with the HSA this year! 2021-2022 here we come!
Warm regards,
Nicole Scott Casey
St. Joseph’s Home School Association President
# 917-620-5005
Cheryl Mango
St. Joseph’s Home School Association Secretary
Maura Miller
St. Joseph’s Home School Association Treasury
Michael Bohan
St. Joseph’s Yorkville Dad’s Club President