Every Catholic Schools Week, the Catholic Schools Office travels the Diocese of Austin to surprise teachers being awarded Advancing Our Mission Grants — “Publishers Clearing House-style.” “We show up at the school and bust into the teacher’s classroom with noisemakers and balloons to congratulate them for getting the grant,” said Misty Poe, superintendent. “It’s the highlight of the year.”

WACO, TEXAS, APRIL 15, 2021. - Bishop Louis Reicher Catholic School is honored to announce that four Dominican Sisters from the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, will join its faculty beginning with the Fall 2021 term.

When a Catholic school increases enrollment by nearly 75% in one year, it must be doing something right! That is exactly what is happening at St. Joseph Catholic School in Killeen. At the end of the last school year, 98 students were enrolled in pre-K through 8th grades. This year, as the school observes its 65th anniversary, 170 students are enrolled.

It’s not every day we hear about a high school freshman organizing a benefit to help others, especially when those “others” attend a different school and are in a different state, but that’s just what Luke Arnold, a freshman at St. Dominic Savio Catholic High School in Austin, recently did.

Since 2009, the Diocese of Austin has celebrated Catholic Schools Week in January with the Saints and Scholars Gala. This event showcases the 20 Catholic schools, honors “unsung heroes” from each school community, and raises funds for tuition assistance. Typically, 800-1,000 attend. With risks now associated with large gatherings and the anxiety and restrictions that stifle a party atmosphere, this year’s event will be hosted on a virtual platform on Jan. 23 at 6:30 p.m. The gala is free, and all are welcome to enjoy the online evening.

Sacred Heart Catholic School in La Grange celebrated its 90th anniversary on Sept. 8, and over the last nine decades, it has formed generations of Catholics in the faith and offered a quality education that prepares students to excel. In addition, the school has earned the respect and affection of the La Grange community.

The Catholic Church celebrates All Saints’ Day on Nov. 1, but Celeste Ingraffia Robbins has been celebrating saints for years — 1,000 saints to be exact. Six years ago on Good Friday, Robbins was praying the Stations of the Cross and reflecting on how busy her life had become. With her love for both teaching and painting, she decided to make more time for her artwork, but not just any art.

There are many challenges to reopening schools safely in the midst of a pandemic, with no playbook to guide us. Yet, Catholic schools have the unique opportunity to infuse joy back into their communities by centering their reopening on the love and hope of Jesus. At Holy Family Catholic School in Austin, Texas, our faculty and staff created the Joy Committee for that specific reason.

irthday to Sacred Heart Catholic School. Sacred Heart Catholic School opened its doors today on September 8, 1930, as a two-teacher school teaching six grades with 35 pupils. No one could have known how educationally, spiritually, and fulfilling this school would play a part in our community for many, many years to come. Sacred Heart Catholic School has truly overcome the toils of time and has shown their community a labor of hope, love, and faith.

I have been in Catholic education for more than 25 years, but the things I have lived and experienced this year have been incomparable. At the beginning of March, we planned and dreamed of our time off during Spring Break, only to find out that the break could get prolonged and could pose a disruption on our instruction.

Misty Poe serves as the superintendent of Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Austin. For more than 25 years, Poe has been involved with Catholic schools serving as a teacher, dean of students, assistant principal and principal of Catholic schools in Austin. She also served as assistant superintendent of Catholic schools for six years prior to being appointed superintendent in 2017.

The COVID-19 pandemic upended education last spring. Summer was a time to adapt, and now, this fall, educators look forward to being with their students again, whether in person or online. “We are excited to return to campus,” said Misty Poe, superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Diocese of Austin. “We are excited to greet the students, and we are also moving cautiously to ensure the safety of our students, faculty, staff and families.”

By JEFF WICK The Fayette County Record - There is hope that the return to school for area students may go smoothly after all. At least that’s the message after the first day at Sacred Heart Catholic School in La Grange, one of the first area schools to open it’s doors for fall classes. “There were more smiles than tears,” said LaDonna Voelkel, principal at the school, describing Thursday’s first day. “I was surprised at how smooth it went.”

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to evolve, the Diocese of Austin is looking at ways to ensure ministries remain safe, healthy and available this fall. “We find ourselves in a new reality where new frontiers of evangelization are opening up to us and ways that we have done things in the past aren’t as efficient or as effective,” said Father James Misko, vicar general.

Taylor, Texas, June 13, 2020 - St. Mary’s Catholic High School will open its doors to students in grades 9 and 10 this fall. The new high school will be an extension of St. Mary’s Catholic School and will follow the same mission of educating for wisdom and virtue, centered on Christ, in the Classical Catholic tradition.

Amidst a storm of school closures, decrees of limited public gatherings, and toilet paper shortages, a local school community came together and responded to bring stability and consistency to its students and families. On Monday, March 16, after Spring Break ended and they announced another week of school closure, the 34 teachers, cafeteria workers, administrative personnel, maintenance director and other faculty and staff gathered to immediately begin implementation of a distance learning plan to ensure that their 194 students were safe, healthy and learning continuously.

When I hear that a Catholic school closes or struggles to stay open, my heart aches. There are more than 14 million school-age Catholic children in our country, 8 million of them Hispanic. If anything, we should be building Catholic schools, especially where Catholicism is growing. At the very least, we should keep those that exist open and primarily at the service of the new populations transforming the U.S. Catholic experience.

On Feb. 27, out of pastoral concern for the common good of the people of God during flu and virus season, Most Rev. Joe Vásquez, Bishop of Austin, asked parishes to temporarily distribute holy Communion in the hand, rather than on the tongue. Bishop Vásquez made it clear to clergy and eucharistic ministers that no one is to be denied the Eucharist over this measure.

Students from Holy Trinity Catholic High School attended the 47th annual March for Life Jan. 24 in Washington. The group traveled by bus from Temple to the nation’s capital, stopping a long the way for Mass.