St. Ann Colts Since 1960

Fr. Ernie at the School Mass

Between St. Ann school and parish, well over 500 students receive religious education. The school teachers and Parish Religious Education (PRE) volunteers have a tremendous responsibility in supporting the parents in providing Catholic instruction to the children. Kathy Schober, the parish director of religious education, coordinates the school and parish religion classes to make sure both are using the same text books and religious curriculum. With all the school teachers PK3 through 8th grade and the couple of dozen parish PRE volunteers, the students are extremely fortunate to have so many outstanding Catholic educators teaching them about the Catholic faith. These teachers are definitely doing God's work at St. Ann.

Mass Lector

At this morning's PRE meeting, I was given the opportunity to speak before the parents about St. Ann Catholic School. Kathy didn't have to ask me twice about speaking because I am extremely passionate about Catholic education, and believe that anyone wanting a Catholic education for their child(ren) should not be denied. I let the parents know that there are scholarships available for PRE students if they want to pursue a Catholic education for their child(ren). As I mentioned at the meeting, if you are interested, please contact Angela de Jong in the school office. Thanks Kathy for allowing me to speak at your meeting.

St. Ann School Mass

Unfortunately, Catholic Schools across the country have had to price themselves to the point that middle and low income families cannot afford to send their child(ren) to Catholic Schools unless those schools have money available for financial assistance. All this to say that as people donate to the school, we have more financial assistance available to help.



Have you read Built to Last by James Collins and Jerry Porras? I read that book back in 2006 while I was president at Helias Catholic High School. Collins and Porras said that you should come up with a Big Harry Audacious Goal (BHAG) for your company. "A true BHAG is clear and compelling, serves as unifying focal point of effort, and acts as a clear catalyst for team spirit. It has a clear finish line, so the organization can know when it has achieved the goal; people like to shoot for finish lines." Along with my team at Helias, we came up with a BHAG for the school, and it worked. The goal was so Big, Harry, and Audacious that it would take several blogs to write about it. 

Helias After Our BHAG!
This was a wooded field in 2013.

Let me just say that I believe Fr. Ernie and I have a BHAG for St. Ann that will work. Fr. Ernie and I believe we have to change the way we operate our school. We believe we need to move to a tithing model school where parishioners don't pay tuition. Instead, all members of the parish increase their tithing. The increased tithing offsets tuition, and the parish community comes together to develop more life-long Catholics. This also means all parishioners send their children to St. Ann Catholic School and participate in tithing.

This models works in the Diocese of Wichita and Diocese of Jefferson City. I'm not saying this has to be done diocese-wide. I'm saying that St. Ann can be the start of this BHAG. If it works at St. Ann, the other parishes can follow along.

Students Workin on easyCBM

Our school has over 200 students. Our PRE has over 300 students. Just imagine what our parish would be like if over 500 students attended their parish school! We are working to build a great school. We cannot do it alone. If you want to be a part of building something great; let's do this thing together.

In a recent study by Georgetown University, they found that only 5% of Catholic millennials who never attended a Catholic School go to Mass weekly compared with 33% who attended Catholic Schools. They also found that 66% of Catholic millennials who never attended Catholic Schools are confirmed compared to 91% of millennials who attended Catholic Schools are confirmed.

Students Working on easyCBM

Am I bad-mouthing our PRE program? Never! No Way! I love the work Kathy and her army of volunteers are doing. They are fantastic. I was trying to figure out how I could volunteer and be apart of the St. Ann PRE army.  I cannot this first year.  Maybe next year I can help. I am saying that there is a better chance of building life-long Catholics if those Catholics attend Catholic Schools.

Now, here are some things that happened this past week.

We are just about finished taking the first easyCBM assessment. The 8th graders have a portion of the math assessment to take as well as some individuals who were absent this week. I hope to have everything finished by the end of Monday. Mrs. Slattery and Miss Ferrante have been a huge help in getting this accomplished. I still have a couple of easyCBM webinars to go through to be able to better use this assessment. The good thing is that Title II will pay for these webinars.

Click to Listen to Choir

The choir gets better and better every week. If I can figure out
how to add video to my blog, I will add two videos of the choir singing at Mass. I enjoy the school-wide Mass. The first grade earned a pizza party for being the class with the correct answer to Fr. Ernie's question. The question was: Why is Sunday observed as our holy day?  The answer: That was the day of the resurrection. Congratulations Mrs. Harty's first graders.

The new Extracurricular Exploration classes for the middle schoolers start tomorrow.  We have six classes this session.  They are:

Click to Listen to Choir

• Jazz Band (John Baum)
• Roller Coaster Building (Stacey Griffith)
• Blogging (Justin Kissell)
• PaSaRyu Self-Defense Class for Girls (Angela de Jong, Master in PaSaRyu) http://www.pasaryu.org
• Coding (Jimmy Crews)
• Flip Book Animation (Annmarie Ghio)

Do you want to use your talents, creativity, and energy to make a positive difference in our parish community? Volunteer to help with the Fall Festival. If the rest of us put in 5% of the effort that Stephanie Nichols, Jamie Coggins, and Kathy Shiavone are in helping with the Fall Fest, this would be the biggest and best party Bartlett has ever seen. I'm using my energy by volunteering for six hours on Friday. I'm also volunteering on Saturday. Just waiting to see where I'm needed.

Also, use your talents to help with the Home & School Hospitality Committee. We are only as strong as the volunteers who help make things happen. We have lots of events planned to help make St. Ann a better place for all. Please help make things happen.

I bought my wife a St. Ann pullover sweatshirt. Cold weather will be here soon. Don't forget to visit the Colt Spirit Shop.

Thank you for reading this blog. My blogs have been averaging roughly 1,500 readers per week. Your comments, suggestions, and ideas will help to make this blog more interesting and relevant.

Do you want to use your treasure to make a positive difference in the life of a child? Click on the school logo and contribute to the St. Ann School Annual Giving Society. Help students attend St. Ann by supporting them with a financial scholarship. Help us develop life-long Catholics.  Thank you.

God bless you,

Didier Aur, Principal

St. Ann Catholic School