Dear Parishioners:
This weekend we kick off Catholic Schools Week. It is an annual event where we highlight Catholic Education across the country and here at OLM School. Many events are planned, including the Open House at OLM School, students speaking at all Masses, a different event each day this week, and a Mass on Friday.
The good news about Catholic Education is that our schools are open and teaching and did throughout the pandemic. I commend Principal McNabb and our faculty for their incredible sacrifices to ensure our children were in the classroom learning over these last two years. I am grateful to our school parents for their great cooperation and support. And, of course, our outstanding students who continue to learn and excel! It hasn't been easy or inexpensive to keep our school open, and our children learning.
Dealing with the ever-changing bureaucratic dictates of the RI Department of Health and the RI Department of Education has been frustrating. The cost of COVID prevention and precautions is high but well worth it for the well-being and safety of our students, faculty, and staff.
Like most Catholic Schools across the country, OLM School has demonstrated its outstanding commitment to students' academic learning and faith formation during this pandemic. When parents drop off their children at a school, they do so based on an underlying promise from educators: Your children are safe with us!
OLM School reaffirmed that promise to parents back when we reopened our doors — full-time, five days a week. Our students and their families weren't immune from the hardships caused by growing isolation and shrinking opportunity. Few of us had anticipated a global pandemic, much less how severely it would throw our world off-balance.
But OLM School stood by our families through these troubles. Generations of families have relied on the consistency of Catholic schools to help students thrive in the face of the challenges from the world around them. I'm proud of our OLM School Principal and Faculty and their heroic service to ensure our school is still the safest, healthiest place for our students to succeed.
During this entire pandemic, we made every effort imaginable, often despite external bureaucratic roadblocks, to keep our promise to parents. We provide first-class, in-person education, complete with activities and sports programs, daily prayer, various acts of charity, and weekly Mass. Our students strive daily to be saints and scholars!
We've had many new families enroll and stay with OLM over the last two years. They discovered the OLM Advantage of academic excellence, complete with a lively and active Catholic Faith. Our students learn from an amazing group of teachers who are among the most dedicated and committed I've ever encountered. Teaching can be tough at times, but education can be very tough during a pandemic. Nevertheless, our faculty have excelled, and I am tremendously proud and grateful! Pope Francis said: "Let us thank all those who teach in Catholic schools. Educating is an act of love; it is like giving life."
When parents send their children to OLM School, they want a first-class education centered on faith, moral truth, and virtue. They want their kids to grow up to be well-rounded adults in constant pursuit of truth, growing in their Catholic faith and serving their neighbors. The pandemic hasn't changed that aspiration, nor our promise to parents and their children. So far, we have received nearly a hundred inquiries about our school, and our classes are filling up.
If you want a first-class education, a foundation in Catholic moral truth, and the pursuit of excellence for a child or grandchild, then apply today. Come to the OLM School Open House and discover the OLM Advantage! You'll meet our budding saints and scholars, and they'll impress you and convince you to choose OLM School!
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI once said: "A good school provides a rounded education for the whole person. And a good Catholic school, over and above this, should help all its students to become saints," OLM School is such a school, so come and discover the OLM Advantage!
Be well. Stay safe. Do good. God Bless.