I'm Still the New Guy

Prayer Labyrinth with
Missionaries of Charity

We are already halfway through September; six-weeks into the school year. Field trips are being planned. 8th graders and their parents are putting in a lot of time and effort in raising money for the 8th grade trip to Washington DC. The Fall Fest is one month away. The students sold $38,460 (7,692 tickets) in raffle tickets for a 2018 Hyundai Elantra from Wolfchase Hyundai. 4th grader, Lexi Morrison, sold 563 tickets to take 1st place in sales. Volleyball, golf, soccer, Journalism Club, and Club Invention are in full swing. Gradebooks are filling up. We had our first dress-down day, prayer labyrinth with the Missionaries of Charity, and school-wide Rosary. The St. Fautina Youth Society has published their calendar of events.The first easyCBM assessment of the year is complete. Interim grades have been sent out. The choir is practicing for the Christmas concert. The band is preparing for their concert. Classroom projects are being presented. STREAM, LIFE, and SPARKS are in full drive. I'm on round two of classroom observations. Anna Slattery is working on becoming an iPad expert through Apple training. Kris Miller has become the best 3rd grade teacher ever. Deborah Harty became a certified Apple Teacher before me. Katie Jones went to an art convention in Little Rock. We completed the 1st week of the 2nd session of Extracurricular Exploration.

Rainy Morning Drop-off
Got to Make You Smile!

All of this and much more is taking place at St. Ann. Even though I've seen different versions of all of these activities at other schools, it is still new to me. People will ask me questions about everything that's going on. I always give the same answer: "I have no idea. I'm still the new guy." I'm going to try to milk that answer until the end of May. "I have no idea. I'm still the new guy."

Now for the unpleasant news:
Overall, things at St. Ann are going well. Financially, it is always a struggle. We have to pick and choose which bills to pay first, and which we can hold off on. MLG&W and payroll are always at the top. Got to pay those first. Speaking of that, payroll is this week, and I signed the MLG&W bills on Thursday. Our ability to pay our bills is directly related to tuition received. If tuition is paid on time, we are able to pay all our bills on time. Thank God just about all our families pay their tuition in a timely manner. There are always a few who don't take care of their responsibility, which causes us delay in paying our bills. We cannot pay with what we do not have. In the words of Fr. Ernie, "God doesn't pay the light bill. We have to do that."

Nicole G. Our New
Memphis Catholic Intern

Our budget is roughly $1.6 million for an enrollment of 210 students for 2018-19. When all is said and done, that is roughly $7,500 per student. No one pays $7,500. If a family pays full tuition plus fees without any discounts, they pay roughly $7,000. That's a lot to pay but still a bargain for a private education with lots of individualized teaching and learning going on. I would say that on average, our families pay about $6,000 (And, that is probably a very high guess. Maybe that's more of a wish).

In the end, we are going to have to raise about $300,000 from giving and development to make ends meet. That's a huge number. If all families pay their part, it is more like $200,000 that we have to raise. There is no fat in the budget. We plan as close as we can to zeroing the budget out at the end of the year. We plan for lots of HVAC repairs. We plan on MLG&W raising their rates. We plan on the insurance companies raising their premiums. We somehow plan for the unexpected. We even plan on those families who don't meet their financial responsibilities.

Tieraney S. Our New
Memphis Catholic Intern

If it weren't for the goodness and generosity of donors, most parish schools wouldn't exist. Unfortunately, not all parishes have those philanthropic folks who see beyond themselves. That's why so many Catholic Schools in our diocese have closed or are closing. Don't ever want St. Ann to be one of those. It is too good of a school serving a great need in educating our children in a Catholic/Christian environment. Hopefully, our parish has too many good people to ever see this happen.

Sorry about me getting on my soapbox. I believe in transparency. I want everyone to know what's going on. This parish and school belong to all of us. We should all be in the know, and not just about the great things taking place.

Now for some of the great things:
The Fall Fest will be here soon! This is huge for our parish. If you have signed up to help/participate, thank you. If not, please share your talents and gifts. The Fall Fest committee is putting on a festival that will be tough to ever match. I don't have much to offer so I'm offering my time. It is the most valuable thing I have. I want to share it with the great folks who have put their lives on hold to make this event a success for St. Ann. I have one golf team together, and working on a second one.

Justin Abart, Class of '95

Justin Abart, St. Ann Class of '95, is a former student of mine at CBHS. He earned a B.A. from UT in Geography and an M.E in Earth Science from Memphis. He is also a certified and experienced drone operator. He will be coming out to St. Ann to work with our students on using drones for inspections, aerial imagery, data collection, and mapping. This will be a great addition to our STREAM classes. I'm excited about my World Geography class learning from Mr. Abart since we are learning about land and water forms. Great example of an alumni coming back home to share their knowledge.

Girls' Self Defense Class

Here's a question for all you folks in the medical field. Every morning, I see so many parents who are doctors, nurses, and in other areas of the medical profession who are dropping off their children at St. Ann. How can we share your knowledge and talents through our STREAM and SPARKS classes? There has got to be a way. If you are interested in sharing your knowledge to help our students, please call me. I will set you up with Annmarie Ghio and Romana Wendenon. That goes for all you alumni out there as well. Somebody forward this blog to Thomas Slattery. I'm sure we have students who are interested in veterinary medicine.

I want to thank our development committee for their time and talent. We are working to get the word out about St. Ann. Nick Scully, Lori Locke, Sr. Connie Tarallo, Angela de Jong, and I are meeting weekly to plan a campaign to bring back the alumni. We do have several things we are working on, but we are not doing anything until after the Fall Fest. The Fall Fest is priority #1.

Jeff Blankenship
Blankenship Creative

Jeff Blankenship of Blankenship Creative has donated his time to produce all the brochures and packets we will need as we work to contact every alumni possible. Thank you Mr. Blankenship for your wonderful gift to St. Ann.

Nick Scully and Jeff Blankenship are neither members of our parish. They want to help ensure that St. Ann will be here for future generations. Thank you gentlemen for sharing with us your time, talent, and treasure. You are helping to make a positive difference in our community.

Sr. Connie and Lori Locke are providing us with alumni contact information. We are slowly but surely filling up our database. CBHS and St. Agnes are also helping us with alumni information. I've said this before, no private school can survive without alumni support and involvement.

If you are an alumni of St. Ann Catholic School and wish to receive updates on St. Ann, please contact Angela de Jong at angela.dejong@sascolts.org. We need your support.

Click Here to Support
St. Ann Catholic School

And finally, there are so many ways to support St. Ann. If you are interested in supporting in some way, please contact me at didier.aur@sascolts.org. Your gift could be in the form of time. Your gift could be in the form of a classroom sets of books. Your gift could be in prayer. Your gift could be in tuition assistance. Your gift could be in computers or iPads or printers. Your gift could be unrestricted for other needs. A gift to pay utilities isn't sexy, but it sure is necessary. Once again, contact me if you have any questions.

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