September 2023 President’s Pen with Preston Kendall

Sep 13, 2023 | President’s Pen

“How is the start of the school year going?”

I have been asked this question (and several variations of it) a lot lately.  My answer is, “It’s going incredibly well!”  I’m not exaggerating either.

We have been in classes for about a month now and everything is running so smoothly, I keep knocking on wood that nothing ruins our good run.  We are truly blessed. CRSM has it largest incoming 9th grade class in history at 114 students. This year our target was to fill 108 seats. We normally offer admission to about 114 expecting some to go elsewhere.  This year, everyone showed up!  No “melt” as they say in the school admissions business.  Coupled with our exceptional retention of older students from year-to-year, we also have the highest total enrollment in CRSM’s history.  Did you know that 96% of the students in the Class of 2023 who started with us in 9th grade, walked across CRSM’s stage to get their diploma this past Memorial Day weekend?  That is an amazing statistic for any school.

It speaks to the culture CRSM has built over time.  We offer a challenging yet welcoming environment where students are known by teachers and staff and who have many supports available to them in the form of academic assistance, teacher office hours, a daily study hall, flextime to burn off steam or catch up with friends or meet with clubs that does not interfere with sports and other after-school offerings. Students also have access to other services that support a healthy and encouraging environment – like a full-time nurse’s office, social-emotional counselors and, this year for the first time, a part-time mental health therapist. In addition to all of this, we are continuing our newer class offerings in fine arts and an Introduction to Wood Science & Engineering Concepts.  These are serious academic offerings that include avenues for alternative expression and creativity.

“How is the start of the school year going?”

CRSM experienced the highest teacher retention out of all the Cristo Rey Network schools.  Our Principal and faculty have worked very hard to create a culture where teachers, too, can be challenged, grow in their profession, and find peer and administrative support to be their best selves. We had three teachers leave us for good and understandable reasons, and we were able to fill those positions with some truly exceptional new members of our community.  One of our theology teachers needed to move out-of-state to care for family and, rather than lose him, we are now experimenting with a remote teaching initiative.  He taught the first week in-person and will teach remotely the rest of the semester until he returns in-person for the last week of classes before exams.  His classes are all seniors that he taught their freshman year and with whom he has an established relationship – he knows them well and they really respect him. So far, so good. Our principal and I look in on the classes regularly and the students are always fully engaged and on task.  Just five years ago, I would have told you it would be an impossible feat, but I am glad to be proven wrong.

“How is the start of the school year going?”

Well, if we are talking about the Corporate Work Study Program, it’s a bit of a mixed bag.  The good news is that every student has a job and is working in a professional environment beyond CRSM.  We made the decision at the height of the pandemic that we would make sure students continued to have meaningful jobs, even if the jobs couldn’t pay us.  Our multi-year streak is unblemished despite the pandemic, the slow return to in-person office work, and this disruptive period of high-inflation and talk of a possible recession that we are currently in.  The bad news, of course, is that the five-day workweek, on which our work-study program is predicated, is still in a state of flux.  This school year we have the fewest number of paying FTEs in the last 10 years! That is a sizeable challenge – especially considering that we have 417 students this year versus 372 back then.  We are still looking for jobs as the school years moves on.  We are also asking individuals, foundations, and companies to consider paying for student jobs at area non-profits.  You really double your generosity because the students use your donation to pay for their education while the non-profit gets the equivalent of your donation in student labor… a real win-win scenario.

“How is the start of the school year going?”

In most ways, it couldn’t be better.  We just celebrated our Mass of the Holy Spirit, a global tradition among most Catholic schools.  As the year is just beginning, it is a time to reflect on all we have to be thankful for, a chance to remember that God is with us this very minute and actively working in our world, a reminder that we are each called to help bring God’s Kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven.”  That means we are invited to bring God’s love into the world by showing gratitude, by demonstrating compassion, by forgiving others, and by promoting justice – recognizing that we really are brothers and sisters.  God is love and we were made in God’s image… that means we were created out of love and our true purpose in life is to love.  At the end of the day, that is what we are really about at CRSM!

“How is the start of the school year going?”

We are incredibly blessed.  ¡Viva Cristo Rey!