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