Saints Speak – 9/20/2018 - Parking Lot Blues
We’re only a few weeks into school, and I’ve got the parking lot blues. No, these aren’t lyrics from one of my favorite country artists. It just means that it is time to revisit our parking lot procedures. It has come to our attention that the parking lot at both drop-off and pick-up has become a bit chaotic to say the least. We have hundreds of students being dropped off and picked up at Doors 1 and 7 every morning and afternoon. Our parking lot procedures have been designed with safety first, and expeditiousness of traffic flow in mind.
I would like direct everyone to pages 30-32 of our ASCA Parent Student Handbook for review the parking lot procedures. The handbook can be viewed at https://ascacademy.org/Portals/0/18-19%20Parent%20Student%20Handbook.pdf.
The biggest concern that has been communicated to me concerns the flow of traffic, and how cars are entering and leaving from both our eastern and western entrances.
In the morning, whether you are parking and walking your student up to Door 1, or dropping off your student at Door 7 – ALL CARS must enter the campus via the western entrance. This would be the same in the afternoon when you are picking up your student.
No cars should be entering the campus via the eastern entrance. Please note that the east lot is reserved for staff members. Parents should not be parking in the east lot in the morning or in the afternoon to walk their child to/from the entrance, as this would necessitate that you and your student are crossing the path of cars in the car line that are exiting the campus, and highly unsafe. If you are parking your vehicle, it must be in the west lot outside of main entrance at Door 1 (Welcome Desk door).
When leaving the campus after drop off or after pick up, all cars are required to exit the campus through the eastern entrance. There are signs posted at the eastern entrance that requires ALL traffic from BOTH EXIT LANES to turn RIGHT ONLY during posted times – which are 7:30 – 8:00 am in the morning, and 3:00– 4:00 pm in the afternoon. LEFT TURNS ARE NOT ALLOWED DURING THESE TIMES, as it would cause traffic to back up, and be unsafe for all cars trying to exit. It should not be a mad scramble at the exit, nor should anyone be wondering which way someone is going to turn.
If you are new to ASCA, we hope that you will contact us if you have any questions about the procedures. We are happy to help. If you are a veteran family, we hope that you will be that good example of how things should work. If you have someone picking up your student who does not typically enter our campus, please talk with them about the parking lot procedures so that they know how to navigate. Most of all, please do the right thing, even if someone else is doing it wrong.
Ways to avoid frustration? Give yourself enough time to arrive at school, or to leave at the end of the day. Sometimes, leaving an extra five or ten minutes earlier at the beginning of the day, or not scheduling that doctor appointment at 3:45 pm can make all of the difference. Be kind in the car line, and allow families to merge when trying to travel through the drop off line at Door 7, or when cars are leaving the campus. Most of all, practice patience. If our procedures are followed, they will work. Most of all, we do not want an accident to occur in the lot to any of our students, parents, staff members or visitors.
Please keep the following in mind to keep everyone safe:
- Cars must enter via the western entrance; and leave via the eastern entrance.
- If you are parking and walking your child up to Door 1 (Main Entrance – Welcome Desk Door), you must park outside Door 1 in the western lot. All students must be accompanied by an adult in the lot. Do not wait in your car for your unaccompanied student to find you.
- If you are dropping off your child at Door 7, please drive around the north end of the building for drop off. All students must exit the car on the passenger side. Please don’t get out of your cars in the drop off line at Door 7. This is dangerous, as cars are merging out of the line to leave once they have dropped off their student. If you need extra time to get a project out of the car for your student, please park your car at Door 1 and walk your student up to Door 1.
- There is no parking in the eastern/teacher/staff lot, either before or after school. The only vehicles that should be parked on the east side of the building are staff vehicles, the buses after school at Door 10, and cars that are waiting in the car line at Door 7.
- Always be vigilant when pulling in or out of a parking spot, backing up, or driving on the campus. There are many parents and children, and you never know when someone might be standing behind your van. It can happen that fast.
Obeying the rules and working together, we can make the parking lot less like the Wild, Wild West, and improve the safety for all of our All Saints school community.
All Aboard SHPP
We held our first SHPP meeting on September 4 at 6:30 pm. We discussed how we are going back to the roots of SHPP. We want to be an inclusive group that uses everyone’s talents and treasures. We all need to give of ourselves. We have an amazing school and community that needs us.
We went over the committees and the opportunities to get involved at our meeting. If you were not able to come, there are still many opportunities to help out. We have found heads for all of our committees except the Daddy Daughter Dance. Please reach out to us if you would be willing to run this committee. Our next meeting is on Tuesday, October 2 from 6:30 – 7:30 pm. Child care will be provided. Please plan on joining us. We will send out an agenda in next week's Saints Speak.
We now have online signups for upcoming events. Don’t be shy, come on board! Please click on the Sign Up Genius links below:
We are also still in need of recess volunteers on Thursdays and Fridays. There is always a way to volunteer at ASCA.
Saints in Service
The SHPP Community Outreach Committee would like to welcome all ASCA families to join us as we kick off this school year as Saints in Service! We will have many ways for you and your family to get involved this year.
Some upcoming events include:
- Bernie’s Book Bank Book Drive during the fall book fair in October. Bernie’s Book Bank provides quality books to at-risk Chicago area students.
- Operation Support Our Troops (OSOT) Halloween candy collection in the beginning of November. OSOT is a Naperville based organization whose mission is to support the morale and well being of American forces by providing comfort, resources and education to them and their families.
- Hesed House Advent Clothing Collection in December. The Hesed House is an Aurora based organization whose mission is to end homelessness.
- Martin Luther King Day of Service. On Monday, January 21, 2019 will we provide multiple service opportunities for our All Saints students and families. We spend this day out in the community serving others.
We will also be supporting Grade Level Service Projects for grades preschool – 5th grade. Further information regarding these projects will follow. Our Junior High students have many service-related opportunities through Student Voices, led by Mrs. Kazlauskas and Ms. Selvick.
Please contact Anne Soto (anneponcesoto@gmail.com) or Robin Beck (robindbeck24@gmail.com) for further information regarding SHPP’s CommunityOutreach Committee, and/or if you would like to be a part of our team. Please joinus at the next SHPP meeting, on Tuesday, October 2 at 6:30 pm in ASCA’s Café 1,where we will share more ways you can get involved! Thank you!
SAVE THE DATE FOR COMING HOME!
THE ASCA 14th Annual Dinner Dance & Auction – Saturday, February 23, 2019 6 pm - Midnight at ASCA!
DDA is our biggest fundraiser of the year! DDA makes a significant contribution to the financial well-being of our school from technology to infrastructure to operating costs. DDA helps keep tuition down and academics up! Join us for a great night of food, music, celebration and fun while helping our school! Look for more information in your youngest and only child’s backpack this week!
We welcome your help, energy and ideas! Join us in planning and executing this fabulous event! Anyone, any grade, any level! Sign up, get involved and join the fun! www.SignUpGenius.com/go/20F0D4EAFAF2DA02-dinner
Fundraising Corner
Yankee Candle – Lit it UP Update
Our Yankee Candle Fundraiser was a HUGE success! Lots of you earned tons of FFO credit. Stay tuned till next week where we will share an update of numbers.
The online ordering will be open until January 1st, 2019! You will still earn 40% FFO on all online orders through January 1st. Go to: www.yankeecandlefundraising.com, and enter our Group Number 999983478. Remember to setup a student account to receive FFO credit.
Upcoming Holiday FFO Opportunities
We are excited to offer 3 Holiday FFO options. As always, your participation is OPTIONAL. We are very excited by the diversity that you have to choose from. There is something for everyone!
****NEW OPPORTUNITY**** No flower says Christmas like the beautiful poinsettia. We will offer an online-only sale of poinsettias. Earn 50% FFO. More details coming soon!
Butter Braids and Wooden Spoon Cookie Dough will start October 18th, with delivery before Thanksgiving.
Lynch Creek Farm online wreath and garland sale. More details coming soon! Earn 40% FFO.
News from All Saints Athletic Association
Congratulations to the Girls 6A team for bringing home a victory this past weekend!
Be sure to watch for the “Weekend Sports Report” to see where you can come out to watch our Saints play next!
Want to follow the team standings and future games? Schedules can be found at the Dupage Parochial League website http://www.dplvba.org.
Cross Country in the News
Congratulations to our All Saints Cross Country runners who competed in Saturday's Greg Vogler Memorial Co-Ed Meet at Marmion Academy. The team did really well and most runners saw big drops in their running times.
Congratulations to the following runners who won a ribbon in flight 1 races: Judd Isom (3rd), Emily Coleman (25th), Zoe Girard (17th), Kiley Senall (7th), Payton Knox (8th), Will Yacullo (22nd) and Ashley Donovan (13th).
Congratulations to the following runners who won a ribbon in flight 2 races: Kailey DelaCruz (3rd), Luke Donovan (13th), Julia Johanneson (4th), Diya Khatau (6th), Dylan Kokkinos (20th), Katie Schuele (17th), Bella Wojtowicz (24th), Declan Cadden (18th), Quinn Knox (4th), Justin Klein (5th) and Jack Walsh (26th).
Our runners also competed last week at the Royal/Cadet Jr. High Cross Country Meet held at Marmion Academy. Congratulations to the Girls 5th/6th Team for their 3rd place finish in their division! They earned a nice piece of hardware to add to the trophy case!
A huge shoutout to Judd Isom on his 4th place finish and Kiley Senal with her 8th place finish!
This week our runners are hosted by Sacred Heart and St. Pius X at Lombard Commons. Be sure to come cheer our runners on to a strong finish!
REMINDER…..FALL SPORTS PICTURES can be ordered online through this Sunday, September 23rd. You can place your online order at https://www.outsidetheboxinc.co/all-saints-sport-photo-orders.
UPCOMING DATES:
September 23 Deadline for ordering fall sports pictures
October 7 Basketball evaluations for all grade levels (times TBD)
October 12 BLUE OUT
November 8 Fall Sports Banquet for Volleyball and Cross Country
GO SAINTS!!
A Tremendous Thank You to the Cornerstone Sponsors of
A Green Tie Affair, ASCA Dinner Dance Auction 2018
For more information, please click on the Cornerstone Sponsor logos above. We encourage you to patronize these generous sponsors.
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