St. Lawrence O’Toole School

Dear Parents,

May has been a very busy month at school. We celebrated the First Communion of our Second graders. The weather was perfect and the students were so enthusiastic to receive the Body of Christ for the first time. The following Monday, our Eighth Grade Confirmation Class and the Second Graders led the entire school in a long established tradition at St. Lawrence. The May Crowning was held to honor the Blessed Mother for Her role as our Mother and Intercessor with Her Son, Jesus. Both classes wore their sacrament attire. The May Crowning was attended by many parishioners and school families.

The very same week, our Home School Association hosted a luncheon to thank our teachers and staff for their dedication to the students of St. Lawrence School. I want to thank all the volunteers that manned the classrooms, the cafeteria, and play yard and all of you parents for the gift certificates and delicious luncheon. The week closed with our annual school wide celebration. This year the celebration centered on Colonial Life. The students had a great time dressing in colonial garb and sharing in the craft activities. The Brewster Museum delighted all of us with a presentation on Colonial life and toys.

The day ended with cookies and juice and a sharing time for all the grades. The students were able to display their handmade stationery, their embroidery and quilting pieces, the cornhusk dolls, tin punch patterns, colonial tops, potpourri sachets, marbleized paper, weathervanes, battledores (early primers), and clothespin dolls, etc.. Our District Superintendent, Phil Gorrasi, who was able to join us for the morning, congratulated all the students and volunteers on their enthusiasm and promised to return for next year’s celebration.

Our School Band treated us all to a concert in the Library. Their performance was wonderful. It has been exciting to watch them develop their skills over the year, and years for some of our more advanced musicians. In fact, a number of our musicians were invited to play in the Regional Honor Band Concert at Kennedy Catholic! I congratulate Dominic Cuccia and Catherine Cavallo for their dedication to our Band members. A special thanks to the “Band Moms” for all their help, too.

The first few weeks of the month also included the New York State Science exams for grade four. The Fifth and Sixth Graders traveled to Albany to tour the State capital and met with Senator Vinnie Leibell.

Our ITBS results have arrived and congratulations are in order. Our students did very well. On the average all classes increased in their average annual growth by almost two years over last year’s scores! The results were sent home last week.

As Memorial Day passes, I want to thank our Sixth Graders and Mrs. Boerner for joining with the Veterans of Foreign War to place American flags on the graves of Veterans buried in St. Lawrence O’Toole Cemetery. As a school community, we wish to express our gratitude to those who served and are serving in the military to secure our liberty.

Please note that for next year the new school uniform is implemented. Boys and girls navy dress pants and white golf shirts may be purchased through Flynn O’Hara or Lands End. The use of only two distributors will give our uniform a standard appearance.

Thanks for your support!

God bless,

Mrs. O’Leary