Dear Parents and Students,

I hope you are enjoying the middle of the summer break as much as I am. It has been a busy time around campus with cleaning, painting, hanging new signs, Animas meetings, sports, and our Summer Bridge for incoming 9th graders. Our students have created a palpable buzz, as they have hit the ground running with a passion that is infectious. Along with their presence and passion we have new people in administrative positions - Ms. McLeod as Coordinator of Youth Ministry, Mr. Hazel as Athletic Director and Associate Dean, and Mr. Monroy as Dean and Activities Director. Two of our new teachers have already been on campus working in their classrooms and coaching - Ms. Janelle Silva in the English Department and Mr. John Ausman in Social Studies, PE, and as a Varsity Football Coach. We have also added Mr. Edward Kelly - our Men's Varsity Basketball Coach and current parent - as an Assistant Athletic Director to support Mr. Hazel and Mr. Nakagawa in athletics. Mr. Nakagawa is still in charge of Facilities, Varsity Baseball, and an Assistant Athletic Director.

Along with them, we have been busy building the student population at St. Francis for the 2015-2016 school year. I am happy to share that the number of Sharks has grown. Our resident and international student population will be bigger this year and we are very proud of our new growth. Even with the new growth, we are committed to maintaining personal relationships amongst the students, parents, faculty, and staff. We will still maintain a high level of connectivity - both electronic and personal - that will continue to be the hallmark of this great school. As I have stated at parent meetings and recruiting nights, the #1 indicator for success with high school students is whether they feel known by name and nurtured for success. This is also the value proposition of our patron saint and founder, St. John Bosco; and, this is the value added for our educational experience versus any other public, private, or charter school in the central coast.  

I celebrate the opportunity to welcome all of our students to St. Francis High School - Salesian College Preparatory this fall. It is a blessing to watch them grow day by day. This summer I had the opportunity to connect with alumni from St. Francis and my other school, St. John Bosco. This summer I had the honor of attending Ty Sambrailo's graduation and signing party for his family and friends. This was an amazing event that brought home the "family" aspect of St. Francis that we always talk about. It was wonderful hearing about his and his classmates' great memories of St. Francis and their strong ties with coaches and teachers. It was also affirming to hear him speak about how well prepared for college and for life he was by attending and graduating from St. Francis. This summer I have also had a chance to plan a first-time event for us - the kick-off dinner for the Salesian Youth Leadership Conference (SYLC) held each summer in Aptos at Camp St. Francis. I have been working with Br. Al Vu, Ms. Shannon McLeod, Ms. Lina Silva, and two recent alumnae - Izzy Shahmirza (UCLA bound) and Erica Leung (University of Oregon bound) to host a dinner for 150 young people from all Salesian parishes and high schools in California as well as 20-30 Salesian priests and brothers returning from their retreat on July 26th. For this event, we are still looking for donations from our families of bagged/packaged salad mix, berries, individually bagged chips for each participant, and help with the setup and take down for the event. Please contact Ms. Lina Silva at 831.724.5933 extension 222 or email her at silva@stfrancishigh.net to help. You earn valuable service hours for your donations and your time.

I pray each of our students have meaningful, life-altering experiences like the ones demonstrated by these two events that help them grow in faith, knowledge, compassion, confidence, leadership, service, and love to each other and to God. We are truly the home of scholars, champions, and leaders!

Congratulations to all of our AP students and teachers. This last year, again we grew in success! Our AP pass rate maintained its level of success with an average of 81%. I also want to congratulate and thank our AP Studio Art, AP Studio Art 2-D Design, AP Psychology, and AP French students for achieving a 100% pass rate. Thank you also to the exceptional teachers leading these classes, especially Ms. Heidi Alonzo. In the last 3 years we have achieved 100% pass rates in the above-mentioned classes along with AP English Literature, AP English Language, AP Calculus AB, and AP Spanish Language. This recognizes St. Francis High School as an academic leader that scores 25-30% higher than the national average pass rates.

A reminder, also, about the great success of our Latin Language program in passing the National Latin Exam. Thank you Mr. Pyne. This year we will maintain a Latin 1 and Latin 2 class in our Language department. This year we are launching our new Biomedical Science Program to enhance the real-world STEM learning opportunities for our students, too. Dr. Lisa Homesley is poised and ready to lead these new classes. Finally, I want to congratulate Marissa DeVogelaere and Drew Kreeft for achieving National Merit Scholarship Program status for 2016. These talented students are in the top 3% of all students who took the PSAT last year - a number close to 1.5 million. Like a proud parent, I am honored to share in the successes of our students and our staff.

This year's province wide and school theme is With Jesus, let us adventure in the Spirit together. You will see and hear some version of this theme permeate everything that we do. I value themes that can be branded on a t-shirt or coffee cup, so we are partnering with the Salesian Province and Salesian High School in Richmond to tighten this theme up. With this theme in mind, we are concluding the bicentennial celebration of Don Bosco's birth - 1815 to 2015. This year's Feast of St. John Bosco celebration (January 29, 2016) will be a mass celebrated across the street at Our Lady Help of Christians, and we want to introduce an annual Mary Help of Christians day in May this year to celebrate our faith traditions - it will be a school wide mass, the annual Megaladon Challenge between the seniors and the staff, DJ's, bands, and sporting contests between all students of all grades. It is also Ms. McLeod's and my commitment to pursue more opportunities to partner with our Pastor, Fr. Joseph from the parish across the street. We are both Salesian and want to celebrate our heritage and traditions together.

I am happy to share the results of our student surveys and parent surveys with the staff this fall. By disaggregating the data we can identify common themes of success and areas to constantly improve. I will share the result of this analysis and planning with our SFPA Board this September. All are welcome to attend any monthly board meeting, the 3 SFPA General Meetings, or any Counseling Meeting that Ms. Green hosts (Even if your student is not in that specific grade) to complete your SFPA Meeting requirement. Please refer to your school registration contract and/or the website for further details.

We are enhancing and simplifying communication on service hour opportunities for school events, SFPA events, visual and performing arts events, athletic events, and Bingo, through volunteerspot.com. We have successfully launched its use for Bingo and we are preparing to launch the others this August. Along with this communication tool, Mr. Watson and I are mapping out/designing our mobile app to simplify access to important school information/calendars/personnel this August as well. The launch of both of these tools came as a result of parent surveys and direct input from our SFPA Board. With this letter I am attaching our 2015-2016 Fundraising calendar; with the Board of Director's leadership we have simplified this effort and are communicating early so you as a family know what is coming and what our commitments are. Our goal is 100% participation for each. By achieving 100% participation it makes us more eligible for local and national grant funding.

Here, at St. Francis High School, we form a family in the spirit of Don Bosco. He reminds us that we are on loan to each other. In this life we are given to each other temporarily, just for a time. That in no way lessens, but rather enhances, the relationships we have, encouraging us to live each day and each moment to the fullest. This, I think, is at the heart of Don Bosco's spirituality. He found God in daily life. He found God in events as they unfolded, in the young to whom he was sent,and in the colleagues with whom he worked. Don Bosco promoted a religion of ordinary life, of spirituality for the young, of just completed homework, of responsibly done chores, of well played games, and beautifully crafted music and drama. As a product of this educational system for the last 30 years, and as a sophomore parent too, I have found that it's a good spirituality for all of us - both young and adult. May we live it daily this summer, finding God in all things. For now, I hope each of you have a summer that offers rest as well as the opportunity to do good for others.

Yours in Christ,

President and Principal