The Principal’s September Newsletter

The mission of St. Joseph Catholic School is to use the knowledge of God’s love to educate the whole child by instilling strong moral values, respecting and serving our diverse community, and achieving academic excellence for future success.

Dear St. Joseph Catholic School Parents & Guardians,

We had a fabulous start to the 2023-24 school year this past week! It was a blessing to welcome all of our returning and new students and families to the recently renovated school building. We are extremely grateful to God for our generous donors who made the school improvements possible and for all who were involved in the construction process. We also extend our heartfelt thanks to our dedicated faculty and staff who put in countless hours to plan and set up classrooms to make everything just right for their new students and to Parents Club for hosting the staff brunch and school’s Back to School BBQ. Our community is truly beautiful, complex, alive, and vibrant! There are a multitude of new families at the school-please make sure to go out of your way to reach out to them, say hello, and make them feel welcomed and included.

Everything that we aim to do at the school is guided by our philosophy, mission, and schoolwide learning expectations (SLEs) of faith, excellence, and service, with God always in the lead with His beautiful and perfect plan. These all flow from Gospel Values, teaching the whole child, recognizing parents/ guardians as the first and primary educators of the children, honoring and valuing all people as unique and special with an emphasis on the importance of community, doing our best, and sharing our gifts, time, and talents through service to others. Please join us, parents, guardians, faculty, staff, parishioners, and benefactors, as we collectively celebrate this mission and consciously strive for it in all that we do. I urge all families to get involved with school happenings, join the Parent Club, join the Auction and/or Mayfest committee, sign up to help in the classroom, reach out with ideas, etc. We want you to be an active part of what we are doing, and we thank you in advance for your joyful participation! This is also a way to meet and form connections with other school families, which is one thing that makes our school so great.

The school will host its annual Curriculum Night on Wednesday, September 20, starting at 6:00 p.m. At least one parent/ guardian is required to attend this informational event. This is not an event for students to attend, but for parents/ guardians to have the opportunity to learn about the school’s mission, school-wide family expectations, and classroom activities and routines. The evening will start together as a whole community in the gym at 6:00 p.m. At 6:45 p.m. families will be dismissed to classrooms to learn about each individual classroom routine. These short classroom presentations will repeat several times, so families with multiple kids can attend each classroom. We look forward to seeing you there!

St. Joe’s School participates in the Virtues in Practice program, which was formed by The Dominican Sisters of St. Cecelia, Nashville. We are currently in the Year of Faith, with the overarching theme being Service. The virtue of study for September is Faith. Each month students will study and practice a different virtue and learn about a saint who especially modeled that virtue in his/her life. Students will work on practicing the virtue of study and one student from each grade will be awarded for being a great model of the highlighted virtue at the last Friday school Mass of each month. Please help us reinforce this program at home (Parent Resources).

Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have. I look forward to partnering with all school families in order to make the 2023-24 school year the best it can be for all of our students and families.

Abundant Blessings,
Lisa Martinez