Anthony Voss's blog

Gracious God, Our blessings are many! Fill our hearts with gratefulness for the gift of living, for the ability to love and be loved, for the opportunity to see the everyday wonders of creation, for sleep and water, for a mind that thinks and a body that feels.

In teacher college all the professors tell teacher candidates to make sure that they always stay on "the good side" of the secretary.  We all know that this is usually spoken in jest, but there is no doubt that the person who runs the front office is someone who holds a tremendous amount of responsibility and is the public face of the school.  A good secretary is invaluable and can be a tremendous asset to the school community.  We are extremely blessed at St. Joseph Catholic School to have Kathy Mitchel as our secretary!

As we wind down a very challenging and difficult school year, I would like to extend a very warm invitation to our annual Shamrock fundraiser next week.  While our goal with this event is to raise much needed third source revenue for next year, it is also an opportunity to relax and enjoy a fun-filled evening with your St. Joseph family.

Tonight was opening night of our annual musical, and I can say it was a smashing success!  As a former music teacher, one of my favorite activities was the annual production.  There is nothing quite like seeing the transformation that takes place over the course of several weeks.  The transformation of a script into a living, breathing show.  The lights, the drama, and the costumes all add to the excitement that was certainly felt backstage as the lights dimmed before the opening overture.

Last week you had the opportunity to participate in parent teacher conferences with your child's teacher. There is no better opportunity for you to gain valuable insight [into the progress your child has made] than this conference. At St. Joseph Catholic School, we view our relationship with parents as a partnership in learning. We recognize parents as the primary educators of their own children. To those of you that took advantage of this opportunity, thank you!

The Board of Education will enter into closed session this meeting to take up the topic of staff reduction.  At that time, I will present to the Board names of those staff members being recommended for staff reduction.  The Board will not act on this recommendation until our April 13th meeting.  In the days following this meeting, I will be notifying individual staff members of their status.  By ABE Policy, the Board and myself are not permitted to share with any members of the public this recommendatio

We are well into this General Assembly, one that has been fraught with budget challenges and fast moving legislation.  There are three main pieces of legislation that we are currently watching very closely.  You may have noticed earlier in the week that a legislative alert was posted in regard to the expansion of textbook funding to include the purchase of technology (in this case laptop computers) for non-public schools.  We do support this legislation.

This week we join with Catholic schools across the country as we celebrate our very existence.  The theme this year "Dividends for Life", reminds us that there is no better investment than the education of a child.  In our setting, however we take this one step further and make Jesus Christ the focal point of our program.  If you look at the logo for Catholic Schools Week, the word "Faith" appears first.

Most people who know me are aware that I am an avid football fan and follow the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Minnesota Vikings very close.  Fortunately the Hawks had a great season and came home with their first BCS Championship.  Unfortunately the Vikings came up one game short (that's okay, we always have next year!)

I wanted to take a few moments to share with you how impressed I am with your child's teacher these days!  You see, they have been having a pretty tough year and it is probably going to get more difficult in the days ahead.  As you know, earlier this week the Board endorsed a plan to go to a single class per grade level next year.  The teachers have known since the first day of school this year that we were going to be faced with lay-offs in the spring.  Now they have an idea of how deep these cuts are going to be, and they are under a lot of