Dear Heavenly Father, As we celebrate the joyous resurrection of your only Son, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, we praise you and thank you. We thank you for the awesome gift of your Son who gave so freely and lovingly to en-sure our hope of salvation. We praise you for this bright light in our oftentimes dark world. We thank you for the gift of forgiveness and for sending your beloved Son to be our pathway into life everlasting. We praise you for the unconditional love you give us every day – especially on those days when we fall and stumble. We thank you for always being there to pick us up, drag us or carry us along the path-way to you and toward eternal life. We thank you for the gift of your grace – the gift of our faith. Without it we know we would be lost. We praise you for the gift of our seven sacraments where we most deeply feel your grace and amazing love for us. Help us to always fully experience the depth of your love every time we celebrate each beautiful sacrament you’ve given us. We thank you for each moment you give us here on earth and pray we use these pre-cious moments to draw closer to you; to do your will. With this bright new day as we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, let it be also a resurrection for us - a new beginning to our own life in Christ. We pray in the name of your beloved Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Newsletter Date: April 1, 2015 Volume 8, Issue 8.

St. Pius X Newsletter April 2015

St. Pius X Catholic School 71 Jane Street

Toronto, ON, M6S 3V3 Phone: 416-393-5237

Fax: 416-397-6084

Principal: L. Sposato

Vice-Principal:

A. Iwasykiw

Secretary: S. Pereira

Clerk Typist:

O. Bono

Superintendent: Dr. J. Saraco, 416-222-8282

Trustee:

Barbara Poplawski, 416-512-3410

Parish:

St. Pius X Catholic Church 2305 Bloor St. W.

416-767-1859 Fr. MK Park

Masses:

Saturday 5:00 pm Sunday 9:00 am

11:00 am

Entrance and Dismissal:

9:00 am Entry 10:42 am Recess

11:45 am Lunch Hour 12:45 pm Entry 2:10 pm Recess

3:30 pm Dismissal

He is Risen... Alleluia, Alleluia

Dear Parent(s)/Guardian(s),

The joy of the Resurrection and our baptismal promis-es, made or renewed during Easter, shape every mo-ment of our future in this life and in our next. Let us keep the joy of Easter in our hearts and in our spirits throughout the Easter sea-son.

As we start the month of April, hard as it is to believe, we are working our way to

year’s end, and look to your continued support in assist-ing us in helping your child achieve a strong finish to her/his school year.

To this end we ask that you please review the following with your children:

1) Being responsible, meaning always proper-ly prepared for class – homework completed to teacher expectations; pens, pencils, agendas,

etc., at school – nothing forgotten.

2) Being a true Christian – “The Golden Rule” – Treat others the way you want to be treated; such a simple rule, but so difficult to follow at times.

3) Being polite and well-mannered.

Let us continue working together towards our com-mon goal – the spiritual, academic and social growth of your child. Sincerely, L. Sposato Principal

4) Being a good role model for all.

5) Showing day in and day out why we have a sep-arate Catholic system; we are a system with a

difference ! Parents, you are doing a wonderful job raising your children and this certainly makes our job easier.

Safety Reminders

With the advent of more temperate weather, our students are reminded that skate-boards, ripstik, and/or scooters are to be picked up once having arrived at school. Also, only use of soft “foam” balls or equip-ment from our recess kits are allowed during

recess play.

From the Office

“Let justice

flow like a

stream, and

righteousness

like a river

that never

goes dry.”

Amos 5:24

Page 2 St. Pius X Newsletter

Catholic Education Week: May 3 - 8, 2015

Catholic schools are Catholic communities. Catholic schools are faith communities. We – parents, students, teachers, administrative and support staff – walk and grow together in the faith which we received at our Baptism. And it is the ‘together’ that we grow. Our growth is primarily a relationship with God, who at our Baptism, called us by name. But the response of each of us to that growth is both per-sonal and communal. We grow in our faith in the nurturing at-

mosphere of our Catholic com-munity be that of our local par-ish, our home, or our Catholic

school community. Our school community will cele-brate Catholic Education Week 2015 in ways that are appropri-ate to our students’ age. We invite you to participate in one or other of these activities as your personal time and work sched-

ule may permit. There are five sub-themes for each day of Catholic Education

Week: Monday: Walking Together Tuesday: Opening the Scrip-

tures

Wednesday: Welcoming Others

to the Table Thursday: Recognizing Jesus in

the Breaking of the Bread Friday: Proclaiming the Good

News Every year, the Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association (OCSTA) provides our Catholic schools with a resource kit to help schools prepare for Catho-lic Education Week. Using these resources as well as our own developed activities we have prepared a series of activities which will highlight how our school is ‘Serving in the Love of

Christ’.

World Autism Aware-ness Day - April 2, 2015

The TCDSB is once again recognizing April 2nd, as World Autism Awareness Day. This day aims to increase people's aware-ness about individuals, especially children, with

autism. In honour of this year’s celebration of World Au-tism Awareness Day, the Autism Programs and Ser-vices Department is plan-

ning a number of events, including wearing BLUE for the day in support of children and families living with Autism. Community is a key component to being a member of the TCDSB. Our students with an Autism Spectrum Disorder benefit from this community in our schools

daily. On April 2nd, St. Pius will participate in the “Light it Up Blue” event in honour of World Autism Aware-

ness Day. The St. Pius X staff and students are asked to

wear a BRIGHT BLUE T-shirt or sweater to school to show their sup-port for all people affected by autism, especially those in our school com-

munity. Autism is a general term used to describe a group of complex developmental brain disorders, autism spectrum disorders,

caused by a combination

class, and has bravely bat-tled both Neuroblastoma and MDS since the age of 4 years old. After receiving treatment at St Jude’s Hos-pital in Memphis, she is now

on the road to recovery. During her many treatments,

Maya has attended Camp

Oochigeas, a great place to

allow kids with cancer to just

be kids and have fun.

St. Pius X Team Maya Kim

will once again collectively

St. Pius X Running Club Team MAYA

After a successful first year entry, participating and run-ning at the Sporting Life 10k Event, St Pius X Catholic School will once again be organizing a team , St. Pius X Team Maya, to participate run/walk in the Sporting Life 10k on May 10th, 2015, in support of Camp Oochigeas and our student, Maya Kim. Maya Kim is presently in grade 3 in Mrs. Miaco’s

raise money and run/walk

together in support of this

cause. If you are interested

in joining our team, please

see the information for reg-

istration and fundraising

activities on the CSAC web-

site, www.spxcsac.com

and through St. Pius Room

Parent distribution.

With thanks,

Arbelle Manicat-Emo and

Linda Acton

autism has increased by approximately 78% in the last seven years. By way of comparison, this is more children than are affected by diabetes, AIDS, cancer, cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, mus-cular dystrophy or Down

syndrome, combined. For more information about autism and the LIGHT IT UP BLUE initiative, check out

the links below: http://www.autismspeaks.ca http://www.liub.autismspeaks.org

of genes and environmen-

tal influences. These disorders are char-acterized, in varying de-grees, by social and be-havioral challenges, as well as repetitive behav-

iors. Current statistics estimate that 1 in 88 children have been diagnosed with au-tism spectrum disorder (ASD), with 1 out of 54 boys affected and 1 in 252 girls. The prevalence of

“The

contributions

of Parent

Volunteers

enrich the life

of our school

and students.”

Page 3 Volume 8, Issue 8.

Lenten Shoe Box Drive

The Lenten Shoe Box Drive, is quickly coming to the end of yet another successful year. Students and their

families are asked to fill an empty shoe box with items for needy children in devel-oping countries. It’s our

chance to Give a Box –

Share a Smile! Here’s how… 1. Find an empty standard-

size shoebox & decorate it! 2. Decide on age and gen-der of the recipient (e.g., boy or girl 4-14 yrs., or 10-12

yrs. or 4-6 yrs. You choose. 3. Fill the box with items using the list of suggested items below as a guide, and put an elastic around the

shoe box to keep it closed. 4. Tape a label to the top of the box indicating the age and gender of the recipient

child. 5. Bring the shoe box to school anytime before

Thursday April 2nd, 2015. Suggested Items (e.g., Loot

Bag items) may include: ♦stuffed toys, small cars,

small dolls, spinning tops ♦bouncy balls, tennis balls

♦stickers ♦pencils, sharpeners, cray-

ons ♦note pads, stationary ♦toothbrushes and tooth-paste, mini shampoos,

soaps ♦hair accessories ♦baseball caps, socks ♦hard candy ♦deck of cards ♦sewing kits , beading kits Our volunteers will deliver the boxes to Canadian Food for Children – a wonderful, grass-roots organization dedicated to helping the

poor. Special thanks to all!

students, staff, parents,

and families. If you miss praying with your children on this day, we invite you to listen to the Radio Maria audio ar-chives by clicking on http://www.hmwn.net/the-rosary-in-our-schools-st-pius-x-tcdsb-feb-19-

2015/. HMWN Radio Maria is a non-profit corporation and a registered charity, ap-

HMWN Radio Maria: LIVE Rosary Broadcast Ms. Atkinson’s grade 8 students will participate in reciting the Holy Rosary on the INTERNET Catholic radio station, HMWN (Holy Mother World Networks) Radio Maria on April 30th,

2015. Our students will pray and dedicate the rosary to all those in need, especially for our school community,

proved by the Federal Government, whose princi-pal scope and mission is to broadcast religious pro-grams faithful to the teach-ings of the Catholic

Church. Reciting the Holy Rosary provides another oppor-tunity for our students to enrich their spiritual growth, commitment and

their faithfulness to God.

and Free the Children was born. This April 16th, we will honour Iqbal’s legacy by taking a silent stand together, and celebrating the power of unified action. Over the next week, announcements will be made by Me to We members to pro-vide information about this im-

portant initiative. As each class is unique, we are asking teachers to set an ap-propriate length of time and monetary goal for their class-room vow of silence. We will be tallying the totals at the end of the day on April 18th, 2015.

Please remember, no donation is too small. In addition, a gently Used Book Sale will take place on April 24, 2015. Again, we are asking for donations of gently used books for this sale. Lastly, we will be selling Rafiki bracelets all month long. The proceeds of all of these fund-raising activities will all be di-rected to our final goal of build-ing a school in our adopted

village in Haiti. Thank you for your continuous support of all our St. Pius X Me

to We initiatives! St. Pius Me to We Committee

St. Pius Me to We Initiatives

The St. Pius X Me to We Com-mittee will be very busy the

month of April! The St. Pius X Me to We Com-mittee will be leading this year’s Vow of Silence on April 16th, 2015. This vow will help our students, in a small way, under-stand the plight of children around the world that do not

have a voice. In 1995, the story of slain child labourer Iqbal Masih inspired 12 year old Craig Kielburger

Page 4 St. Pius X Newsletter

“Take action

against the

serious issues

of poverty in

our world.”

Junior Boys and Girls Volleyball Teams

On March 30, 2015, the Jun-ior Boys Volleyball team participated in an exhibition tournament . The boys had some wins and some loss-es, but managed to come in first place. More im-portantly, they had many great games and the day was a great learning expe-rience. The team members are: Davis, Elijah, Endre, Johnathan, Airen, Michael, Miles, Ian, Ricky and

Julian. A special thank you to Matthew P., and Simon D., the assistance coaches, who attended every practice and provided great leader-ship and encouragement.

Special thanks to Mr. Vale, the boys’ coach for dedicat-ing many hours to prac-ticees. The Boys Volleyball team looks forward to the big tournament in early April.

quality wigs and hair re-placements to financially disadvantaged children who have experienced

medical hair loss. Together with our school community, we will come together with the students, staff, parent volunteers, surprise guests, all those who have agreed to be a donor to participate and celebrate this cause as a school community. We

Great Scissors Event

On Monday, May 11th, 2015, St. Pius X will host its seventh “Great Scissor Event”. This event, the brainchild of Ms. Bannon, one of our educational assistants, invites mem-bers of our community to give 12”/30 cm of their hair to be donated to An-gel Hair for Kids (A Child’s Voice Foundation). This organization provides

kindly ask for your support by voluntarily donating a loonie or any amount you want to contribute, and/or by considering being a donor to have your hair cut, and help support this very worthy cause. Stay tuned for more information to follow in the next few

weeks. Thanking you in advance

for your generosity.

facing a strong team from St. James. In the end, thanks to some great team-work and a feisty attitude on the

court, St. Pius emerged vic-torious! Special thanks to the girls’ coaches, Mr. Cata-lano and Ms. Medeiros for

their dedication, time and encour-agement. The Girls’ Volleyball Team members are: Evelyn, Regan, Kendra, Eva, Grace, Kate, Molly, Caitlan, Emma,

and Madeleine.

On March 31st, 2015, the Junior Girls' Volleyball team played in an exhibition tour-nament at Our Lady Of Lourdes. The girls played against 5 other teams and were able to qualify to the knockout phase of the tourna-ment. The girls were able to battle their way to the finals where they were forced to play their absolute best vol-leyball of the season by

“Be kind to

one another,

tenderhearted,

forgiving one

another, as

God in Christ

has forgiven

you.”

Ephesians 4:32

Page 5 Volume 8, Issue 8.

respect the dignity of every human per-son. This dignity comes from being created in God’s im-age. Failing to respect human dignity, in-cluding failing to do justice, is a failure to respect the image of God in others. As in this month’s quote,

“Let justice flow like a stream, and right-eousness like a river that never goes dry.” Amos 5:24

April, with its cele-bration of Easter, has been assigned the virtue of

JUSTICE. At this time we celebrate the Resur-rection of Jesus who is the Just One who died for the sake of the unjust, that He might lead peo-ple back to God. But justice is also an important part of Catholic teaching beyond Christ’s Death and Resurrec-tion. The need to do justice comes from the obligation to

Virtue of the Month - April is Justice

St. Pius X Newsletter Volume 8, Issue 8: April 1, 2015

We’re on the web!

www.tcdsb.org

St. Pius X Catholic School 71 Jane Street

Toronto, ON, M6S 3V3 Phone: 416-393-5237

Fax: 416-397-6084

Upcoming Events

April 1, 15, 29, 2015 Lunch Lady

April 2, 2015 Holy Thursday Stations of

the Cross in GYM

April 3 & 6, 2015 Good Friday & Easter

Monday - NO School

April 7, 2015 Easter Mass @ St. Pius

Church in 9:30 am

April 7, 2015 Grade 8 & SK Gradua-

tion Photos in Gym

April 8 & 22, 2015 Pizza Day

April 17, 2015 Spirit Day !

April 24, 2015 Civvies Day!

April 22, 2015 Earth Day ! (Mammals Presenta-tion Grades 1-3)

Stay in Touch Follow us on Twitter, or subscribe to E-News. Visit our web-site www.tcdsb.org for more.

CSAC Website

Please visit the CSAC website

www.spxcsac.com for CSAC news and events, committee updates, vol-unteer opportunities and helpful resources for par-ents and students. Re-member to visit the CSAC eStore to order SPX logo’d navy & white apparel! Follow us on

Twitter @ SPXCSAC!

Stay in Touch To receive regular updates on news and events from the Board, including urgent information about school bus cancellations and school closures, subscribe

to E-News: https://web1.tcdsb.org/InterestSubscription/subscription.aspx or follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/TCDSB Visit our website frequently for news and information at www.tcdsb.org. Tune in for live webcasts

of monthly board and committee meetings at http://www.tcdsb.org/LiveAtTCDSB/Pages/

Default.aspx

TORONTO CATHOLIC DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD

TRUSTEES 2014-2015

Wards 1. Peter Jakovcic, 416-512-3401 2. Ann Andrachuk, 416-512-3402

Chair 3. Sal Piccininni, 416-512-3403

Vice-Chair 4. Patrizia Bottoni, 416-512-3404 5. Maria Rizzo, 416-512-3405 6. Frank D’Amico, 416-512-3406 7. John Del Grande, 416-512-3407 8. Garry Tanuan, 416-512-3408 9. Jo-Ann Davis, 416-512-3409 10. Barbara Poplawski,

416-512-3410 11. Angela Kennedy, 416-512-3411 12. Nancy Crawford, 416-512-3412 Hannah McGroarty, Student Trustee

Chris MacDonald, Student Trustee Student Trustee, 416-512-3413

Angela Gauthier, Director of Education 80 Sheppard Ave. E.,

Toronto, ON ∙ Website: www.tcdsb.org