Happy Summer Lower School Families,

This year just flew by so quickly, I cannot believe it is already summer. The joy, love and gratitude that filled my heart last week is hard to explain. Last week was full of celebrations and recognition, special events, lots of laughter, and a few tears. Our final day was full of fun rotations, special games and events, lots of pictures, and event fun snacks. We sent an amazing group of 5th graders off to middle school, and we moved up wonderful kids here in the Lower School.

At 5th Grade Graduation, the entire Lower School Community joined together to bless and celebrate this fantastic group of students. This group was filled with talent, kindness, hard workers, and great friendships. Several students were recognized as DARE essay and poster award winners and Annmarie Mulrooney and Evan Sonsalla were recognized as Salesian Star Students of the Year. We also celebrated and recognized the prestigious De Chantal Award winner JuJu Nelson. We are all very proud of all these amazing students!

I am pleased to share that in the fall we will once again offer two 5th-grade sections. We have had positive interest in our 5th grade, and we are thrilled to bring some additional students into our community. After the success of this past year, we know that this will continue to be a blessing for our students and community.

Next dall, Montessori Pre-K will be offering both full-day and half-day options. Due to the strong interest from parents for full-day enrollment, we dug in and did significant research, planning and preparations to accommodate this request. We are happy to share that our full-day option filled almost immediately, and our afternoon-only and morning-only options are also near full. What a joy!  Ms. Lannette will return as our nationally trained Lead Guide. Ms. Jules will also return as a Montessori Assistant and Lead Teacher for Extended Day. We are happy to share that Miss Jules is a nationally trained assistant, and also recently completed her Associate's Degree in Early Childhood and was accepted to St. Catherine’s to become a Montessori Lead. We are very excited for Jules!  And finally, I am happy to introduce that Mrs. Megan Barrie, Visitation Class of 2005, will be joining our team this fall as another nationally trained Montessori Assistant. We welcome Megan back to Vis, and cannot wait to have her officially join our team.

I want to take this opportunity to wish Ms. Lindsey Baer, Montessori Pre-K assistant well, as she and her family are moving out of state and onto a new chapter in Arizona. Lindsey was a joy to work with and a gift to our Montessori team and families. She will be missed!  I also want to wish Mrs. Sue McDaniel a positive transition, as she will be moving to the Upper School to lead and teach in the Upper School French department. Sue is a gifted, kind, and calm presence here at Visitation, and she is a joy to work with. Mrs. Agnes Koehn will move into a new role supporting the library and leading Lower School classes in in library time. 

As we transition into summer, Visitation is still lively and busy. We are running multiple camps, programs and class sessions this summer and will welcome hundreds of students to our campus. Already this week, we welcomed incoming kindergarten students for our Leap Into Kindergarten events. If you want to see the love and joy of school, these future kindergarten stuidents sure have it! I enjoy all the excitement and busyness around!

This August we will celebrate a large milestone with the150th anniversary celebrations. We hope you and your family will join us in the fun on campus August 12th and 13th. We look forward to celebrating with you. 

While I do not want to rush summer along, I do want to share that class lists and supply lists are posted on the website. For 5th-grade sections, class lists and teacher assignments will be available the first week in August. We look forward to our Welcome Back to School Picnic on Wednesday, August 23.

I will be around most of the summer and am available if you have any questions or need to reach out. I do plan to enjoy time on pilgrimage with Visitation members to Annecy, France later this month. I also plan to enjoy some family time with soccer, hockey, football and hopefully some rest!  I thank you all for a wonderful school year and wish you and your family all the best this summer!  

With gratitude,

Jessica Hallin