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Family Focus 11/22/2020

11/24/2020

Ed Friesen

November 2020, 2020-21

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November 22, 2020

Dear BA Families:

Happy Sunday as we celebrate the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus, King of the Universe! What an exciting week as we wrapped up our fall sports. Every day seems to bring new information as we adapt to our environment and changing needs. We hold you and your family in our prayers each week as we meet these challenges together. Our Accreditation review is complete. This review ensures that we follow excellence in all that we do, a process that happens every seven years. Our strategic plan is online for your review. Next week is our short Thanksgiving week. Please watch for grandparent letters to be shared with you so that you can give these to your loved ones. We’ll also be creating a virtual grandparent presentation - watch for this next week! Here is a look at our week: 

• Monday – Nov. 23 – RED DAY

• • 8:05 Morning Announcements: https://meet.google.com/uod-epie-zxa(Also bookmarked in the Cardinal App Store)
  • Middle School Online Schedule: *See your schedule online
  • High School Online Schedule: RED DAY – follow your personal school bell schedule
  • No MS or HS Band Lessons

• Tuesday – Nov. 24 – WHITE DAY - Grandparents Day!

• • 8:05 Morning Announcements: https://meet.google.com/uod-epie-zxa(Also bookmarked in the Cardinal App Store)
  • Middle School Online Schedule: *See your schedule online
  • High School Online Schedule: WHITE DAY – follow your personal school bell schedule 
  • No MS or HS Band Lessons
  • Watch for our special Grandparents Day video. 

• Wednesday, Nov 25-Friday, Nov. 27: NO SCHOOL
  • Have a blessed Thanksgiving Break 

GIVING WEEK AT BA - It’s not too late to donate to our Annual Fund! THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS ALREADY SUPPORTED BA! We have reached our $25,000 match challenge (Oct-Dec) thanks to the donations this week. To date our Annual Fund is at: $70,239 (+$25,000 match) = $95,239 - 38% of our goal of $250,000. You can make a gift to our Annual Fund until June 30, 2021, at https://www.bacards.org/page/3044

COVID UPDATE: Although we’ve had seven positive cases among our students and staff to date, all are now healthy and all but one are off of their quarantine restrictions. We ask that during the Thanksgiving break you continue following COVID safety protocols with your family in order to limit your exposure so that we can return to school.

• Wear a mask
• Keep 6 feet away from others when in public
• Wash your hands often!

KUDOS: Congratulations to Kennedy Tutak ‘21, our State Farm Athlete of the Week, to our Student Service Club for collecting and donating over 650 pairs of socks for St. Vincent de Paul - and to all who supported their sock drive with donations, and special congratulations to both of our volleyball and football teams and their coaches on an amazing year despite all the challenges thrown their way this season! 

SCHEDULE CHANGE: Christmas Break will be a full two week break to clean our building and allow additional professional development time for our staff. We will be out of school Dec. 21-Jan. 1, 2021.

Blessings,

Mindy Reeder,
President/Principal
mreeder@bacards.org

ALL-BA UPDATES

Online Letter Jacket Ordering

Originally, MECA Sportswear was planning on being here Monday, Nov. 16 for letter jacket ordering. With BA currently in online learning mode, the letter jackets may be ordered online at this link. A new date for the representative to come to BA will be set in the near future. Attached is the original letter jacket ordering announcement and a letter jacket sizing guide. We encourage students, especially the boys, to consider the Traditional BA Cardinal letter jacket.

November SADD Posters

Attached please find two posters on Thankfulness prepared by SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) students. Meant to be hung in high-traffic areas in our building, we ask that you share them with your students. Thank you!

Volunteer Opportunities

• BABS Committee-We are looking forward to another fantastic BABS event April 10, 2021! BABS (BA Boosters & Supporters) is our biggest fundraising and social event of the year and key to successfully moving BA forward. Mrs. Reeder at mreeder@bacards.org. Our first virtual meeting is Dec 2 at 6pm. Thank you!

Holiday Shopping: Amazon Smiles

If you are holiday shopping at Amazon, please go to http:/smile.amazon.com and choose Faribault B A Inc. as your organization (include a space between the B and the A). Amazon will send BA a donation for every purchase you make. It works with Amazon Prime and you can use Scrip to pay for your purchases. Thank you!

Prospective Student Visit Options

We’d love to grow our student enrollment! If you know of a family interested in our authentically Catholic, Domincan prep school, please invite them to sign up here for a family tour offered Monday to Friday from 3-6pm. We are also working on limited shadow opportunities; stay tuned for more information. 

HIGH SCHOOL UPDATES

Potential KoAm Host Family Opportunity

The KoAm Educational Foundation has reached out about a possible international transfer student. Jisoo (9th-grade female) has been studying in Minnesota this fall, but her school is extremely small (7 girls in the entire high school), and she is looking for a school with more opportunities to make friends and get involved. Jisoo is outgoing, practical, and laid-back. She loves to dance, compose, and sing and is hoping to pursue a career in the arts. She is an only child but would love a host family with siblings she can interact with and spend time with. She came to the US spring 2020 right before COVID, and despite the difficulty of distance learning, she came back this fall in the hopes of attending school in person and learning more about US culture and language. Please contact Kris at ksauer@bacards.org or KoAm at administrator@koameduall.org or call KoAm at 1-800-521-6640 for more information. 

DIVINE MERCY CATHOLIC CHURCH & SCHOOL UPDATES

• Middle School Edge/High School Youth Group

Middle School EDGE & High School Youth Group is open to all BA families. This is another great opportunity for your students to gather with others that want to grow in their faith and to enhance what they are learning in the classroom. Registration is required for both. Visit www.divinemercy.cc/faith-formation for more information. 

• DMCS Butter Braid Sales: DMCS students are selling butter braids! Order by November 30 for December 15 delivery. Contact DMCS at 507-334-7706 for more information.
• DMCS Holiday Scrip: Holiday SCRIP is a great option for gift giving! You purchase these small denomination gift cards after all Sunday Masses at Divine Mercy Catholic Church and from the Divine Mercy Catholic School Business Office at 15 SW Third Avenue. 

Family Focus 11/13/2020

11/13/2020

Ed Friesen

November 2020, 2020-21

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Dear BA Families:

Our online learning reset was very positive this first week. Thank you for supporting your student and partnering with our teachers to shift to online learning during this reset period. Mr. Wollersheim has reached out to students who missed a class and assisted them. Please remember, our campus is open and we can support your student as needed during this online learning period. Let us know if you plan to come into school. In addition, some teachers will be calling small groups of students to work on art, shop, or other projects at school. In addition, students who missed class or are behind in their work as asked to come in, if possible, on Wednesday, November 18, to receive support. Here is our schedule for next week:

GIVING WEEK AT BA!

• Monday – Nov. 16 – RED DAY

• • 8:05 Morning Announcements: https://meet.google.com/uod-epie-zxa (Also bookmarked in the Cardinal App Store)
  • Middle School Online Schedule: *See your schedule online
  • High School Online Schedule: RED DAY – follow your personal school bell schedule

• Tuesday – Nov. 17 – WHITE DAY 

• • 8:05 Morning Announcements: https://meet.google.com/uod-epie-zxa (Also bookmarked in the Cardinal App Store)
  • Middle School Online Schedule: *See your schedule online
  • High School Online Schedule: WHITE DAY – follow your personal school bell schedule 

• Wednesday – Nov. 18: MASS DAY & WIN-STUDENT SUPPORT DAY (No live classes) THIS IS ALSO OUR NATIONAL ACCREDITATION DAY AT BA! We will have a team at BA reviewing all of our areas for excellence.
  • 8:30 a.m. MASS with DMCS online at https://www.facebook.com/divinemercy.cc or if you can come to IC, please do!
  • After Mass: If you need support, please email teachers. If you missed class or are behind in assignments, you will be asked to come into school. If you cannot come into school, you will be connected with online. Teachers may also be reaching out to students. 

• Thursday – Nov. 19: RED DAY ***GIVE TO THE MAX DAY – Support BA at: https://www.bacards.org/page/3044

• • 8:05 Morning Announcements: https://meet.google.com/uod-epie-zxa (Also bookmarked in the Cardinal App Store)
  • Middle School Online Schedule: *See your schedule online
  • High School Online Schedule: RED DAY – follow your personal school bell schedule Friday

• Friday - Nov. 20: WHITE DAY *Normal schedule (NOT a Mass day)

• • 8:05 Morning Announcements: https://meet.google.com/uod-epie-zxa (Also bookmarked in the Cardinal App Store)
  • Middle School Online Schedule: *See your schedule online
  • High School Online Schedule: WHITE DAY – follow your personal school bell schedule

GIVING WEEK AT BA-Nov. 16-20! Please consider a gift to the BA Annual Fund this week, or share the link with friends and family on your social media platforms starting next Monday. We would love to see every parent make a gift of support of any size to our fund and show our parent strength! Our goal this year is to raise $250,000. To date we have raised: $63,831.85 - 25.5% of our goal.

• HELP US REACH OUR MATCH! A donor has stepped up with a $25,000 match by December 31, 2020. Click here to read a copy of our letter and share this link with others at: https://www.bacards.org/page/3044

COVID UPDATE: At this time we have six positive reported COVID 19 cases at BA. Please join me in praying or a quick recovery for our students and staff. With all of this news, I wanted to share The Catholic Spirit published this wonderful article for prayer at home: https://thecatholicspirit.com/commentary/faith-at-home/teach-us-to-pray-as-stressed-out-parents/

• Online Learning Picture Challenge - WHAT ARE YOU THANKFUL FOR? Send us your photos by Friday, Nov. 20 to create a Thanksgiving Wall of Blessings! Don’t forget, we will be writing letters to our grandparents this week as we cannot celebrate Grandparents Day together. 

KUDOS: Special congratulations this week to our senior football player John Rose, State Farm’s Athlete of the Week and senior swimmer Abby Larson, who on Nov. 11, signed a National Letter of Intent to participate in Division I swimming at the University of St. Thomas next fall.

SCHEDULE CHANGE: Christmas Break will be a full two week break to clean our building and allow additional professional development time for our staff. We will be out of school Dec. 21-Jan. 1, 2021.

Upcoming Events:

• • Nov. 16-20-Giving Week and Give to the Max Day, Nov. 19 - Support BA during national Giving Week with a donation online or by sharing this link-https://www.bacards.org/page/3044
  • Nov. 24: Grandparents Day will not be held in person this year. Students will be writing letters to their grandparents, or grandfriends. Please watch for these letters to come home and mail or share them with grandparents and special friends!
  • Nov. 25-27: NO SCHOOL - Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

• Nov. 30: Return to in-person learning, schedule to be determined.

Please join me in praying for students and families as they recover from COVID. I invite you to also join me during weekly Adoration at any time.

Blessings,

Mindy Reeder
President/Principal
mreeder@bacards.org

ALL-BA UPDATES

Student Directory

We are close to finalizing this year’s student directory. If you DO NOT want your address and phone numbers included in the directory, please email Barb Johnson (bjohnson@bacards.org) by Wednesday, November 18. 

Volunteer Opportunities

• BABS Committee-We are looking forward to another fantastic BABS event April 10, 2021! BABS (BA Boosters & Supporters) is our biggest fundraising and social event of the year and key to successfully moving BA forward. Mrs. Reeder at mreeder@bacards.org. Our first virtual meeting is Dec 2 at 6pm. Thank you!

1. Plug in laptop
2. Quit all applications.  (Closing a window does not quit the program on a Mac.  Choose quit from the application menu or click & hold mouse over app in the doc and choose quit)
3. Re-start laptop and leave lid display open

HIGH SCHOOL UPDATES

Class of 2021: College Early Action Deadline 11/15

Reminder: the next round of early action admissions are due November 15. Please remind your seniors to check their college application deadlines, follow up with teachers for letters of recommendation, and with Ms Rogers for your transcript requests!

DIVINE MERCY CATHOLIC CHURCH & SCHOOL UPDATES

• Middle School Edge/High School Youth Group

Middle School EDGE & High School Youth Group is open to all BA families. This is another great opportunity for your students to gather with others that want to grow in their faith and to enhance what they are learning in the classroom. Registration is required for both. Visit www.divinemercy.cc/faith-formation for more information. 

• DMCS Butter Braid Sales: DMCS students are selling butter braids! Order by November 30 for December 15 delivery. If interested, send the attached form and payment in with your student and have them drop it off in the BA Front Office. We will be sure it gets to DMCS by the order deadline.
• DMCS Holiday Scrip: Holiday SCRIP is now available. See attached flyer for more information. Holiday SCRIP is also available after all Sunday Masses at Divine Mercy Catholic Church and from the Divine Mercy Catholic School Business Office at 15 SW Third Avenue. 

COMMUNITY

IRIS Turkey Trot: This year’s IRIS Turkey Trot will be held Thursday, November 26th both in person and virtually. See attached flyer for more information and note the November 12 (today) registration deadline for a free t-shirt!

Attachments:

• IRIS Turkey Trot
• Scrip for the Holidays
• Activities Calendar for Week of November 16

Online Learning "Reset" - 11/8/2020

11/08/2020

Ed Friesen

Uncategorized

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Dear BA Parents & Students:

We hope this beautiful warm Sunday has you outside enjoying time with your family. This weekend BA learned of two more positive COVID-19 cases, one student and one staff, as well as other students needing to quarantine due to positive cases in their family or in their sport. With the students and staff currently out and those that we would need to add to our quarantine list, or who have notified us, we would have well over 60 students and 8 staff out. Due to these numbers, we will be doing a reset. A reset is a short learning period where we voluntarily move to online learning to meet all quarantine requirements and hopefully stop the spread. Therefore, we will begin online learning this week, starting on Wednesday, November 11. (There will be no classes on Tuesday, November 10 to provide teachers an added preparation day.). As a reminder, here is the link to our online learning expectations and guide to online learning; please scroll down to Scenario 3 starting on page 9: (https://www.bacards.org/sites/bacards.org/files/files/Private_User/ksauer/BAschoolhandbookcovidaddendum%2010-14-20%20update.pdf)

Below is the schedule and details. Please note, because our school is voluntarily moving to online learning for a short period to reset, activities, meetings and sports will continue, except for those students who are required to quarantine.  In addition, if your student needs extra support or internet access, please let us know as the building will be open for students; just call us to confirm this at 507-334-3948. We will also be calling students directly if they are not attending their zoom classes or turning in assignments. Find our schedule for through Thanksgiving below:

**Band students, please note, if your instrument is at school you are required to pick it up as your grade will be directly affected.**

Monday – Nov. 9 (NO SCHOOL – planned professional development day)

• Noon to 6 p.m. – Pick up any books, band instruments, supplies that are needed.
• VIRTUAL OPEN HOUSE

Tuesday – Nov. 10 (NO SCHOOL – professional development added preparation day)

• 7:30am-3:00pm Pick up any books, band instruments, supplies that are needed.

Wednesday – Nov. 11 (FIRST ONLINE LEARNING DAY GRADES 6-12)

• 8:05 Morning Announcements-Special Veteran’s Day presentation: meet.google.com/uod-epie-zxa.  (Bookmarked in Cardinal App Store)
• Middle School Online Schedule: *See your schedule below for times and classes
• High School Online Schedule: WHITE DAY – follow your personal school bell schedule

Thursday – Nov. 12 – RED DAY

• 8:05 Morning Announcements:meet.google.com/uod-epie-zxa.  (Bookmarked in Cardinal App Store)
• Middle School Online Schedule: *See your schedule below for times and classes
• High School Online Schedule: RED DAY – follow your personal school bell schedule

Friday – Nov. 13 – WHITE DAY

• 8:05 Morning Announcements:meet.google.com/uod-epie-zxa.  (Bookmarked in Cardinal App Store)
• 8:30 a.m. MASS – If you are not in quarantine you may attend in person at IC; otherwise join us online at: https://www.facebook.com/divinemercy.cc
• Middle School Online Schedule: *See your schedule below for times and classes
• High School Online Schedule: WHITE DAY – follow your personal school bell schedule

Monday – Nov. 16 – RED DAY

• 8:05 Morning Announcements:meet.google.com/uod-epie-zxa.  (Bookmarked in Cardinal App Store)
• Middle School Online Schedule: *See your schedule below for times and classes
• High School Online Schedule: RED DAY – follow your personal school bell schedule

Tuesday – Nov. 17 – WHITE DAY

• 8:05 Morning Announcements:meet.google.com/uod-epie-zxa.  (Bookmarked in Cardinal App Store)
• Middle School Online Schedule: *See your schedule below for times and classes
• High School Online Schedule: WHITE DAY – follow your personal school bell schedule

Wednesday – Nov. 18: STUDENT SUPPORT DAY (No live classes) If you need support, please email teachers. Teachers may also be reaching out to students.

Thursday – Nov. 19: RED DAY. ***GIVE TO THE MAX DAY – Online giving to support BA at: https://www.bacards.org/page/3044

• 8:05 Morning Announcements:meet.google.com/uod-epie-zxa.  (Bookmarked in Cardinal App Store)
• Middle School Online Schedule: *See your schedule below for times and classes
• High School Online Schedule: RED DAY – follow your personal school bell schedule

Friday – Nov. 20: WHITE DAY

• 8:05 Morning Announcements:meet.google.com/uod-epie-zxa.  (Bookmarked in Cardinal App Store)
• 8:30 a.m. MASS – If you are not in quarantine you may attend in person; otherwise join us online at: https://www.facebook.com/divinemercy.cc
• Middle School Online Schedule: *See your schedule below for times and classes
• High School Online Schedule: WHITE DAY – follow your personal school bell schedule

Monday – Nov. 23 – RED DAY

• 8:05 Morning Announcements:meet.google.com/uod-epie-zxa.  (Bookmarked in Cardinal App Store)
• Middle School Online Schedule: *See your schedule below for times and classes
• High School Online Schedule: RED DAY – follow your personal school bell schedule

Tuesday – Nov. 24 – WHITE DAY

• 8:05 Morning Announcements:meet.google.com/uod-epie-zxa.  (Bookmarked in Cardinal App Store)
• Middle School Online Schedule: *See your schedule below for times and classes
• High School Online Schedule: RED DAY – follow your personal school bell schedule

Wednesday, Nov 25-Friday, November 26 - Thanksgiving Break

We will gather back as a school family on Monday, November 30. Any adjustments to the schedule when we return will be shared with families. Thank you for your partnership and support. Please let us know how best we can support you. If you need access to the school internet and do not have to quarantine, staff will be in the building, please let us know. In addition, if your scholar is sick please call the attendance line or email attendance at: attendance@bacards.org. Do not hesitate to reach out with questions during this short reset period.

Blessings,

Mindy Reeder

President/Principal

mreeder@bacards.org

MIDDLE SCHOOL SCHEDULE FOR ONLINE LEARNING: