Calvary Christian School Niagara



	The Calvary Connection Volume 6, Issue 7 - March 2010 From Mr. Wickens’ Desk ... MARCH BREAK Friday, March 12 will be the last school day before the March Break. School resumes on Monday, March 22, 2010. We trust that everyone will have a safe and restful break!!!!! REPORT CARDS are being sent home Friday, March 12. Teachers will schedule interviews where they have concerns and wish to speak with the parents. Should your child's teacher not schedule an interview, but you would like to have one, please contact the teacher for an appointment. CHARITABLE TAX CREDIT With a new Federal budget coming soon there is a proposal to increase the Charitable Tax Credit from the current 29% to 42%. I believe this would help charities such as Christian Schools and would benefit families who receive a tax receipt for the religious portion of their tuition. You can contribute your views to the Minister of Finance at www.fin.gc.ca/pebudget-prebudgetaire/1-eng.asp. OPEN EAR POLICY If you have any suggestions, comments, concerns or constructive criticism, we want to hear from you. All concerns or criticism must be made to school leadership. Please call Ron Wickens or any school board member. We will be happy to have a discussion or make an appointment. Our unity and prayers will protect our school ministry from Satan's attack. MISSION'S FOCUS UPDATE We have completed our Mission's Focus for this year. Once again, we have been blessed by your generosity. We raised $2292.53, which is the highest amount raised since we started doing the Mission's Focus. We will send $1000.00 to rebuild Christian schools in Haiti through Association of Christian Schools International. The balance will be split between Galcom and Eagle's Cove ministry to First Nations in Northern Ontario. PIE AUCTION FUNDRAISER Our Pie Auction fundraiser was a great success! We raised $5230.00. We had $184.31 in expenses and netted 5045.69. We achieved our goal of $5000.00. Thank you to all the fantastic bakers who donated 72 items to be auctioned. Thank you to all the bidders for your generous spirit and to Pastor Jantzi who made the evening lots of fun. MEMBERSHIP MEETING Please note that our Membership Meeting is scheduled for Thursday, April 15, 2010. At this meeting, we establish our Nomination Committee. If you are interested in serving on the Nomination Committee, please contact Greg Hines or James Davidson, who are the school board representatives on this committee. Taxation Receipts Taxation receipts for the 2009 calendar year are being sent home today in the school envelopes. Revenue Canada requires that we issue a receipt for each donation given to the school, and we have to identify why the receipt was issued. The following are examples of potential receipts you may receive. 1. Child Care receipts, whether Kindergarten or Before and After School Supervision, will be both indicated on the receipt with the total amount that you can claim. 2. Gift in Kind receipts will show the value of the item or items, a description of items or items that were donated, and for what event they were donated. 3. Cash with an Advantage receipts will indicate the advantage and the net amount that is receiptable. An example would be the Golf Tournament where the cost of the game of golf and the dinner were an advantage since the individual received something in return for their donation. 4. Cash with no Advantage receipts will include the net amount that can be claimed. An example would be a cash donation to the school (i.e. fundraising limited participation options) 5. Tuition receipts are based on the tuition paid in the calendar year January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2009, less the full-time equivalent student secular cost. The full-time equivalent student secular cost for 2009 is 3314.13 per student. The receipt is for the religious component of the tuition paid. Please keep in mind that you need to double the secular cost if you have two children enrolled in the school. Because the school discounts the two and three child tuition, the receipt difference is typically zero compared to the one child tuition. As well, if you had any discounts to your tuition (i.e. Referral Incentive Programme) this reduces the receipt. If you have any questions, please contact the school office. Parent Association Report Fellow families: Hello again! Nice to see so many of you out for the potluck/talent show night. The students did such a wonderful job performing. The Spring Fling fundraiser is quickly approaching, and the committee is working hard to make this event a large success. Of course we cannot do this without you! We want to ask that each and every family give as much as they are able towards the Spring Fling. Keep in mind that we do not mean only with donations and baked goods, but also with your time. While we admit that we need the donations, we also require some man hours from each and every family to run this event smoothly and successfully. Please pray continually for the success of this event, and please keep your heart open to what time you can give on the day of the event. May the Lord bless you and keep you this month as we begin to see warmer weather (hopefully) and the continuation of preparations for March Break and our largest yearly fundraiser. If you have any further questions regarding Parent Association events or fundraisers, please call Ann-Marie Johnson at 984-3111. Blessings, Calvary Parent Association Team Students Arriving On Time Yard duty coverage starts at 8:30 am. If students arrive before 8:30 am, they must report directly to the Before School Supervision room and not to their own classrooms. Note: Parents/Guardians please bring your children into Before School Supervision and speak to the supervising teacher when you drop them off in the morning. This will allow the supervising teachers, for safety reasons, to know what students are in the building. Students go directly into the school and are expected to be in their classrooms and ready for the school day to start at 8:50 a.m. Students arriving at 8:50 a.m. are considered late. It is important to train our students the responsibility of being on time to avoid the disruption of the class. There are consequences for students who are consistently late. They include making up the "late" time during recess and/or after school. Students who arrive late with a reason, (e.g. bad weather), must have a phone call or a note from a parent explaining the reason for lateness so they are excused from the consequence. A reason, such as not being ready for school, or sleeping in, is not acceptable. Also, students must use the front door by the church offices to enter when they are late. Office Depot Office Depot's 5% Back to School Program is a program that is now being run all year long. When you make your purchases at any Office Depot Store, simply tell them that you wish to have 5% go towards Calvary Christian School or give them our ID #80012676. The school will receive a credit of 5% of all the purchases. This credit will be used to buy supplies for the school. Complimentary Leader's Luncheon We are having our 9th annual luncheon to increase the awareness of the benefits of Christian Education and our school. This complimentary luncheon is open to Pastors, Associate Pastors, Ministers, Youth Pastors, Christian business leaders and their spouses. This event will take place Thursday, April 8, 2010 at 11:45 am in the Chapel room of Calvary Church. This year, our guest speaker will be Mr. Darrell Gillespie, former principal of Eden High School. Mr. Gillespie will share the history of Eden High School and the uniqueness of this Christian Alternative Secondary School in the public school system. He will address the reason for the growth of Eden and why it is attractive to families even to the point of having a student waiting list. He will also touch on Eden's Spiritual Life program and the funding partnership for this program. He will conclude by offering his opinion on the future challenges that face this type of schooling initiative within the Ontario education system. We are asking families, staff, and board members to personally invite these Christian leaders. Our students will make personal invitations to give to their Pastors, Youth Pastors, etc. We are enclosing a copy of the invitation. Invitation letters have been mailed to all churches in our database. If you require additional invitation letters, after you receive the initial one, please contact the school office. The Calvary Parent Association will be sending home sign up sheets next week, to help with this event. We appreciate your support! Soup Lunch Mrs. VanderWerf (Sr.) has once again offered to do a soup and bun lunch on Friday, March 26. We have enclosed a permission form. The money donated will go to support children in Haiti through the Association of Christian Schools International. Eating Well as a Family When parents and children eat together, they are more likely to eat healthy, balanced meals. They eat more vegetables and fruit and less fried food, and drink less pop. When children see their parents eat healthy, they will also eat healthy and develop healthy eating habits. Healthy eating habits can help reduce the risk of children developing chronic diseases such as heart disease, some types of cancer, and obesity. Whether it's breakfast, lunch, or dinner, eat meals together as often as possible. Family Mealtime Aim to eat at least 4 meals together each week. If you do more, that's great! Keep the conversation positive. Turn off the TV and radio. Return phone calls later. Plan easy meals for the entire week. Get the whole family involved in making a menu for each day. Involve your children in making a grocery list and doing the shopping. Let the whole family help out with getting supper on the table. Younger children can set the table and older children can help cook. Respect each person's right to decide how much to eat. Like adults, children should decide for themselves how much food to eat. This amount will vary during childhood as they go through growth spurts and when activity levels change. Visit www.dietitians.ca for more healthy eating tips. March is Nutrition Month The month of March will have the focus of Nutrition in all of the classrooms. As part of this focus, we would like to ask that every student have fruit or vegetables for their first snack of the day. The Kindergarten will be using curriculum from a programme called "At My Best". This is a comprehensive programme that combines physical activity, healthy eating and emotional well-being and aims to support children's optimal physical and emotional development by inspiring and motivating them to make healthier choices today, and develop lifelong healthy habits. As well, Kindergarten will be graphing the healthy food the students bring in their lunches. Grade 1 and 2 will be graphing the colours of the fruit and vegetables they have in their lunches. Grade 3 and 4 will be tracking their individual fruit and vegetable lunch snacks. The grade 5 class will be doing the Power4Bones Programme which is a fun and innovative way to learn about bone-health Grade 6 will track their daily intake on a food rainbow and chart their healthy snacks. Grade 7 have done a study of the nutritional guide and what is needed for their age. CHAPEL SCHEDULE-Parents are always welcome to attend our Wednesday morning Chapels (which include Kindness Club). M & M School Day Program-Next sale is Thursday, March 25, 2010 at 353 Lake Street location only. 10% of all sales from our school supporters will go directly back to CCS. PRAYER REQUESTS- If you have any prayer requests that you would like to have the school membership pray for, please call the school office. UNIFORMS- We will again have a gently used uniform sale on the last day of school. If you have a need for clothes to be altered or hemmed, please contact Tanya Young at 905-341-2576. She is one of our school parents and is able to do this from home for a reasonable rate. March Break Activities - Agape Valley's Sugar Bush is open every day during March Break. Their maple syrup days include tours to learn about maple syrup and you can enjoy pancakes in their pancake house. Details are posted outside the school office or on their website at http://agapevalley.ca. Calvary Church is hosting a Family Play Day on Wednesday, March 17 at 10:00-2:00 pm. Activities include inflatables, crafts, and a meal. Cost is $5.00 per person, maximum of $15.00 per family. Track & Field-Friday, April 30 - We will soon be sending home a Track and Field permission form for students to participate in practices. Our next intramural sport will start after Track and Field is finished to allow additional time for track and field practices. Blessings List The Blessing list indicates the things that are on the school's "wish list". This may be an opportunity for families to donate an item to the school, if it is feasible for them. Another option is a money donation towards a particular item or items on the list. All money donations and product donations, with a receipt, are 100% receiptable for income tax purposes. Family DVD’s for our school library Dear Canada & Guinness World Record (any year) books for Grade 7 Educational software (preferably not math) for Tutoring class Racing tracks for Grade 6 Lego, construx, & K’Nex building toys for Grade 7 P.S. Another possible way you could help is by connecting us to companies or individuals for discount prices. Collecting at the Office Please remember to save all of your Campbell's, Fish Crackers and V-8 UPC's. Campbell's allows us to save these UPC's to accumulate "points" so that we can purchase items for our school. We also collect all empty printer ink cartridges. Staples reuses the cartridges and in return our school receives a credit for supplies from their store. Both of these items are being collected by the school office.