From the Principal’s Desk

Our school has had an amazing and productive year! In addition to the

progress towards our MNSAA objectives (see below), our school has

blossomed this year; from our preschool classroom over-flowing with

precious little faces and their families, to the “big kid” fourth graders

ready to explore the world. We have a newly created Alumni Commit-

tee ready to reconnect with many of our alumni from long and not-so-

long ago! Our Advisory Board has a group of committed parents, ready

to take on a variety of tasks to help support our school. Our fundraising

activities will likely surpass their goal for the first time in several years

with our Annual Live and Silent Auction in April. We have been

blessed with a marketing committee that has been helping us to improve

our marketing strategies, and promote how wonderful our school is! A

new tri-fold bulletin board in the parish gathering space has worked

wonders to increase parishioner knowledge of school activities and

events. All these things are working together with God’s plan for our

school!

On a personal note, I will be completing my master’s degree in May,

wrapping up my five year journey and fulfilling the MNSAA require-

ments for an administrator. I am looking forward to being able to use

all this knowledge (and extra energy) to help continue our school’s

work towards our strategic plan and beyond.

St. Thomas School

810 Fifth Street

Int’l Falls, MN 56649

Phone: 218-283-3430

Fax: 218-283-3553 Email: principal@stthomas catholicschoool.com

Inside this issue:

Principal 1

Catholic School Week 2

Test Results 3

Memorials 4

Thank You Donors 5

Fr. Ben 6

Silent Auction 7

Mission and Philosophy 8

MNSAA Moment: Our new School Strategic Plan is on the website and

we are working towards the first year goals! By the end of this school

year we will have completed Social Studies curriculum mapping,

worked to increase visibility of the

school for parishioners, completed

staff evaluations, enrolled in

NWEA’s Professional Learning On

-line for increased information on our test data, updated our crisis man-

agement plans, and created an alumni committee. The principal will al-

so complete her master’s degree this spring! What a year of growth!

St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School Spring 2018

Top seller Jenika Schermerhorn

shares a smile after being

awarded her robot prize! For

more about the Catholic United

Raffle results, see page 6.

Catholic Schools Week :

Students participated in

a variety of events and

special activities as a

part of Catholic Schools

Week! Over the course

of the week, we partici-

pated in Sunday and daily Mass, collected dona-

tions for military troops, sent cards to Good Samar-

itan, went skating and sledding in Ranier, learned

about the Olympics, went swimming, and were re-

minded how our Catholic school’s help students to

Learn, Serve, Lead and Succeed!

2017-18 St. Thomas School Teachers and Enrollment

Ms. Fischbach’s preschool 19 students

Mrs. Kostiuk’s Kindergarten 3 students

Ms. Pierce’s 1st and 2nd Grade 13 students

Mrs. Ecklund’s 3rd and 4th Grade 9 students

Total 2016-2017 enrollment 39 students

Total 2017-2018 enrollment 44 students

St. Thomas School Advisory

Board

The School Advisory Board meets month-

ly to help support the activities of St.

Thomas School. The school committee is

represented by school families, alumni,

parishioners, and school staff. Members

for the 2017-2018 school year included:

Father Ben Hadrich, Principal Dawn

Flesland, Fundraising Co-Chairs Sabrina

Etienne and Kim Knuth, Marketing Guru

Danielle Schermerhorn, Marnie Kostiuk,

Lindsey Goulet, Betsy Meres, Hailey Sil-

vers, Ken Krueger, Tonya Becker, and

Bob French.

44%

36%

20%

Winter Math Test Score Percentile Ranges

Percentage

>60%

40-60%

<40%

50%

21%

29%

Winter Reading Test Score Percentile Ranges

>60%

40-60%

<40%

Above: Olympic Trivia Winners are

awarded their medals. This family trivia

event challenged students to 10 days of

trivia questions while the real Olympics

were occurring! From left to right: Taleia

Boyer, Wesley Weyrauch, Ethan Meres,

Vionna Etienne, and Jack Knuth.

Congratulations!

Above and Left: St. Thomas School K-4

staff and students use the NWEA Map tests

for data three times a year. These are our

winter results which help teachers see stu-

dent growth to date. Notice that 44% of our

math and 50% of our reading test results

score students in the 60th or above percen-

tile! Way to go students and teachers!

Anne Ramsey

Betty Lepper

Carol Vohler

Darlene Lepper

Doris Morff

Dorothy O'Leary

Elvira Earley

Frances Vnuck

Gerald Mongrain

Gloria Kazmer

Jack Zeipen

Janet Larson

Jennett Lucca

Jimmy Lucca

Josephine Growette

Judy Doughterty

Larry Cullen

Marian O'Brien

Martha Baldwin

Marvel Mio

Mary Misner

Melody Woods

Noella Simon

Peggy Tomsen

Richard Steele

Richard Villalta

Rodney Simon

Rose Marie Stolz

Slyvester Vnuck

Snuffy Larson

Antonio (Tony) Mio

Yvonne Nevanen

St. Thomas School would like to

acknowledge our Matching Donations

from the following businesses:

United Health Care through The

Benevity Community Impact Fund

Wells Fargo Community Support

Campaign

Left and below:

Students play on the freshly uncovered

playground tar. The 4-square boxes and chalk

drawing were a welcome sign of spring!

Memorial Gifts were received in honor of:

Barb Albert

Bob and Sharon Misner

Bunny Green

Darnel Thompson

David Walsh

Gerald and Carol Mongrain

Henry and Audrey Urban

Jackie Glowack

James and Linda Sutch

John Becque and Gail Sullivan

Judy Potter

Knights of Columbus

Kurt and Hoa Sobczynski

Leland Rivard

Leonard and Diane Walkoviak

Leonard and Margaret Simon

Maria and Dean Cowman

Mary Sirois

Michael or Regine Domish

Mindy Einarson

Moonlight Archery Club

Paul and J.T. Kiner

Richard and Julie Hindman

Richard and Therese McBride

Plant Maintenance14%

Scholarships7%

Program Supplies7%

Lunch Programs3%

Purchased Services/Janitorial

7%

Salaries & Benefits

62%

2017-18 BUDGET EXPENSEGeneral Income

9%

Endowment17%

Parish Subsidy22%

Tuition23%

Lunch Programs3%

Scholarship Fund4%

Fundraising/Scrip22%

2017-18 BUDGET INCOME

Above: Projections for our 2017-18 school year end budget. Our school has a variety of incomes helping to

stabilize our school. Our largest expense is our awesome staff! We work hard to make sure we are spend-

ing our income wisely and stretching our dollars in the best interest of our students! Thank you!

Thank you to the following General Fund, Scholarship Fund, Phone-a-thon

and Fall Annual Appeal Mailing Donors:

Annual Appeal

This year’s Fall Annual Appeal and Spring Phone-a-thon have a combined donation goal of $15,000. Our

school has a proud history of academic excellence in our Christ-centered environment. We are able to

continue this legacy due to the generous donors like you! Thank you for your continued support!

Donations of any size are welcome : _____$500 _____$100 _____$50 _____other

Mail to: St. Thomas School

810 Fifth Street ______ Annual Appeal ______ Wish List

Int’l Falls, MN 56649 ______ Scholarships ______ General Fund

Brothers and Sisters,

Thank you for your support through our Catholic United Financial Raffle event from the end of January

through most of February. Because of you, we received $19,085 and each dollar went right into our school.

Thank you!

Also, Catholic United Financial organized a cool

challenge between all 84 Catholic schools in

Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota from

the smallest schools to the largest. To do so, they

tallied how many tickets were sold per how many

students each school had. As we watched Catho-

lic United Financial live feed on March 7th, we

learned that we were the #1 “Top Selling School”

in the 2018 event. Praise God; we will receive a

$3,000 grant, meaning that we made our $20,000

goal up to $22,085! Thank you again!

As our school is still rolling, we have an amazing list as we prepare for our 2018-2019 school year. It looks

like we will have 37 students from K-4 and 24 students in preschool, giving us 61 students in total.

What encourages my heart is how we have grown less than four years. I remember moving up to Interna-

tional Falls to serve at St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Columban parishes on July 16th, 2014. I had learned

that we had 19 students registered for 2014-2015, and our school may have been closed. Instead, we fol-

lowed God’s will and listened to the best teacher ever—Jesus Christ. Let us always remember that our

Savior said, “Let the children come to me…” As we work together as a team and a family, we have over

tripled our school’s registration.

And we have more fishing to do to continue to

grow St. Thomas Aquinas School.

Please continue to pray through God—Father,

Son and Holy Spirit—as well as through our

Mother Mary. Please discern how you can of-

fer your time, talent and treasure to pitch in for

our beautiful school. As we continue to open

our hearts and grow through stewardship, we

will only receive the gifts through God’s will.

God Bless,

Fr. Ben Hadrich

Pictures above: Fr. Ben and the students prepare for Lent

by burning last year’s palm leaves. At the Ash Wednesday

Mass the next day, Fr. Ben showed the students how he

prepares the ashes for disbursement.

Your invited to an elegant evening!

Dinner choices are Prime rib, Chicken

Piccata or Gourmet Macaroni and

Cheese.

Tickets are $40 and available at the

School or Parish office and Stewart’s

Super One Foods.

Below: Our top selling stu-

dents say “Thank you!”. With

your AMAZING support, we

were able to place #1 school

“for raffle tickets sold per stu-

dent” during the Catholic

Schools Raffle sponsored by

Catholic United Financial,

AND we were awarded an ex-

tra $3,000 grant!

St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School Non-Profit Organization

810 Fifth Street U.S. Postage Paid

International Falls, MN 56649 Int’l Falls, MN 56649

Return Service Requested Bulk Permit #50

St. Thomas School Mission Statement

St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School is committed to the development of each student as a well-rounded

contributing member of our religious and secular communities. The educational process encompasses all

phases of a child’s development. Working together, faculty, family and

parish create the learning environment for the success of each child.

Our Philosophy Statement

All children are unique beings from God, and we are committed to

developing a Christ centered environment, which fosters children’s

ability to reach their full potential. All children will be given a sense

of justice and global awareness as a dimension of living their faith.