Holy Thursday:  All students are asked to bring one can/box of food by Thursday, April 1, 2010, as part of our offering to the St. Vincent de Paul Food Bank at St. Bridget Parish.  These gifts will be an integral part of our Holy Thursday prayer services in the Villa Chapel at 9:30am and 10:25am on April 1, 2010.  Lower School students may bring food to their homerooms and Middle School students may bring offerings to their advisory, any time before April 1.

During Lent we focus on prayer, personal sacrifice and service to others. Our simple meal will draw the students’ attention to those less fortunate among us. View the March menu for details of what will be included in the meal. One dollar for each meal purchased will be donated to Catholic Relief Services, Operation Rice Bowl. Click here for details about Operation Rice Bowl. Students will be served only once; there will be  no second helpings served on Wednesday, in keeping with our theme.  We will begin each meal in the lunchroom with a special prayer.

Spring is on the way and so is the first Villa Academy Ultimate game.  Thanks to Roger Crafts, a Fall 2009 addition to the Middle School faculty, Ultimate Frisbee has returned to campus. Practice is already underway and the season kicks off this Friday, March 19^th at Magnuson Park.

The object of the game is to score points by passing to a teammate in the opposing end zone, as in Rugby or Football.  Players throw a disc rather than a ball, and, like Basketball, players may not run while holding the disc.

An 8^th grade group first approached Mr. Crafts with the idea of revitalizing an Ultimate team.  Many of these students had played in 4^th or 5^th grade and wanted to see the team revived.  Mr. Crafts was the right person to ask!

In his short time at Villa, Mr. Crafts has already fostered a spirit of student-led initiatives as the advisor of Villa’s “Green Team”.  He brings the same spirit, along with an impressive athletic background, to the new Ultimate team.

Mr. Crafts competed on a nationally ranked Ultimate team at Carleton College. Since college, he has won three Club National Championships with the Seattle Sockeye men’s team and played in two World Tournaments. Although he says he has retired from competitive play, Mr. Craft now coaches and is the co-director of the DiscNorthwest Seattle Youth Ultimate Camps.

He was pleased with the students’ suggestion of starting an Ultimate team and admits, “I was planning to create a program next year, but they beat me to it.”

Mr. Crafts believes that “Ultimate is an ideal sport for middle school students . . . the self-officiated nature [of the game] goes way beyond typical sports in teaching teamwork, respect, and sportsmanship.”

This seems to be true. Already, students have taken the reigns on a project to design their own team t-shirts. Noah C. ‘10 designed the team logo and Jack T. ‘10 illustrated the final drawing.

Villa has two teams this year – one 7^th / 8^th grade team and one 6^th grade team. An overlap with the volleyball schedule made recruiting enough girls for a separate team difficult. So this year both teams are co-ed.

Support your school and its budding Ultimate team at their upcoming games.

Click here for the schedule.

Attention Grade 5 Parents: You are cordially invited to join me for a presentation on what to expect from your child as s/he moves along the bumpy road to young adulthood. You will hear about the developmental characteristics of the middle school student as well as how the wonderful teachers in Villa’s middle school help students manage and succeed through the turbulent Wonder Years. Please plan to attend one of the sessions listed below.

WHAT: JUST WHAT IS A MIDDLE SCHOOLER, ANYWAY?

WHEN: Wednesday, April 21, 6:30pm or
Thursday, April 22, 8:40am

WHERE: Villa Academy Parlor

Spring Book Fair:  March 22 – March 26

8:20am – 3:30pm Monday, Tuesday, Thursday

8:20am – 2:15pm Wednesday and 8:20am – 12:00pm Friday

The Spring Book Fair is in the Rainbow Theater March 22nd through March 26th and is open during regular student hours and closes at noon on Friday. Please see the class schedule below. This event is a fundraiser for our library so please take advantage of this opportunity to purchase wonderful books, encourage reading, and support the Villa Library. Please make checks payable to “Secret Garden.”

On March 26th the seventh grade will be going to the Museum of Flight to participate in a Challenger Mission to the Moon. Students will spend half of the day touring the Museum of Flight, and the other half on the Challenger Mission to the Moon.

Preparations will begin a week prior to mission day. Students will work on activities designed to prepare them for their moon exploration including the development of a “Mission Patch” that will be worn in space.

Villa’s budding astronauts will return to the Moon for the first time since 1972 to gather information relevant to the selection of a site for the new moon base.  This very realistic simulation will allow students to experience the actual tasks and activities of a real space expedition. Students work collaboratively in teams, from space and from the mission control center, to conduct experiments and successfully choose a location for the new base.

Occasionally, unpleasant aspects of our students’ social lives are brought to my attention. Recently, I have seen a string of missives among our students and their friends from a new social networking site called “Buzz” that works through Gmail. While it is not surprising to find inappropriate language and topics bandied about on these sites, every once in a while a topic is raised to which we should pay close attention.

One such topic appeared in the string I have seen recently. A young person—unknown to me and NOT a Villa student—mentioned suicide as a result of feeling very bad. The responses from our students and others were very heartfelt, positive, and supportive of the young person. That is good news. It seem our students know that suicide is a serious topic and are kind in response to those who mention it.

Nevertheless, a conversation with your child about the topic generally and how to respond to feelings of hopelessness and depression in themselves or others may be in order.  It may also help to discuss with your students who they can go to if someone they know expresses feelings of hopeless or depression.

Middle school is often the first time when deep feelings assert themselves in a student’s life; talking with your youngsters, before it is an issue, can help them and their friends manage their feelings better and potentially avert a serious situation.

Thank you very much for your attention and support.

Pat Preib

Lunch Details for Friday, March 5.

Due to Villa Gala Auction Set Up this Friday, March 5, there will be no hot lunch served. We are recommending you pack a lunch for your child on Friday. If you want a Villa Box Lunch prepared for your child, Chef Don Bear needs your pre-order by Thursday, March 4 at 3:00pm. There are three meat-free choices for the day: Tuna Salad, Egg Salad or Sunbutter and Jelly sandwich. A drink, chips, fresh fruit, fresh vegetable and cookie are included in each box lunch.
Email: dbear@thevilla.org

Dear Villa Academy Families,

We are in the thick of the academic year finding ourselves fast at work on many levels.

• The “here and now” finds the students engaged in many varied learning endeavors as we wind our way to the conclusion of the second trimester on March 12.
• Our admission process is at its crescendo as we are in the midst of the re-enrollment process soon to move full throttle into the process of new student enrollment.
• The Auction efforts are moving forward with fantastic energy and our “Palm Beach Getaway” promises to be very well attended – already moving quickly to being “sold out.”  If you have not yet registered, please do so quickly!
• The eighth graders have already received admission decisions from the Catholic high schools and their success rate is most impressive, as you will learn as you read on.
• Planning has begun in earnest for the upcoming school year.  Please look for the 2010-2011 Calendar Highlights below.
• The Liturgical Year has moved into the season of Lent and Villa Academy’s teachers and students are focused on “growing” during the 6.5 weeks leading up to Easter.  The students are “growing” a more Christ-like habit, quality or behavior that will bring them closer to God.

Calendar Highlights: In determining the 2010-2011 school year calendar, we undertook some research with other schools in both the PNAIS and Archdiocese in light of the following:

• Another very late Labor Day holiday.  As is our practice, we will be opening school the day after Labor Day, on Tuesday, September 7, 2010.
• A very late Easter holiday on the last Sunday in April 2011.
• We decided to go with an 8-day Christmas vacation, beginning at noon on Tuesday, December 21-December 31, 2010 to provide flexibility in adding a couple of days of break in March 2011.
• We will be having two days of break on Thursday and Friday, March 17 & 18, 2011, because the Easter break is so late – the week of April 25-29, 2011.

Click HERE for the Calendar Highlights.

Congratulations to the Villa Academy Graduating Class of 2010 (Part 1)

We are exceedingly proud of our eighth graders who have recently heard from the Catholic high schools regarding their admission status.  The news is fantastic and our students have distinguished themselves admirably.  Way to go!

The Pacific Northwest Association of Independent Schools (PNAIS) will be releasing their high school admission decisions on March 18, 2010.  I will update you once we have those results.

God Bless,

Polly Skinner

Head of School

Villa Academy is pleased to be able to offer to our parents online optional spring conference registration. The following instructions should help get you through the system.

Logging in
Conference sign-up will open on February 15th and end on March 12th.
Using your web browser (ie: Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari) go to the address:

http://www.teeso.com/villa/

Enter the username and password that will be sent to you separately by the school and click “Log me in”. If you have forgotten your password you can have it sent to the email address on record. If your email address has changed, please contact the school with an updated address.

Selecting time slots
Once you are logged in, click “Villa Conferences” in the left hand navigation space to access the scheduling page. This page shows you your current conference schedule and the teachers and times for this conference series.

Click the name of a teacher to view his or her available time slots. If you have more than one student, change students with the drop down menu and that student’s teachers will appear.

To schedule a time, click the word “Available” next to the desired time. To unschedule a time, click the Parent name next to the time and you will have the option to release the time slot.

As you add times, your schedule will update at the top of the screen.

For a printer friendly version of your conference schedule, click on “View/Print your family Schedule” link at the top of the screen.

That’s it! You’re scheduled!

If you have any problems, please contact us at help@thevilla.org