Good evening Sacred Heart families – I am so blessed to be starting my 6th year at Sacred Heart. SHOJ has a reputation that this archdiocese as one that is faith filled and has great things happening. Just One of the many ways we stand out is our community feel – everyone needs a church family where they can turn for prayers, friendship and support. Mrs. Hess, along with teaching in the middle school, is helping us be intentional about building and engaging our community. She is going say a few words.
Watching our community grow and flourish this year is going to be fascinating.
Here are some numbers about SHOJ – of our 227 families, we have 28 families at our school this year that are brand new to the school, 17 new students in 1st- 8th, 31 kindergarteners and a retention rate of 93%.
We are in the third year of our Cognia accreditation cycle which focuses on a continuous cycle of improvement. Our spring state assessments averaged about 17 points above the state’s in reading and math across grade levels 3-8. We average about 3 points higher than other Catholic Schools in our Archdiocese in math and reading. As a school, we are setting goals to continue to increase our performance for all students at all levels, but most important to us is helping each child of God develop as God desires. As SHOJ parish prepares to plan for the next 5 years, it is time for us to plan for the school specifically. We are in need of getting your input on what we do well as a school and what goals we need to consider for Catholicity, facilities, programs and curriculum to be part of our next strategic plan. You will get a google form survey later - mostly short answer prompts to help us start this process. It will also have a space to indicate if you want to be considered for a specific work group on the strategic planning process. As we analyze what we do well, what we need to work on, the values of our stakeholders and the dreams for the future, we will group these together and assign specific areas to be further investigated. Thank you in advance for completing this.
Catholic Education is unique because before the goals of high achievement or worldly success, we know that the hope of eternal life in heaven is most important. In addition to academics we are placing additional effort on growth in virtue. We are happy that you chose SHOJ as a safe haven for your children to aid in their academic growth and faith development. As parents, you may have read or heard about books like Thrivers, 7 Habits of Healthy Kids, Keeping your Kids Catholic, The Parents Guide for Growth Mindset, and the list goes on. We know that how we think about things changes how we live. Teaching virtues of hope, temperance, fortitude, honesty, docility, moderation, orderliness, humility, foresight, and the list goes on – are all different names for what we read in those books that tell us kids need to be self-confident, empathetic, honest, curios, persistent and optimistic – or whatever words they are using – we can find ALL THIS in the beautiful teachings of Jesus and our Catholic Faith. To make sure that you know what virtue we are focusing on each week at school, the weekly voice mails will start with a couple of sentences about that. This way you can discuss them at home with your children. The staff and I, in preparing to teach these, can’t help but be challenged ourselves to develop them better as well. As we focus growing in virtue with infinite grace of the Sacraments, especially the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, we can persevere with minds prepared for the future and souls for eternity.
We are also a Theology of the Body Campus and our teachers will receive training each month to help us teach the beauty of theology of the body to all our students.
If you need help with the school app, voice mails, text messages, the portal etc. please see Mr. Chapman in his office in the library. These are our primary ways of communication and will keep you up to date at SHOJ.
Having worked with Fr. Zarse for 59 days, I trust and have full confidence in what he is vision is for our school and parish. I am so excited that I get to do my job with all of you and for good of Catholic Education.
Thanks again for being here. It is now time to hear what the classroom teachers have to say – be sure to stop by for a cookie and water as well. As always, be assured of my continued prayers – it is a great day to be a Cardinal.
Kathy Rhodes