August 21, 2009
7,138 students — overall Catholic school enrollment is down by 283 students
Jessica Knight welcomes her first graders on their first day of school at St. Theresa School in Evansville. They include, front row, Madison Campbell, Matthew Becker, Skylar Garrett, Kortnie Kaufman, Camden Gilles, Lucas Hoffman, Chandler Schell, back row, Gracie Kaufman, Zach Deeg, Nick Kaufman, Gregory Mayer and Seth Pauli. Click for a larger version.
By MARY ANN HUGHES (Message staff writer)
“Our first day will end in two hours,” said Char Bennett, principal at St. John the Baptist School in Newburgh. “It sure went fast! Each student pulled the rope on the bell in front of church to open the school year. They were thrilled.”
Newburgh students and students in Catholic schools throughout southern Indiana are now all back in school, and there’s a brand new private Catholic high school in Jasper. It’s named John Paul the Great and Elizabeth Flatt is the principal.
This year, all of the schools in the Diocese of Evansville will be using the theme “We Are Called.”
First day enrollment for Catholic schools in the Diocese of Evansville is 7,318, according to Donna Halverson, diocesan director of schools. This year’s figure is a decrease of 283 compared with last year’s enrollment figure of 7,601. This figure does not include students at John Paul the Great, operated as a private school.
Here is a first day of school enrollment report, on a school-by-school basis, gathered from information provided by the Catholic Schools Office, along with information submitted to the Message by principals.
Evansville/Vanderburgh County
• Carol Nurrenbern, administrative assistant at Mater Dei High School, said there are two new teachers at the westside school. Sandy Lasher is teaching English, and Buffy Wannemuehler is teaching science.
New classes include etymology, personal finance and art history. “We have added several dual credit course offerings through Ivy Tech and USI where students taking a class at Mater Dei also get college credit hours for that class.”
This year’s first day enrollment figure was 537; last year’s figure was 566 students.
• “Memorial has three new teachers,” reports Lisa Popham, assistant principal.
Melissa Knacknuhs will teach English, Aaron Schmitt will be in the social studies department, and Carrie Maurer has joined the science department.
“We are offering the following new courses this school year: Catholic Social Justice Teaching, Medical Practicum, Digital Photography, Theater Arts III and Personal Finance
“The Medical Practicum is a new experience for us in that students will be actually going out into the medical field and shadowing several different doctors in variety medical fields. Joan Steffenhagen, the chair of our science department, will be overseeing the students along with Dr. Steven Dickson.
“Memorial hasn’t had any new construction take place, but we have added a new reception station in the front foyer of the main entrance. We also have converted one of our classrooms into a writing lab.”
Last year’s enrollment was 792, compared with 796 this year.
• Sister Mary Karen Bahl-mann is the new principal at Christ the King School in Evansville. She is a Sister of Divine Providence.
Last year’s first day enrollment was 201; this year’s figure is 207.
• There are 272 students enrolled at Corpus Christi School; last year’s enrollment was 251. “We have four classrooms filled to capacity and have waiting lists,” said Marty Craig, principal at Corpus Christi School.
“We have two new staff members. Janet Plocik is teaching grades five, six, seven and eight science and fifth and sixth religion.
“Angie Wulff is our new preschool assistant. Beth Woodruff, who previously served as our preschool assistant, is now our preschool director and teacher.
“We will be implementing a manners program this year. Each week we will have a goal for the week, a demonstration of the week’s manners instruction will be given by staff members on Mondays and will rotate each week. On Friday there will be an intercom announcement as to which improved manners have been sited around Corpus Christi School.”
• Good Shepherd’s first day enrollment was 327. Last year’s enrollment was 326.
Judy Van Hoosier, principal, said Amy Hart is the new fourth grade teacher and Lucy Ashley is the new media center coordinator.
“The new parish hall and entry way were completed in April of 2009. The parish hall includes a stage that will be used for a variety of programs and school events.
“Good Shepherd School is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary this school year. Bishop Gerald A. Gettelfinger will preside at the 10:30 a.m. Mass on August 30. A reception and open house will follow. Everyone is invited to join in the celebration.”
• Holy Redeemer School, had a first day enrollment of 234; this compares with 337 last year.
• “At Holy Rosary we are pleased to welcome Nick Austin to our faculty,” said Joan Fred-rich, principal. “Nick will have a seventh grade home room and he will teach seventh and eighth grade social studies and seventh grade religion. Katrina Murphy will be our new librarian.
“New teachers to our preschool include Barb Compton, Julie Johnston and Julie Elkins.”
She said that this year “we will be expanding our Minds In Motion movement program to include our first graders in addition to our kindergarteners.”
The first day enrollment was 417, compared with 431 last year. There are over 100 preschool or pre-k students, according to the principal.
• “What a great start to a new school year!” said Nancy Mills, principal at Holy Spirit School, Evansville. “This year our new excitement will be receiving two portable computer labs, three Promethean boards, other miscellaneous technology, an after school tutoring program, and hopefully we will work out a summer school program. Cougars are ROARING to get back to school!”
This year’s enrollment is 131; last year’s enrollment was 169.
• “Resurrection School is ready to accept God’s call this year as we celebrate our theme ‘We Are Called,’” said Angie Johnson, principal.
“Bright colored bulletin boards decorate the hallways and re-mind us that God calls us each day to serve Him and others. The question is, ‘Do we answer Him?’ We also realize that our diocesan theme means that we often need to call on God and others in our lives and we expect them to hear us. ‘We are Called’ can have many different meanings, but most of all, we want to listen when God calls us to His service and to do His will.
“We welcome one new tea-cher this year. Her name is Michelle Brandle, and she will serve as one of our sixth grade homeroom teachers and as our sixth, seventh and eighth grade social studies teacher. Miss Brandle will also be teaching seventh grade religion.
“We are very excited and ready to start the 2009-2010 school year! It will be a great one.”
There are 378 students en-rolled this year. Last year’s en-rollment was 394.
• St. Benedict Cathedral School, has an enrollment of 453 students; this compares with 432 last year.
• St. Joseph School, Vander-burgh County, has a new third grade teacher, according to Melba Wilderman, principal. “Saundra Sweeney has moved from being the pre-k teacher to the third grade teacher. Laura Muensterman joins the staff as the new pre-k teacher.”
This year’s enrollment is 202. Last year’s enrollment was 210.
• St. Theresa School welcomes three new teachers this year, according to Theresa Ber-endes, principal. Rebecca Cor-bin will teach art, Jessica Knight will teacher first grade reading and math, and fourth grade math and social studies. Millie Rueger will teach music.
“We are excited about an upcoming field trip for our grades five through eight students. We will be traveling to Indianapolis to visit the King Tut exhibit at the Children’s Museum.
“Our first and second graders, along with their teacher, Karen Waller, anticipate receiving their rotary grant funds to begin the S.T.A.R. program. The Save Trees and Recycle program will promote recycling of mixed papers within our school. The Rotary Grant will also fund the purchase of books, which focus on saving the environment and recycling.
“We will continue two programs this school year which we started last school year. Our Church Buddy program pairs a middle school student with a younger student for Mass. The older students are then our role models during Mass by teaching the students to genuflect, the Sign of the Cross, and leaders in Mass participation. Both the younger and older students thoroughly enjoy the bond they develop with their buddy. We will also continue our supervised study hall which provides an hour of structured homework time for students who struggle completing their homework at home or who are easily distracted at home.”
This year’s enrollment is 89 students. Last year’s enrollment was 107.
• Matthew Hartz is the new teacher at Westside Catholic School. “He will be teaching seventh and eighth grade social studies and technology,” said Cynthia Schneider, principal.
This year’s first day enrollment is 226. Last year’s enrollment was 253.
Gibson County
• Dan Gilbert, principal at St. Joseph School, Princeton, said, “All of our teachers are returning for the 09-10 school year so we have no new faces.
“Our teachers attended training in Differentiated Instruction for three days in July which was held at Memorial. St. Joe will be continuing training the entire school year. Trainers from Indiana University will be visiting our school and classrooms twice per month to help teachers implement Differentiated Instruction strategies.
“Kindergarten, first and second grade teachers will be training in DIBELS assessments throughout this school year as well. DIBELS is an early intervention program for struggling readers. We hope to be able to diagnose reading issues early and provide individualized instruction to remediate problems before they manifest.
“We’re excited to have our Interactive Whiteboard installed in the computer lab. Teachers were provided with training last spring and will put this tech-nology to use throughout the school year. We have also installed Lanschool in our lab. This program allows the technology teacher to view a thumbnail of all student screens at once and control student computers.
“St. Joe students will be taking online quizzes for Accelerated Reader this year as we have purchased a subscription to Ren-aissance Place. This will allow students to read a very wide variety of books and take quizzes to earn points. Students set goals and celebrate their achievements at the end of each grading period.”
The school will be using Homework Watcher, an email based program that “will allow us to send and email to every email address in our system at once. We will send newsletters, flyers, special announcements and much more home via this program. Last year we saved over 15 cases of paper by emailing most communication home instead of printing them.”
This year’s enrollment is 162 students; last year’s enrollment was 164.
• Sts. Peter and Paul School, Haubstadt, has an enrollment of 169 students. Last year’s en-rollment was 159.
• “We’d like to welcome a few new staff people to St. James School,” said Michelle Priar, principal at the Haubstadt School. “Kelly Thompson is our new junior high social studies, P.E. and health teacher. Jenny Matheis joins us this year teaching our junior high language arts classes. We also welcome Krista Gick who is now our cafeteria manager. Amber Oakely also returns to our school as our pre-school director. Amber taught kindergarten for us a couple of years ago and we are so glad she has returned to us. We also welcome the seven new students who have joined St. James this year!”
She said, “We’re excited about celebrating our theme, ‘We Are Called.’ We know that God calls us to be many different things at various times in our lives. We’ll be working on listening for His call each and every day. We’re looking forward to a wonderful school year!”
There are 157 enrolled at St. James. Last year’s enrollment was 159.
• Last year’s enrollment at Holy Cross School in Fort Branch was 149. This year, it’s 141.
Jasper
• “This year Holy Family has a new fourth grade teacher, Jenna Hochmeister, a new librarian, Sister Mary Kinghorn and a new art teacher, Jennifer Car-rico,” said Jeanne Heltzel, principal.
“We are introducing Odyssey software program for all students in grades kindergarten through eight. We will also initiate School Reach in September to our families.
“On our first day of school we were excited about a surprise visitor that Jasper Mayor Schmitt brought to school. It was Ronald McDonald who personally congratulated our school as one of the first in the area to collect over one million can tabs for the Ronald Mc-Donald houses. He presented our school with a plaque and also congratulated Judy Linette on her efforts to coordinate this can tab program at our school over the years.”
This year’s first day enrollment is 271. Last year’s enrollment was 288.
• Precious Blood School has a new principal this year. He is Joseph Brake. This year’s enrollment is 253, compared with 256 last year.
Newburgh
•”We have three new teachers this year and two more teachers went to new positions — so it is like having five new teachers!” said Char Bennett, principal at St. John the Baptist School, Newburgh.
“We have three new teachers. Christy Schulz is in second grade, Mary Rogers is in fourth grade and Katie Dunn is in fifth grade. Becky Schnur is now teaching third grade and Bev Schweiss will be teaching sixth, seventh and eighth grade religion. We will also be hiring a program assistant for our special needs children.
“Our walking program will be enhanced this year as students will participate in the Step Up Club. Our students will continue to walk on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mor-nings, but we will add Sat-urdays and a half marathon for those wishing to walk/run on the weekends. Students will receive colored tabs for their shoes or chains for each mile they walk. We will also participate in the fourth grade jump rope program and an all school bowling project.
“Our technology program has taken on a new look with four smart boards with all of the additional teaching and student tools. We have added document readers and all teachers now have laptops for use in their classroom teaching. Three flip video cameras have been purchased for teacher use and a class set of Flash Masters will be used in learning math facts.
“The PTSA provided funds to remodel the upper grade restrooms with new sinks, toilets and stalls. They also renovated the playground, putting in new border around the playground and new tire chips as ground cover.”
The enrollment at the New-burgh school is 425 students. Last year’s enrollment was 438.
Posey County
• “I have two new teachers this year,” said Andrea Lodato Dickel, principal at St. Philip School in Posey County.
“Kathy Herrmann is teaching kindergarten, and we are proud that we have 29 students en-rolled and have split the class in two.
“We have also hired a new sixth, seventh and eighth grade social studies teacher. His name is Mark Kirkman.”
There are 218 students en-rolled at St. Philip. Last year’s enrollment was 217.
• “St. Matthew School was a very busy place this summer!” said Vickie Wannemuehler, principal at the Mount Vernon school.
“Using money raised at the St. Matthew Men’s Club Auction this spring, we replaced the windows on the east side of the school and added screens to all the windows. The new windows are much more energy efficient, and they look great! Thanks to the generosity of our parishioners, we used money that they donated throughout the year in the school improvement envelopes to paint the door frames and trim throughout the school. The results are beautiful! The school looks so bright and welcoming! We’re anxious to show it off and share it with our students and their families!”
This year’s enrollment is 90 students. Last year’s enrollment was 116.
• Ron Pittman, principal at St. Wendel School, St. Wendel, said the school is “continuing with Project Outreach, giving teachers the opportunity to learn about DI teaching strategies. Teachers at St. Wendel will partner with teachers at St. Joseph School in creating, observing and assessing DI [Differentiated Instruction] units of instruction for specific grade levels and subject matter areas.
“St. Wendel has hired Steph-anie Shane who will cooperate with classroom teachers to reinforce instruction for students in kindergarten through grade eight. St. Wendel has also purchased READALOUD software, a reading remediation package, which focuses upon improving reading comprehension skills and vocabulary de-velopment.
“Students in kindergarten through grade four will participate in a service project entitled ‘the do in donate.’ Through completion of classroom jobs, students can earn money to purchase incentives and donate money to provide food for needy children and families.”
This year’s enrollment is 163. Last year’s enrollment was 154.
Rockport
• Enrollment at St. Bernard School has hit the 155 mark; last year’s enrollment was 168.
Vincennes
• In a letter to parents, Janice Jones, principal at Rivet Middle School and High School, writes, “This year’s diocesan theme is ‘We Are Called.’ School Masses are held every Thursday at 8 a.m. in the Old Cathedral. Stu-dents must wear purple polo’s and khakis, and everyone is welcome to come worship.”
“Rivet offers a wide range of sporting activities. The students will be updated throughout the year on these activities. You can also find the Rivet sports schedules on www.highschoolsports.net
There are 197 students en-rolled at Rivet; last year’s enrollment was 184.
• “We welcomed two new fourth grade teachers, Megan Zehr and Amy Sponn,” said Linda Evans, secretary at Flaget Elementary School. “We are also bringing a new face to our music program, Jenny Mc-Combs, and to our Spanish program, Michael Ohstrom.
This year’s first day enrollment figure is 226. Last year’s enrollment was 231.
Washington
David Memmer is principal of the three Washington Catholic schools. He said, “We are very excited to begin the school year at Washington Catholic.”
August 17 was the first day of school, and Memmer said there was a K-12 pep session focused on celebrating Catholic Education and what it means to be a Washington Catholic Cardinal. Last weekend there was a “Back to School” open house. “We feel blessed to have such an active parent/student base who are assisting with the open house and pep session.
“At the middle/high school level, we are pleased to have Jeff Richardson, who will be teaching mathematics. At the high school, Washington Catholic has expanded its course offerings with commercial design, taught by Peggy Taylor. At the elementary school/early childhood center, an additional classroom has been made available for expansion of the preschool program.
We are also very excited to begin the interdisciplinary art project, Historic and Contem-porary Textiles as Celebration. This project will involve students at each grade level and include nineteenth century textiles such as quilts and rugs, and the work of contemporary fiber artists, with student workshops led by two nationally-known Indiana textile artists, Phil Bea-ver and Marilyn Oehler.
Last year’s middle/high school enrollment was 179 in grades six through twelve; this year’s enrollment is 142.
The elementary school’s enrollment last year was 270. This year’s enrollment is 280.
Private Catholic School
Elizabeth Flatt is the principal of the newly-opened private school, John Paul the Great High School, which is housed on the third floor of St. Joseph Parish Center in Jasper.
The faculty includes Bob Alles, physical education, health, ca-reers; Paula Alles, chorus; An-gela Elpers, theology; Clara Fromme, English; Jay Hamlin, social studies; Susan McKenzie, Spanish; Steve Newhouse, science, and Lori Nord, math.
“We have nine students currently enrolled and one more expected to enroll when she is here from El Salvador in the next month or two.
“Our freshmen will all be taking beginning chorus with a focus on Sacred Music. Students will take theology each semester each year, and they will attend Mass every other day.
“Our students and teachers are part of our one-to-one Mac laptop program where each has a Mac laptop issued to them to use for class activities as well as instant Internet access for research and other activities. We anticipate incorporating technology into all curricular areas as a way to enhance student learning.”