Qualifying Eighth Grade students are given the opportunity to take a scholarship test offered through the Connelly Foundation.  If they are going to a Catholic High School in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and maintain academic honor status at St. Stanislaus, they are given the test to win four years of school tuition. Here are our qualifying students.

From left to right...

Front Row

Abby Derstine

Caroline Free

Nadia Schimony

Back Row

Patrick Hwang

Owen Moran

Michael Sisko

David Torri

Nick Panetta

The Epiphany

January 6, 2012

Text of Presentation by Miss Diane E. McCaughan to Parents in Church Concerning the Blue Ribbon Commission Report

Good evening!  It is an honor to stand before you as a member of this faith filled community.  I would like to begin by thanking you for all your prayers and the many ways you have reached out to us in support over the past several weeks as we awaited the findings of the Blue Ribbon Commission.  Your prayer and this outpouring of support tonight gives us great courage and hope for the future of Catholic education.

The Blue Ribbon Commission was established to study Catholic education in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and to find ways to make Catholic education sustainable for all who desire to give this gift to their children.  Looking around this Church tonight, I know that many of us have been part of the tradition of Catholic education for many many years through our grade school years, high school years through college and grad school.  I am sure I share this sentiment with many of you….. I will forever be grateful to my mother and my grandparents for the many sacrifices they made to give my brother, sisters, and me the legacy Catholic education.

Today our Catholic Schools face many challenges with declining enrollment, shifting demographics, low baptisms, decrease in school age children, and increasing cost.  Unfortunately, the signs of the times have affected our school as well. Each year we lose twenty or thirty students and in order to continue to offer a quality program with all the 21 Century bells and whistles, we need to turn that trend around.   In order to increase the sustainability of Saint Stanislaus School, the Blue Ribbon Commission’s findings indicate that Saint Stanislaus School and Saint Rose of Lima will partner beginning in the 2012-2013 school year here in Lansdale.   It is our hope that this vision and new direction will sustain Catholic education for your children for years to come.

It is so important for us to embrace this new vision for our school with hope, excitement, and a renewed sense of commitment to Catholic Education.

Transition and change no matter how good the end result may be often comes with some painful realities.  At this time the administration, faculty and staff of both Saint Stanislaus School and Saint Rose of Lima School will have the opportunity to re-apply for their positions as we begin this partnership.

I ask you to pray for our faculty and staff at this difficult time.  These dedicated women have loved, nurtured, educated and cared for your children like they were their own.  I ask you to join me in recognizing these wonderful women tonight.

I know that you will pray for us during this transition process and we pledge to you our full support while this change is initiated.

Your children are our first concern tonight.   We, the adults in their lives need to let them know that they are loved, they are safe, and their school is going to be stronger than it ever was.  They will take their cues from us.  Our positive embrace of this new direction will give them the confidence and faith they need to look at this new vision with great hope for their future.

The hallmark of the culture of Saint Stanislaus Parish School is the warm, friendly, and welcoming atmosphere that greets every visitor who enters our door.  We say over and over again that we are a family and now is the time for our family to embrace new members with that welcoming spirit that makes us St. Stans proud.

In 2007 when the work of the Visioning Committees began we stood in this holy place and promised to work together to strengthen our commitment to Saint Stanislaus School.  You worked hard…we worked hard although we did not increase our enrollment as we hoped we strengthened every aspect of our faith community.  That evening I concluded the presentation with end of a study that Notre Dame prepared on Catholic Education.

Perhaps the best way to appreciate the power of Catholic schools is to imagine the Church in the United States without them.  What would it look like?  Would it be as robust and vital?  How would it produce generous leaders?  How would it provide avenues of educational opportunity to the poor, especially those in our cities?  The rise of evangelical Christian schools shows that other Christian communities have learned what many Catholics have forgotten or are willing to ignore – that there is no substitute for spending 35 hours each week in an educational environment permeated by faith and Gospel values.  To those who wonder how we can afford to make the investment necessary to sustain, strengthen, and expand our schools, we respond by turning the question on its head. How can we afford not to make this investment?   Our future depends on it more than we may suspect.

Will it be said of our generation that we presided over the demise of the most effective and important resource for evangelization in the history of the Church in the United States?  Will it be said of our generation that we lacked the resolve to preserve national treasures built upon the sacrifice of untold millions?  Will it be said of our generation that we abandoned these powerful instruments of justice that provide educational opportunity and hope for families otherwise trapped in poverty?  Surely it will not.  Instead, when the story of Catholic schools is written, historians will look back on our age and marvel that against great odds, we changed the ending.  By then, of course, we will know one thing better than those who write this history.  We will know – we will see -  the promise that Christ Himself made:  that He will come, that He will inspire us through the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit as  history unfolds to make all things new, and that He will never leave us orphans but reveal to us that we are all beloved children of our Father.

It is our hope that the partnership between Saint Stanislaus and Saint Rose of Lima will create a new quality Catholic Education Program so that the powerful legacy of Catholic Education that is so precious to us will be available to the children in Lansdale, Hatfield, North Wales for generations to come.

Thank you!