Dear Parents:

Happy New Year!  I trust that you had a wonderful and a blessed Christmas holiday season.  For most folks Christmas seems to have receded quickly in the "rear-view mirror" of life and yet if you were to walk on campus you would still see the Nativity scene in the grass area outside the library and the Holy Family in front of the altar in the Sacred Heart Chapel.  For many this seems strange and yet within the life of the Church the season of Christmas runs through this coming Sunday, January 12th, the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.  So while the secular world has seen Christmas come and go, we are still celebrating the glory of birth of Jesus Christ.  The Nativity scene is a reminder that the gift of Christmas is the love of God come into the world.  While the Holy Family, shepherds and Magi will soon be "boxed up" and stored away until December, the love of Christ, Caritas Christi, has to remain vibrant and visible in all our lives each day of this year of 2014. 

With the return to school, the second semester began which in and of itself was a new experience.  I hope that your sons and daughters enjoyed having the Christmas break as a true vacation from school work and not having to return to final exams.  Antidotal information is telling us that this change has been a positive one but we will be formalizing it in a survey coming out later this month which I invite you to participate in by sharing your thoughts.

January is also the month of our Placement Exam for the incoming Class of 2018 (January 25th) and we are seeing tremendous interest in SMCHS and expect a very large number of 8th graders here to take the exam.  January 25th is also the date of our Winter Formal dance and the Activities office is working hard so that all attendees have a wonderful evening.

During the last week of January 26-31 we will join with all schools in our Diocese and in the United States in celebrating Catholic Schools Week.  The theme of the week is: "Communities of Faith, Knowledge and Service."  This year we are honored to have Bishop Kevin Vann on campus January 28th to celebrate Mass for the student body on the Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the great teachers of the Faith.  Bishop Vann will be joined by priests from the parishes who send students to SMCHS.  In addition, many of the Youth Ministers from the parishes will be joining us and all will be invited to have lunch with students from their parishes following Mass.  This will be a great way to celebrate the wonderful gift of Catholic education.  Of course parents and friends are invited to join us at Mass which begins at 9:00 a.m., in the Moiso Pavilion.

Next month we will be sharing with you the details of our One to One computer tablet program which will begin in the 2014-15 academic year.  The various campus committees are in the process of finalizing everything from the financing to the device itself.  It will be an exciting time at SMCHS as we move into the newest ways of teaching and learning.

I pray that for each of you the New Year will be one filled with the grace and peace of God; the love of our Lord Jesus Christ and the wisdom and fervor of the Holy Spirit! 

Caritas Christi,

Ray Dunne

Principal