Portland St. Patrick Catholic School

Welcome back! I hope everyone had the opportunity to get a little rest and relaxation over Christmas break. It was a nice break and hopefully everyone is prepared to get down to business as we prepare to finish the first half of the school year.

We are excited to welcome new students Bryce (2nd grade) and Adriana (K) Wendling to St. Patrick School. We also welcome their parents Matt and Corinne Wendling to our St. Patrick School family.

St. Patrick welcomes Mrs. Joanne Davids. She is a student teacher from Spring Arbor University and will work with Mrs. Diane Simon’s third grade class throughout the next 10 weeks.

I would like to commend the junior class for the excellent job they did leading at Mass this week. The high school exam schedule seemed to go well before Christmas break. I have only heard positive feedback thus far. Feel free to let me know your thoughts on exams before Christmas break. The one question I was asked is what will students do after break? The answer is teachers will resume teaching the curriculum with the option of including the material from the last three weeks of the semester on the final exam in June or they can use another form of assessment for this period of time.

The week of January 9 – 14 has been declared as Vocations Awareness Week. Fr. Ron Hutchinson, Director of Priestly Vocations for the Diocese of Grand Rapids will concelebrate school Mass on Wednesday and discuss vocations with our students. Feel free to join us at the 9:30 Mass to pray for and support vocations. Fr. Ron will stay for lunch so students have the opportunity to speak with him one to one or in a small group. I’m still pushing the idea that a high school our size should be graduating one future priest every four years at a minimum. We have some great future priest and religious sisters attending our high school right now.

Since next week is Vocations Awareness Week, the jean day money collected next Friday will be sent to Michael Steffes. Michael is a graduate of St. Patrick High School and is currently in seminary studying to be a priest. Please continue to pray for Michael.

Congratulations to David Simon (First Team Offense WR), Tyler Pung (Second Team Offense WR), Paul Pung (Second Team Offense OL), Jesse Smith (Second Team Offense OL), and Collin Lay (Second Team Defense DB) for being named to the 2011  All-Ionia County Football team.

Congratulations to Stephanie Miros (First Team Libero) and Jalyn Moyer (Honorable Mention Middle Hitter) for being named to the 2011 All-Ionia County Volleyball Team.