Dear St. Monica Academy Families,

I hope this message finds you all well.

As we move closer to Easter, I hope we all take a moment to realize that this is an excellent time for reflection, renewal, and reconnection. Easter represents the spirit of hope, rebirth, and the promise of new beginnings.  

This season invites us to pause and consider the importance of faith, compassion, and the values that unite as a strong and vibrant Catholic community. It is a time to extend a word of kindness, to offer support to those in need, and to foster a sense of belonging for everyone.  

It’s easy to forget, because of our daily routines and various pursuits, the essence and meaning of Easter: the spirit of love, forgiveness, and gratitude. I hope the Easter season brings us all closer together and inspires us to spread joy and positivity and reminds us of the importance of empathy and understanding for all.

Throughout Lent, we will also be participating in the Stations of the Cross on Fridays at 1:00 p.m. The middle school grades will participate on March 8th. First through fifth grade will participate on March 15th. The entire school will participate on March 22nd. Please feel free to join us.

I want to briefly touch upon the 5Essentials Survey again. Thank you for taking the time to take the survey and to treat it seriously. Our response rate has blown me away, especially compared to last year’s response rate results. Regardless of what the results reveal, it will help us in the future. If you remember, the response rate had to be 50% for students, 50% for teachers, and 20% for parents to have usable data. Currently, we have a 94% student response rate (remember 4th through 8th grade only), a 100% teacher response rate, and a whopping 65% parental response rate! This will yield some incredible data and I am excited to get my hands on it. As a parent, if you have not completed this yet, you have access to the survey through this link. All surveys completed by parents, students, and faculty and staff are completely anonymous.  

• Take the 5Essentials Parent Survey

Each weekend, prior to our week starting, I write a brief email to our faculty and staff. Among other things, I try to include a poignant Scripture verse in that email. I never thought to include that for the community at large, but I think it is something I want to begin to include. Our Catholic identity is not just the school’s, or the faculty’s, it’s all of ours. We can all share in these messages. This comes from Proverbs 22:6, which I think is a great verse for teachers and parents. It says: Train the young in the way they should go; even when old, they will not swerve from it.  

Last Wednesday, we held our Mustang of the Month Assembly. At the assembly we competed in a game and the middle school team of Mr. Weber, 7th grader Joquin Delgado, and 8th grader Guiliana Lee won the competition for the middle school grade band. They won a free dress down day on Wednesday, March 6th. Join me in congratulating our newest Mustangs of the Month:

• Early childhood grades, PreK-4 student, Anne Wrobel. The nominating teacher said, “trustworthy” is not normally a word that always applies to children in early childhood education. But Anne is a student that is reliable, capable, and responsible at all times. The teacher went on to say that it is extremely rare to see a preschool student stop playing to comfort another friend if they seem upset. Anne is said to be effortlessly hilarious and is a genuine rare gem of a student. Her nominating teacher went on to say that if it was possible, she would teach her forever.
• Intermediate grades, 5th Grade student, Josef Hainzl. It was said by his nominating teacher that he always has a cheerful disposition and willing to help out in class whenever he can. He is one his peers can rely on. He is conscientious who values hard work and humility. This student exemplifies being a Mustang, day in and day out.
• Middle school grades, 8th Grade student, Chrysanthie Kamarinos. It was said (by multiple nominating teachers) that she is incredibly hard-working, participates in discussions with great insight and looks at helping her classmates as a priority. Chrysanthie is a great athlete and demonstrates excellence on and off the court. In addition, she is not afraid to take on extra responsibilities. She is a valuable team player always and everywhere.  
• Faculty, Kindergarten teacher Mrs. Price. It was said that Mrs. Price is someone other teachers aspire to be like. She is not afraid to mix things up and create engaging lessons and activities for her students. The amount of time and work she puts into her monthly special activities is incredible. In fact, it was said that Mrs. Price works incredibly heard and is always there when colleagues have questions. She is known for going above and beyond for students and as a team leader. She is also known for doing fun learning challenges to meet the needs of all students. Simply, this teacher has engaging centers and lessons and makes learning. Her commitment to SMA does not go unnoticed, and she provides feedback and is always willing to help others. Mrs. Price is a true wealth of knowledge and is happy to brainstorm with other teachers and share ideas whether it be for classroom management, individual students needs, or to think about better ways to approach lessons to engage a whole group of students.  

In addition to the four new Mustangs of the Month, our congratulations go out to:

• 6th grade students Anne-Marie Goedert and Victoria Suwalski for placing 2nd and 3rd respectively in the St. Patrick High School art competition earlier this year. 
• 8th grade Alexandra Zegarski for being a semi-finalist for the Office of Catholic Schools Art and Essay contest that was held during Catholic Schools Week. 
• 8th grade student Joey Bagdonas as our World’s Finest Chocolate top student seller and the Kindergarten class as our top classroom sellers. Joey won a 5-pound chocolate bar, and the Kindergarteners will receive an ice cream party at a later date and time.   

Throughout the month, I have spoke about our school calendar for next year. I am happy to say that we have received tentative approval and once it is posted, I will begin communicating the calendar with you. There will be some notable changes, some of which I believe will make this community very happy. I do want to speak to one thing regarding the calendar now. Starting in 2024-2025 the first Wednesday of every month will be an Early Release Day. This means that students will dismiss at 2:00 p.m. From 2:00 p.m.-3:30 p.m. (and sometimes 4:00 p.m.) will allow me to better communicate with our faculty and staff regarding student data, St. Monica needs, and schedule important Professional Development for our teachers and staff. Yes, I can understand why some would see this as inconvenient. However, in the long-run, this will be a positive for our school, its students, and our community. I have indeed thought about the impact doing this may have on after care. A drafted letter explaining this will be sent home and I believe the plan in place will be seen as very acceptable by parents.

Re-registration remains in progress. Earlier, we sent home re-registration forms and the tuition matrix for the 2024-2025 year. There are, of course, benefits to re-registering early. There are deadlines explained in the terms and conditions section that some may wish to take advantage of because of the potential discounts. As of now, since it is past March 1st, we have the $50 reduction available on re-registration. Also, and this is important, to ease the registration process, if you are re-registering one student, but will have a new student joining us in the building next year (a re-registration + a new registration in any form), please contact Mrs. Reykjalin directly.    

Please remember that we began placing traffic horses and barriers to control the flow of traffic around the campus during drop-off and pick-up. This means you should travel south down Nottingham, west on Carmen Avenue, and north on Mont Clare. Although some may find this inconvenient, it will do us well to institute this to better protect our students as they arrive and depart from school. Please avoid going around our barriers. Your example will hopefully become the example our neighbors and community friends follow.  

As always, visit the St. Monica Academy website to sign up for volunteer opportunities and to read about the importance of our fundraising efforts.

Go Mustangs!  

St. Monica, Pray for Us!

In His Name,
Wayne Wenzel, Jr.
Principal