State of School Address

August 20, 2010

Here we are in the hottest part of summer getting ready to change our swimsuits and shorts for our school uniforms, park our bikes for the better part of each day and exchange our camping and sports gear for keyboards and textbooks.

We are beginning the new school year and the 70^th year of Immaculate Conception School educating children in the Belmont community.

And what a year we just completed!  We increased enrollment to 215 students and increased our number of Ed Choice Scholarships to 119.  I wouldn’t be surprised if next year we are able to report to you and increase yet again both in enrollment and in the number of Ed Choice Scholarships available for students at Immaculate.  We have also witnessed the increasing financial concerns of many of our families who have lost their jobs and sometimes, even their homes in this struggling economy.  We now must find resources to help them not only with tuition but with every day necessities.  We are fortunate to be working with the Urban Child Development Resource Center to meet these basic needs and the parish was most generous this past Christmas to provide gifts for these children.

Four of our students made it to the district Science Fair and two went on to State scoring 38 and 39 out of 40.

Every spring our students have an opportunity to apply for a scholarship to the Dayton Art Institute Summer Program.  Three of our students were  selected for the program and had the privilege of learning and doing art at the Institute.  Only 18 scholarships are available for all of the students in the Dayton area so having 3 of them awarded to ICS students is quite an honor.

Carroll H.S. continues to offer Algebra to our 8^th graders and 5 of our students who took the placement test qualified they hav an opportunity to go to Carroll for the first period each day to take high school scholarship Algebra.

We are expanding our involvement with the St. Remy Professional Development Program with the support of the University of Dayton working with professionals in understanding the nature of change and how to grow as a team of professionals.

We will partner with the University of Dayton Law School Students to establish a peer mediation program with the UCDRC counseling program and our school counselor. UD students and our nurse from the Combined Health District will be working on an obesity awareness program and Body Mass Index measurement for our students.

We are working on a new telephone system that will allow parents to call teachers directly and permit teachers to phone from their own classrooms.  We will have training on the system after the year starts and more information will be available when the system is “live”. 

We are like farmers but we start our planting in the fall and spend the year working the fertile soil of the young minds in our classrooms, encouraging those sprouts of new knowledge with enriching activities, guiding the students’ growth through faith and prayer experiences and celebrating their successes.

Thank you to the parishioners of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Parish who, for 70 years have helped the families of the parish and community provide a Catholic education for their children.  Thank you for your prayers and your financial offerings.  We need your support, prayers, and donations to make the next 70 years as fantastic as the last 70.