ST. COLUMBA SHEPHERD
GUIDANCE FOR THE WEEK AHEAD
EACH
WEEK
THE ST. COLUMBA SHEPHERD
provides all the information you need to know and links to things that you might need to cross off your list. Stay organized by reading it every week and making sure that you add events and deadlines to your calendar!
LET'S DO IT!
DATES TO REMEMBER
11/6 - School Mass - Veterans Mass - 8th Grade Leading Liturgy - 8:15
11/7 - Prayer & Praise / 1st Quarter Excellence Assembly - 8:15
11/11 - No School - Veterans Day
11/13 - School Mass - 6th Grade Leading Liturgy - 8:15
11/14 - Picture Make ups & Retakes
11/16-11/21 - Capital Campaign Commitment Week 11/18-11/22 - Book Fair
11/20 - School Mass - Kindergarten Leading Liturgy - 8:15 11/20 - Thanksgiving Food Collection
11/20 - Parent Workshop with Ruby Jo Walker - 5:30 - More info to Come 11/21 - Pre - 8th Thanksgiving Lunch 11/22 - Early Dismissal - 12:30 - Preschool Only
11/25-11/29 - No School - Thanksgiving Break
12/4 - School Mass - Staff Leading Liturgy - 8:15 12/5 - Prayer & Praise Assembly - 8:15
12/6 - St. Nick Visit
12/7 - St. Columba Christmas Bazaar 12/9 - 8th Grade Tree Cutting
12/11 - School Mass - 5th Grade Leading Liturgy - 8:15
12/11 - K-4 Christmas Program - 5:00 12/11 - MS Band & Choir Program - 6:30
Halloween Fun
Halloween Fun
Capital Campaign
Our Living Stones Campaign Events have finished up and discernment time is underway where we ask you to discern how you might be called to help make this vision a reality.
Discernment Packets will be sent home with your students this Tuesday.
Your personalized packet includes a brochure detailing our planned campus improvements, our campaign Novena prayers, and your pledge card to be returned on Thursday, November 21st at the Thanksgiving Luncheon.
If you were unable to attend a Campaign Informational Event, please watch this short video HERE to learn more about our campus improvements.
If you'd like to hear from our pastors please click HERE.
And we have added a new form for your feedback that you can access HERE.
A Frequently Asked Question segment will soon be added to the website.
The Capital Campaign Prayer Team, partnered with the St. Columba School classes, has developed a Novena to enable us to pray as a community during this time of prayer and discernment for the future of our Church and School. The Novena will begin on November 4th and end on November 12th. It can be prayed and meditated upon at any time during the next two weeks, but it can be particularly powerful when we pray together. Let us spend this time together in prayerful discernment.
Honoring our Veterans
We are calling all our veterans to please join us for our school Mass celebrating our nation's veterans. This is an important event for our parish school community. We are the only school that honors Veterans Day by taking the day off of school and encouraging all of our students to attend the parade.
We are asking for you to give again by being present with our school. It is so important for our students to see you and understand that recognizable faces in our community have made many sacrifices and dedicated themselves to the protection of our country, our freedoms and our safety. While we are “celebrating” our veterans, your presence has an impact on our children’s experience as students and as future citizens participating in our democracy that you have selflessly promised to defend Thank you for your service
Please join us Wednesday, November 6th at 0815 at St. Columba Church. If you are able, please wear your uniform (but not expected). If you have been to our previous years’ Veterans Masses, we thank you and want to let you know this year it will be a little different We have received some feedback that asking our veteran guests to come forward to be recognized and to share their branch, years of service, and where they served is a little uncomfortable and not the type of recognition a veteran is looking for. Veterans are known to be leaders in service and humility and do not want to be in the spotlight. To honor this feedback, and to hopefully increase veteran participation which has diminished in recent years, we will not ask you to come forward. Instead, we will ask you simply to stand and be recognized during a special portion of the Mass to receive a student made card and a simple blessing by the congregation.
Please plan on joining us for this special Mass and allow us to show our appreciation. Also, help our students see that our freedom, rights, and privileges are because of the sacrifice of so many men and women in our community. We know your presence inspires our school community.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
In gratitude for your service
Mr. Chick
Thanksgiving Offertory Collection
St. Columba School Fall Drive will provide needed items for 2 agencies for this year’s Thanksgiving collection - St Columba Food Pantry and Housewarming Love (through NINA).
Housewarming Love is a program sponsored by NINA and an interfaith alliance called Neighbors in Need Alliance Interfaith Alliance (NINIA). Representatives for over 15 churches in Durango come together once a month and identify ways they can work together to address needs of the unhoused. This group is supporting Housewarming Love and providing donations for homeless clients entering low income and permanent supportive housing. As these individuals and families enter stable housing often they have no belongings other than what fits in their car or that they can carry. Items donated will help make their house a home and provide them with much needed items
Items requested are: dish towels, cleaning and laundry supplies, broom and dust pan, dishware, drinking glasses, trash cans and bags, towels and washcloths, shampoo and body wash.
Social Service agencies pick up the items from NINA's storage unit and share them with those most in need Agencies who work with the clients are Manna Soup Kitchen, Espero Permanent Supportive Housing, Lumien Apartments, La Plata Youth Services, and Community Investment Alliance (CIA).
St Columba Food Pantry is supported by our parishioners, and St Columba School families who contribute both food and financial donations, as well as by Manna Soup Kitchen who shares its excess stock.
This year, through August, the Food Pantry served 1,088 families 1,126 bags of food! This is a significant increase from totals collected last year during this same time period. Then, 1,067 families received 1,078 bags of food.The Food Pantry provides the La Plata Family Centers 15 bags of food per week for hungry families seeking services Fort Lewis College Grub Hub picks up 15 bags of food two weeks per month for its students in need. Community Compassion Outreach picks up 5 bags of food every Friday for families attending its Saturday activities. Additionally, we continue to serve individuals who come to the Food Pantry for a bag of food. In summary, our volunteers currently prepare and provide to the community an average of 142 bags of food per month The Food Pantry could use additional donations of these items: Canned tuna or chicken, Canned spaghetti sauce, Boxed cereal or oatmeal, Canned soup, Canned Hearty soup, Container of jam or jelly, Meal in a can (Spaghetti-Os, beef stew, etc.), Box of saltine crackers, Ramen Noodles
Watch for offertory bags to come home with your student(s) very soon!
November Lunch Menu
November’s Lunch Menu is now available for your convenience. All gluten free options are noted and the menu can always be found on our website, on the St. Columba App under parent quicklinks, and under the calendar tab on Blackbaud.
November Lunch Menu
Save the Date: Thanksgiving Lunch
All families are invited to join us at our annual Thanksgiving lunch on Thursday, November 21st. Please mark your calendars now and watch for handouts to come home in Tuesday folders and next week’s Shepherd with all of the details including serving times, how to RSVP, and lots of volunteer opportunities.
This is a special family event that you won’t want to miss!
Prayer & Praise
Families are invited to join us for our Prayer & Praise Assembly this Thursday, November 7th, at 8:15. This month’s assembly will include Mr. Chick introducing this month’s Friendzy theme, honor roll for the 1st quarter, announcing our bookmark contest winners, and St. Columba awarrds for those who have gone above and beyond expectations.
1st Quarter Honor Roll
The following students will be honored at our assembly for making honor roll for the 1st Quarter:
Rosie Ehlers, Ayla Estelle, Josie Green, Isla Haroun, Harper Kelley, Daniel Madu, Margot Mainzer, Matthew Manulik, Huxley McCormick, April Monroe, Bryce Morris, Clairey Potter, Jo Ruesz, Thomas-Boyd Smith, Everett Stiefel, Emma Wrona, Griffin Best, Mira Conklin, Beth Cuthbertson, Hudson Foreman, Jasper Hartman, Casey Hays, Jacob Long, Oliver Longinotti, Mattia May, Eden McCrady, Katherine Wallace, Samuel Wheatley, Reece Bird, Dru Ehlers, Ruby Falk, Mabel Frazier, Fernanda Gregg, Jack Kleva, Elly Krier, James Manulik, Ivy Nakamoto, Alex Penny, Ava Penny, Jack Siggins, Zaria Smith, Pierce Wissing, Lauren Best, Quenton Coon, Madeleine Hadrick, Claire Huang, Luke Martyn, Kian Berghoff, Emily Bird, Christopher Enea, Molly Hays, Karleigh Kinn, Conrad Klotz, Parker Lafferty, Dominic Lochte Bono, Drake Loughman, Finn May-Ostendorp, Mira McMillen, Augusta Moore, Elise Nakamoto
St. Columba School is Hiring!
We are looking for a paraprofessional to join our team to support our school literacy specialist, literacy programs, and classroom teachers in managing and organizing classrooms from first to fourth grade. They will coordinate and receive direct support in gathering and preparing materials for lesson intervention. They will also provide much-needed support during instruction time, monitoring and supporting students during center work while the classroom teacher works directly with intervention groups. If you enjoy interacting with students and supporting teachers and educators, we’d like to meet with you. Feel free to share your past experience along with your application. It is essential that the paraprofessional is a pleasant Christian who displays a cheerful, respectful, relaxed, and pleasing personality when working with others, regardless of the situation.
Ultimately, you will support and engage in various developmentally appropriate events depending on the directed administration and classroom teacher instructions. You should show flexibility, patience, and a genuine caring attitude towards students.
Paraprofessional Responsibilities:
Ensure classroom safety guidelines are met at all times
Utilize various techniques to successfully manage students, i.e., positive reinforcement, gentle and subtle redirections…
Engage with children to enhance and encourage learning
Assist the teacher in gathering and modifying materials to meet the specific needs of a child
Print out and distribute intervention lessons for teachers K - 4
Prepare materials for class centers for students not in intervention groups
Organizing the classroom and teaching materials, monitoring the classroom during lessons, and minimizing distractions and disruptions. Take necessary precautions to protect students. Perform other duties as assigned.
Requested skills:
Experience working with children in an education setting
Must complete and pass a criminal background check
Passionate, dedicated, and committed to teaching children
Experience in helping teachers in a classroom environment desired
Dependable and punctual
Good understanding of the educational system
Strong interpersonal and social attributes
Have patience with children, including those who may need extra support
Ability to stand, move around, and squat for long hours at a time
A secondary school diploma or equivalent is required; a Bachelor’s degree is preferred
Hours and Compensation:
20 hours a week: 4 hours 5 days a week
10 hours of materials preparation
10 push-in-time first - fourth grade classrooms
Starting immediately commencing June 1, 2025
Pay range: $20hr - $22.50hr
How to Apply:
Please submit a cover letter and resume to office@stcolumbaschooldurango.org
Cover letter and resume can also be dropped off to St. Columba School
