2006 Catholic Schools Week Supplement
The Catholic Schools Week Supplement in our print edition is the largest regular supplement that we produce. This year, the 16-page supplement packs in more than a dozen local features, and includes pictures, graphics and other useful information.
Click on the stories below to read about some of the excellent things going on in Catholic education in central and southern Indiana.
A Word from the Executive Director | Our Schools | Outstanding Students
Programs for Success | Office of Catholic Education | Reference Information
- - - - - - -
Download the whole supplement in Flash format (~3.5 MB)
Column: ‘Catholic
Schools:
Character,
Compassion,
Values’
Annette "Mickey" Lentz, executive direction of Catholic education and faith formation for the archdiocese, writes: "I am especially pleased with the theme for Catholic Schools Week 2006—'Catholic Schools: Character, Compassion, Values'—since it so clearly exemplifies the key elements of the enterprise of Catholic education in the United States"
Holy Angels students honor life and
legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech is a powerful reminder of the importance of working for peace, justice and equality as well as respecting the dignity of every person and seeking nonviolent solutions to problems.
Holy Angels School students in Indianapolis try to live out King’s dream by honoring his life and legacy of promoting civil rights during an annual march and Mass.
St. Malachy School celebrates 50 years of ‘learning with Christ’
St. Malachy School is “Celebrating 50 Years of Learning, Loving and Living with Christ” in Hendricks County this year.
The school’s 50th anniversary slogan is displayed on a billboard in Brownsburg with the school’s Web site address (www.saintmalachyschool.org) to invite parents to consider Catholic education for their children.
Nativity School celebrates 50 years with new chapel
Nativity School in Indianapolis is 50 years old this year, and the parish has established a chapel in the school to commemorate a half century of Catholic education.
Peg Dispenzieri, Nativity’s principal for the past four years, said Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ parishioners are very supportive of the school ministry, which was started in a converted barn on the parish property at 7225 Southeastern Ave.
U.S. Department of Education honors five schools
During a U.S. Department of Education ceremony on Nov. 11 in Washington, D.C., representatives of the archdiocese’s newest No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence accepted the awards on behalf of the students, faculty, staff, parents and volunteers who helped make this recognition possible.
Students’ ISTEP scores show continued improvement
For five straight years, Catholic school students in the archdiocese have shown continued improvement in Indiana’s standardized testing—just one of the trends that excite educators and administrators at the archdiocesan Office of Catholic Education. “The trend lines we want to show are that the longer the students are with us, the better they get,” said G. Joseph Peters.
Archdiocesan students aid schools damaged by hurricane
When Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, Catholic schools and their communities across the region were severely damaged by the storm’s strong winds and its subsequent flooding.
The hurricane also tested the mission and identity of Catholic schools far away from the area, including those in the archdiocese.
Shawe Memorial senior’s book to be published this year
Father Michael Shawe Memorial Jr./Sr. High School was founded 50 years ago in Madison, and its history was a story waiting to be told until a Shawe senior decided to write a book about it in 2005.
Now a freshman and communications major at Berry College in Rome, Ga., Prince of Peace parishioner Jacob Laskowski of Madison is currently putting the finishing touches on his book, Looking Back: The Story of the Hilltopper, and raising funds to pay for printing costs.
Book shares creative side of Aurora students
Titled “Southern Indiana,” a poem by sixth-grader Margo Tedesco begins Along the River in Southeastern Indiana, a collection of fictional stories and poems written by students of St. Mary of Immaculate Conception School in Aurora.
What makes the 121-page book, published by Pen & Publish in Bloomington, even more impressive is the fact that all 145 of the school’s kindergarten through eighth-grade students share their talents. While some students wrote poems or stories, others used their artistic gifts to draw illustrations.
Grants help A Promise
to Keep promote chastity
Lights … camera ... action! It’s time to update seven educational videos for the archdiocesan Office of Catholic Education’s A Promise to Keep: God’s Gift of Human Sexuality chastity program.
Thanks to a $45,000 grant from Our Sunday Visitor Inc. in Huntington, Ind., awarded on Nov. 21, Margaret Hendricks, the program director of A Promise to Keep, will be able to update printed materials and videotapes used by teenage peer mentors who present the abstinence education programs to adolescents at Catholic middle schools and parish religious education classes.
Multisensory techniques help resource students
Windows of learning open easily for some students, but may not open at all for children who struggle with learning disabilities. Parents share their children’s frustrations because they don’t know how to help them understand school assignments.
Resource programs and specially trained teachers at Catholic schools are an answer to prayers for many parents who want their children to attend a “mainstream” school.
National Directory for Catechesis helps schools evangelize
Catholic schools should be centers of evangelization and places where young boys and girls are formed to be disciples of Jesus Christ.
This is the vision set out for Catholic schools by the new National Directory for Catechesis (NDC), published last year by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. According to Harry Dudley, the NDC affirms many of the things that Catholic schools in central and southern Indiana are already doing.
Leadership program recruits strong administ-rators
Catholic schools in central and southern Indiana have a long history of excellence. A part of maintaining this achievement record is the recruitment and training of strong candidates for administrative positions at archdiocesan schools.
For more than 10 years, the archdiocese’s Office of Catholic Education (OCE) has been effective in doing this through its Catholic School Leadership program.
Archdiocesan Schools Consortium serves center city
A framed poster in Connie Zittnan’s office asks the simple question that guides her efforts as the director of the Archdiocesan Schools Consortium: “How can we turn away from the faces of the children?” Zittnan gave her own answer as she lightly hit a table with her fist—a gesture that stresses the point that she will never turn away from any child because she has seen even those who seemed beyond hope achieve tremendous success.
Office of Catholic Education’s Web site is helpful resource
About two years ago, the archdiocesan Office of Catholic Education (OCE) received an opportunity to radically improve its Web site.
“With Project Exceed funds—that’s money from Lilly Endowment Inc. and other generous corporate and individual donors—we developed a Web site that was very functional,” said G. Joseph Peters, associate executive director of Catholic education.
Map of all Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis (high-speed users only)
This exhaustive map shows every one of the archdiocesan Catholic grade schools, as well as all the interparochial and private Catholic high schools. Divided into two sections, this large image shows Indianapolis-area schools on the right side and schools through central and southern Indiana on the left side, (File size = ~600KB)
Facts about Catholic schools in the archdiocese
The Office of Catholic Education oversees and assists the Catholic schools, parish faith formation, evangelization and youth ministry programs for 150 parishes and missions in 11 deaneries throughout a 39-county area of central and southern Indiana, comprising some 13,757 square miles and serving more than 232,000 Catholics. See also:Catholic school statistics
Map of all Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis (high-speed users only)