April 18, 2008

Dear OLG Parents and Friends:

There has been a frenzy of activity around the school as we prepare for Prospective Student Day on Monday. We will be hosting 18 students that day beginning at 8:30am. The Student Council will be treating everyone to ice cream sundaes during lunch as the students attend classes and get to know faculty members and current OLG students. We are constantly receiving inquiries on our up-dated website as well as telephone calls from parents inquiring about the school. I believe many of these were generated from the Parish visits that we made this past weekend to Immaculate Conception Church and St. Mark Church in Denton.

I want to thank those individuals who represented the school this past weekend and encourage any parents, students and faculty who will be attending Mass at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton to help promote the school after all the Masses this weekend. We will have a table set up to hand out literature about the school and to tell parishioners about our upcoming Golf tournament on June 23^rd. 

The Advisory Council has been extremely busy working on the upcoming Golf tournament to be held at Diamond Oaks Country Club. We are so very pleased that the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Knights of Columbus council will be co-sponsoring the event with us. All money raised from the golf tournament will go toward the athletic program to help defray gym rental costs for our volleyball and basketball teams. Speaking of athletics…when you are on campus, take a look at the football field behind the school. We have started aerating, seeding and watering the field so that it will be ready in the fall for our sports teams and our physical education classes.

I am also so very excited to tell you that this will be the first year that we will have a National Honor Society Chapter at our school!!  This is a wonderful honor for the school and the students who will be inducted into the society. It was only until we received our accreditation through the Texas Catholic Conference that we were able to apply to start a chapter! I will send out further information regarding out induction ceremony as soon as our plans are finalized.

I didn’t want to let pass the opportunity of mentioning those students who made the Honor Role for the Third Quarter this year. When looking at percentages, this period had the highest percentage of students on the Honor Role that we have ever had. The students are: Highest Honors – Andrew Donohue (10^th grade), Benjamin Hebert (11^th grade), Stephen Jacobsen (10^th grade); High Honors – Jinnea Hebert (10^th grade), Elizabeth Radford (9^th grade), Hannah Tucker (11^th grade), Mary Wigton (9^th grade); Honors – Effie Tjhai (9^th grade). I know that you are as pleased as I am with their success.

Lastly, I wanted to tell you about another first here on our new campus. This was the first year that we performed outside Stations of the Cross and it was extremely moving. Each student wrote an individual reflection on one of the stations and read it aloud. Karson Adamcik and Andrew Donohue carried the cross and we ended by bringing it into the classroom to represent Jesus being laid in the tomb. I look forward to performing the Stations of the Cross here next year and inviting families to pray with us. Thank you to Mrs. Radford for the idea of praying them on-site this year!

Progress reports went home and need to be returned. Please call to set up an appointment if you have concerns. Students should continue to diligently work hard to complete assignments in a timely manner in all subjects. We are planning to attend the Six Flags Math and Science day on May 9^th (paid by student raised funds), but all students will need to be caught up on their assignments in order to attend. Those not on a path for completion will remain at the school to work on their assignments. This mainly refers to math assignments, but any other course work not completed will also need to be finished. I will be at the school on May 3^rd for Placement Testing. Any OLG student who would like to come to the school between 9am and noon to work on completing their assignments at school are welcome to do so.  

On May 2^nd all of the students will perform community service assisting at the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Field Day. Students are to report to school as usual and we will go together in the school van. Students are to wear their safety green Lions T-shirts. Come to the office if you do not have a safety green shirt and we will get you one. We have agreed as a school to offer our work on this day in honor of Pope Benedict’s birthday and his visit to America.

Please pray for the school and for all of the men and women who have said “Yes” to promoting our educational apostolate. Please pray for our Advisory Council members, Board members, faculty, staff and me! I can see the power of the Holy Spirit at work as we continue to form the hearts and minds of our students.

God Bless you all.

In His Love,

Denise L. Donohue MCSL

Principal