School Pillars

This blog is a continuation of the work performed by the St. Ann Values Committee. This committee was tasked with not only developing our purpose, mission, and vision statements but also forming pillars to help define our values. The values will help define who we are as a Catholic school.

Our four pillars are Pray, Learn, Respect, and Serve.

1. Always lead with prayer.
2. Always learn.
3. Respect everyone.
4. Serve your Community

The next step for the Values Committee was to define each of the pillars. The defining statements are there to support each pillar according to what they mean for St. Ann. You can see on the slides the defining statements of each pillar.

The Values Committee then went two steps farther by designating a Bible quote and a saint to correspond with each pillar. The quote and saint are on the pillar slides as well. The committee also wanted to have Bible quotes from the Old and New Testament which they were able to achieve.

As for the saints representing each pillar, the committee wanted saints from the Americas to better represent who we are. St. Katharine Drexel was selected for serve because she is the patron saint of philanthropy. St. Elizabeth Ann Seton is the patron saint of Catholic Schools. St. Rose de Lima was known for her devotion to prayer. Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patroness of the Americas which goes hand-in-hand with our diversity at St. Ann. Also, Pope Francis said, "Guadalupe shows how faith is shared simply, with respect." Who better to teach us respect than the mother of God.

Next, we will be sharing our plan developed by our Behavior Committee. Have a great week.

God bless you,

Didier Aur, Principal

St. Ann Catholic School

https://www.sascolts.org/

School Values

We have spent much time this past school year putting together our strategic plan, which we are incredibly pleased with the quality of work that has been produced. We developed four committees to start our strategic plan beginning in the 2024-25 school year.

The first committee is called our Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAG - pronounce bee-hag) Committee. BHAG comes for the book Built to Last. These are the goals that are difficult to obtain but inspires everyone to give it their all to reach. From the work of this committee, we formed the Values, Behavior, and Advancement Committees.

I want to use today's blog to focus on part of the work of our Values Committee. Their work was to develop new purpose, mission, and vision statements for the school. These are important components of an organization's strategic framework that explain why the organization exists, how it will achieve its goals, and what it wants to achieve in the future.

The Values Committee met on December 11th at Our Lady Queen of Peace Retreat Center to spend a day brainstorming and developing these statements. Once these statements were written, they were presented to the BHAG Committee for review. Revisions were made and sent back to the Values Committee. The Values Committee reviewed these and did some more revising. Then, the statements were presented to the whole faculty and staff for review. Edits were made and final statements were completed. It was a lengthy process but well worth the time.

The Values Committee also developed a Student Mission Statement. They felt it is important for the students to have their own mission statement which focuses on student goals instead of school goals. The student mission statement is the one the students will recite every morning during morning announcements. 

It was a great process which took time and energy to develop. We are thankful for all those who contributed to developing the purpose, mission, and vision statements especially to our Values Committee.

The Values Committee was also responsible for developing the school pillars which will be presented next.

I do want to say that any planning is fantastic but of no use if there is not action behind the plans. These plans are not being put on a shelf somewhere as nice decorations. We are putting them into action. You will see this now and in the months to come. "Good thoughts are no better than good dreams if you don't follow through." - Ralph Waldo Emerson 

God bless you,

Didier Aur, Principal

What Team is the Current Two-Time Reigning Champion of the WNBA?

If you answered or attempted to answer this question you must have been at St. Ann Trivia Night. The event was a sellout! Trinity Hall was packed. When we host the next trivia contest it will more than likely have to be in the school gym to accommodate all the folks wanting to participate.

We are thrilled so many people came out to enjoy a beautiful Saturday evening at St. Ann. It was truly a wonderful parish event. Lots of folks stepped up to make this night happen. I especially want to thank those who sponsored this event and made sure we had plenty of prizes to give to the winners of all the games we played, and there were many games and a multitude of winners.

I want to start off by thanking those who support just about every event we host. Thank you to Ryan Trimm of Sunrise Memphis, Diane Kauker of Folk's Folly, Claire Arrison (St. Ann parent) of Belltower Coffeehouse, Andy Ticer (St. Ann alum) of Hog and Hominy, and Michael Garibaldi of Garibaldi's Pizza for having supported this and many of our events by providing gift certificates for the event.

This year we had six new sponsors beginning with Janilee Mann (St. Ann parent) of Champalou Spa and Chuck Schaffler of Mortimer's Restaurant. Analy Badillo, the school receptionist and St. Ann parent, contacted several of her friends and was able to secure support from AlySweets Hispanic Homemade Sweets, Los Cabos Mexican Bar & Grill, Koco Loco Memphis Ice Cream, and Frida's Restaurante Mexicano.

Thank you once again to all our sponsors of trivia night. Special thanks to Ms. Badillo for going the extra mile in asking for support. Asking for support is not an easy thing to do.

Thank you also to the Knights of Columbus, Scouts, Youth Group, Jason Dyer (emcee), LaDonna Metaxas & Annmarie Ghio (scorers), Scott & Candace Campbell (registration), and all the folks who helped set up and clean up especially Kevin Temple. Libbyclaire Douglas (St. Ann alum) & Annmarie Ghio spent many hours putting together the trivia questions. Thank you ladies! 

It is fun getting together as a parish. So let's do it more often! Next up is St. Ann Bingo Night! Registration is open. Sign up by clicking on the Bingo picture on the left. Let's pack the house!

The answer to the title question is the Las Vegas Aces.

God bless you,

Didier Aur, Principal

St. Ann Catholic School

What Was The First Capital of Egypt?

My Trivia Team

What was the first capital of Egypt?  That's one question you might be answering if you attend the St. Ann Trivia Night on Saturday, June 22nd. I love attending trivia night at all the different Catholic parishes throughout our diocese. It is a great way of keeping me humble by reminding me of how much I don't know especially in the pop culture category. What was Taylor Swift's first single? Answer: "Tim McGraw" The only reason I know that answer is that I just Googled Taylor Swift trivia questions and answers.

More importantly, trivia night is a great time for being in the company of great friends. For me, trivia night takes on a new meaning since one of my trivia partners, Mike Callahan, is now in heaven and not sharing crazy answers with our team.

My goal at trivia night besides having a great time, laughing (which has many health benefits), and breaking bread with friends is to not finish in the bottom half of the team standings. My team will never win, but we will have fun, and have yet to finish in last place, which will happen one day. Don't have Mike giving our team more than his fair share of correct answers.

If you are looking for an opportunity to have a good time with friends, family, and even some people you have never met before, join us for the St. Ann Trivia Night. You can sign up as a team of eight, as couples, or as an individual. It doesn't matter because if you don't have a full team, we will find you a team to be with for the evening. At $20 per person, it is definitely worth it and you will have a good time laughing at yourself and coming to the realization that you are actually smarter than you think. Maybe not as smart as a 5th grader.

The Knights of Columbus will be providing the adult beverages. The Scouts will provide the sodas and water. The Youth Group will provide the desserts. The Church and School are setting up everything else. This is a true parish event. So come on out and support the parish. To register for the event, click HERE or on the Trivia Night picture to the left. Contact the Church office (901-373-6011) or School office (901-386-3328) if you have any questions. 

What is Taylor Swift's favorite number? Don't worry about it because pop culture will not be a category.

God bless you,

Didier Aur, Principal

St. Ann Catholic School

Education Changes Every Hour!

Another school year has begun, which happens to be my 35th year in education. You would think that by now, I would have a handle on education with all this experience. There is something you should know about educating our children. NO ONE HAS A HANDLE ON EDUCATION! NO ONE! Yes, the all caps means I'm screaming this.

Education doesn't change every year or even every day. Education changes every hour! The complexity of the human brain in conjunction with the ever evolving human emotional make-up, especially that of a middle schooler, makes every single hour of educating children a mystery. Education is like the 142 staircases at Hogwarts. One minute you are going up, the next down, and the next the whole staircase disappears. But then again, that's why I LOVE being an educator. No two hours are ever close to being the same.

When thinking about all the hourly changes taking place with education, don't forget to factor in the social-emotional and educational problems caused by the COVID-19 shutdown. Most of the students coming to us the past few years who were not in the classroom have been testing between one to four years below grade level. Now, it is up to our school to fix the harm that's been done.

Guess what? I love that challenge. And, I know we will succeed. I know this because I have faith in our work. "Do good and evil will not come your way." (Tobit 12:7) We are doing good!

It will take years to overcome what was deprived the students during the shutdown. It will take time, hard work, long hours, cooperation between parents and educators, patience, grit, compassion, love, and faith. My job in this process is to let the teachers work their magic and be there to support everyone. 

Our enrollment is up once again and we have added more classes. So, I know what we are doing works. Our admissions team is working harder than ever to make certain we can assist the new students. Our team is already making improvements to the admissions process for the 2024-25 school year. God, I love the folks I work with.

As for the 2023-24 school year, let's kick this pig and git 'er done! With lots of kindness, love, and doing good ahead of us, let the work begin. Like the Skyy song, Let Love Shine. Great throwback to the 80s.

God bless you and love!

Pleasure and Peace

While many folks don't look forward to attending Mass and come up with more excuses for skipping out than for attending Mass, I derive much pleasure and peace from attending Mass. I use the words pleasure and peace because I feel great and burdenless having participated in the Eucharistic celebration.

My favorites aren't the Easter or Christmas Mass celebrations. My favorites are the Friday all-school Masses when we come together as a community to celebrate. I love seeing our students participating and being an active part of the Mass celebration.

Each month during the school year, a different class takes charge of the Mass. The students of the class in charge serve as the greeters, altar servers, gift bearers, and lectors. The school choir leads the singing. Two of the 8th graders run the projection booth. The teachers serve as the eucharistic ministers. The younger students proudly sing the hymns while the older students are too cool to sing. The 8th graders and their PK3 Mass buddies become best friends and attend Mass together. Parents and grandparents attend with our students sitting with them. The priest's homilies are a short lesson of the day that quickly turn into a humorous and entertaining question and answer session. The younger students love participating in these Q&A sessions, while the older students try hiding under the pews so as not to get called on. At the end of Mass, the younger students are excited to greet the priest by the baptismal fountain. At the end of most Masses, there are awards to be presented to our students and educators. All of the pieces of the all-school Mass come together for a wonderful weekly Eucharistic celebration.

So yes, the all-school Mass is my favorite. This Mass more than any other gives me a sense of pleasure and peace. Our St. Ann families and friends are invited to join us for our weekly all-school Eucharistic Celebration and to hopefully experience that same pleasure and peace.

God bless you,

Didier Aur, Principal

A New Beginning

Taylor Swift said, "This is a new year. A new beginning. And things will change." I like this quote, but I think I'll make a minor yet important "change" to her quote. Instead of "And things will change," I will say "And things will improve." As we continue to grow, the improvements we are introducing deal with the folks who join our Colts family. These folks will help make St. Ann a better and stronger school. Our people are our greatest asset.

The Ghio Girls

As we prepare for the 2023-24 school year, the first improvement is moving Annmarie Ghio from her role as a 3rd grade teacher to being our full-time assistant principal. Ms. Ghio participated in a two-year program at Loyola Marymount University where she earned a certification in Catholic School Administration. Ms. Ghio's main role is to serve as St. Ann's reading and writing specialist. Our testing shows that our students perform well above national and state norms in reading with just about all our students performing at or above grade-level. We want to keep improving and taking our students to a higher level of achievement. Thank you Ms. Ghio for saying "yes" to this administrative move.

Liz Wehmeyer is our new 3rd grade teacher. Mrs. Wehmeyer comes to us from Bartlett City Schools where she taught at Alturia. Mrs. Wehmeyer is no stranger to St. Ann. Her son is a St. Ann graduate and her daughter is currently a student. She is also a techie and has been a technology professional development leader for our teachers for the past five year. She and Ms. Ghio are responsible for all the inspirational artwork throughout the walls of the school. They painted another one this summer. Welcome Mrs. Wehmeyer!

The 3rd grade has been growing to the point that we are adding a second class. Our very own Tina Ostrowski will teach that class. Ms. Ostrowski is coming out of retirement for a 3rd time. At St. Ann, she has taught just about every grade, with her last class being the 1st grade. At St. Michael, she was the 3rd grade teacher.  Thanks Coach O!

The Dooley Family

Dakota Dooley will be replacing John Baum as our band director. Mr. Dooley stepped in at the end of last year to take over for Mr. Baum and did a fantastic job. He will teach at both SBA and St. Ann. Thanks for being a Colt and an Eagle.

Looking forward to seeing all our personnel improvements in action.

Let's pray for all our educators everywhere. Being an educator gets tougher every year, and every year more and more people are leaving the teaching profession. I've been doing this for 35 years with every year bringing more expectations, demands, requirements, and challenges. I say, "Bring it on!" I love the challenge of being an educator and making a positive difference every day!

Painted by Wehmeyer and Ghio

"This is a new year. A new beginning. And things will improve." Time to listen to some Taylor Swift on Spotify.

God bless you and love!