St. Paul School

People sometimes ask if we have a parish school. The answer is, of course, both  “yes” and “no.” The “no” is in the sense that we have no school on our parish grounds and there is no school named St. Timothy. However, we do have a parish school in the sense that our students are welcomed at St. Paul School and we financially (and in other ways) help support them. Starting next year, St. Timothy Parish will have the most students in the school. We have been working with the school to have this reflected in the various committees and governing councils. Mr. Dave Maher, the principal, has also asked that what is going on at the school be published in both our bulletin and The Companion. We hope this will encourage both awareness and active interest in our school.

This doesn’t rule out our building a St. Timothy school here on our grounds. That option we continue to pursue and we will do a survey of the parishioner’s interest. But even if we opt for our own, separate school, it is likely that the current students at St. Paul will still finish there.

OF PRINCIPAL CONCERN 
By Dave Maher, Principal of St. Paul School  

May 2006
After a hiatus of several years (writer’s block), I have decided to resurrect my monthly column. The purpose is simple. It is to give some insight into St. Paul School to those of you who may have no other means of getting that insight. The tremendous support given to us by St.Paul and St.Timothy parishes deserves this at least.

My first order of business is a few disclaimers. Part of my job is to sing the praises of our school. This is not to be construed in any way with minimizing the important part that other schools in our area play in our community. I have been at St. Paul for 21 years and have had excellent communication and interaction with the people at Boone County Schools. They are our colleagues, not adversaries. We work together for the welfare of all students in our area.

Secondly, we are a Catholic School. We don’t apologize for that. In fact we proudly proclaim it every chance we get. However, we do have non-Catholics in school. In fact in the past we have had students of the Muslim and Jewish faiths. We do welcome and celebrate diversity. While we are proud of our faith, we understand that others whose beliefs are different from ours are proud also.

Thirdly, we serve two parishes and that is different from the norm. We are Saint Paul School and we are located at Saint Paul Parish, but we are just as much the school of Saint Timothy Parish. We have much to do in this regard. We see ourselves as an important part of each parish. Saint Timothy has representatives on the governing body of our school, the Education Commission. This year 47 percent of our students are Saint Timothy Parishioners. We want to be perceived as such by parishioners of both parishes, whether those parishioners have children in school or not.

Finally, Catholic education is expensive. There is a real tug of war financially in all Catholic schools: tuition vs. salaries. We are not staffed any longer by the good sisters who worked for practically nothing. We are in justice obligated to pay a fair wage to our teachers and staff, and at the same time keep tuition affordable. If you are in fact interested in coming to Saint Paul School, but think you can’t afford it, I invite you to talk to the business manager of your parish: Carol Christen at Saint Paul or Greg Egbers at Saint Timothy. Both of these individuals are very open and caring people who will do everything they can to try to accommodate your situation. Give them a call if you interested.

In closing, I want you to know that I am at your service. If you have any questions or concerns about Saint Paul School, please feel free to contact me at school
phone 859-647-4070 or email: dmaher@saint-paul-school.org.

Aug.2006
New this year at Saint Paul:

Work is being completed on air conditioning. It was decided to use the profits from bingo for major improvements to the school and air conditioning is the first of these projects. Over Christmas break last year, the wiring was completed that will allow room units in each room and central air in the hallways. As soon as school was out in May, work began on installation and should be complete by the beginning of school.

We do have a continuing cycle for text replacements. This past year we used new social studies books, and the previous year, both math and reading texts were replaced.

This past spring, Ruby Hart, department head for religion, led religion teachers in selecting a new religion text for this year. We have chosen a text from Silver Burdette Ginn, Blest Are We . All are excited about it and are looking forward to it. In addition, Kim Brewer, head of the science department, led the effort to choose new science texts for next year. Elementary will be using Harcourt Brace, and middle school will be using Glencoe/McGraw Hill. These will be a great improvement to our programs.

A big concern that many parents have had in recent years has been the weight of backpacks coming home. It is a well founded concern as textbooks simply are getting bigger and bigger. We were able to purchase the middle school texts in three volumes for each grade level (6-7-8), and even though this was a little more expensive, it will lighten the load when science books come home. Also we have been able to contract other textbook companies to have online copies available to you. We will continue to explore all options in the attempt to make the backpack problem more bearable. We will send more information home about this when school starts.