I Can Exhale Now!

Sunset in Orange Beach, AL

Thursday and Friday, I worked away from St. Ann so that I could finish the Advanc-ED accreditation process. There is no way I could have worked from St. Ann and met the accreditation deadline for our diocese. I spent those two days completing the narratives, graphs, charts, and surveys that we have been working on for awhile now.  Well, it is done!  About 6:45 pm last Friday, I submitted the final document, which included 33 ELEOT classroom observations; 10 teacher, staff, student, and parent surveys; and 36 attachments of all kinds especially ITBS and easyCBM results.  I'm sure more will need to be done.  But for now, we have met the diocesan deadlines, and the accreditation process has made it to the next level. To all those who contributed in any way, thank you.  I will keep you posted on the progress as it is now in the hands of Superintendent Janet Donato and the Catholic School Office. Please say a prayer that all goes well.  Divine intervention can only help.

My workstation and a pile of
Advanc-ED paperwork when
I submitted the document.

The cameras have been ordered for the school security system. We hope to start the installation process within the next two weeks. Thank you to the donors who are making this possible. School security is of utmost importance. We surveyed our students on school safety as part of the accreditation process. 96% of the 3rd-5th graders and 98% of the 6th-8th graders feel safe in their classrooms. Those numbers are extremely high, and we want to make sure everyone in our school is safe from any possible harm.

The next step is to work with the installers to figure out a way of putting speakers in the hallways, cafeteria, and gyms. We want to be able to communicate with everyone at the school, especially in a crisis situation. They will have to figure out what type of speakers are needed for this project. I lean heavily on Mike Green to help figure out the best route to take on these projects. His expertise provides a positive difference in making decisions on how best to get these things done.

Once I completed the Advanc-Ed
work, I was able to spend time
with family on our mini-vacation.

For those who have contributed to this project, THANKS! Once we figure out the cost of improving the communication system, we will let everyone know. We will need your continued support for these projects because these aren't budgeted projects. As we see the need for improvement, we start working to make those improvements. If we budget these projects, there would be an increase in tuition, and we do not want to increase tuition. We depend on our supporters for these extra projects.

My 7th grade class sampling
Middle Eastern cuisine.

Now, for a not so pleasant topic:

The spike in teenage depression and suicide we have seen nationwide is scary. I had a conversation with one of the lead counselors from Lakeside last week. The conversation was about the huge increase of depression, harmful behavior such as cutting, and suicide with our youth today. My one word question, “WHY?” was answered with her two-word reply, “SOCIAL MEDIA!”

The following is a quote from an article on social media and depression by Caroline Miller, the editorial director of the Child Mind Institute.

"Is using social media making our kids unhappy? Evidence is mounting that there is a link between social media and depression. In several recent studies, teenage and young adult users who spend the most time on Instagram, Facebook and other platforms were shown to have a substantially (from 13 to 66 percent) higher rate of reported depression than those who spent the least time. Does that mean that Instagram and Facebook are actually causing depression? These studies show a correlation, not causation. But it's worth a serious look at how social media could be affecting teenagers and young adults negatively."

Hanging out with my favorite
person at Picnic Beach in
Gulf Shores.

Below is just one of many videos that deals with social media and depression. If you perform a search on social media and teenage depression, you will be shocked as to the amount of information and research there is out there. Just watch this one video, and you can decide for yourself if you, as a parent, need to do more research on this topic.

https://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2018/11/24/study-social-media-increases-depression.cnn

I bring this up because many of our students have Instagram and Snapchat accounts. Few young people are on Facebook because that form of social media is for old people. Parents, if your child has a social media account, and you have access to your child’s social media accounts and monitor those sites; fantastic! You are ahead of the game. If not, please do not be naïve about the dangers of social media. As you know, I’m all about communication and transparency. Spend valuable time communicating (listening) to your children. They need to be heard, and social media is a way for people to hear what they have to say.

Support St. Ann

Follow your children on social media. If they don’t have a social media account, as my Irish friends would say, “Good on you!”

God bless you,

Didier Aur, Principal

St. Ann Catholic School

St. Ann: Our Mission and Vision

St. Ann Catholic School Mission and Vision Statement

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

Vision: We envision a thriving school for all children that will provide a premier education in the Catholic tradition.

This message goes out to everyone who is part of the St. Ann community, especially since our accreditation process takes place in less than two months. I want to share these statements so our greater community is informed. I want you to be aware of the mission and vision statement the St. Ann staff created during the first days of in-service last August. The staff came together to examine and update the school's mission and vision statement, which should be reviewed every year. The last time it was updated was in 2013 when the school was going through the last accreditation process.

7th Graders Taking Geography Test

Our goal in developing new statements was to write an honest statement that could be understood, lived out, and memorized by everyone at St. Ann, especially the students. The previous mission statement was inclusive but too long to be memorized, especially by students. The mission statement answers the question of why we exist. Well, we exist to provide a Catholic education through faith, service, and love. The vision statement is future-casting in guiding us to where we hope to be five years from now. As we look to the future, our goal is to improve the quality of education we offer our students to the point we are offering a premier education to all our students at every level. At present, we provide our students a very good education. We aren't premier yet, but I do believe with a lot of hard work, we will get there sooner than later. What I ask from every teacher, staff member, student, family, parishioner, alumni, and supporter is to help get to where we need to be. Let's become a premier Catholic school for all our students together.

Chess Extracurricular Exploration

At this point, the accreditation process is taking most of my time. With so much yet to be done, the accreditation process hangs over all of us. As the head of school, this is the fifth time I've led a school through the accreditation process. This is nothing new to me. Every five years, the accrediting agency changes the accreditation process to keep up with the changing times. The idea of the process is that work is done on a yearly basis to achieve a five-year goal. There are steps that need to be put into place to be able to reach goals.

Scholastic Book Fair

One of the goals from 2013 was to improve math scores on the ITBS by five normal curve equivalent (NCE) points. This is a great goal to achieve. I wasn't at St. Ann five years ago, so I commend those who set that goal. A five NCE point improvement makes sense; one NCE point for every year of a five-year process. The first year, 2014, huge improvements were achieved, only to drop back near the original scores. The five NCE points were not achieved by any grade after five years. These scores are from the ITBS, which is administered late April or early May. The other two goals dealt with increasing the amount of technology used in classrooms and in classroom instruction.

Scholastic Book Fair

The goals we are setting for this new accreditation process will not be five-year goals but one-year goals. After accomplishing these three goals, we will set three more goals for the following year. If we achieve three goals on a consistent basis, our test scores will improve; everything will improve. In the words of Fr. Ernie, "Improve the quality of the school." That's what we are doing. Sustainable improvement cannot happen over night and cannot be done in a vacuum. Improvement is going to take time, and is going to take us working together.

Library Volunteers

St. Ann Improvement Goals:

1. St. Ann needs to add a school counselor to the staff. The hope is that the school counselor will also be qualified to work as the school’s assistant principal.

2.  St. Ann would like to become a one-to-one school with iPads for grades 2-4. We are already one-to-one in grades 5-8.

3.  St. Ann would like to develop more individualized lessons geared toward the individual students to better serve them.  This is where a counselor and assistant principal would help, especially in breaking down the data and helping teachers create more individualized lesson plans.

Kindergarten Free Play

All the Catholic Schools of this diocese minus the Jubilee Schools are going through the AdvancED accreditation process together. The visiting AdvancED team will be here April 1st & 2nd to meet with all the school leaders. One of their meetings is with parents from all the schools. Lori Locke and Jimmy Crews will be the parents representing St. Ann.

Members of AdvancED School Improvement Plan committee are: Didier Aur (principal), Angela de Jong (development director), Annmarie Ghio (teacher), Teresa Ferrante (teacher), Mike Green (technology coordinator), Susan Hunt (parish administrator), Lori Locke (Home & School president), Liz Wehmeyer (parent and Apple certified teacher), and Fr. William Parham (associate pastor).

Thank you to everyone who completed a teacher, staff, parent, or student survey last fall. These surveys have come in handy in developing goals for the school. We hope to use annual surveys to keep the improvement process going.

Support St. Ann

If you have a little time, please say some prayers for a successful accreditation process. We need and appreciate those prayers.

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

Catholic Schools Week: A Week of Celebration

Pajamas for Catholic Charities

I write my blog on Sunday evenings, and today being Super Bowl Sunday, I did the same thing today as I do every Super Bowl Sunday, I watched the last two minutes of the game. I do that every year, just the last two minutes. Evidently, that's about all I needed to watch this year. Congratulations to the New England Patriots and the Patriot fans out there.  Super Bowl Champions times VI!

Student Trivia Contest

This has been a great Catholic Schools Week for St. Ann filled with days of celebration. It started off with the school choir singing at Mass, and an extremely well attended St. Ann Preview Day last Sunday. Monday was Pajama Day. You wore your pajamas to school if you donated a new pair of pajamas to Catholic Charities. Well, Catholic Charities received a car load of pajamas to give to children needing pajamas to keep warm at night. Tuesday, we wore our favorite sports team jerseys. Cannot believe how many Steelers fans we have. I wore my São Paulo

My São Paulo Soccer Jersey!
But I'm Playing Volleyball.

Futebol Clube soccer jersey. São Paulo is my favorite soccer team from my hometown in Brazil. Yes Battle Boys, they are much better than Chelsea. And yes, Tottenham is also better than Chelsea. Just saying. Tuesday was also the Staff/Student Volleyball Game. The students put up a good fight, but they were no match for the likes of Deborah Harty, Tracy Angotti, Billy Gage, James Newell and Ryan Cooper. Just in case you didn't hear, Deborah Harty was voted the game's MVP for her total court domination, Wednesday was  Pep Rally Day and Red, White, and Blue Day. Everyone came to school dressed in Red, White, and Blue. USA! USA! Thursday was Career Day and Grandparents Day. This was probably the best day because of all the Grandparents who attended

7th Grade Student Ambassadors

Mass with their grandchild. There are few things in life as wonderful and special as a grandparent/grandchild relationship. Friday was School Spirit Day, Faculty Appreciate Day, and the Student Trivia Contest. As you can see, it was an action packed week for which I'm still trying to recover. Now, I'm hoping for a few days of nothing but normal school days just to try to get caught up. I'm adding a lot of Catholic Schools Week pictures to this blog.

Winning Volleyball Team!

Now, for all the updates, and we have lots of them.

Volunteer Tutors: We have a whole bunch of wonderful people volunteering to tutor our students who need extra help. Now, we have a group of students from CBHS and SBA who want to perform their service hours tutoring our students after school. What better way to use service hours than by helping other students: Students Helping Students! Teresa Ferrante and Annmarie Ghio are in charge of scheduling the tutors with the St. Ann students. We are in constant need of volunteers. So, let us know if you are willing and able to help.

4th Grade PJ Day

I have asked Sally Fillion and Tracy Angotti to put together a St. Ann Bowling Team. They have followed through on this request, and they formed a St. Ann team with 17 students having signed up! I think more students will sign up as word spreads about the team. I encouraged forming a bowling team because bowling is a lifetime sport. I believe lifetime sports are very important. I play a lifetime sport in soccer. I'm 57 and still play. Not very well nor very fast, but my friends and I still play.

3rd Grade PJ Day

The next activity I want our students to participate in is in skeet and trap shooting. I want to form a St. Ann Shot Gun Team. The high schools have them. This would help our students make their high school shot gun team. The problem is, we need some coaches to teach our students. I might have to get the Bartlett Police Department involved somehow. Hey Captain Sones, I need your help on this one.

The Chess Club is coming together nicely. The Club now has nine members! My hope is that the Chess Club will also continue to grow as students learn more about Chess. I might be the worse chess player in the world, so it would be best if I just stay away when they are playing.

Band at Pep Rally

The next Extracurricular Exploration classes will start in a couple of weeks. We've come up with new EEs with the first being a tutoring EE. It is not for students who need to be tutored. It is for our middle school students who would like to help tutor the younger students at St. Ann. This is another form of Students Helping Students! We are also considering an IXL/Khan Academy EE for students who would like the opportunity to advance their studies. We have academic EEs, athletic EEs, and fine arts EEs. The middle school students are getting a lot of choices in doing different things outside of their regular class time.

One of Our Trivia Teams

I think we need a Hunger Games EE. No, we are not going to hunt each other down in the Arena developed by the Gamemakers. This would be a Hunger Games Book Club. Or, we could have a Harry Potter Book Club. Quidditch anyone? Accio! If you've read Harry Potter, this would make sense.

We are going to have a Gardening EE for the next two EE sessions. Mr. Gage will lead this EE. If you are interested in helping with the Gardening EE, please contact the school office. We sure could use some master gardeners or just some regular green thumb type people.

Students at the Pep Rally

We have some great St. Ann folks who have stepped up to donate the $2,098 we need for the security cameras. I plan to get together with Susan Hunt to get the project moving forward. Another item I want to add to the security system is speakers in the hallways. The intercom messages cannot be heard in the hallway. If there is an emergency, students and staff in the hallways need to know what's going on. When we asked for the speaker donations for the classrooms, we received more speakers than we needed. Now, we can use those speakers in the hallways (I hope). We will have to wire them to the existing audio system. I'm then going to buy an Amazon Echo, and have Alexa play classical music throughout the whole school all day long. I'm just kidding. Maybe. Once the cameras are in, the door locks will be next.

Student/Staff Volleyball Game

St. Ann Trivia Night is coming up on Saturday, March 2nd. I hope to have a room full of St. Ann supporters answering all kinds of crazy questions. Now that Catholic Schools Week is over, I'm going to focus on maxing out our trivia night. The Aur Family is entering a team. Our goal is not to finish last. We don't have very high expectations. We just want to support St. Ann and have fun.

If you would like to sponsor trivia night, please get in touch with me for sponsorship opportunities. All proceeds go to the Sr. Connie Scholarship Fund. This scholarship fund goes to St. Ann parishioners who need financial assistance to attend the school. This is a great way to make the school more affordable for families in our parish.

Click To Support St. Ann

Hey St. Ann alumni! We need you. Please put a team together for trivia night, and don't forget to attend our Fat Tuesday Alumni Party on Tuesday, March 5th. Yes, it is a weeknight. Come out anyway. St. Ann is a great place, and we want you to be a part of it.

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

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