Dear Parents,

Christmas is in the air!  Fun and joyfulness are alive and well at SMA!  Christmas clothes, Christmas program recording, and pajama day on Friday!  We are so blessed that our students are on campus and that we can all celebrate this wonderful time of year.  The promise fulfilled by the birth of the Savior in a manger is reason to pause and take time to thank God for all He has given to us.  We must also spread this joy through our daily actions this Christmas season and throughout the entire year.  Small acts of kindness go a long way. Many thanks for your generosity with our Christmas “Angel/Giving Tree” outreach project.  We collected $1,000 in cash and grocery gift cards for Fr. Joe’s Village and $800 in cash and grocery gift cards for Doors For Change.  Thank you for helping to make it a brighter Christmas for those who are less fortunate than ourselves.

Amid all of this joy, I unfortunately, must share the news that Mrs. Jones, our 8^th grade homeroom/Middle School Science teacher will be moving to Colorado over the Christmas break.  She will be missed terribly.  Her caring attitude and love for her students and for teaching has been such a gift to SMA.  We wish her well on this new venture.  Upon our return on January 5, we will welcome Miss Megan Hughes to SMA as our new teacher.  She comes to us with the highest of recommendations from her experience at Valhalla High School.  Miss Hughes is a graduate of San Diego State University and Point Loma Nazarene University.  She has earned multiple subject credentials in General and Bio/Life Sciences with relevant coursework in Physics, Biology and Kinesiology.  Miss Hughes has also expressed interest in beginning an after school cross country team.  I am confident that she will be a wonderful addition to our SMA family.  Please join me in a grateful farewell to our Mrs. Jones and a warm welcome to Miss Hughes.

Thank you, in advance, to those families that will travel out of state over the Christmas break.  We ask you to follow the state and county guidelines and quarantine for 10 days prior to returning to school.

In closing, on behalf of the entire faculty and staff of Stella Maris Academy, I would like to wish you and your families a joyful and blessed Christmas.  May 2021 bring us health and restore peace to our country. 

With Blessings and Much Love,

Francie Moss

Advent Greetings,

What a wonderful time of the year!  I pray that we can all see through the stress and uncertainty of these times and be thankful for the ultimate gift of the Son of God that we have been blessed with.  We should rejoice in the good health of our school and parish communities and continued good health of our families.  Nothing can take the joy of the Christmas season away from us!  So worship…decorate…bake…hug your children…and let your faith in the child Jesus handle the rest!

Please note that we have included public health recommendations for the Christmas break below this message.  We are asking, as we did at Thanksgiving, that any families that travel out of state follow a 10-day quarantine before returning to school.  Additionally, if you celebrate with family members that exhibit any cold or flu type symptoms over the holiday, we encourage you to get a Covid test before returning to school.   I want to thank our families that were responsible over the Thanksgiving break by self-quarantining before returning to school.  We are blessed to be on campus and much of this is due to all of us working together with the understanding that our personal actions can affect the entire school community. 

Please feel free to follow additional links embedded in the public health documents below for further information.

Blessings,

Francie Moss

Click here for Letter in Spanish

If you and your family will be traveling during the holidays, please read guidelines below.

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Click here for Spanish

Dear Parents,

Many thanks to those of you that attended our “Coffee with the Principal” Zoom meeting last night.  During these uncertain times, communication, compassion and the spirit of working together is more important than ever before.  I remain vigilant in keeping your children and our staff safe as we continue on this ever-changing journey of implementing safety protocols, providing rigorous academic opportunities and modeling our Catholic values.  I encourage you to continue to reach out to me with concerns, recommendations and affirmations of how we are doing. I will definitely pass any kind words on to our teachers.  Please know that a kind word goes a very long way.  Our teachers put in countless hours and we all realize the stress our school families are experiencing as well.  Relying on our faith in God and the support of one another, will get us through this and we will be stronger for it!  A million thanks for your continued patience and support!

Blessings,

Francie Moss

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Hello everyone,

Although we are sad that we are unable to have an in-person book fair this year, we have decided to host an online book fair for the next two weeks.

Please check out the site:

https://www.scholastic.com/bf/stellamarisacademy1

Please know that 25% of your purchases come back to the school in Scholastic Rewards and you can earn free shipping on orders more than $25.

Thanks for taking the time to help our school!

Dear Parents,

As we reach the midway point of another week, we continue to see your children growing in enthusiasm and enjoying their time at school with teachers that truly care for them and work hard each day to promote a rich academic environment where your children can grow and experience academic success.

 I hope these weekly newsletter messages and my weekly videos have been helpful to you by keeping you up-to-date on new protocols or just providing clarification on existing regulations.  It is understandable that you may continue to have questions, especially if you are new to our wonderful school.  Therefore, I will be hosting a Zoom, “Coffee with the Principal” meeting on Tuesday, October 6 from 5:30-6:30 P.M.  I encourage you to email me any topics that you would like covered so I can be prepared and respectful of your time.  As always, my door is always open to meet with you in person if that is your preference.  Communication is the key to a positive, productive home/school relationship.  I remain committed to serving all of our school families through listening, action, and prayer.  We are blessed to be together in this very special place. 

Blessings,

Francie Moss

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Dear Parents,

As we approach the second half of this second full week of in-person learning, thankfully, many things are beginning to fall into place. The children are smiling, laughing, and seem to be genuinely happy. This makes all of our hard work over the summer months well worth the effort.

There were some concerns and suggestions regarding drop-off and pick-up procedures that were shared with me following my Friday video message. I would like to thank those of you that reached out to me in the spirit of working together to find a solution. I want to let you know that I have been monitoring the before and after school carlines this week. So far, they seem to be going fairly well, with a couple hiccups. There has not been any back up on to Torrey Pines Road. This is a good sign. A couple recommendations would definitely help with the traffic flow to the senior yard alley…

1. Please do not make a left turn into the alley from Kline. Waiting to get in the line this way can quickly back up traffic. Instead, please make a right on Torrey Pines and then right on Herschel then proceed to Kline.

2. I have noticed that the final 5 minutes of drop-off and pick-up are fairly light traffic times. If you can schedule dropping off a bit closer to those times, it may help as well.

I will continue to monitor the traffic for the reminder of the week and revisit this in my Friday video message. I am also exploring the possibility of requesting that the entire curb in front of the senior yard be marked as a loading zone just as the junior yard is marked. The parking regulations have not been enforced recently due to the pandemic. I have heard that enforcement will start up again on October 1. This should clear the curb for pick-up in the junior yard.

I attended a Zoom meeting with the San Diego County Office of Education this morning. The protocols have remained relatively unchanged. One change is that if a student has any symptoms that could possibly be related to COVID and they do not see a doctor or get a COVID test, they are now obligated to remain home for 10 days, instead of 14 days after the symptoms have been resolved. We’ll take it!

As always, a million thanks to our amazing teachers, rock star students, and over-the-top supportive parents! We are so blessed to have this wonderful school and each other!

Autumn Blessings,

Francie Moss

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