October 17, 2008

Dear Parents/Guardians & Friends:

Open House is Sunday November 2
All prospective students and their parents are cordially invited to our Open House on Sunday, November 2 from 1-4pm.  Please help us spread the word about this important event.  Registration for incoming ninth graders starts that day and families who come to the Open House receive $25 off the Registration fee.

Mandatory Parent Substance Abuse Meeting
The Advisory Board of Fisher Catholic has ratified a new Substance Abuse Policy which is in effect for this school year (It can be found in the handbook).  As part of this new policy, which has been put together through a hard working Student Wellness Committee through out the course of the summer, all parents are required to attend a one hour workshop on issues of drugs and alcohol on an annual basis.  The dates for this year’s workshop (parents only need to attend one) are Sunday, October 19 and Thursday, October 23, both beginning at 7pm.  Both parents must attend, although not necessarily together.  Please mark your calendars and plan on attending one of these meetings.

School Directories will be available for distribution both nights.

Guidance News
Be sure to check the weekly Guidance Office Attachment.  Also, in the Guidance section of the website is a calendar of all the colleges that are coming to visit Fisher.

Thank You to Our Fair Volunteers
A note from the Householders:
We would like to thank all the parents, grandparents, senior students, faculty, coaches, alumni, and friends of Fisher Catholic for volunteering at the fair.  Special thanks to Travis Mathes and the men of CTC for covering the (7) shifts that were unfilled.  We have already received our check for $6500 from the Fair Board with a thank you for a job well done and an invitation to return in 2009.  A complete list of all volunteers is attached to this newsletter.

And of course, please join me in thanking Brian and Elaine for all the hours that they put in organizing this hug volunteer effort.  Job well done!

Student Fair Participants Garner Honors
The following students have reported receiving honors for Fair participation last week:

Veronica Beatty- Honorable Mention in Cake decoration
Josh Peck- Third Place in Hog Division
Janette Valentine- First place in Cake decoration
Anna Vigarito- Third Place in Portrait Art; Third Place in Computer Art

I would be pleased to acknowledge other students who won awards.  Just let me know.

Sports Honors Received
Congratulations to the following athletes for their All League Honors

Golf
            First Team- AJ Dyer
            Second Team- Justin Beck, Michael Trotter
            Honorable Mention- Andy Garrett

Girls Soccer
            First Team- Michelle Wellstead
            Second Team- Emily Barrows, Kathy Riggs
            Honorable Mention- Kasie Miller

Boys Soccer
            First Team- Matt Rankin, Aaron Tobin
            Second Team- Daniel Hill, Matt Householder
            Honorable Mention- Jordon Shonk

Cross Country
            First Team- Addie Faulkner, Summer Gaib, Eric Hamann

Fall Sports Tourney Action
We wish best of luck to the Boys and Girls Cross Country Team in first round action on Saturday at Watkins Glen.  Starting time is 9 and 9:30am.  The Volleyball team is in first round action against Ridgedale at Olentangy Liberty High School at 12:30pm.  The Boys Soccer team is in second round action against Fairbanks at Fairbanks at 4pm.

Family Notes
We congratulate freshman Olivia Reade and her Grandmother, Mrs. Reade on the birth of Olivia’s brother, Isaac Alexander.

Please keep in your prayers the family of Jessica Bouffioux whose grandfather recently passed away and the families of Molly Mauger and Dan Sullivan whose Great Great Aunt passed away.  Josephine Wolfinger-Simko was a 1936 graduate of St. Mary High School.

Please keep the family of Frederick Edward Larger in your prayers on his recent passing. 

Please keep the family of Theresa Wicka and the Watterson community in your prayers.  Theresa, a long time Spanish teacher at Bishop Watterson High School, after being released from Hospice, went on to live another six weeks where she planned her own very uplifting funeral and even arranged (and paid for) the luncheon that was served after the services.  I will miss you, Theresa!           
                       
Principal Observations
Although we are not even to the end of our first quarter we are already planning for the 2009-2010 school year and the registration of next year’s freshman class.  Students from St. Mary and St. Rose have already visited the school and students from Holy Trinity will be coming shortly.  Letters have been mailed to every fifth through eighth grader in all of our feeder parishes, inviting them to our upcoming Open House on November 2.  The good news is that we are starting already to get calls from people outside of our data base inquiring about space in our school for next year.

While, quite frankly, there is a small but determined band of naysayers out there convinced that the sky is falling for Fisher Catholic, the vast majority of parents, students, teachers, alumni and community members are supportive of what is happening at our school.  And lest you believe that I only hear from the “choir” believe me, there are many out there who keep me honest by being very honest themselves in their criticisms and concerns.  Indeed, I respect this group because they have the best interest of our school in mind.  The aforementioned “band of naysayers” seems to spread anything negative about our school faster than an oil slick on an incoming tide and it is usually untrue, bordering on the malicious. 

The reason I mention this is because I am urging all of you to serve as recruitment officers for next year’s ninth grade class.  There are a little more than 70 eighth graders at St. Mary.  We hope to get some students from St. Rose and Holy Trinity but we don’t expect anyone from this year’s eighth grade class at Flaget.  There seems to be some interest in students at St. Pius who live in Fairfield County.  The bottom line estimation that I come up with is that among our feeder Catholic schools we will do no better than about 80 students, besting this year’s freshman class by 1.

That is not good enough.  I am convinced that we can get 100 freshmen in our building next year.  Why is this a goal of mine?  In these times when we are all trying to keep our expenses down, a class of 100 students would increase our revenue and therefore help to keep tuition in check.  With a freshman class next year of 100 students we would go from this year’s enrollment of 268 students to 312 without incurring much more in additional expense.  We would have 44 more students to be involved in athletics and band and drama and clubs.  And if we could get 4 years of 100 freshmen in our building to achieve a very realistic goal of 400 students, we would be able to offer far more financial aid to the families who struggle to pay tuition.

Where will these extra 20 students come from?  We face tough competition from Lancaster City Schools and the other public schools in our county.  They are good schools and, aside from the property taxes that people have to pay anyway and some school fees, these schools are free.  But I am convinced that for some students currently in the public school system Fisher Catholic would be a better fit for them.  I am also convinced that the Christian message we proclaim on a daily basis at our school provides a dimension for the education of students that a public school, by law, cannot provide.

But I don’t know who those students are.  You do!  Begin with Catholic families who don’t currently attend Catholic School.  Identify public school students, both Catholic and non-Catholic who would flourish in our small school environment.  Tell them both about the millions in college scholarships that our students garner every year and in the ways we are reaching out to struggling students.  Tell them about our new house system.  Tell them why you and your family have flourished at Fisher Catholic and tell them that they can flourish as well.

This is a genuine appeal for your help.  The demographics of Lancaster and Fairfield County support the notion that we can enroll 100 freshmen.  Start by bringing them to this year’s Open House.  Have them call me, invite me to speak to them, have your students talk to their students.  We don’t have the money to spend on billboards or advertisements or TV commercials.  But we have the Spirit of God moving within our building.  If I could quantify that for a disbelieving modern world, that world’s press would be at our doorstep.  Satellite trucks from every news organization in the world would be lined up on Mondhank Ave.  “Jesus is alive and well and living at Fisher Catholic High School!”  the headlines would scream.

But, my friends, Jesus is alive and well and living at Fisher Catholic.  We are not a perfect school and each human who enters these doors each day are far from perfect.  But I see God on a daily basis in this school in the way we try to follow His Word and in the way we try to treat each other.  It is an exciting place to be.  Indeed, we should be turning away students for lack of space here.

It is time for the “silent majority” to turn up the volume and proclaim to friends and neighbors about all the good that is happening in our little school and how beneficial our school can be for students. 

100 members of the class of 2013.  100 diplomas issued in June, 2013.  100 students going off to college or careers in the summer of 2013 having received a superior education at Fisher Catholic High School.  This is the vision for our school; one that you can help us achieve.  I officially deputize you all as Recruitment Officers for Fisher Catholic!

Thanks for all that you do for your children and our school.

Jim Silcott
President/Principal

	Volunteer List for Fair
	October 17th Guidance Newsletter