Dear Friends in Christ,
Happy Thanksgiving! We at St. Patrick and the North Linn Cluster have much to be thankful for this year! So much so, that I cannot even address it all this week! 30 of our high school students and adults just returned from the National Catholic Youth Conference in Indianapolis. We’ll share more about that next week. This week, I want to focus on the St. Patrick Catholic School, giving thanks for the great things that have been happening, the plans for the future, and how you can be a part of it.
For the past few years, we have had a School Annual Appeal that has been managed by an outside consultant. The Appeal has yielded great results for supporting our school, but this year we’re trying something a little different. In order to maximize the impact of your generosity to the Appeal, we are managing the Appeal “in house”. The Strategic Planning Committee for the school has put together an insert in the bulletin this week with the Appeal theme of Continuing the Mission of providing Christ-centered learning. The insert includes a lot of information on the great things that are taking place, and provides information on how you can be a part by generously supporting this Appeal.
One of the things we are most thankful for this year is finding an outstanding educator in Mrs. Diane Bradford to be our new Principal! After four years of service here at St. Patrick, Dr. Michael Volk was ready to move on to a new opportunity, and we are thankful for his time here. It took several months to find her, but we have been blessed with all the gifts and talents that Mrs. Bradford has brought to our school. Her husband, Brian, their son, Kyle, and their family business, Bradford Custom Cabinets, have even contributed generously by building and installing new cubbies in some of the classrooms.
Another thing we are thankful for is the Iowa law that was passed earlier this year that provides Education Savings Accounts (ESAs). These allow families greater access to alternatives to public education, such as St. Patrick School, by providing assistance with tuition. This will allow Catholic Schools like St. Patrick to be more financially self-sufficient, relying on less direct financial support from parishes.
The reality is that the funding from the ESAs will also allow St. Patrick greater access to teachers and other educational resources. For many years, owing largely to the history of religious sisters and priests staffing much of the Catholic School staff, compensation for teachers has been significantly lower than for public school teachers. In today’s world, where nearly every Catholic School teacher is a layperson, our below-market compensation has limited our access to great educators, especially in this time of teacher shortages. We are thankful that the ESAs will allow us to provide just and competitive compensation and greater access to teachers.
A second insert in this bulletin provides details on capital improvements we are doing at the school. We are thankful that the generosity of benefactors in the past has provided the means to improve electric service and heating and cooling. Other upgrades include a grant that allows us to enhance safety and security systems at the school, and we hope to install fiber optic connectivity to the internet very soon.
Whew, that’s a lot! Greater opportunities for families and students, for teachers, and for the entire school and parish! We are thankful for the generosity of benefactors in the past and the ESAs, but those are still only part of the funding structure for our St. Patrick School. Parish support and this School Annual Appeal are critical. We’ve cut out most of the “selling this and that” fundraisers this year to allow a greater focus on this Appeal. We could really use your help, your prayers, and your generous support of this Appeal. Please be a part of Continuing the Mission at St. Patrick School! And again, Happy Thanksgiving!
+Peace, Fr. Sean