At Saint Andrew, Teacher Appreciation Week is a celebration of our dedicated and extraordinary teachers and staff.
Two parent run committees, the Christmas Shopping Days and Teacher Appreciation Dinner, raise funds for the activities and end of the year bonus fund and organize the events for this celebration.
Daily Pampering...The celebration starts with daily pampering of our teachers and staff with catered lunches hosted by the Christmas Shopping Days committee. This committee also provides small gifts to the teachers.
My Favorite Things...This year the Dinner committee is organizing a new fun activity called "My Favorite Things". Each teacher and staff member was provided with a My Favorite Things survey requesting input on their favorite in several areas including treats or things to do.
During Teacher Appreciation week the idea is to have each teacher or staff member receive an item from their My Favorite Thing list as a surprise treat. Sign ups and more details will be sent home the week after spring break.
Friday night dinner...Teacher Appreciation week ends with a family event in the gym celebrating the teachers and staff with casual dinner party hosted by the Teacher Appreciation Dinner committee with the funds from the dinner admission and bar sales.
To boost the community feeling of this event, we ask for our school families to drop off a dessert or two for the dessert table.
Teacher Raffle Prizes...The Dinner committee gathers donations for gift bags as raffle prizes for teacher and staff members. The gift bags will be raffled off during the school day. Raffle tickets will not be sold for this raffle this year, please consider redirecting the raffle amount you had purchased in previous year to the Teacher Appreciation Fund. If you are interested in donating an item to be used in the raffle, please click on "Donate a Raffle Item" for information.
Teacher Appreciation Fund...In addition to hosting the dinner event, the Teacher Appreciation Dinner committee facilitates the collection of contributions for the Teacher Appreciation Fund 'End of the Year' collection which provides the teachers and staff with an end of the year bonus. This Fund is successful because our generous parent community and their willingness to contribute to The Fund.
What is the Teacher Appreciation Fund?
The Teacher Appreciation Fund collects money and distributes it, under the guidance of the school principal, to teachers and staff as a bonus.
The Fund originated as a way to help repay teachers for the many classroom supplies that they pay for out of their own pockets as well as
help equalize our parochial school teacher and staff pay with similar positions in our city's school system. Additionally, it also helps to equalize the recognition our teachers and staff receive for providing care and support during our children's daily educational experience. Parents may not know that from our youngest grades to our 8th grade students there are many teachers that support and teach our children each day. Even students in the non-middle school grades, like Kindergartners that are assigned to one main teacher, are supported by others like teachers in art, music, classroom aides, librarian, excel, learning resource teachers, and gym just to name a few.
Why contribute to the Teacher Appreciation Fund?
Why not just give to my child's assigned teacher?
As a tuition paying parent you might be wondering why to contribute to the Fund. Here are a few points that might help to give some perspective on the Fund's importance and benefits.
As mentioned above, there are many talented teachers and staff that provide educational assistance and a caring environment. In the past, many times only the student's assigned or homeroom teacher would receive a gift or monetary acknowledgement for their guidance. Your contribution to the Fund is used to recognize assigned or homeroom teachers as well as teachers that are in the "specials" like gym, music, art, excel, learning resources, library as well as classroom aides or lunchroom aides and the many other staff like our school nurse and administrative assistants.
Contributing to the Fund can a replacement to individual family gifts to teachers and staff thereby helping parents by relieving the stress of end year gift shopping. The distribution to the teacher and staff allows them to make choices for pampering and entertainment in line with their personal choices.
Lastly, contribution amounts are anonymous and any amount contributed is deeply valued and appreciated. The average contribution per family last year, which included raffle tickets and Fund contributions, was about $55.
(Contributions to the Teacher Appreciation Fund may be tax deductible. Contact your tax advisor for final determination.)
When students return from spring break information on purchasing dinner admission, signing up to participate in My Favorite Things, and donating to the Teacher Appreciation Fund will be sent home in the Wednesday folder.
We look forward to another successful Teacher Appreciation Week!Christmas Shopping Days Committee - Lynn Deely, Marissa Wills
Teacher Appreciation Dinner Committee - Ann Freeman, Kathy Barnard
