A warm St. Mark’s welcome to all in our school community, and to all visitors!

Hopefully, we have all spent the holidays in a relaxing and refreshing manner, and are ready to begin another year. September means different things to different people. As the well-known television commercial sings, to many parents, it’s “the most wonderful time of the year!” For our S.K. to grade 6 students, even though the older ones may not admit it at times, it's a joyful reunion with friends and classmates, and the anticipation of a new teacher, more and exciting things to learn and new friends to make. For our new J.K. students, it's an entirely unique experience, right from riding the bus and leaving the security of home, to being in a classroom with people they don't yet know and staying at school "the whole day!" Pretty scary stuff for these little 3 and 4 year olds! And I can remember that as a parent, it was a pretty scary and emotional time for me as well! It's amazing though, how quickly they become "pros" at being students and love the whole school adventure. Even our teachers experience a new beginning each year, as they work to learn how each new child they have in their classroom learns, what their needs are and how to best meet those needs. The teachers are constantly learning as well, through reading, attending professional development days, participating in staff meetings and taking courses, in order to stay on top of the latest educational research and developments.

All of us at St. Mark Catholic School welcome your children and you to our school family. We strive to make our school community a place where your children and you feel happy and secure. As you know, and as you who are new to our school will soon find out, St. Mark Catholic School is a joyous place, a place where your children will spend their days learning, laughing, playing and praying among friends, teachers, and support staff who are all dedicated to making their experience a good one. Thank you for entrusting your children to us. Together, we will teach them, nurture them, guide them and nourish them academically, spiritually, physically and socially. Please visit our web page often, as we will be posting news, events, calendars and newsletters here, and we hope to include links to teachers' web pages as we develop our site. Communication is so important, and I encourage you to call, visit, write or e-mail whenever you feel the need to discuss, ask or comment on anything. Volunteers are what make a big difference in our school, so if you have time to spare, we welcome your assistance. Just call us!

May God bless us and guide us as we embark on this new school year!

Why Catholic Education???

Someone once asked me what was different about a Catholic school. Last Fall, I attended a conference, where I was asked to articulate why I valued Catholic education, and what made it unique. I would like to include in this welcome message, my personal experience of what makes our Catholic Schools not only unique, but very, very special.

At. 12:30 am on February 15th, 2007, just a half-hour after her 79th birthday, my mother, Mary Modesto left this life to continue her journey to be with her God for all eternity. It was a sad time for me and for the rest of my family, but it was also a time of blessings, as we basked in the love of family and friends who supported us along our journey of saying good-bye.

One of the most precious acts of kindness during my time of grief came from the students and teachers of St. Paul the Apostle Catholic School and St. Mark Catholic School communities, both of which I am principal. And it came in many forms, from hugs in the hallway, gifts of fruit baskets, flowers and breakfast trays, to cards and letters of support. The one I treasure the most was a very large card, or rather, a book, which contained prayers and illustrations from each of the classes, signed by every single student and put together with the loving hands of my wonderful colleagues. The children’s messages of condolence were truly prayers from their hearts, spoken in ways that only God’s little ones, the pure of heart, could speak. Their words of advice to me, their prayers, their pure and innocent faith shone through and truly comforted me in a way which could never have happened in anything but a Catholic school. Did it make me cry? You bet it did! Did it help to heal my pain? Could the words of God uttered by God’s little ones be anything but healing? Sometimes we wonder whether our children are really learning anything about their faith..... Trust me! In our Catholic schools, they are!! Our messages, our example, our praying, our celebrating, our laughing and crying together...all of these ways we live our faith in our schools...this is the faith we are handing down to our children, and they are embracing it! I thank God every day for my Catholic School Community. I couldn’t envision anything else for me!

Sharon Oliver
Principal, St. Paul the Apostle Catholic School