News - August 2022 RSS Feed

The teachers here at SBS will be on the campus on Tuesday for the orientation to the new school year. It seems hard to believe that the summer has sped by so quickly, but at the same time, it seemed nice and relaxing. While the parish was busy, and there were several adjustments to make to the facilities, faculty, and schedule, all now seems to be in order. It looks like, as of this writing that we are opening with 459 students, which is a healthy increase from the 423 that we opened with last year. This is certainly a strong and positive trend for our school. We have a strong and committed faculty, and our administration: Principal Kevin Donahue and Assistant Principal Christine Keeling, do an exceptional job in their ministry and the management of our school. Read more.

This is the last week of preparation for the opening of school. I am sure the students are feeling it; I know the teachers are anticipating it, and I am certain that the parents are ready for it. We have been able to accomplish much here, though we did have fewer projects this summer than in some previous years. Through the generosity of several donors, and the commitment of girl scouts working on their Gold Award, we have been able to install a dedicated playground at the Dr. Robert H. Harris Pre-K-3 Early Learning Center. We will dedicate the playground on September 16th. We are also in the process of constructing a security station for the school. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, we have hired a full-time security guard for the school. With the assistance of state security money we have installed forty cameras around the property, and have other alert and lockdown technology in place. Security is certainly of paramount concern for parents and our teachers these days. We cannot be too careful. Read more.

As I mentioned last week, we will celebrate a Mass of the Anointing of the Sick on Tuesday, August 16th, at 1:00 pm. If there are any members of our parish community who are homebound and would like to receive the anointing, please make contact with the parish office. It is good for us to get to visit the sick a couple of times a year, and it is certainly best not to wait until we are in an end-of-life scenario. Similarly, we will be visiting our health care facilities and offering the anointing to the Catholic residents there as well. Read more.

The announcement last week of the introduction of a 5:00 p.m. Mass on Sunday sparked some positive reactions and interest, and for that I am grateful. Please keep this in mind and share it with your neighbors and friends. Hopefully we will be able to utilize this as an opportunity to continue our efforts at evangelization here in the Bay Shore. Read more.