St. Vincent’s creates a daily program focused on growing in discipleship first, and then high academic standards and expectations for our students, with strong supports in place for their well-being. St. Vincent’s serves grades K-8 and offers religion class daily. Our religion classes offer both the core series approved by our Diocese and are enhanced by additions from Ruah Woods, Theology of the Body Program. We are a Theology of the Body Campus, which consist of vital teachings from St. Pope John Paul II. Many are focused on the true understanding of love, by which any loving act must be free, total, faithful, and fruitful.
Our academic day begins at 7:45 am, with drop off running 7:15-7:45 am. Class sizes cap at 22 for kindergarten and 30 for grades 1-6. We are committed to serving students at their instructional level, in data-driven groups. One way we accomplish this is by staffing each K-5th grade classroom with a teaching assistant supporting a lead teacher. We deepen this by running interventions at least three times a week, which offers enrichment, support for smaller groups of students, and English language learning for small groups of students, based on data. This support consists of students from each classroom leaving to work with our lead teachers in our intervention department, at their instructional level. Students who remain in the classroom then consist of a smaller core group as well, still served by their own lead teacher and teaching assistant. Some grades expand this model to 4 times/week. In K to 4th grade, we run a 90-minute reading block, and a 60-minute math block, further deepening instructional opportunities for our students. Students also study science, social studies, writing, and special area subjects, which meet weekly or two times per week. These include art, PE/gym, music, computer, and library.
Jr. high, 7th and 8th grades, returns to smaller class sizes of approximately 20-22, and our learning shifts to a secondary model with our jr. high experience. Please do read more on this in the provided link, as our jr. high includes many exciting changes for our students, all aimed at furthering independence and intrinsic motivation in learning.
In addition to our work in student interventions, to specifically support their progress in reading and math, we are proud that our Resource Program proudly serves a great variety of children with special education needs in both the mild and moderative cognitive disabilities range. We joyfully commit to serving the broadest range of learners possible, in an inclusive environment, and find great success for our children in the partnership of our resource teachers working directly with our lead teachers in our K-8 grades. Learn more about this on our special education page.
Each week, all grades attend mass two times a week. See more about this on our Catholic identity page, which also outlines other community faith events, including adoration, rosaries, confession, school prayer, witness talks, etc. Dismissal on all days except Wednesday begins at 2:42 pm. Cars are assigned a specific parking space and are asked to be on the lots by 2:39 when they close to car traffic. Students then load cars from 2:42 to approximately 2:50 or 2:52 pm, and cars begin exiting at this time.
St. Vincent’s, in terms of technology, takes the stance of contemplative critics, wherein we both use and limit technology intentionally, in light of our mission. It is important in our belief statements to use both technology and traditional resources, and give intentional time for children to play and have actual, in-person time with their families and evening activities. We establish total screen time guideposts for our grades, as well as an increasing homework progression. See more on this on our technology page.
St. Vincent’s also proudly offers a range of extracurricular activities to help our students thrive. We work intentionally to offer programs for all students, through athletics and non-athletic offerings. St. Vincent’s sports include football, volleyball, basketball, cheer, soccer, golf, track, and cross country. Non-athletic opportunities include our competitive robotics team, competitive speech team, fall drama production, after-school study tables, Mercy Club, and our band and choir programs, which add to our Masses and non-sacred performances well. Learn more on our extracurricular activities page.
It is the mission of St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Shool to empower all students to live and share their Catholic faith while growing in academic success in a safe and nurturing environment.