STAS Happenings

GOLF TOURNAMENT NEWS

Hopefully you have your calendars marked for the 7th Annual Golf Tournament.  If not please mark your calendars “STAS Golf Tournament” on Monday, June 23, 2008 at the Colonie Country Club.  We are looking for planners, major sponsors, patrons, prizes to raffle, and golfers.  If you can supply any of the above, we will be most grateful.  Whatever is realized on each year’s tournament is taken off of our per pupil cost for the next year. We need everyone’s support. Anyone interested in participating, please contact Chris Lenaghan, 438-6450 or school at 482-3736.

STAS ALUMNI MAKE HONOR ROLL

The following STAS alumni students have made the Honor Roll at Bishop Maginn High School for the second quarter of the academic year.High Honors:  Ruth Berben, Lydia Cordero-Campis, Maire Cunningham, Clare McKenna, Elizabeth Nowosielski, Claire Robertson, James Robertson, Zachary Stone.

Honors:  Stephen Dansereau, Sierra Forster, Christopher Jeffers, Samantha Kosa, Jessica Mailhotte, Nora McMullen, Charles Pobee-Mensah. 

We love hearing such wonderful news about our alumni.  Congratulations!  We are very proud of you.

FILIPINIANA NIGHT AT STAS

On March 29, our Philippine families hosted a Filipiniana Night at St. Teresa’s Social Center.  What a wonderful event it was! Those who attended were treated to delicious Philippine cuisine as well as their traditional songs, dances and music.  It was a night to remember!  We would like to thank all those who worked so hard to make this night so enjoyable for all of us.

RESPECT LIFE ESSAY WINNERS

Congratulations to the winners of our annual Respect Life Essay Competition.  Mrs. Betty Higgins from the parish  Respect Life Committee  has announced  the winners of this competition.  The First Place prize of $75 goes to Colby Schrom.  Our Second Place prize of $50 goes to Marian Pobee-Mensah, and the Third Place winner of $35 is Brendan O’Sullivan.  Colby read his essay and prizes were awarded to these three students at the 10:30 Mass on Sunday March 30, 2008. The winning essays are on display in church. We would also like to congratulate all the students in the 8^th grade for the excellent job they did since the committee had a difficult time choosing the top three essays.

FOR DONATIONS TO STAS

We have received word from Price Chopper Tools For Schools that we have accumulated 57,630 points in our account.  Our teachers were able to redeem these points for educational tools for their classrooms.  We appreciate your support!

We are grateful to Target and the Take Charge of Education Program for their continued support of education.  Target donates up to 1% of purchases made using the REDcard SM to eligible schools designated by their guests.  Each March and September donations are issued.  For the month of March we received a check for $92.67. 

As you know, fundraising is a necessary part of our school. To date we have had our Marathon, Jingle All the Way, Entertainment Books, a Spaghetti Dinner, and Bottle and Can drive. We have finalized the Entertainment Books with a net profit including donations of $1,212.50. 

Thank you for your support.  Our goal for the Annual School Collection is $12,000. To date we have received $7,150.61. Hopefully we will get closer to our goal. 

YET ANOTHER SCHOLARSHIP

We have received word that Peter New, 8^th grade, has received a $4,000 scholarship to Christian Brothers Academy.  Congratulations, Peter, we are very proud of you and all of your accomplishments.

STUDENT TO PERFORM THIS SUMMER

The Sons of Italy in Schenectady is producing a play called Cinderella. Ralph Panelli, grade 7, auditioned and, until  further  notice  he  will  be  the understudy for the  Prince.   He  will  be  singing and  dancing  to “Impossible” and “Ten Minutes Ago”. He will also be in the ensemble. Ralph will be rehearsing during the summer and the play will be sometime in August. Congratulations Ralph!

SCIENCE CLUB RECYCLING

Our recycling project is off to a great start!  Each class is doing their part to help our school and environment stay clean.  The Science Club would like to say, “Thank you” to all those who are helping us with our project.

This year the schools of the Diocese of Albany in partnership with Electronic Recycling, Inc. (eLot) are sponsoring a district wide electric waste removal drive for Earth Day 2008.  Electronic waste includes computers, televisions, VCR’s, stereos, copiers, fax machines and wireless technology. Such electronic devices contain lead, mercury, and other toxic material that, if discarded in the regular garbage pickup, ends up in our landfills, in turn polluting the environment. On Friday April 25, from the hours of 9:00AM to 3:00PM, we will have cardboard bins located in our School parking lot for electronic waste. In addition, there will be bins located in the Church parking lot all weekend. Please help us keep the environment clean by placing used products of this type in the bins. Therefore, please do not put anything other than items listed.  The bins will be removed on Monday morning. Ordinarily, removal of electronic equipment requires some fee but for this weekend this service will be provided free of charge. Check the e-Lot website at www.elotrecycling.com for any questions you may have about the recycling of these products. Thank you for your participation in this effort to care for our Earth.

CIRCLES OF MERCY THANKS STAS

At our 1^st Friday faculty meeting in March, STAS faculty and staff discussed how we could help some less fortunate children at Easter time. Circles of Mercy, an agency providing hope, hospitality and empowerment to individuals in the Rensselaer Community, especially women and women with children had called upon the Albany Region Sisters of Mercy and Mercy Associates to assist with “Cate’s Kids Easter Baskets”.  STAS children and families donated 10 baskets, extra candy and toys, coloring books and reading books.  We received a note from the Director of Circles of Mercy in which he said, “We were touched and overwhelmed, by the children’s generosity!”

SCHOOL REGISTRATIONS

School registrations for the coming school year, 2008-2009 are well underway. If you have not checked out our website and want more information pertaining to our school go to www.stasalbanyny.org.  Even if you are familiar with our school, the pictures of grade activities change often – check it out! Anyone wanting more information regarding registration please call 482-3736.

First Graders are authors! Each First Grade student has written, illustrated and published his or her own book. The stories were based on the idea of The Gingerbread Man and other similar stories such as The Runaway Dinner, and The Runaway Tortilla. We had a great time comparing and contrasting the different stories. They also have been busy writing book reports and poetry. We love writing in first grade. We are also busy observing our science projects for the Science and Learning Fair. Please come and see our experiments on April 3 from 6-8PM in our Middle School (all grades will be participating).

The second grade visited the Albany Institute of History and Art on March 11^th.  We learned about landscape paintings. Then the second graders enjoyed making their very own landscape design.  Our landscape designs are hanging up outside of our classroom.

Congratulations to the following students who are having work showcased in the learning fair on Thursday, April 3, 2008 for computer class: Kindergarten-Jillian Hagen; Grade 1-John Nocus, Casey Su Morrill, Trishia Serrano; Grade 2-Aidan McKenna and Nikolai Nimer; Grade 3- Joshua Flores; Grade4-Victoria Knack  and Sherianne Rameriz; Grade 5- Madison Woodley; Grade 6-Sean Welch, Naaman Azad, Angela Avalos, Sarah Diomande; Grade 7-Jennifer DuMond, Katie Nowosielski, Cailin McKenna; Grade 8-Peter New, Mark Sibal, Lexi Zerrillo, Vanessa Berisic, Shaniel Gayle, and Alessandra Bazzoffi.