Several months ago I blogged about our Class of 2012 taking the Michigan Merit Exam (MME). It was the first time we had students eligible to take the test and it was another milestone for us. Mrs. Rowe and her team worked hard preparing for the three day test. We recently received the results.
Overall, we still have much work to do to achieve our only academic goal – all students prepared for academic success in college. As always, our shortcomings in math were highlighted. The fact that we share this concern with almost all other schools is no consolation. Several of the changes we implemented in Math this past school year, related to our Freshmen and Sophomores and those changes should be evident in future test results.
There were also several encouraging signs. In the subject area of Social Science, 85% of our students tested as proficient (or better). We exceeded the state average in this subject area! I am really proud of the result and I am grateful to Ms. Patrice Evans and Mr. John LaCross who have been the Social Science teachers for this class during their three years at Detroit Cristo Rey. I also looked at our scores in comparison to the top performing charter schools in Detroit. In three of the five subject areas – Reading, Science and Social Science, our students tested at the highest level compared to charter schools.
The road to achieving our academic goal is a long one. But the results we are achieving on standardized tests show that we are making progress and with continued hard work, we will get there!
This is the time of year that things tend to be quiet at a school. Not at Detroit Cristo Rey High School!
Our last day of school was June 17th. We celebrated Mass, honored our students for their academic and work performance and then had a picnic BBQ with hot dogs and hamburgers. It was a great day to end our third year of school.
But we got right back to work on Monday! Some students were back in the classroom to attend summer school to improve their grades in classes that they had found challenging. Our work study team continues at work to find jobs to support our increasing enrollment. They are making progress, but still have work to do. Melissa Guiterrez, Director of Admissions, continues to recruit talented students to join our Classes of 2014 and 2015. We hope to have over 90 new students when Summer work training begins in August.
I even got back into the classroom. For the third year in a row, Mrs. Rowe, Principal and I attended the Cristo Rey Leadership Academy at the Kellogg School of Business in Chicago. It is an intense week long series of classes on key topics needed to enhance management and leadership skills for non-profit managers. I enjoy the learning and hope to put the new found knowledge to use.
Next week, I am taking a little time off from school. My wife and I are travelling to Jamaica to enjoy the beautiful beaches.
Keep Detroit Cristo Rey High School in your prayers!
Detroit Cristo Rey High School is a little more spiritual this week. It is final exam week and students have decided to supplement study with prayer! Ten minutes before an exam is too late to learn how to conjugate verbs in Latin – but it never too late to ask God if he knows how and could he please help.
I can’t believe that we are wrapping up our third year. Once again the school year has gone quickly. I wish school had gone this fast when I was a student! Overall, I am very pleased with our progress, but we are still far from where I want the school to be. Next year, I am looking forward to more improvement on standardized test results. I also hope to see our financial situation to continue to improve. However, we can’t think about improvements next year without being grateful for the results we achieved this year.
On Friday we will be having our closing Mass, followed by awards and a luncheon. We have invited parents and supporters of our school to join us. We are hoping for a big crowd and I hope you will join us as well.
Last week, I attended the banquet for our women’s soccer team. They did great in their inaugural season. Their coach, Ed Egnatios did a wonderful job with the team. We had fun at the banquet.
Wow, there is a lot going on.
On Sunday, we had our Garden Party and it was a great success. In the midst of all of the rain we have been having – the skies cleared and the sun shone bright. We had our largest attendance ever and everyone had a great time. As always, people really enjoy spending time with our students and they do a great job representing the school. This year, we opened up the Cultural Center for tours. It is a 100 year old building with a great history and I think an even more exciting future. I was pleased with the excited reaction everyone had when they saw it.
Hats off to the Garden Party Committee, our students, our staff, the guests and everyone else who made it such a wonderful day!
Also this past week-end, eight of our track athletes qualified to compete at the state championships! We qualified both a men’s and women’s relay team, plus several of our athletes qualified in individual events as well. I really admire the athletic talents of our students. I am looking forward to attending the championships in Jenison on June 4.
Finally, we had Vic Faust from WXYZ-TV in the school today. Detroit Cristo Rey High School will be included in a WXYZ 20/20 special on education. Vic was very impressed with our students. I look forward to watching the feature when it airs on June 7.
Each year, we have been able to add new sport teams at Detroit Cristo Rey High School. Last fall we started a co-operative football program with Cesar Chavez. This spring, we began our inaugural women’s soccer team. I have been able to attend a few of the games and they have been great!
We are blessed to have Ed Egnatios as our coach. Ed is very knowledgeable and experienced as a soccer coach. Most importantly for us, he is a patient and a great teacher. For many of our young ladies, their soccer experience is limited and he is doing a nice job helping them learn the game. The progress from the beginning of the year has been remarkable.
We have about 12-13 players on the team and I hope next year we can increase the number. Although our team is small in numbers, they play very hard and when I ask them, they all tell me that they are really enjoying the season.
I am a big believer in the value of athletic participation for females, so I am really happy that we can offer this opportunity for our students. I am particularly pleased that most of the girls on the team do not participate in other sports – so this is a great introduction to competitive athletics for them.
My big hope for improvement next year is that it does not rain so much!
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