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St. Mary's School Annual Report To the Parishioners of St. Mary’s Parish, Thank you for the opportunity to serve you these past eight years as principal of St. Mary’s School. Your commitment has made my job a truly wonderful experience and I thank God for you and your support, especially your prayer support. I would like to share with you a brief “state of the school” report: The Students During the 2008-2009 school year, 106 students were enrolled in K-6. During the past few years we have increasingly become a reflection of the diversity of the city of taken from our accreditation study shows how our student population has changed:
The Staff St. Mary's School students were served during the 2008-2009 by seven classroom teachers and three specialist teachers in the areas of PE and Fast ForWord, Music/Band, and Spanish. Our support staff included one full time and two part-time paraprofessionals, two part-time janitors, a head cook and two assistants, an administrative assistant, and a principal. Our school was also blessed with approximately 35 volunteers who helped in the classrooms and lunchroom, coached our volleyball and basketball teams, or served our school through the TRIP program. Additional Support I would like to commend the work of our School Advisory Committee. Over the past several years this group of parents and teachers has become instrumental in formulating a marketing plan, has reviewed school policies, participated in the accreditation process, and has been the liaison between parents, administration, and the Education Committee. The Curriculum While many schools are cutting back in their academic offerings, St. Mary’s remains strong in maintaining a full academic roster for its students. K-6 students have religion, language arts including reading, writing, grammar, and spelling, mathematics, science, social studies, art, music, PE, Spanish, and technology. Band is offered to 5th and 6th graders, as is the extra curriculars, volleyball and basketball. We also offer Fast ForWord, a reading program developed by neuro-scientists, and Reading Counts. Fourth and fifth graders participate in DARE and our fifth and sixth graders in Junior Optimists. But most importantly, our students prepare to be leaders in the faith community as they cantor, lector, serve Mass, and participate in weekly Masses. This was the second year that we offered an after-school program called CAP ( Program). Running from September through April from the program includes study time, fitness, and special activities such as crafts, cooking, science exploration, etc. In the after school hours, piano lessons were also available and this fall we plan to add a children’s choir. Fundraising Playing major roles in the school’s fundraising efforts are the Parent-School Association, the many volunteers who run our TRIP program, those who continue to support our school through the Endowment Fund and the Adopt-a-Student Scholarship donations. The TRIP Program brought in $21,803 to the family accounts and $13,210 to the school. This is a $2,152 total increase over last year. We know that this could increase considerably with more parishioner participation. We received scholarships this year from the SSND Provincial Fund, the CCW, the Diocese of Additional funds were raised this year through the Marathon ($12,740), school pictures ($800), the magazine drive ($2404), the lasagna dinner ($1477), Box Tops for Education ($838), and the June golf tournament fundraiser ($5,000 put in school funds, and $2697 stayed in the PSA treasury). This fundraising is done to keep tuition rates at an affordable level and to aid the general revenue to the school. Ordinarily, special projects or major purchases are financed through special donations, not through the above listed fundraisers. Accreditation During this school year, St. Mary's completed the accreditation process and hosted an accrediting team visit. The team recommended St. Mary's for accreditation renewal to MNSAA, the Minnesota Nonpublic School Accrediting Association. With this accomplishment, St. Mary's continues its long tradition of being accredited begun back in 1985. Accountability The students in grades 3-6 are administered two standardized tests, the MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) test and the MCA II (Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment) tests. While both tests drive decision-making for teaching strategies and content, the MAP tests monitor the progress of individual students year-to-year and the MCA II tests measure individual progress on SMS students generally score very well on these tests, but we were particularly pleased with the number of students who exceeded the (high) Reading: 50% exceeded, 38% met the standards, 5% partially met, and 7% did not meet the standards. Math: 25% exceeded, 56% met the standards, 16% partially met, and 3% did not meet the standards Note: Of the few students who did not meet the standards in this particular MCA testing, most showed significant progress and/or scored above the mean on the MAP testing. The dual testing is helpful in this way to determine if a student has just had a bad testing experience on one or the other tests or is truly deficient. Who’s New in 2009-2010 What’s New for 2009-2010 Jody Reum – head cook Departmentalized scheduling for Grades 3-6 Gregorio Montejo – head custodian New reading curriculum Jill Roush – liturgist / children’s choir A “new look” for our cafeteria – round tables! Children's choir Our thanks to the parish of St. Mary’s for its continued support. With your prayers, your generosity, and your willingness to share your time and talents, SMS will remain a strong leader of education in the
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