In His Footsteps School Year Theme for 2017-2018

The Torch

St. Marys and

Aquinas website:

www.aquinas-

catholic.com

Dear Friends of Aquinas & St. Marys,

Our nation celebrates Catholic Schools Week from Sunday, January 28 to Saturday, February 3. It is

important that we celebrate our Catholic schools, not out of sheer pride, but rather for the service they pro-

vide as a vital apostolate of the universal Catholic Church. It is the mission of the Church to teach (Matthew

28:19) and present and nurture the faith for the next generations. We teach the faith every day in Religion

class, and the faith is also able to be taught, modeled and discussed in the other classes as well. We are

blessed that we have no fears about praying at school, worshipping God at Mass, and teaching our students

how to practice their faith now and when they are adults. The learning never ends, and a Catholic school ed-

ucation provides the best foundation for that life-long discipleship. There are alternatives like CCD when a

Catholic school education is not available to families, but there are no substitutes for it. There is no compari-

son between 1 hour a week and 5 days a week in classes taught by a priest, consecrated religious, or trained

lay teacher, and being immersed in a Catholic culture and climate.

Despite some challenges to our Catholic faith happening in our country today, I am extremely hopeful

for our future when I see our students daily here at school. While they are not perfect, they are great young

people. They have pride in being a student at Aquinas and St. Marys. They know that we are different at a

Catholic school, and different in a good way. Different in that we pray regularly throughout the school day.

Different in that we have high expectations for every one of them; in the chapel, in the classroom, on the

court, on the stage. By and large, they do not complain about these high expectations. They dont want to be

just good enough, they want to live and be greater! A well-rounded Catholic education of religious formation

and catechesis, academic strength, competitive sports, and appreciation of the fine arts all contribute to help-

ing our students along their journey to heaven.

We are able to do what we do as Catholic schools because of the faithful support we receive from our

deanery parishes and other generous benefactors. Our deanery parishioners are responsible for 60% of our

$3.5 M annual budget, and we are extremely grateful to our pastors and all of you. The mission of the Catho-

lic Church is to teach the nations and our parishioners help to fulfill that mission by the faithful financial

support they give to their parish. Our Catholic schools are the best vehicle we have in our diocese and David

City Deanery for the transmission of the Catholic faith.

Catholic Schools Week is also an important time to remind our fellow citizens that parents should have

the freedom to choose where their children receive an education. LB295 is coming up in the Nebraska Legis-

lature this session that will allow for scholarships for low-income students. It does so by enacting a tax credit

for donations to nonprofit scholarship granting organizations. We need LB295 to pass because many families

cannot afford to pay both taxes in support of government schools and tuition for parochial or other private

schools. This bill would give low and middle-income families privately funded scholarships (and take zero

money away from public schools) to choose a private education for their children. Only these private funds

are used to help private-school students. LB295 will actually save tax dollars in the short term by slowing the

amount of state aid needed for public schools. Also, if a recipient transfers from a public to a private school,

it will leave more resources for the state to spend on fewer students. I encourage you to contact your state

senator and voice your support for meaningful school choice.

Thank you for your support of Aquinas & St. Marys, and Happy Catholic Schools Week to all!

Sincerely yours in Christ,

February, 2018

From the Principal.. February, 2018

Tri-Council Schedule

Wednesday, February 7 & Thursday February 8 from 4:30 7:00 p.m.

Aquinas Tri-Councils will be held on Wednesday, February 7 and Thursday, February 8 from 4:30 to

7:00 p.m. We hope that the evening hours will help to make conferences available to as many parents as

possible. All conferences will be in the Aquinas north gymnasium with the exception of those parents

and students who will meet with Mrs. McMahon in Room 8. You are welcome to attend at any time dur-

ing these hours on either day; we are not assigning specific times for individual meetings.

I strongly urge you to attend as good communication between parents and the classroom instructor is

very important to your son/daughters success. We have enjoyed excellent attendance in years past, and

we are sure you will continue the tradition.

Please keep in mind that teachers may have well over 100 students per day. For this reason, we ask

the teachers and parents to please limit their conference to 3 minutes if a line of more than two families

develops. If you need more time with a teacher, you may come back when the teachers line has dimin-

ished or make an appointment to meet with the teacher at another time.

Class registration forms are due February 8

The students2017-2018 class registration forms for grades 9 12 are due back to Mr. McMahon by

February 8, the last day of Tri-Councils. The students will receive the forms around February 1 and

should follow the following steps.

1. The 3 columns on the sheet should be filled out.

a. In column A, they are to put an X on the line of any class they have successfully completed or are cur-

rently taking.

b. In column B they should put a number by the courses they would like to take next year. Number one

should be the class that is most important and number nine should be their last choice. Seniors, juniors

and sophomores should choose nine classes and freshmen should choose five courses as they have more

required courses. It is important that they choose all the numbers because if one class does not fit in their

schedule, I will go to the next class in the order that they picked them.

c. In column C, the students should get the initials of the teacher whose class they would like to take.

Some classes will fill up, and the teacher cannot accept any more students so they wont sign the sheet. A

signature could also be withheld if the student has taken a class from the teacher previously and has prov-

en to be unruly and disinterested in the class.

d. The student should talk to their teachers, Mrs. Schmid or Mr. McMahon concerning questions they

have about their class choices. They should talk to their math teacher to see what math class they should

sign up for and their science teacher for science and so on.

e. The course description guides are on the website: aquinas-catholic.com.

Finally the class registration form should be signed by the parent. We will not accept it if the parent has

not signed the form signifying they have discussed the class requests with the students and approve the

choices and the order they are in.

Please return the form to Mr. McMahon by February 8. They may be returned sooner if you have

finished the process and have all the signatures.

From the Principal.. February, 2018

JUNIOR HONOR ROLL

JUNIOR HONORABLE MENTION

SENIOR HONOR ROLL

SENIOR HONORABLE MENTION

AQUINAS HIGH SCHOOL 2017-2018 QUARTER 2 HONOR ROLL

FRESHMEN HONOR ROLL

FRESHMEN HONORABLE MENTION

SOPHOMORE HONOR ROLL

SOPHOMORE HONORABLE MENTION

Nicholas Andel Isaac Archuleta Jonathan Drozda Ashley Eller Nolan Maguire Ryan Nemec

Daniel Reiter Joshua Roh Brooklyn Stara Brandon Timoney Nathan Uhrmacher Tyler Vavrina

Kelsey Baer Caleb Brezina Sarah Burwell Madelaine Comte Mary Fiala Sinclare Fiala Elijah Frasher Sarah Juranek Jacob Kadlec

Veronica Kobza Joshua Pandorf Regan Pelan Rebekah Roh Kyle Ruth Dawson Schawang Trevor Siroky Valeria Whitmore

Dulcie Archuleta Morgan Birkel Valerie Bohuslavsky Vanessa Bohuslavsky Kathryn Brezina Zachary Chromy Emily Dalton Matthew Duke Laura Eickmeier Alexandria Frasher Josina Hain Nolan Hartman Loren Hoelscher Nya Jakub Faith Kozisek Jadyn Krafka Simon Krenk Andrew Lyons

Sierra Meysenburg Hannah Moravec Tad Naiberk Suzanne Oborny Audra Pflum Joseph Reimers Elias Reiter Kloeresa Ruth Hayden Schawang Ivy Schmid Larissa Sellers Bridget Sisco Katherine Slama Daniel Stara Luke Stara Breanna Stouffer Micaiah Vrbka Zachary Zavodny

Elizabeth Aschoff Justine Beringer Collin Hain Caden Kozisek Darian Krenk

Morgan Littlefield Gabrielle Oborny Allison Rerucha Jayci Roh Kylee Thompson

Russell Brezina Rylan Chromy Payton Davis Bethany Emswiler Alli Hartman Madisen Jelinek Keegan Lavicky Kaylee Miller

Macyn Moravec Kyle Napier Julia Nemec Benjamin Shonka Peter Sisco Jacob Witter Zachary Zitek

Kolby Baer John Dalton Jonathan Duke Luke Frasher Brett Kobza

Ruth Plasek Emma Sellers Terrence W