Blog

Welcome back to school, Sacred Heart students, staff, families, and our community of St. Vincent de Paul! Most of us spent our summer doing the typical summery things. Sleeping in, working on projects, relaxing, and if we were really lucky, doing some traveling. Although I have enjoyed my summer, once August hits, I am anxious for students and staff to be back in the building. Although the relative quiet left me time to complete some administrative projects, I missed seeing our students and my colleagues! I am so excited to see all of the wonderful things this school year has in store for us! All of working together will ensure that Sacred Heart School has the best year yet!

Now, here we are beginning week two of the 2025-2026 school year. Our students are getting to know their teachers and classmates, have found their lockers, are making new friends, and have started the work of setting and achieving their goals for this year. In short, the year has begun, and we are off to a great start!

I am excited to see where God leads all of us through this year. I know that he plans to bring us closer to him, no matter what that looks like. Our job is to listen and watch for his will in the world around us, and to lead our students closer to him. It is a big responsibility, but one I am confident our staff can rise to. We have a loving and loyal faculty and staff, and their love of God, spirit of flexibility, cooperation, and support of our students and school is unmatched. They care a lot about our students and want them to become the best they can be, academically, spiritually, and emotionally. I am proud to be a member of this teaching community, helping our students to become all that God has planned for them.

Our students are a unique and varied bunch with many different backgrounds. What seems to unite them is their love for our school, each other, and God. From Pre-K to 12th grade, our students have opportunities to learn, grow, and thrive like no other student body around us. Not only are they academically driven as demonstrated by IOWA scores and scholarships offered, but more importantly, they are focused on making our community and world better by their acts of service and kindness. Watching our students grow into the people Christ calls them to be is a pleasure. I have such a great job! I am looking forward to watching their continued growth during the upcoming year as they take on new challenges and opportunities, such as Rachel’s Families, classroom service projects, and several important academic benchmarks.

Our families are a huge part of our success as well. Whether it is through their prayers, volunteerism, or financial support, we know that partnering with our Sacred Heart families helps strengthen our sense of community and moves us toward the common goal of helping our students grow in faith and academics to become well rounded community-minded people. Our little school has an amazing way of bringing us all together into one Gremlin Family, despite the variety of our circumstances. The way our veteran families mentor our new families, or show up to work a concession stand shift, provide snacks for meetings, and the way our older students look out for our youngest students are a few ways that our families give back to our school and model the values we want our students to see. Service, sacrifice, and fellowship.

Our parish community is consistently generous and supportive of our school. In fact, without the support of our parish, our school wouldn’t exist. We are grateful for the sacrifices that our priests and the rest of the St. Vincent de Paul community have made to make sure that Sacred Heart School is a legacy that lives on for many more years to come. It is heartwarming to see so many in our community that value Catholic education.

All of us: staff, students, families, and the parish community have a wonderful year to look forward to and I am grateful for your support. Please continue to keep our students and school in your prayers and know of our prayers for you throughout the year too. It is bound to be a remarkable year for Sacred Heart School!