New leadership, technology, clubs create buzz at Lourdes

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Students, faculty, staff and families have much to be proud of this school year. The traditions of excellent academics, service, the teaching of our Catholic faith and family involvement continue to be hallmarks of Lourdes.

The year began with welcoming a new principal, Katie Selden, who came to Lourdes with 10 years of experience in Catholic education. The current school year also brings with it additional state-funded pre-kindergarten classes, an exciting Home and School Association-sponsored bean bag tournament, and faith celebrations for all grade levels.

New technology has added excitement to classrooms this year. Laptop computers and wireless Internet have given students and teachers access to information and communication. Fundraisers this school year will continue to expand the new technology as well as enrich our core curriculum areas.

Parent involvement continues to enhance education for students as parents volunteer in the library, classrooms, lunchroom and playground. Lourdes’ Home and School Association gives outstanding support to the faculty and staff. Parents are also involved in new and existing committees, such as the PR/Marketing, Grant Writing, Buildings and Grounds committees and Field Day. The school is very blessed to have such involvement!

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Also new to Lourdes this year is the Ski Club and Drama Club. The school is also continuing its tradition of an active middle school events calendar, which includes activities of outreach as well as social occasions.

Also new to Lourdes this year are several new methods for assessing student progress. Teachers are administering standardized math and writing probes quarterly. The probes are scored, recorded and tracked for progress. Volunteers monitor the first to third grade sight words monthly in order to individualize student progress.

In addition, those students are tested twice yearly to assess their ability to decode words phonetically. Students in grades kindergarten to six were given the standardized DIBELS reading tests in September. They will be retested in January and May to assess progress. DIBELS helps to monitor a student’s word decoding skills, fluency and comprehension. Volunteers were trained and administered the DIBELS tests.

Lourdes would like to thank the following volunteers for their extra care and time spent: Kelli Berg, Charmaine Gluba, Lauri Flanigan, Joanie Vonderhaar and Collette Vonderhaar. As with many things that help to enrich our students’ academics, Lourdes recognizes the importance of the ongoing support of our volunteers.

Lourdes looks forward to increasing enrollment with financial assistance made available through the School Tuition Organization and the Embracing Our Future campaign. These organizations make Catholic education affordable for all families. The combination of old and new continues to make this an exciting school year.


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