An Important Message From Our Parish Education Committee on Our New Building Project
Dear Star of the Sea School families,
As many of you are likely aware, our Parish, under the leadership of Father Augustine, is well on its way to realizing an exciting building project. A new parish center, to be located adjacent to Good Shepherd church, will provide us with facilities to accommodate parish ministry groups, large community gatherings, and much else that enriches the extra-liturgical life of a faithful Christian community. Father Augustine has been in active consultation with multiple parish stakeholders, and through that process, approached school leadership for our vision of how the center could be designed to best support the needs of the school. This juncture represents a remarkably rare opportunity to consider what our school could become if not constrained by its current physical infrastructure. We gratefully accepted this invitation and began the process to reflect on the present and future needs of our school-aged children and families. This process resulted in a vision supported by Father Augustine, our school principal Mr. Borkowski and the Parish Education Committee, and is presented in the following paragraphs.
New Gymnasium – Every conceived design for the parish center has included provisions for a large gymnasium that would be made available to Star of the Sea School during school hours, while supporting community gatherings on evenings and weekends. As a double-streamed school, having access to additional indoor physical education spaces, particularly in wet winter months will significantly benefit our students. A second gymnasium will improve access to practice times for school teams and clubs and will enable our school to host sports tournaments. A strong athletic program has become a hallmark of our school, and a second gymnasium will support our continued athletic success and create more and better opportunities for our children to cultivate a love for sport and foster physical wellbeing.
Reduced Class Sizes in Younger Grades - Two years ago our school decided to reallocate classroom space to create a third kindergarten class thereby raising total kindergarten enrollment to 60, while reducing individual class sizes from 25 to 20. The results were overwhelmingly positive with behavioral, emotional, and learning outcomes all meaningfully improved for our youngest learners. The benefits carried over to teachers and staff who could spend more time educating and connecting with students.
To build on this success, the school’s vision for the center incorporates 4 additional classrooms that would allow the school to extend lower student-teacher ratios through grade 4. Catholic families in our community can now look forward to the same classes sizes found in other local schools with the added benefits and quality they have become accustomed to as a part of Star of the Sea School.
A middle school experience – The addition of 4 new classrooms in a building physically separate from the current school presented another exciting opportunity. The four classrooms in the center, while still entirely part of our school community, could operate like a middle school with grade 6 and 7 students being taught in the new facility and rotating between classrooms staffed by teachers specializing in their dedicated subject area(s). This plan works to prepare our older students for the transition to high school while spreading the benefit of the parish center more equitably between younger and older students and families in the coming years.
Financial considerations – As part of the proposed plan, the school would take on responsibility for the additive costs associated with the new classroom spaces. There will also be increased operating expenses arising primarily from salary costs for additional teachers and educational assistants. After a careful examination of our finances and conversations with other CISVA schools who have completed similar, and in some cases larger, capital projects, we are convinced that we are well positioned to shoulder these expenses. Over the past decade, through the generous support of school and parish families, our school has completed multiple capital-intensive upgrades and maintenance projects. These included the complete renovation of original wing classrooms, new rooftop HVAC units, resurfacing of the GYM floor, upgrades to the school lobby, new playground equipment, and landscaping upgrades. All this to say, the existing school facilities are in exceptional condition, and there are no other pressing needs for capital upgrades or major maintenance. The school has also accumulated a very healthy reserve fund that could cover a significant amount of this work without creating any operational or financial risk to the school. By allocating reserve funds and by focussing our fundraising efforts to this cause for the next 5-10 years, we will make this vision a reality.
This vision will require all of us to put our prayer and financial support behind the initiative. We welcome your feedback and are available to discuss the project with community members.
Your in Christ,
Kevin Dagenais,
On behalf of the Star of the Sea Education Committee