Welcome to Bethel Lutheran School, Morton, IL

Open Registration for the 2010 - 2011 School Year

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School Calendar

School Statistics

Welcome to Bethel Lutheran School, Morton, IL

......with Christ himself as our chief cornerstone. Eph. 2:20

Our Mission

We, as believers and disciples of Jesus Christ and members of His Body here at Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church and School, in response to His Commission to make disciples of all peoples and in awareness of our unique, collective gifts, clearly see the mission before us to worship – to grow – to serve.

Bethel Lutheran School offers a Christian Education for the whole child. Students in the school find identity, purpose, and power for their lives by living in God’s grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. The education is well rounded and provides spiritual instruction, intellectual achievement, social interaction, emotional development, physical education, and aesthetic experiences.

July 2009 Annual Report

School Statistics 2008 – 2009

Total Bethel member children eligible for enrollment Preschool – 8^th grade: 178

Total Bethel member children enrolled Preschool – 8^th grade: 111

Percent of total Bethel children enrolled Preschool – 8^th grade: 62%

Enrollment by Grade Level

Preschool 147

Kindergarten 36

1^st Grade 26

2^nd Grade 24

3^rd Grade 25

4^th Grade 21

5^th Grade 25

6^th Grade 20

7^th Grade 17

8^th Grade 15

Enrollment by Church Membership in Elementary School

	Elementary	Bethel Percentage	National Percentage
Bethel Members	101	50%	39%
Other LCMS Congregations	9	4%	5%
Other Lutheran Congregations	1	0.5%	3%
Non-Lutheran Congregations	80	39%	36%
No Church Membership	14	6.8%	17%

School Financial Report (Based on 11-month period ending May 31, 2009)

Percent of Income From:	Bethel Percentage	National Percentage
Congregational Support	29%	40%
Tuition & Fees	68%	49%
Third Source Funding	3%	11%

Standardized Test Scores

Outstanding scores were reported this year.

%ile=percentile. This is the percent of schools that we performed better than. For example, a 96 in the percentile column means that we performed better than 96 percent of schools nationwide on that particular section, at that grade level.

GE = Grade Equivalency. This number does not necessarily mean that our students would be capable of entering the grade equivalency listed. This means that this is how a person of that grade equivalency would be expected to perform. For example the GE 10.1 listed under 5^th grade language represents a sophomore in high school in the 1^st month of school. This doesn’t mean that our 5^th graders are ready to be sophomores in high school. This means that if this test were to be administered to the average high school sophomore in his or her 1^st month of school, he or she would be expected to perform at the same level as our 5^th graders did.

2009
Grade Level	Reading		Language		Math
Grade Level	%ile	GE	%ile	GE	%ile	GE
1^st	99	2.8	96	2.5	94	2.4
2^nd	99	4.3	99	4.0	94	3.6
3^rd	99	5.6	99	6.0	96	5.0
4^th	99	6.9	99	8.0	99	7.0
5^th	99	9.0	99	10.1	99	8.4
6^th	95	9.2	91	9.2	93	9.1
7^th	99	12.0	98	12.7	93	10.7
8^th	95	13+	92	13+	95	11.5

Service Projects

Serving others is an important part of our school culture. Listed below are many of the service projects we participated in over the past school year.

Horses for Healing, Valentines for Veterans, World Vision – goat for African family, cards for sick individuals and cards of appreciation, South Side Mission puppet plays, cards for hospitalized and other ill individuals, Southside Mission visits: Also collected various items for them; diapers, books, etc., SHARE Foods, Christmas gifts for less fortunate through Lutheran Social Services, Operation Christmas Child, Southside Mission – wrapped Christmas Gifts, Midwest Food Bank, served lunch at We Care each Wednesday in May

Chapel Offerings

August/September	Pastor Dave Horn	$ 330.00
October	West & Kramer	$ 323.24
November	LAMP Ministries	$ 166.11
December	Lutheran Heritage Foundation	$ 197.42
January	Camp Cilca	$ 160.23
February	RAI Ministries	$ 207.06
March	St Jude	$ 555.90
April	Brazil Mission	$ 127.59
May	Bethel Youth Mission Trips	$ 137.49
Total		$2,205.04

Sports programs

There were 152 participants in our sports programs this year. We offered sports opportunities in the following:

Fall Sports

Boys Baseball (Co-Op team with Blessed Sacrament)

Girls Softball (Co-Op team with Blessed Sacrament)

Cross Country (1^st Year)

JV Girls Volleyball

Varsity Girls Volleyball

Winter Sports

JV Girls Basketball

Varsity Girls Basketball

5^th Grade Boys Basketball

6^th Grade Boys Basketball

Varsity Boys Basketball

JV Cheerleading

Varsity Cheerleading

Spring Sports

Track

End of year Field Trips

1^st Grade: Springfield, Illinois

2^nd Grade: Wildlife Prairie Park

3^rd Grade: Miller Park Zoo & Raaps Dairy Farm

4^th Grade: New Salem

5^th Grade: Hannibal, Missouri

6^th Grade: Museum of Science and Industry – Chicago

7^th Grade: 3-days of Various Chicago Sights, staying overnight at Concordia University in River Forest

8^th Grade: Washington, DC

Early in the year a “”Coffee Talk” was held with the parents. The following questions were asked:

What led you to enroll your child at Bethel Lutheran School?

Responses

Christian Education

Class Sizes

Location

Relationships between students, parents and teachers

Past Parent recommendations

Preschool program

What are the positive qualities that impress you when you think of Bethel?

Responses

Dedication of teachers

Quality of academics

Christ-centered

Students happy

Family atmosphere

Taking part in worship opportunities

Are there some outstanding things we’ve done that you would like to see repeated in the future?

Responses

Daily Prayer and Bible verse to open the school day

Service opportunities

Special music chapels

Future Plans

Looking ahead to 2009 – 2010 we are excited about the new programs we are implementing. We raised enough money this year to be able to install a SmartBoard in every classroom. These SmartBoards will be used to enhance our already strong curriculum. We are also implementing a service work graduation requirement next year. Our 8^th graders will each be developing a service project called “Making a Difference”. We are also instituting a small group concept called “Core Groups” in our Jr. High to help students approach relationships and decision-making from a Biblical perspective.

God’s Peace,

John R. Jacob

Principal