Aug 4 2025
Back to School Information for Freshman Parents
Dear Class of 2029,
It has been wonderful seeing so many of you this summer both on campus and also at the Freshman Welcome events held all over the Bay Area, and we can’t wait to welcome you to your first official week of high school! Our educators and student leaders have been working tirelessly all summer to prepare for your arrival on campus, and we could not be more excited that our Freshman Connection and Orientation days are almost here. We are writing with important information about the start of school, as well as some upcoming programming specifically for freshmen and their families.
As we leverage email communication to share important information with our families, it is important to us that all of our families are able to access this information in the most effective format. Our emergency notifications have the ability to automate translation based on an individual’s preferred language. Emergency notifications are currently set to English as a default. To update your language preference, please fill out this form to indicate your preferred language.
Once language preference is updated, emergency notifications will be translated via Google Translate. We realize automated computer programs do not take into consideration the cultural association of words, and while our main school emails and website will continue to be based in English, we hope this small step provides a better way to serve our community.
First Week Details
All ninth graders will attend our Freshman Connection Day (Monday, August 11, 8:30 a.m - 12:00 p.m.) and our Freshman Orientation Day (Tuesday, August 12, 9:40 a.m.- 2:30 p.m.). Students should check their email on August 6 to sign up for their preferred sessions for Freshman Connection. Students should be in casual dress for August 11 and need to wear their liturgy shirt on August 12, as they will take their school photo on that day. Students are welcome to change into regular dress code after their photo is taken.
We also invite freshmen and their families to join us for our Welcome Mass and BBQ on Monday, August 11 at 6:00 p.m. in the Quad. This important opening Mass is celebrated as a teaching liturgy to help our students and families of all faith traditions learn more about what it means to attend Mass at Saint Francis. Mass will be followed by a dinner and social for our freshman families. All families are warmly invited to this beloved tradition at Saint Francis, and we ask that you please RSVP by August 10 for this event. When you RSVP, please make sure you are logged in to your SFHS account.
We will have a special schedule on the first day of school, August 13, with our day beginning in the Quad at 9:15 a.m. for an all-school welcome. Freshmen will be in regular dress code on this day, and their day concludes at 11:45 a.m.
Regular classes will start with a Gold Day (Periods 2, 4, and 6) on Thursday, August 14. Our typical calendar cadence will start with Gold Days (2, 4, 6) followed by Brown Days (1, 3, 5, 7). This allows all students access to a full collaboration with educators prior to assessments.
Welcome to Lancer Family Connection
As a current Saint Francis family, you are part of Lancer Family Connection and are an integral part of creating a welcoming, joyful and inspiring experience for all families on our campus.
Our vision of ensuring that every family is engaged at Saint Francis has guided our leadership in developing the innovative structure of Lancer Family Connection, and we are excited about continued advancement in our plans. This year we will be focused on creating and sustaining an exceptional volunteer experience that encourages further family engagement, and we hope that you will join us as volunteers and leaders in our events and programs throughout the school year. We will also be sharing more information soon about our upcoming development of new structures to support LFC in communication, event support and data management, and we will be relying upon the talents and experience of our parents to help lead these efforts.
We encourage you to join us on campus throughout the year for any and all family activities and to visit the Parent Dashboard often to discover pathways for involvement and engagement with our community. For questions or more information, please contact lancerfamilyconnection@sfhs.com.
Schoology Parent Groups
Grade-level parent groups in Schoology provide an opportunity for connection between parents, particularly with parents of your student’s classmates. Group members can ask questions of other parents, post opportunities to connect at events and share resources.
We are excited to offer this tool encouraging connection and conversations between parents, and continue to be committed in supporting our parent community in building better opportunities for communication. For more information and to learn how to get started, visit the Schoology Parent Groups page and log on to Schoology here.
Please click on the link below to access important information for the start of school, including the schedule for the first day of school, updates from counseling and additional details to help you prepare for the start of the 2025-26 school year.
As we start the upcoming school year, please know how grateful we are for your commitment to Saint Francis, your trust in our educators and for the gift of your supportive partnership with our entire school community. We are truly excited for the upcoming school year!
Sincerely,
 |
 |
|
Katie Teekell ‘00 |
Jason D. Curtis |