Dear Parent,

Happy New Year! I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of our families a year filled with many blessings. I pray for all of you daily and will continue to ask God to watch over you in 2025.

This Sunday, January 26, we begin our annual observance of Catholic Schools Week. The national theme is “United in Faith and Community: Faith.  Excellence. Service.” I feel that St. Vincent de Paul School provides a very strong faith-based education and an excellent academic education for our students.

One area I would like to recognize is service. As a child I did not understand why my parents were always involved with so many volunteer activities. My lack of understanding might have been a result of their children accompanying them on many of these events when we had our own plans in mind!

Now as an adult I am so grateful for their example. What I learned from my parents was that service comes in many forms. Service can be an event or it can be a silent support of others. It is an selfless response to whoever was in need or whatever needed to be done. I now see and understand that the hallmark of Christian living is service.

A special thank you to our parents for your unselfish modeling of service to your children. Never underestimate the power and impact your examples have on your children. Everything you do and all that you give is a constant reminder that service is a lifelong activity. Your modeling allows children to witness love in action. Thank you for being such wonderful role models!

Thank you also to the teachers and staff for their dedication and service to the students and families. Daily they respond to the needs of the children entrusted to their care. What motivates them is they want what is best for children and will do what needs to be done to make that happen. Their motivation comes from their love for the students.

Thank you to our students for your willingness to be of service to one another. Throughout the day I observe the large and small acts of service you provide to the teachers, students, and the school. From your simple acts of holding doors, helping someone that has dropped a book, or setting up for activities you continue to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. 

So, as we begin Catholic School’s Week, I want to thank our parents, staff, and students for their support and dedication that allows us to provide the spiritual values and academic excellence that makes St. Vincent de Paul School such a wonderful school. As principal I am filled with pride and gratitude and look forward to the future with excitement and anticipation of what we can accomplish together.

May we all continue to follow the words of St. Francis of Assisi, “It is in giving that we receive,” in 2025!

Dr. Barbara Marchese
Principal

Faith. Excellence. Service.

Catholic Schools Week 2025 At-A-Glance

January 25 – January 31, 2025

Before CSW:  Please sign up by January 23 here if your child in grades 4-8 wants to help serve at the pancake breakfast on Sunday, January 26.

The pizza lunch order form will be sent January 6. Please submit (even if not ordering)  by Wednesday, January 15. Orders will be accepted through Friday January 17.

Friday, January 24

In anticipation of CSW and to raise money for our sister school in Guatemala, there will be a special “$1.00 Dress Down” Day today. Students may bring $1.00 (or more) for the students in San Ildefonso. Clothing should follow the guidelines for dress-down days. Students may wear their school uniform if they choose not to participate.

 Saturday, January 25 - Sunday, January 26 - CELEBRATE OUR PARISH
· Students are asked to wear their school uniforms to Mass this weekend.
        ·Show your school pride and gratitude to all our parishioners.

· Attend the Knights of Columbus pancake breakfast Sunday morning (and see a special video collage created by teachers!).

· The Awesome Angels children’s choir will sing at the 9:00 A.M. Mass.

Monday, January 27 - CELEBRATE OUR STUDENTS    
· Please send a rosary with your K-8 child(ren).  All teachers, staff, and students in K-8 will gather in the church to pray together.
· Jersey Day! Wear a jersey or other team attire. Students may dress down on the bottom (following dress-down guidelines). Students may not wear an official SVdP team jersey.
· Grade 4-8 will attend the school spelling bee.

Tuesday, January 28 - CELEBRATE OUR COMMUNITY     
· All-School Mass at 8:15 A.M.
· To prepare for our parish community's SPREE 2025, it's SPREEHAW dress down. Students may wear western apparel or a  SPREE T-shirt from previous years.
· Buddy Activity: Students will join with their buddies to assemble toiletry packages for those in need in the Omaha Community.

Wednesday, January 29 - CELEBRATE OUR NATION
· PIZZA LUNCH! All parents are welcome to join us. Orders due Wednesday, January 15.

 Patriotic Dress-down! Wear our school colors of Red, White, and Blue. Students may dress down on the bottom (following dress-down guidelines).

· Patriotic door decoration competition and all-school Pledge of Allegiance.              

Thursday, January 30 -  CELEBRATE VOCATIONS  
· Grade 8 students will join other eighth graders from the city as Archbishop Lucas celebrates CSW Mass at St. Cecilia’s.

· Special prayer for vocations during each lunch period.

· Dress down day - "Dress like your favorite decade" - 1880s, 1950s, 60s, etc.

· "Decade interruptions" - It's a surprise!  

Friday, January 31 - CELEBRATE FACULTY, STAFF, AND VOLUNTEERS

· 12:00 dismissal

· Crazy hair and pajama day!

· Students will watch a movie with their class.

· Students will gather in the gym for a friendly volleyball competition. 

Throughout the week: 

· Prayer buddies

· Grade-level classrooms will compete against each other in fun competitions (grade levels will do these on different days, due to space availability).

· Our school service project for the week will focus on praying for the students and staff at our sister school, San Ildefonso, in Huejuetenango, Guatemala, and assembling toiletry packages for those in need in the Omaha area.

2025-2026 Registration for grades 1-8

Registration begins February 10th. There are 2 steps to register your child for the 2025- 2026 school year:

First, log on to your Parent PowerSchool account, and then update your child’s Ecollect registration forms. **Now is a good time to make sure you can log into your Parent PowerSchool account**

All families will receive an email from FACTS on February 20th. Pay the registration fee of $500.00 per child and sign up for the 2025-2026 tuition payment plan.

If this causes a hardship for your family, please contact Dr. Marchese at marcheseb@svdpomaha.org to make payment arrangements.

All forms are due on March 3rd.
If you have questions, please contact
Ray Bentzen, bentzenr@svdpomaha.org, for PowerSchool questions;

Courtney Eden, edenc@svdpomaha.org, for general questions
about the registration process; and
Angela Garrett, garretta@svdpomaha.org, for questions about FACTS.

Progress Reports

Progress Reports will be sent home with students in grades K-2 on February 3, 2025. Hard copies of Progress Reports will not be sent home for students in grades 3-8. Teachers in 3-8 will have grades updated in PowerSchool by February 3.

Optional Parent/Teacher Conferences

Optional Conferences for grades P-8 will be held on Thursday, February 13, from 1-6:30 P.M. Conference times for all teachers will be by appointment only.

Teacher request forms/emails for conferences will be sent on Monday, February 3. Online sign up forms for conference times will be available on February 4 (links provided via an Emma mailing on that date). Time slots that are available will have a “Sign Up” button; times that are unavailable will be labeled “Full.”

Teacher break times during conferences:

3:30-4:00 P.M. - Grades P-3, Mrs. Nigrin, Mrs. Sullivan, Mrs. Fosbender, Ms. Bousquet, Mrs. Kaiser, Mr. Pflaum, Mrs. LeMense, Mrs. Price, Mrs. Warneke, and Ms. Campbell.

4:00-4:30 P.M. - Grades 4-6, Mr. Leever, Mr. Polacek, Ms, Kolberg, Mr. Boone, Mrs. Kuhr, Mrs. Singh, Mrs. Skudlarek, Mrs. Heavey, Mrs. Miller, and Mrs. McDermott.

There will be no school on February 14 and 17. Teachers will have an inservice and workday on February 17. 

Get Your Pictures in the Yearbook!

The yearbook staff invites students and parents to submit photos for the yearbook. If you have great photos of school events, we'd like to see them. Help us get as many photos as possible to create a terrific book everyone will want to have.   

If you'd like to share your pictures with our yearbook staff, click here to view instructions.  

Thank you in advance for helping make our yearbook the best it can be!