Announcements

Policy on Tuition and Fees

The Policy on Tuition and Fees has been updated on our website for 2024-2025. There is a 6% increase in tuition for 2024-2025.

2024-25 Calendar

The 2024-25 School Calendar is now posted on this website. Go to DOWNLOADS, and you will see that both calendars (the current year's and next year's) are posted together in the same slot. Just scroll down to see next year's.

FACULTY PARKING LOT

The faculty parking lot is for faculty only! We have a limited amount of parking spaces and too many faculty members to fill them unless used wisely. It is not to be used for student pickups and drop offs between 8:00 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Parents are not to use the lot during business hours unless approved for delivering or picking up a child on crutches, for instance.

Parents paying tuition at the high school business office should park in the front of the building on Pittsburgh Street, not in the faculty lot. Also, when making a tuition payment, if the steps are too difficult to navigate, just call the high school office and someone will come down to receive your payment.

In Case of Emergency

In case of emergency where we would have to evacuate the buildings, we have made arrangements with Jarvie Funeral Home while Harmar House is being repaired from a recent fire. All cell phones would be turned on and accessible for parent communications.

CCA 23/24 Food Services Info

The free / reduced, breakfast / lunch app for 2023-24 is now on this website under DOWNLOADS. In addition, there is a letter regarding our program and the directions for filling out the application.

Lunch Payments

This is a reminder that all lunch payments must be made separately from tuition & enrollment payments. They are two separate accounts. Thank you! For both, though, write checks to CCA.

Important Information Regarding Direct Certification Expansion to Include Medicaid Reduced Households for School Year 23-24

The
Pennsylvania Department of Education, Division of Food and Nutrition
(PDE, DFN) is excited to announce that beginning School Year 2023-2034,
the USDA has selected Pennsylvania to expand the Direct Certification
for Demonstration project for Households receiving Medicaid, to include
students in household where the household income meets the guidelines
for reduced price meals. With this change, students will automatically
show on the Direct Certification List as directly certified for reduced-price meals via Medicaid (DCMA-R). 

This
change supports access to school meals by helping to ensure that
students eligible for reduced-price meals take advantage of the benefit.
Families in this category will no longer need to submit a household
application for school meals. This change will also reduce the
administrative burden on schools, as fewer household applications will
need to be processed and verified.

To
implement the DCMA-R function, all online application approval systems
and point-of-service systems will require updates to include a
feature/category that identifies students who qualify for reduced-price
meals via DCMA. All School Food Authorities (SFAs) must
communicate this change with their point of service and/or online
application approval system vendors as soon as possible to ensure that
all changes are implemented to begin with the start of the 2023-2024
School Year (July 1, 2023).  Additional details for SFAs to provide to
vendors will be provided in the upcoming weeks, however, in the
meantime, SFAs are strongly encouraged to make their vendor(s) aware of
the upcoming changes.

Lunch Assistance Program Expands

Effective October 1, 2022, PA will increase the income threshold for all applicants from 160 percent to 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Income Guidelines. With this change, it is anticipated that approximately 174,000 households will be newly eligible for SNAP.

Read the full press release here: https://www.media.pa.gov/pages/DHS_details.aspx?newsid=857#:~:text=Effective%20October%201%2C%20Pennsylvania%20will,on%20average%2C%20%2463%20a%20month.

Food Assistance Programs

Foodfinder.us is a nonprofit website that offers the location and contact information of more than 40,000 food pantries and similar food programs across the country.  Other food assistance sites include:  fns.usda.gov and pittsburghfoodbank.org.

Amazon Smile

When doing your online shopping at Amazon, choose Amazon Smile (https://smile.amazon.com) instead of Amazon.com.  Then, select CCF (Cheswick Christian Fellowship) as your charitable organization!  Every eligible purchase will count towards $ for us.  The shopping is exactly the same with the same products and prices.  The only difference is Amazon sends us a portion of your purchase in the form of a check because we are a 501(c)(3) organization!  Many people are already doing this, so we are getting frequent checks from Amazon.  It is a great deal for us!

Remote Learning Days (Formerly Snow Days)

The document discussing remote learning days for 2021-22 has been posted under DOWNLOADS on this website.

Free/Reduced Price Meals Eligibility – memo from DOE

• The following is an announcement from a 1/19/21 DOE memo:

Covid-19 relief packages recently passed
by the United States Congress contain numerous benefits for families
financially impacted by the pandemic.  Some
of these benefits are available to students who are eligible for free or
reduced-priced school meals.

If you believe your school-aged
child(ren) may qualify for free or reduced-price meals this school year and
have not yet submitted the application for free or reduced-price meals to the
school, we encourage you to do so as soon as possible.  The application is listed in downloads on the
Cheswick Christian Academy website, entitled Free/Reduced Lunch Application.

The application then will be used to
determine which benefits your child(ren) and/or household may be eligible to
receive.  Please be aware that applying
for free or reduced-price meals will not impact meals that your child(ren)
currently receives through the school.

Tuition

Tuition must be paid by midnight on the last day of the month it is due or a $20 late fee will automatically be assessed. If payment is late 2x, the academy reserves the right to REQUIRE payment for enrollment to continue. Paying tuition on time is the responsibility of the parent, not the student.

If you know you will be late with a tuition payment, you may call the main office at (724) 274-4846 BEFORE the payment due date, telling us when to expect payment and the late fee may be waived, but you must call BEFORE the payment is due.

Parking and Checks

Regarding Parking:

The faculty parking lot is NOT to be used for student dropoffs or pickups during the school day from 8:00 to 3:30.  Do not pick up your child at the end of the day in the faculty lot unless your child has a doctor's medical excuse.  Avoid parking in bus zone areas, in Cheswick Fire Department zones (marked red on Spruce Street), in the elementary school turnaround or blocking anyone's driveway.  Short stay dropoffs and pickups can happen on Pittsburgh Street, Highland Avenue, and the opposite side of Spruce Street.

Checks:

Checks for lunch are to be made separate from tuition checks.  If combined, they will be returned to you.  The lunch account and the school account are two different accounts.

Unexcused Absences & Tardies

As stated in our rules, when a student is absent (either for a whole day or half day) or tardy, an excuse from the parent or doctor is required within 3 days.  If an excuse is not received, the absence or tardy becomes unexcused.  We have been informed of a new PA law, effective immediately, which states that as a non-public school we are not required to take action on unexcused absences or tardies, but we are to report them to the student's home school district once the number of unexcused absences or tardies passes three.