Week 3 Update

My Desk at the End of the Week.

Hoping things would slow down a little during Week 3 at St. Ann. Instead, everything started to move a little faster.

The book order is complete! Thanks Selina Trouy for taking care of this.

The school renovation continues! Painting the hallways is coming to an end and the tiling is about to start. Looking forward to showing off the school once the renovation projects is complete. Thanks Susan Hunt for overseeing this project.

School Calendar Online

The school calendar is online! CLICK HERE to view the 2018-19 Calendar.  Here are some important dates to remember:
July 20th: Used Uniform Drop Off 6:00-8:00 pm
July 21st: Used Uniform Sale 10:00 am - 2:00 pm
August 1st: Student Orientation 4:00-7:00 pm
August 2nd: Election Day! Go Vote!
August 3rd: New Comers' Picnic 6:00-7:00 pm
August 7th: First Day of School!
August 8th-10th: PreK-K Staggered Start
August 17th: Welcome Back Assembly 2:00-3:00 pm

Just a reminder the school office is closed on Friday during the summer. The office will also be closed on June 28th and July 4th.

I would like to thank Terri Dickens and Stacey Peeney for their years of service at St. Ann. And, I would like to wish them much success and happiness in their new teaching positions at St. Benedict at Auburndale.

We are working on hiring new teachers. We have some fantastic teachers interested in St. Ann. We hope to have some great news in the next couple of weeks regarding our new teachers.

Selina Trouy's Makeshift Office

I had lunch with David Stephens, superintendent of Bartlett City Schools. It was great seeing an old college classmate. Back then, we were just hoping to graduate and find a job teaching and coaching. David wanted to coach basketball and I wanted to coach soccer. It just so happened that we both won high school state championships coaching soccer; David at Houston and me at CBHS. Catching up on our educational careers was lots of fun. This makes year 30 for the two of us in the educational world. We plan to get together on a regular basis. We want to figure out ways that St. Ann and the Bartlett Schools can partner and help each other improve.

Meeting with St. Ann staff members continued this week. I'm having a great time meeting these wonderful folks. And, I'm looking forward to working with them on a daily basis.

New Fountain at St. Ann

I also started meeting with parents and supporters. Some of these meeting are with families that are behind in tuition payment. Life is not easy, and we have all had financial difficulties at one time or another. Having put two children through Catholic Schools including college, my wife and I will be working for many more years to pay off our obligation. But, we are paying what we owe.

We need ALL families to do the same in order for St. Ann to remain financially sound. This is my way of rocking the boat because the boat needs to be rocked. If you are behind in tuition payment, take care of your obligation, and don't leave it to someone else to pay your fair share.

One of my goals for St. Ann is greatness. St. Ann needs to be a great

St. Joseph the Worker

school. Greatness is achieved when hardworking people come together for the good of an organization. This means taking care of our responsibilities. Winston Churchill once said, "The price of greatness is responsibility." Greatness will be achieved when pastor, principal, teachers, staff, students, parents, grandparents, supporters, parishioners, and alumni take responsibility for making St. Ann great. Let each of us take a piece of that responsibility to work together to make St. Ann a great school!

There has been a common theme to what everyone has been telling me about St. Ann. And, that common theme is "FAMILY." I cannot count the number of times I heard "FAMILY" used to describe the St. Ann community in all my meetings. I come from a Latin family, and in our family blood is thick. In my world, family is as important as it gets. That's how St. Ann is being described to me. I love this: FAMILY!

Renovation of the School Entrance

My meeting with Kathy Schober, the parish director of religion education, was extremely fruitful. We both want to find opportunities to make the school and PRE more inclusive. There are roughly 200 students at the school and 300 in PRE. How do we become one?

Being the principal of St. Ann Catholic School, I am an ex-officio member of the parish council. I attended my first parish council meeting this week. Next week, I will attend my first parish finance committee meeting. The school budget is on the negative side. We have our work cut out for us to balance the school budget. Please say a prayer because we need some divine intervention to get to a balanced budget.

We need YOUR support. If you would like to be a part of making St. Ann a great school, please click on the school logo to contribute to the school. Thank You!

God bless you,

Didier Aur
Principal
St. Ann Catholic School
Bartlett, TN

Week Two Comes To An End!

What a great week! I asked St. Ann staff members to set a time for us to meet one-on-one. I've spent most of this week getting to know these wonderful people. At these meetings, we have pretty much stayed away from the topic of work. Before we are staff members at St. Ann, we are human beings. And, it is these wonderful human beings I want to get to know. I've learned so much about these folks.

Here are some of the commonalities I share with staff members:
Priscilla Williams loves to ride bikes.
Angela de Jong is a soccer nut.
Donnie Shea is a Brothers' Boys.
I coached Annmarie Ghio's brother, Jason at CBHS.
Deborah Harty and I grew up down the street from each other.
Stacey Griffith enjoys John Grisham books.
I taught Anna Slattery's son, Thomas, and my brother coached her daughter, Neely.
Like Selina Trouy, my daughter is named Celina, and my daughter shares her birth date (March 18th) with Selina's son, Samuel.
I taught and coached one of Erica Winchester's in-laws at CBHS.

Here are some things I found out about some of the staff members:
Angela Odum lived in Alaska.
Amanda Bannister is married to radio personality, Bill Bannister.
John Baum is a Civil War buff.
Katie Jones earned a Bachelor's and Master's from Memphis College of Art.
Kristen Sellers is from Hayti, MO (pronounced: Hey-Ty)
Tricia Cooper is a big fan of Disney World.
Wanda Sexton loves the Florida Keys.
Tracy Angotti has a daughter named Dominica; beautiful name.
Karen Otts graduated from Shawnee Mission High School in Overland Park, KS.

So far, I have met with 18 staff members. We have six more meetings lined up for Monday and Tuesday.

Next Tuesday, I will also meet with John Conroy, chairman of the finance council. So, what did I work on most of the day today? The school budget of course. I finished the first draft of the school budget, and of course it did not balance. We are at a nice little deficit. Ugh! We have actually been able to cut our expenses. The problem is the revenue side. We will get it worked out. God always provides.

Next Wednesday, I meet with an old friend of mine, David Stephens. David is the superintendent of Bartlett City Schools. He and I were classmates in the education department at the University of Memphis. He is a great guy and I look forward to seeing him again.

Along with many of the teachers, we have started to review the English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum to see where we need to improve. I've received a lot of input from many of the teachers. We will continue the review next week. I also received some input from some of the Catholic School principals. The principals are great to work with and are always available to help.

We are also looking to add Science and Social Studies to the IXL program. To see an example of IXL Science, CLICK HERE. To see an example of IXL Social Studies, CLICK HERE. IXL also has a great diagnostic tool parents can access. CLICK HERE to see this diagnostic tool in action. Several of our teachers have previewed IXL Science and Social Studies, and feel very positive about the benefits it can have for our students. Only problem is IXL Science and Social Studies are not budgeted items.

Here's a free resource parents can use: Edutopia. Most educators know about Edutopia. As an administrator, I have been reading Edutopia articles for years. Edutopia can help parents with their child(ren)'s learning. I receive their e-newsletters, follow them on Twitter, and like them on Facebook. I am constantly sharing Edutopia articles with other educators. I feel it is a fantastic educational resource many overlook.

Finally, there is lots and lots of work taking place at the school. The hallways are being painted and re-tiled, the kitchen is receiving a facelift, and doors are being re-finished. Stop by and take a look for yourself.

If you would like to support the work we do educating the students at St. Ann Catholic School, please CLICK HERE. Thank you

Getting ready for week 3!

God bless you,
Didier Aur

A Fresh Start at St. Ann Catholic School

Well, I’m coming to the end of my first week at St. Ann Catholic School.  I spent this week cleaning the principal's office, which has been basically closed for over a year; meeting with school leaders (Joey Harris, Angela de Jong, and Selina Trouy) and school and church staff members; reviewing the budget, enrollment, tuition collection, and financial aid; seeing all the renovations taking place (the whole school is being re-tiled and re-painted); attending daily Mass with Fr. David; dining with the young folks in Camp Invention; meeting lots of great folks who have stopped by; and even attending a monthly birthday celebration lunch at the church rectory.

It has been a busy week, and I cannot believe it is already Friday.  I am excited about everything that’s taking place, and even more excited about the future of the school and parish.  My wife, Kelley, and I switched our membership over to St. Ann from Resurrection.  Going to miss Fr. Martell and the wonderful people at Resurrection, but we feel we need to be all in for St. Ann.

Next on my agenda is to continue to meet with all staff members, create a new budget for the 2018-19 school year, make a couple of new hires, work out Title funding with Bartlett City Schools, arrange for iPad in-service classes for the teachers, continue to work on enrollment, and review curriculum starting with reading and language arts.  After reviewing the reading and language arts curriculum, I plan to review the math curriculum.  The reviews will be done with our teachers, and hopefully some local experts so that we can make sure we are doing the best we can for our students. We want to make sure our students are prepared for the next phase of their lives.

Starting in July, I plan to meet with parents.  Along with the social committee,  we will organize some "Meet and Greet" sessions at the school. One of my goals is to establish a relationship of trust so that we can work together to educate the children.  The school's role is to assist the parents in educating each child in their spiritual, academic, physical, and social development.  In working together, it is our duty to do the best we can for each child.  This is difficult to do without positive collaboration between home and school.

I would also like to get grandparents involved.  Many grandparents
are instrumental in educating the grandchildren.  Let's face it, Catholic education is not cheap.  For many of us, without help from grandparents, tuition payments would not be possible.  Many grandparents make the sacrifices necessary to enable parents to afford Catholic education.

My children attended Catholic Schools from K-16.  Yes, both my children graduated from a Catholic university as well.  The sacrifices we made as a family so that our children could receive a Catholic education have been well worth it, and we'd do it again.

I plan to continue communicating with school families, alumni, and supporters in as many ways as possible, and to be as transparent as possible with what's going on at St. Ann Catholic School.  Please feel free to contact me at the school if you have any questions.

Stay tuned for more updates!  Thanks!

God bless you,
Didier Aur
didier.aur@sascolts.org