8/30/24 - Friday Forget-Me-Nots by Jim Silcott

Photo Caption: Father Tennant’s First School Mass

Dear Our Lady of Peace Family,

School is in full swing. After a good first three days of wonderful weather to begin our year, this week has reminded us that we do indeed live in Ohio and not California. Children, like old people, like to complain about the weather, especially at recess. This week, “It’s so hot out here.” In a few months, they will say, “It’s so cold out here.” The older students are the ones who voice their opinions the most vocally. The younger students seem to begin running as soon as they hit the doorway and don’t stop until the whistle blows.

You plan and plan all summer for these first weeks of school. But, like a good football coach, all the planning doesn’t mean anything until the game, or in our case, the opening bell (which hasn’t been working!) starts the clock ticking on the new season. 

We have just a small number of new staff this year, which helps. Julia Gualtieri is in her first official year of teaching but has worked here before as an aide and a sub. Mary Flynn worked last year in a different position than last year. Sister Merrita has many years of experience in Catholic schools in Indianapolis and Sister Sheena worked for the last couple of years at Our Lady of Bethlehem. Debbie Duke is back as our Title I tutor. 

The newest kid on the block is our pastor, Father Tennant, who is in his first months as a new pastor and the pastor of a parish with a school. He gave our students a good “pep” talk before our first school Mass and gave a great homily at the actual Mass last Friday when he also blessed all our classrooms. His dog, Goose, is a big hit at recess and after school. 

The new sock rule (wear socks) has been well received by our students and I have seen many colors and styles of socks. We have added two Ts to our alliterative paper work. For years, we had the Tiger Tributes to hand out to students when they are good. Last year, we added Tiger Tribulations to fifth through eighth graders who were being the opposite. This year, we added Tiger Treasures, a discreet place for students to receive school supplies and other necessities that they might not otherwise have. Finally, the middle school teachers have added Tiger (a)Tonements as a way for students to reflect when they have received a tribulation (Atonement was the best I could do and if you say it real fast the “a” kind of drops off anyway.) Are there more Tiger tidbits to come? Watch this space! 

Our new assistant principal, Anne De Leonardis, has hit the ground running. I am still adjusting to the idea of assistance, but I am working on it. I am also working on correctly pronouncing her name out loud. I have finally figured out that if I start with the fact that the “De” and the “Le” in her name rhymes, the rest will sail trippingly off my tongue, or at least that is my hope. 

Our students get older. Funny how that happens. Just as we continued to write “2023” for the first few weeks of 2024, I see students and forget that they have advanced a grade. Students grow into their roles and ages, don’t they? By June, we forget how young Kindergarten students really are when they first come to us in August. As the year begins, we are reminded how much assistance our new babies need about every little detail of school life. God Bless our Kathys, Haninger and McBride, that they have the patience to start over every year with a new recruiting class. 

Our sixth graders are learning how to juggle their time and their books as they change classes for the first time. Our sixth graders have grown up and are settling in to being seventh graders and our seventh graders are stepping quite nicely into their role of being the leaders of the school. 

Eight days down and 167 days to go. Like Ohio weather, school years are unpredictable and can turn on a dime. May all of us, parents, teachers and students, adjust and learn as we go through this school year. May we rejoice in the good days and work through the days that are hard. And each day, as we offer our morning prayer to God, may we recognize that He is there for us, in the midst of us, and helping us every step of the way. 

Since it has been a good week, I told the teachers and students that they can have Monday off. 

Jim Silcott