St. Philip the Apostle School

Principal Notes

11/29/2021

Dear Parents,

I hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, full of faith and love. I enjoyed every moment with my family and especially with my three grandchildren.  

As more of our younger children become fully vaccinated we are asking you to submit their vaccination status. This will help us as we file reports to the health department when Covid cases surface. Please remind your children that parents are making these vaccination decisions for their children based on different factors and to be kind about whether or not their classmates are vaccinated. Since this is an adult decision our children should not have to answer to their classmates as to why they may or may not be vaccinated.  

This weekend we have our Drama Club performance of Elf. I hope that you support our students by coming by for an hour of theater and Christmas fun. The performances are Friday night at 6 pm and Saturday and Sunday afternoons at 2 pm. They are outside in the school yard so bring your beach chair and a warm jacket! 

Parent Conferences are next Thursday afternoon and Friday morning, December 3 and 4. Junior high parents who wish to meet with a teacher should email the teacher for a time and a link. If your child is struggling in any junior high class, the teacher will request a meeting with you.

It was a blessing to see the smiling faces of our students this morning.

Have a fantastic week,

Jennifer

A Message from our School Board President

Fall 2021

Thank you to Annie Van Dyke, our Policy and Planning committee chair, for hosted St. Philip the Apostle School’s Strategic Plan 101 webinar on September 16th. It was a wonderful, concise update on the current state and future of our plan. If you didn’t have the chance to join in, I suggest catching the replay because our Strategic Plan is the guiding light for everything we do at our school.

To access the replay, click here and request permission to access the video. 

Didn’t know we have a Strategic Plan?

Every six years in conjunction with our school accreditation renewal process, a group of parents, parishioners, teachers and administrators gathers to create a Strategic Plan. Four years ago, one such group of 20 people, led by professional strategic planner (who donated all of her time), spent nearly 50 hours refining the school’s mission statement and philosophy and created long-term strategic goals focused on five different areas. 

SPA School’s Strategic Goals:

1. We will develop and implement a plan to create long-term financial stability and eliminate our reliance on current-use fundraising.

2. We will develop and implement a master communications plan for internal and external audiences.

3. We will develop and implement a facilities use, maintenance, and expansion plan.

4. We will competitively compensate and support our faculty and staff.

5. We will maintain and expand our excellent curricular, co-curricular, and extra-curricular programs.

Each one of these goals is broken down into annual action steps which serve as a road map to accomplish the goal. It is the job of one or more school board committees to work on these action steps. For example, the Finance, Endowments and Advancement committees are responsible for working on Goal 1.  These three committees where instrumental in the creation of the Father Joe Fund, a first step toward building our endowment.

Several times a year, the school board’s Policy and Planning committee reviews the progress of each goal.  The chair of the committee responsible for the goal provides Policy and Planning committee with a status update on each of the action item and suggest any necessary changes. All of this is done to ensure we stay on track.

If you are interested in learning more about the Strategic Plan, email me your questions (SaraAlexanderVanis@gmail.com) or watch the replay of our Strategic Plan 101 webinar. 

If you want to join a school board committee to work on one of the goals above, please email our Board Affairs Chair Tara Martin (spasboardaffairs@gmail.com).

Fr. Joe Moniz Educational Fund

Fr. Joe Moniz Educational Fund

Fr. Joe served St. Philip the Apostle Parish for 20 years as our pastor. To honor his legacy of supporting Catholic education, we established an endowment in his name at the Catholic Community Foundation of Los Angeles to support tuition assistance and the educational needs of all St. Philip the Apostle School students. As this fund grows, our school will greatly benefit from financial stability in the future years. 

If you did not have a chance to donate during last Saturday's virtual Red Tie Ball, you can still contribute today! We understand that not everyone is in a position to donate, but we greatly appreciate your prayers that this fund continues to receive support. You can donate by mailing a check to the school office or by going HERE
 

CCF-LA Link:

Father Joe Moniz St. Philip the Apostle School Educational Fund

https://ccfla.iphiview.com/ccfla/ClientsFundAdvisers/MakeaGift/tabid/464/dispatch/givingopportunities/Default.aspx#dispatch=GivingOpportunities

SPAS Exposure Management Plan and Opening Documents

Hello,

Please CLICK HERE to view St. Philip the Apostle School's Exposure Management Plan and Reopening Protocol Documents.

Thank you!