...Fulfilling the vision of Jesus and

the mission of the Catholic Church...

St. Augustine Cathedral School

2013-2014 FA

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Finding God in all things calls us to community, strength of char-acter, care for God’s creation, social justice and joy. It is the

greatest thing we can do for each other, for our school, and to glorify God.

St. Augustine Cathedral School students focused on the Fruits of the Holy Spirit! Gal. 5:22-25 In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. Against such there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires. If we

live in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit.

The 13-14 school year began with a retreat. Fr. Ted Martin led staff in a day filled with prayer and reflection on Education and the Pedagogy of God. Student retreats

focused on the principles of Catholic Social Teaching. Grades K-2 enjoyed the hospitality of St. Monica parish, grades 3-5 enjoyed the space

at St. Joseph parish, and grades 6-8 made use of Bart Hall at St. Mary parish.

Under the leadership of Mary Keyte, a Level II Atrium was established, allowing St. Augustine Cathedral School to offer the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd to first, second, and third grade students. We are blessed to have 11 trained catechists in our community, offering students a

relationship with Christ through their experience in Level I or Level II atrium.

Vicky Kudwa, first grade teacher, led the work of the diocesan Theology curriculum committee. As

a result, all diocesan schools have new standards and resources to teach our faith.

8 pastors and associate pastors from our supporting parishes celebrated Mass with the school and helped to prepare students in grades 2 and 8 for the sacraments of Reconciliation, First Eu-

charist, and Confirmation.

The student body enjoyed the rich experiences of our faith, celebrating Adoration, the Month of the Rosary, All Saints Day, Advent, Christmas Pageant, Epiphany, The Feast of St. Blaise, Ash Wednesday, Lent, praying the Stations of the Cross, Triduum, Easter, May Crowning, and honor-

ing Mary in May.

New Bibles were purchased for the entire school through the generosity of our

Legacy Celebration 2013 donors.

The Parent Teacher Organization continued their great work building community among our

school families through events such as the PTO Tailgate, new family orientation, Angel Tree,

Catholic Schools Week, Fat Tuesday

Frolic, Once in a Blue Moon Sale,

and Teacher Appreciation Week.

Page 2 Faith

Congratulations! Cub Scouts Harrison Wheeler, Keegan Gallagher, Daniel Montgomery, Nathan Havenaar, and Jordan Canfield earned the

Light of Christ emblem;. Cub Scouts Fernando Minich, Bennett Carpenter, and Joseph Williams earned the Parvuli Dei (Child of God)

emblem. Brownies Sophia Gibbs, Sophia Cekola, Samantha Browning, Meghan Peot, and Azelie Thornton earned the Family of God em-

blem. Girl Scouts Katelynn Mounce, Katie Guthrie, Julia Williams, Kayleigh Kostrzewa, and Colleen McNally earned the I Live My Faith

emblem.

We offer our First Communicants in prayer: Lizzie Buckley, Nicholas Doerr, Michael Dugas, Lauren Grace Dunning, Jack Finley, Keegan

Gallagher, Sophia Gibbs, Amenech Kostrzewa, Sophia Kwapis, Maggie LaRue, Isaac Leonard, Zachery Mabis, Samantha Medendorp, Lily

Nguyen, Luke Niedzielski, Cameron Nobis, Evan Redmond, Sophia Shank, Madelyn Singleton, Jacob Williams, Greg Brown, Joey Bruno,

Estella Cronen, Xavier Distelzweig, Alex Dugas, Adam Houseman, Theresa Keyte, Alexandra Nash, Gabe Oeurn, Alison Oeurn, Isabelle

Oeurn, Evan Owens, Natalia Perrin, Richie Ritzema, Cate Ross, Sophia Sarwar, Dylan Schippers, Violet Stewart, and Owen Thomas.

We offer our Confirmandi in prayer: Ellie Arnsman, Keaton Ashby, Hannah Augustyniak, Lauren Bartholomew, John Benjamin, Jackson

Bradshaw, Andrew Burke, Isabella Cronen, Abby Eastman, James Eberhart, Grace Giffels, Mitchell Harpenau, Maggie Ketels, Alek Kisiel,

Sarah Knoll, Allison Lyon, Savannah Madden, Olivia Maley, Maggie Petersen, Elijah Stoneburner, Ryan Takacs, Annie Thornton, Thomas

Thornton, Joe Tourney, Eric Uryga, Brenden Warner, and Jacob Wurtz.

The curriculum is designed to challenge and motivate students to grow academically, in self-confidence, self-discipline, good work habits and in understanding God’s plan for their lives. Instruction is grounded in best

practices and dedicated teachers work tirelessly to ensure student success.

Knowledge

New resources were purchased to enhance the English Language Arts curriculum.

Teachers participated in many hours of professional development on a variety of topics, includ-ing Professional Learning Communities, Response to Intervention, Grading Practices, and Pro-

ject Based Learning.

School-wide assessments, including MEAP in October and the NWEA MAP in September, Jan-uary and May, were used to drive instruction. Student growth was the focus of many profession-

al conversations.

The Irish took 2nd place in the Boys Basketball Small Schools League tournament, and 1st place

in the Girls Basketball Small Schools League Tournament.

St. Augustine Cathedral School hosted the Knights of Columbus Spelling Bee, Free Throw Contest, and Essay Contest.

St. Augustine Cathedral School’s 5th through 8th grade students participated in the “Student Spaceflight Experiments Program” through the

Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education.

Teachers and parents coached Destination ImagiNation, Science Olympiad,

MathCounts, and Girls on the Run.

4th and 5th grade students participated in a regional “Bring it on Book Challenge”.

The St. A 4th grade team took first place.

All students shared their family history through research and projects displayed

during the International Fair.

The School Improvement Team focused their efforts on establishing a new stra-

tegic plan for 2014-2019, using the National Catholic School Standards as the

framework for planning.

Page 3

St. Augustine Cathedral School admin-isters the MAP (Measures of Academ-ic Progress) three times each year in grades K through 8.The MAP evaluates a student’s academic performance in math, reading, and language. This table shows St. Augustine Cathedral School’s results by grade level, compared to national norms and norms in the Dio-

cese of Kalamazoo.

MAP/Grade Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5 Grade 6 Grade 7 Grade 8 Grade K

Reading St. A

spring 2014 187.4 199.8 210.2 218.2 221.3 228.2 230.6 232.4 167.8

Reading norms national/ dioce-san

176.9/

182.9

189.6/

195.5

199.2/

205.3

206.7/

211.1

212.3/

217.9

216.4/

221.4

219.7/

225.8

222.4/

230.7

157.7/

164.2

Math St. A

spring 2014 187.3 205.8 216.5 223.3 241.2 236.5 241.9 240.7 168.1

Math norms n a t i o n a l /diocesan

179/

185.8

191.3/

198.2

203.1/

207.9

212.5/

215.7

221/

227.1

225.6/

229.8

230.5/

235.3

234.5/

241.2

159.1/

165.7

Language St.

A spring 2014 213.6 218.6 222.4 229.2 231.5 229.9

L a n g u a g e norms national/diocesan

200.3/

207.5

207/

212.3

212.9/

218.2

216.2/

222

218.7/

225.4

221.3/

229.3

Congratulations! The Notre Dame Club of Kalamazoo sponsored Mrs. Pearson to attend the Excellence in Teach-ing conference at the University of Notre Dame. Abby Eastman, Natalie Toweson, Annie Thornton, and Savannah Madden served as our Student Leadership Council. Christine Dugas placed 2nd in the Knights of Columbus Spelling Bee at the diocesan level. DI teams placed 1st and 2nd at the Regional Tournament. Science Olympiad placed 4th at the WMU tournament. Christian Bartholomew won the Knights of Columbus Free Throw Competition at the state level. 7th grade investigator team, Emme O’Brien, Andrew Bridenstine, CJ Marlow, Lawrence Pelkey, and Molly McDermott, advanced to the diocesan community review panel with their SSEP proposal, The Effects of

Imiquimod Cream on Melanoma Mutations. Brigid Roth’s patch won best design in the SSEP patch design contest.

Students hosted 5 Dollar For Denim days, sending money to St. Jude Children’s Hospital, Catholic Relief Services for the Philippines, Rice Bowl Offertory, Holy

Family Radio, and the St. Augustine Cathedral School Endowment.

The student body completed 1500 hours of service to organizations in our commu-nity, including Warm Kids, Sisters of St. Joseph, Salvation Army, Eleanor House, St. Augustine Cathedral School, Caring Network, Stewards of Kleinstuck, St. Au-

gustine Cathedral parish, Blue Star Moms, and Michigan Blood.

New windows were installed in 2 class-rooms, completing the work on the north side of the building. Upgrades were made to bathrooms in the school and Crowley Center. 3M Safety Film was installed on all windows and doors ac-cessible from the outside. These major improve-ments were funded through Angel donations at

Legacy Celebration 2013.

The Covenant Scholar-ship brought 9 new families with 14 students in to our

school community. Through the generosity of the Covenant Scholarship donor, our supporting parishes, the Barron Fund, the Ryan Fund, the Lawrence Fund, the St. Augustine Cathedral School Endowment Fund, the John Robert Amat Fund, and the school’s Annual Appeal monies, $94,000 in tuition assistance and gifts were awarded to St. Augustine

School families.

The Local Advisory Council and the Legacy Celebration 2013 committee hosted another successful Advancement event, bringing in $60,000 for

school needs.

100% of St. Augustine Cathedral School’s teachers and staff contributed to the 2013-2014 CSGK Annual Fund Appeal.

Students must recognize the gifts with which they have been endowed and use them

to be who God calls them to be.

Stewardship Page 4

Find us on the web at www.stakzoo.org .

Member of Catholic Schools of Greater Kalamazoo

St. Augustine Cathedral School, in

partnership with parents and the Catholic Church, welcomes and shapes young

people as they grow in faith, knowledge, and stewardship.

Congratulations 2nd grade students! They were honored

by the Salvation Army as “Volunteer of the Year”.