Strategic Plan, Accreditation, and Teacher In-Service

Ryan Cooper's puppy, Cadence

This has been one busy summer! This week has been the busiest one yet. School hasn't started, we still have one more day of in-service, students start on Tuesday, and I'm ready for a day off. Don't get me wrong, I'm super-excited about the new school year at St. Ann, seeing our students on the first day, working with our incredible staff, and once again being in the classroom teaching. I just need a less than a twelve-hour work day, and maybe ten hours of uninterrupted sleep. Come on Feast of the Assumption (our next day off). This isn't my first rodeo, so I'll survive.

I want to thank Susan Hunt, all St. Ann staff members, the St. Ann maintenance department, the custodial team, and volunteers for their work in getting the school ready for the first day of school. The school is looking great!

School Walk Through

Fr. Ernie asked that we host a "School Walk Through" for parishioners to see the improvements before the first day of school. Today, we hosted a "School Walk Through" after the 8:30 and 11:30 Mass. I personally expected to see a small crowd during each walk through. Boy, was I surprised by the large turnout. Thank you to all the parishioners who turned out to see the school improvements. I wish I could take some credit for the improvements, but all credit belongs to Fr. Ernie, Susan Hunt, our generous donors, and all those working under the direction of Susan Hunt. If you are a St. Ann parishioner and don't know Susan, you need to meet her. She is the parish administrator, which means she runs the place. It also means that she is on duty 24/7. Well, maybe not 24/7, but pretty close.

Blessing from Bishop Holley

In-service started this past Tuesday with Bishop Holley celebrating Mass for all Catholic School employees at St. Francis. That's always a great way of bringing us together to kick-off the new school year.

This was followed up with a presentation I borrowed from the Christian Brothers back in 2002 to help remind Catholic School teachers of our role as Catholic School educators. Sometimes, we need to remind ourselves why we have dedicated our teaching careers to working in Catholic Schools. With all the years I have worked for the Christian Brothers, I've received a lot of training on the teaching philosophies of St. John Baptist de La Salle. I like to share what I've learned with my teachers. He was a saint ahead of his time. Incredible!

Liz Wehmeyer & Kids

I'm sending out a great big thank you to Liz Wehmeyer. Liz led three technology sessions for our teachers. The first session was to start all of us towards becoming Apple certified instructors. Would be great for St. Ann if all instructors became Apple certified since our students use iPads. The second session was on Apps and ideas for use in the classroom. The final session was on web design. We aren't there yet but would be nice if all teachers created a website. It is a great communication tool. I'm hoping that we can get Liz to lead more sessions throughout the year to help our teachers.

This is an accreditation school year. The process to become accredited once again by AdvancED has begun. At the same time, we need to develop a strategic plan for the school. To begin the process, the staff came together to rewrite the school's mission and vision statements.

A mission statement answers the question "Why do we exist?" A mission state is also supposed to be between 10-15 words (fit on a t-shirt). Our new mission statement is:

Working on Mission Statement

"Our mission is to provide a Catholic education through faith, service, and love."

That explains why we exist in less than fifteen words!

A vision statement lets everyone know where we plan to be in 5 to 10 years. It is future-casting. Just like the mission statement, it is a short statement but looking into the future. In our case, we are looking at the next five years.  Our vision statement is:

"We envision a thriving school for all children that will provide a

Working on Vision Statement

premier education in the Catholic tradition."

This vision statement is quantitative: All Children
Future-Casting: Will Provide
Using descriptive superlatives: Thriving Schools and Premier Education

I really like our new mission and vision statements.

Our next step is to develop goals for achieving our vision statement.

Signing Up for Camp Invention

Our student orientation and new comers meeting was pretty awesome. We had a big crowd show up with lots of parents and grandparents. Thank you to Home & School for sponsoring the event. I enjoyed meeting the new families at the new comers meeting. Thank you Dawn Lewis for organizing the food, and Jimmy Crews for taking charge of the meeting.

Annmarie Ghio led several sessions for the teachers. These included PlusPortal and gradebook, using different classroom Apps, and library and STREAM orientation. I hope we all take advantage of Ms. Ghio's expertise. The students will greatly benefit from her work in the library and STREAM. She is also going to make the library more accessible to the students before and after school.

STREAM Session

Gay Landaiche, of the Bodine School, taught a session on dyslexia. We all learned much from her presentation. We now have several great resources to use with our dyslexic students. The presentation was eye-opening to me. We will all be more aware of learning differences in our students. Thanks to Priscilla Williams for organizing this presentation.

Dyslexia Session

We have a new golf coach! Paul Mann, a good friend of mine, has agreed to coach our golf team. Paul is a great golfer and all-around athlete. He is a former two-sport athlete at the University of Memphis. Coach Mann is retired. He was the chief compliance officer at FTB Advisors, Inc. He is also one of the nicest guys I've ever met. I am thrilled he will coach our golfers. This is a great time to be a St. Ann golfer. Contact Tracy Angotti at tracy.angotti@sascolts.org if your child is interested in joining the golf team.

Here is a list of the middle school extras: (classes starting at 2:25 every day)
1.   Jazz Band/All instruments including Jazz singing (John Baum)
2.   Bowling (Sally Fillion)- Bowling will probably end at 3:30 instead of 3:00.
3.   Handbells (Ryan Cooper)
4.   Robotics (Stacey Griffith)
5.   Creative Writing/Blogging (Justin Kissell)
6.   Anime Art (Katie Jones)
7.   Archery (Didier Aur)
8.   Cooking/Baking (???? Anyone interested?)
9.   Coding (Jimmy Crews)
10. 3-D Printing (Annmarie Ghio)
More news to be sent out this week.

The Crews Family!

Thank you to Jimmy Crews for helping Mike Green update all school and church technology. They are getting everything up and running. Come Tuesday, we will be ready! Thanks guys!

Thank you to Captain Steve Sones from the Bartlett Police Department for leading a session on school safety. Captain Sones and I did a walk through the school to determine hot spots that need some safety improvements.  There are several issues that need to be addressed ASAP. The first line of defense against an intruder is making sure the school is in lockdown mode 24/7. We have this covered. The interior doors are to be locked as well, blinds should be on every exterior window, and classroom door windows ready to be covered. The teachers know the safest areas in their classroom, and they have been through active shooter training. In all my years, I never thought I would be writing about active shooter training but it is a reality in this world we live in.

We have room for improvement. This is where we need your financial support. We need to improve

School Safety Session

school safety to better protect our students. We need to better secure our classroom doors. In order to do that, we need to change out the door locks and devices. We have roughly fifty classroom doors. To replace the door knobs to stronger, safer door knobs and re-key the doors for easier access for police and fire personnel, it will take roughly $7,000. This is a small amount when considering the safety of our students and staff. This includes all the students and staff in PRE who use the classrooms. We also need to replace many of the window blinds, and add interior cameras in every hallway. If you are interested in helping us improve school safety, please contact me.

Sports Sign Up

The school and church need someone who is a welder who can help us with a small project to secure one of the gates behind the school. If you are a welder, and can help us, please contact me.

One of the sessions we had during in-service was on the state of the Catholic Schools. I believe this was eye-opening to our staff members. This is a presentation I would like to make to the parish council, and even to the parents and parishioners. As you have figured out, I believe in transparency. We all need to know where Catholic Schools stand. I see the future for the schools as positive but the road is a bumpy one. We all need to know where we stand.

I have asked for donations and support for several projects we are

working on. Two weeks ago, I created a wish list, and put that list in my blog. Well, several people have stepped forward, and have started to contribute to the cause. To those wonderful supporters, THANK YOU! Without support, no Catholic School can survive. Tuition only pays part of the bills. Any extras and improvements come from supporters, alumni, parents, grandparents, parishioners, and friends. No non-profit stands on its own two feet without help from the community. We are no different. If we want to improve, and provide our students what they need, it takes support from us all. Even public school systems depend on foundations and donations to help provide for the needs of the students. Taxes don't cover all the costs. If you don't believe me, check out the Bartlett Education Foundation and Shelby County Education Foundation. All non-profits need community support.

We need your support. If you are interested in helping, please click on the St. Ann logo or contact me. My email is didier.aur@sascolts.org.

We are building and improving. We aren't just dreaming, we are doing.

God bless you,
Didier Aur, Principal
St. Ann Catholic School