On Monday night we held our Annual Donor Appreciation
Dinner.
This event is for individuals
who have donated at least $500 to the Annual Appeal, $1,000 to the MVSTO, or
have made a 5 year commitment to Embracing
Our Future for $5,000 or more. Every
year I speak about the great things happening at Assumption. This year I decided
to go back in history and look at how we have changed in only five years. I feel that this is great information for Board
members to have. It was difficult to
pare down everything that we have done, but I tried to highlight things we have
accomplished in a wide variety of areas.
Here are some of my comments:
Since 2008, enrollment has
increased from 422 to 482 students.
Since 2008, 486 students have graduated from Assumption earning a total
of $16,784,059 dollars in scholarship offers.
While at Assumption, those same 486 students completed 38,880 hours of
community service.
Over the past five years our
students have celebrated mass together over 80 times, not taking into account
the team masses they frequently attend.
Our students have collected over 100,000 lbs of food and helped to
collect 10,000 diapers for the needy.
The school has also grown
academically. In 2008, Assumption offered 15 hours of college credits, we now
offer 24 hours. We have also expanded AP
course offerings through both in-house and on-line opportunities. Our increased enrollment has led to the need
to hire more teachers. The excellence of
our teachers has been both nationally and locally honored, with Wendy Martin
being nominated for Live with Kelly’s Teacher of the Year award, and Jan Luton
winning the Lammers Teacher Excellence Award.
Last year we added a robotics
team through the First Tech Challenge grant allowing students to design, build,
and program their robots to compete in an alliance format against other
teams.
Some of this is possible due to
technology upgrades. Five years ago there
were 125 hardwired computers in 4 labs, and our teachers relied on overhead
projectors to aid in their visual displays. Currently we are a wireless campus,
and with each student being issued a laptop computer for use over their four
years at Assumption, we have over 500 computers in the school. Our teachers now utilize their own laptops
and the 22 electronic whiteboards in our classrooms.
In fine arts we have produced 26
plays and musicals, and we were selected to perform at the International
Thespian Festival.
Athletically in the last five
year we have had 85 all-state athletes, 4 undefeated conference champs and over
20 state championship teams.
We have remodeled the convent (twice),
the library (twice), the auditorium, the small gym, the tech rooms, student
services, the band and choir area, the cafeteria, the teachers’ lounge, 8
classrooms, installed a new large gym floor, installed a wireless clock system,
installed cabinets to house some of our history and provide students a
perspective throughout the years. We
have purchased new vehicles, repaired the roof, and replaced domestic hot water
lines.
We now run a successful daycare,
which continues to expand.
Financially, we have decreased
subsidy from our parishes at 1% annually for the last five years and increased
teacher pay to compete with the public schools, all while keeping tuition
increases low. We also paid off our bond
that was issued in 1998.
The Family Tuition Plan that so many of you have supported has seen
huge changes over the last 5 years. We also continue to see families utilize
the plan and it continues to grow. Five
years ago our tuition plan helped 456 students and funded a little over
$550,000 in need. Last year the Family Tuition
Plan helped 654 students (198 more than 5 years ago) and provided $1,156,136 in assistance to help students attend
Catholic schools in Scott County.
So what hasn’t changed?
One thing that hasn’t changed is the
value we place in our mission - to prepare students academically, spiritually,
and morally for the opportunities and responsibilities of the future.
Another thing that hasn’t changed
is the current of caring that our community has for each other. We have had some challenges and tragedy this
year. The one thing that helped us
through and will continue to help us through is how our community comes
together during times of need to support one another.
We – and I emphasize we – have
accomplished all of these things. This
isn’t the work of one person, it is that work of all of us. It was your
generosity that helped to accomplish these things. It was your sacrifice and your actions that
said we can help provide a great Catholic education for our students and make
Assumption High School and all the Catholic schools in Scott County successful.
So the question becomes, “what
now?” That is easy to answer. I’ll take you back to Walt Disney
"Around here we keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new
things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.
We're always exploring and experimenting."
With your continued help we will do just that. We will open new doors, we will try new
things and we will move Assumption forward.
Have a great weekend!
