PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE
Wow, the first day of school was Wednesday, and miracles will happen. That child who is timid will become less shy, the child who struggles with reading will become an avid reader, and the child who dislikes math will join the math team. There were a few tears Wednesday morning, as many from parents as children, but I promise that they will decrease during the next few weeks. Your children will feel comfortable and safe with their school family. We started the day off with a school assembly for the students in grades K-8, and I was incredibly impressed with how well behaved the children were. We discussed the importance of wearing pants and our nice button collar oxford shirts with our special ties on Mass and other formal days, like when the Bishop visits. We also discussed F.D.R. We started by talking about the president, and then about what F.D.R. means for us, Faith, Dignity, and Respect. We will talk about those things all year long, and hopefully when someone asks one of our students about St. Michael School, they can answer, FDR.
Our Back to school night was a great start to the year. There were so many new and returning friends. I can’t stress how important it is for all of our parents to become involved in either the Parent Association, or Team ExCEL. Without these two amazing groups, we would not be here. Everything these two groups do directly benefits the children, either through programming or financial aid. If you have or continue to receive financial aid, I would greatly appreciate a testimonial from you and your child testifying to how financial aid allows your child to attend this amazing school. It will help a great deal as we continue to grow, and we continue to grow our endowment. As I mentioned at the Open House on Monday and again with the students Wednesday, we have a lot of new families joining our school, so I ask all of you to please extend a gracious welcome to all of them.
One of the subjects I discussed with the middle school students, was participation in school sports. At a small school like ours, we need tremendous participation to field teams in the different sports. This year we will have boys soccer, girls field hockey, and coed golf. Golf is only on Mondays and Fridays from 3-5 pm. Golf won’t start until Monday, September 11, and all students can participate in golf and soccer or field hockey.
We also have a new grading and communication portal for the school, Ren Web. The new program is all inclusive, as it includes; FACTS, Messenger, Grading and communication between parents and teachers, lunch billing, as well as before and after care. It is a very involved system and we will be bringing in one system at a time. We will begin with the grading system and then the messenger system, followed shortly thereafter by the lunch program and before care and aftercare. This will allow us to scan students in and out of after care, scan for billing of lunches, and stream line the entire billing process for both things. It will all be electronic. This may take a couple of months to have everything on line, but when it is all running it should be much better for all of us. Within a few weeks of the start of school, you will be receiving important information, on how you can access everything. But please be patient with us, as it is new to us as well.
I conclude with this from my friend Jonathon Doyle “No situation is ever beyond hope. You’ll either find a way out or become a stronger person through the trial. Stay the course.” To be great as a school, please remember that things you say in front of your children, they remember and share at school. When we teach the children at school, it is important that we have a partnership with the parents. Even though we are inherently designed to fail because of our humanity, that doesn’t mean we stop trying. The students will be learning a lot of new things this year that they will believe to be impossible, but with perseverance and strength of spirit, they will be victorious. We love working every day at St. Michael School, and we value the dignity of each of our students as a gift and a blessing from God.
I feel blessed that these children are here at St. Michael School, and that you entrust them to us. It cannot go without saying how lucky and thankful we are to have families and parishioners who are so supportive of what we are doing.
I ask for God’s blessings for all of us.
Kevin Cullen
