DIOCESE OF TOLEDO

Our annual Principals’ Institute is fast approaching. We will gather once again at Sawmill Creek Lodge in Huron next Thursday morning, October 25. There will be a full agenda for our 1 ½ day Institute: Our new Director of the Office of Evangelization and Catechesis, Mr. David McCutchen, will join us. We will have various presentations on evangelization, educational technology, school safety, school marketing, etc. Our staff will have a number of “administrative updates” for you. This is also the occasion when we present the “John A. Thomas Leadership Award” to one of our excellent principals.

As always, we will celebrate Mass together. Fr. Jeff Sikorski, pastor at Huron, St. Peter, will be the presider. In addition to all this, we will provide time to introduce and welcome our newest Principals and to “network” with one another at social time and dinner.

It will be very important for you to bring your school’s copy of the “Toledo Diocesan Safety Plan”. (Bring a printed copy.) Also, bring a printed copy of your school’s “Classroom Emergency Checklist”. We will be using both.

Coincidentally, the Diocese of Youngstown is also holding their annual principals’ meeting at Sawmill Creek next Thursday and Friday. Fortunately, the facility is large enough to accommodate both of our groups! (The Youngstown group will number about 50.) So, if you see new faces, be welcoming, they may be fellow Catholic administrators.

About 50 presenters from the OCEA convention have made their handouts available on the Web. Please note, the web address is case-sensitive. The term "ocea" must be in lower case in order to access the handouts. For the handouts, go to:

Carolyn M. Jurkowitz has been named executive director of the Catholic Conference of Ohio (CCO), effective December 1, Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk of Cincinnati, announced Thursday, October 18.

The Archbishop chairs the Board of the Directors of the Catholic Conference. The Catholic Conference represents the Roman Catholic Church in public policy matters affecting the Church and the general welfare of the citizens of Ohio.

Carolyn Jurkowitz succeeds Timothy V. Luckhaupt, who will retire at the end of December after more than twenty-nine years at the CCO, the last nineteen as executive director.

A reminder: Lourdes College in Sylvania is sponsoring a “Mini-Earth Expo” on Saturday, October 27 to highlight what businesses, schools, and other organizations are doing to address concerns that affect our air, water, and soil quality. Schools were asked to participate by setting up exhibits showing school/class efforts to conserve natural resources.

This information was originally in the August 31 Principals’ Bulletin. Schools received a flyer earlier and participation details in the regular mail. There are still openings for student exhibits. For more information call Sr. Ann Francis at 419-824-9721

The Terrific Teen Project is an opportunity for high school students to earn college credits while studying teen life over the past 100 years and create an original display of their findings. An informational session will be held for counselors, interested teachers, and youth group advisors on The Terrific Teens Project at Owens Community College on Thursday, October 25^th at 4:00 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center in the Main Stage Auditorium. A flyer is attached to this bulletin. During this informational session the details of the project will be explained, questions answered, as well as an opportunity to review the curriculum. Attendees will also have an opportunity to tour the Performing Arts Center. The application deadline to enroll in the Terrific Teen Project is November 30, 2007. For more information or to RSVP, contact, Kathy S. Schnapp BSSW, LSW, OCPSII, Project Manager at The Community Partnership via email at: kathy@communityprevention.org or by phone at: 419.866.3611 x.106.

If you have not registered your teacher for the Praxis III Entry Year Program, please do so via the “Educator Profile”. This paperwork, along with the educator’s two-year license and copy of the contract, must be sent to Vicki Fitts at the CYSS office. The educator must also attend an Entry Year Orientation. The dates are available on the CYSS website.

A make-up session for the Entry Year Orientation has been scheduled for Tuesday, October 23, 2007, at 4:30 p.m. at the Auglaize County ESC in Wapakoneta. This will be the last orientation session in the Lima area. For registration, contact Barbara Meyers, regional coordinator, 419-423-2254.

The Ohio Department of Education will no longer accept outdated applications from educators. The most current applications will be available at the Diocesan Professional Development update meetings October 2 and 16, or they can be downloaded and photocopied from the ODE link below.

TEACHERS STILL NEEDED FOR SCORING WRITING COMPETENCY TESTS:

Two years ago principals agreed to provide Language Arts teachers to score the Writing Competency Tests.  Six thousand essays are starting to pour in and each one will be read twice. The number number of teacher scorers that we have so far are:

               Grade 4  (November 26)        5

               Grade 6  (November 27)        8

               Grade 8  (November 29)        3

Can you encourage one or more of your teachers to support this effort?

*Reminder:  Substitute teachers’ expense is deducted from the scoring bill and teachers receive .5 CEU’s. For more information and a sign-up sheet, go to: Writing Competency Scorers

Thank you for your patience in waiting to find out what to do with the TerraNova testing materials. It has now been determined that schools may dispose of these materials appropriately. If you wish to keep some copies of the tests for teacher use and reference, you may do so.

This form must be filed with the Ohio Department of Education every year immediately following the first full week of October and is due no later than October 31^st. This form must be completed hard copy, notarized by a Notary Public, and mailed to ODE. Do not send a copy to CYSS. To access this form, click on the link below, then click on the Report of a Nonpublic School. The ODE address is located at the bottom of the second page. <http://www.cyss.org/forms/formsdue.html>

If your school received an ERate discount on your 2006 - 2007 school year invoice, please ignore the first part of this email regarding the Form 472. You are not required to complete Form 472.

Form 472 (reimbursement form) must be postmarked or received no later than 120 days after the last date to receive service (2006 - 2007 deadline = 10/29/07) or no later than 120 days after the date of the Form 486 Notification Letter, whichever is later.

Form 486 must be postmarked or received no later than 120 days from the first day of service July 1, 2007) for year 2007-08 or no later than 120 days after the date of the Funding Commitment Decision Letter, whichever is later.

We extend our sympathy to Sr. Marie Christine Cervi, SND, assistant principal at Notre Dame Junior Academy on the death of her father.