Just a Hodge-Podge of Information

Just a Few of My Over-55 Teammates

I would like to begin this blog with an apology for not publishing a blog last week. Every Martin Luther King, Jr. Weekend, a group of my soccer buddies play in a soccer tournament somewhere. This year, it was in Orlando. We are the Memphis Blues over-55 team. We also took an over-40s team to Orlando. We look forward to this tournament every year. It is a great opportunity to relax with friends, play soccer, laugh a lot, and make fun of each other. Many of us have been friends since we were in our teens and early twenties. We are growing old together doing what we love to do, and that is to play soccer and spend time together. Seems like only yesterday that we were playing in over-30s tournaments. Next, we will be playing in the over-60s division.

Today was the start of Catholic Schools Week 2019! What better way to start this week than with our school choir singing at the 8:30 Mass. Thank you to the mother/son team of Tricia and Ryan Cooper for their work with the students in organizing this event. I would love to see this happen more often. It is my understanding that John Angotti used to have the school choir singing at the evening services. Would be awesome to not only have the choir sing but also the school band play at Mass.

We also had Preview Day today at school as part of the kick-off to Catholic Schools Week. We had about twenty families come visit the classrooms and tour the school. The Student Ambassadors did a fantastic job of giving tours to our visitors. Thank you to Jack Griffith and Jennifer Podesta for your help at Preview Day. Love it when parents get involved, and help at the different functions we host.

Speaking of volunteers, thank you to these great folks who have volunteered to help tutor our students in reading and math: Abe Abuelouf, Jean Bedwell, Cathy Bird, Jimmy Crews, Marla Ferguson, Nancy Howland, Trena Kilp, Laura Manning, Anthony Maranise, Mike Reynolds, Linda Sones, and Beth Williams.

We are still in need of more volunteers to help our students with reading and math. If you are willing and able, please contact Annmarie Ghio (annmarie.ghio@sascolts.org) or Teresa Ferrante (teresa.ferrante@sascolts.org). You need to have Virtus training and a background check. We will take care of those two things for you at the school.

1st Graders
Working on Science

We also need volunteers for the Mother-Son Virtual Reality Dinner on Saturday, February 16th from 6-8 pm. If you able and willing to volunteer, please contact the school office. This is a time for the Fathers to volunteer since the mothers volunteered for the the awesome Father-Daughter Dance.

In my last blog, I mentioned that we are still $2,098 short on purchasing and installing 20 cameras throughout the school as part of our school safety plan. I've had some people ask about the cameras, and have shown interest in helping, but no one has stepped up to make this a reality. We need to complete this part of the school safety plan before moving on to the next part, which is replacing the classroom door locks. It is going to be tough for an intruder to enter the school if we have the camera system in place. But, if one does enter the building, they should have a hard time entering the classrooms if we can install better locking mechanisms. We need your help to complete these projects starting with the camera system.

St. Ann Choir

The students have shown such great interest in our extracurricular exploration chess club that we have started a Chess Club. You can contact Annmarie Ghio if you would like some information about the Chess Club. Several parents and grandparents have offered to help mentor our future chess champions.

1st Graders in the Computer Lab

The interest in bowling is also picking up. We now have a St. Ann bowling team. Thank you Sally Fillion for taking this on. If you are interested in being a part of our bowling team, please contact Tracy Angotti (tracy.angotti@sascolts.org). This is open to the St. Ann PRE students as well. Remember that together, we are St. Ann Catholic Church.

This past weekend, Jonah Odum competed in Pat Smith's Battle

Jonah in White & Red

for the Rock in Little Rock, AR. Pat Smith was a four-time NCAA National Champion at the D-1 level. The tournament attracted just under 500 wrestlers from Arkansa, Oklahoma, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Illinois, Tennessee, Texas, and Kentucky. Jonah competed in one of the toughest brackets in the tournament, where several of his opponents were nationally ranked. Jonah fought with the heart of a lion, and was able to earn second place, which was also the highest placing of any of his teammates attending the tournament. Congratulations Jonah! Sounds as if you should be nationally ranked.

There's a lot more information to share about what's happening at St. Ann. I might have to write another blog during the week just to catch up.  This blog is getting too long already. To everyone out there reading my blog, thank you. I greatly appreciate the comments you have been posting. They do help give me some motivation because writing a blog takes a lot of time. And, I end up putting a lot of time into writing the blog on Sundays.

Support St. Ann

St. Ann is an incredible place. Come be a part of what's going on at the school. We want and need alumni, parent, and grandparent support. If we are going to continue to improve the school for our students, we need your help. There is no limit to the ways you can support St. Ann.

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

Continuing the Improvements!

On Sunday, January 27th from 11:00 am till noon, we will host a school preview day for families interested in attending St. Ann. Choosing your child's school is one of the most important decisions you will make for them. Come meet the faculty, talk with other parents, tour the school, view our materials, check out the athletic program, and learn more about the parish. We will also be available to discuss tuition costs and available financial aid. PRE scholarships are also available.

During the summer, Steve Sones, Captain of the Bartlett Police Department and a St. Ann parent, performed a walk-through security check of the school. One of his recommendations was to improve our security camera system. We currently have two security cameras. We have designed a system where we install 20 additional cameras throughout the whole school, that will focus on every exit door and hallway.

The cost to purchase and install this system is $7,257 ($3,278 for the cameras and $3,979 for the wiring). We have already raised $5,159 towards the purchase and installation of the camera security system. We are currently short $2,098. If you are able to help us raise the rest of the funds needed for the cameras, we would greatly appreciate your help. Protecting the children and keeping the school safe is a top priority at any school.

We still need to work on the door locks and re-keying all the doors. After the security cameras are installed, that will be next on our list to improve school safety. We do our monthly fire and intruder alert drills. We are as prepared as possible. I want to be more prepared than possible, and a complete camera system will help get us there. This isn't just for school safety. This is also for PRE, E-Care, and St. Ann athletics. Let's protect all the children on our campus.

Bowling is a growing sport at St. Ann. More and more of our students are taking up bowling. Several SBA bowling team members are from St. Ann. With this growing interest, if your child is interested in being a part of a bowling program, please contact me (didier.aur@sascolts.org) or Tracy Angotti (tracy.angotti@sascolts.org). We are interested in starting St. Ann bowling teams, and hosting tournaments. Bowling is a great lifetime sport for our students to learn early on.

We started the Chess Extracurricular Exploration class this past week. It is a big success already, and the students are interested in starting a chess club. If your child is interested in being a part of the chess club, once again, please contact me or Annmarie Ghio (annmarie.ghio@sascolts.org). We could also use some parents, grandparents, and/or alumni who are experienced chess players to help. We know how to play, but our expertise is limited.

This past week, Angela de Jong and I have taken over as the moderators of the student council. Blake Arey, student council president, started each school day by reading the morning prayer and announcements. Luca de Jong, student council vice-president, will do the same this week. The student council is helping to put together Catholic Schools Week activities including selecting the charity that will benefit from their work. They are putting together the games the students will play during the school's pep rally. They will also help to organize the student/faculty volleyball game.

This past Thursday was the first time this school year that we have had all classes from PK3-8th grade attend Mass together. The 6th, 7th, and 8th graders partnered up with PK3 and PK4. We figured this way, the little students could make sure the big students didn't misbehave during Mass. :)  Everybody did a great job of taking care of each other. We are making plans to do it again this week. Having all grades at Mass was great for all groups.

In my last blog, I mentioned that I want to spotlight some of the things my students do outside of school. This week, the student spotlight is on Wilson and Avery Coggins. They placed 1st in doubles, Avery placed 1st in singles, and 1st in all events at the City bowling tournaments in December. They have been bowling since they were 5 years old. Wilson is also a brown belt junior instructor in PaSaRyu style martial arts. He is pictured with his karate belts. Congratulations and keep up to great work!

We are still working on hosting the Alumni Fat

Support St. Ann!

Tuesday Party on Tuesday, March 5th beginning at 6:30 pm. If you are a St. Ann alum and over 21, please make plans to attend. The school cannot survive without alumni being involved in the school. Come on back and see the new and improved St. Ann Catholic School. And, come get reacquainted with some of your friends from years past.

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

Together, St. Ann Can Be Great!

I am not one to attend the same Mass every weekend.  I do my best to change it up and attend Mass at St. Ann at different times. One of the things I've noticed when attending the different Masses at St. Ann is that there are so many school aged children attending Mass who don't attend St. Ann Catholic School.

To me, this is very sad and worrisome. I do fear what is going to happen with Catholic education in the future. It is no secret that the school at St. Ann wasn't far from closing its doors before this school year started. We have added some years to St. Ann by improving the school, which has helped to increase enrollment. Yet, we are a long way from being in the clear from any type of closure. If we don't continue to improve and change the way we approach education, we are not sure what the future will look like.

Until this year, enrollment had been in decline since 1985. After a 33 year decline, we finally reversed this enrollment decline this year . We have to continue this trend. We cannot expect to have 200 families fund the whole school. We need to build on that with St. Ann families and alumni support. We need to fill our school. If that happens, tuition will be more manageable for all families. If you attend St. Ann Catholic Church, have school aged children, and would like for your child(ren) to attend St. Ann Catholic School, but are not sure if you can afford a Catholic education, please come meet with Angela de Jong in our school office. I think you will be surprised. angela.dejong@sascolts.org

We are making strides every day to improve the school. Come visit. See what's going on in the classrooms. As I said, I think you will be surprised.

If you are reading this and know of a family with school aged children who attend the parish but not the school, please share this blog with them. For the sake of the parish, school, and our Catholic faith, we have to grow. But, we have to start the growth from within. For those who are a part of the school but not the church, we need to make our parish so wonderful that you will want to be a part of St. Ann and not just during the school year. We need to work together to make St. Ann the best parish possible for everyone.

The fourth session of Extracurricular Exploration begins January 8th. We will introduce the offerings on Monday during the regular EE time and conduct sign-ups then.  The offerings for this fourth session, which runs from January 8th through February 15th are:
1.  The History of Pop and Country Music (John Baum)
2.  STEM Building (Stacey Griffith)- Students who participate in this EE will also compete in a STEM contest at Southwest Community College on February 23rd. The competition is not optional.
3.  Sewing/Art (Ruby Langford, Lauren Truelove, Billy Gage/Katie Jones)
4.  Basketball/Volleyball (Blake Arey, Tracy Angotti/Jennifer Podesta, Jessica Orban)
5.  Chess (Annmarie Ghio)

I do want to say thank you to the families that stepped up and purchased chess sets for the school. We asked for help and you responded. In no time, all six chess sets were donated to St. Ann. Just like when we needed speakers for the classrooms, you responded with kindness and generosity. Thank you. We will have more requests in the future. Please continue to support the school and our students.

The Stuppy Family Foundation out of Kansas City, Missouri has donated a little over $3K to St. Ann for the purchase of lockers for the 8th graders. To help keep our school nicer and neater, we are adding lockers by the 8th grade homeroom (Mrs. Griffith's science labs). This will give the 8th graders their own locker space as well as allow the 6th and 7th graders to have their own locker walls. The lockers have been ordered and should be arriving any day. Thank you to Frank and Kelley Stuppy for their support. Kelley is a 1987 St. Ann graduate. Once a Colt...!

Something that I would like to do in my blog is to brag on students about some of their personal accomplishments, and not just things they do at school. So, here are a few shoutouts to several of our St. Ann students.

Adam Locke is a black belt in karate, and he became a black belt with his

mother, Lori, and brother, Ethan. He made blackbelt from Bartlett ATA last December. It took him three years to accomplish this feat. Now, he is focusing his time and energy on scouting and trap shooting. We might have to create a St. Ann trap shooting team. Who is ready to lead this venture?

My family went skeet shooting over the Christmas break in Maryland, and we loved it. It reminded me of the times when I was young and my father used to take me shooting. He taught me how to shoot. In turn, I taught my son and daughter how to shoot. Need to go skeet/trap shooting more often.

Brett Battle read all seven of the Harry Potter books. This means he read over 1 million words. Is reading all seven books a big deal? Yes it is especially if you have a diagnosed learning disability. Brett shows us that through hard work, perseverance, and parental support, the possibilities are endless. When he isn't jumping out of airplanes, Brett is reading Harry Potter. Congratulations and great work Brett!

Zach Griffith, Kate Bannister, and Savannah Bannister performed in all 23 shows of Christmas Carol at Theater Memphis. Zach played the roles of young Ebby and Peter Cratchit. Kate and Savannah played the roles of Want and Ignorance as well as carolers. Not only did they perform in 23 shows, they kept their grades up during their very busy schedule. Congratulations and thank you for your dedication to excellence.

As we begin the second half of the 2018-19 school year, I ask for your prayers for our students, families, staff, volunteers, and donors. Please pray for guidance and wisdom for our school leaders. Please pray that we continue to improve the school and the education we offer our students. Please pray for continued support from our donors and alumni. Thank you in advance for adding St. Ann to your prayer list.

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