Great Job All Semester!

As we welcome a new semester and a new year, we would like to reflect on what we’re grateful for in the 2020-21 school year so far. 

We were able to be open the entire school year for 100% of our students. What a huge accomplishment in this difficult year! And, it was due to everyone’s efforts.

Our school community has done a great job planning for inevitable challenges, anticipating each other’s needs, and sacrificing time, treasure, and talent to keep our doors open and our educational mission vibrant. Seeing our young men grow despite these challenging times has been incredible. What have been our strengths? Our parents: supporting one another, and keeping symptomatic or potentially exposed students home. Our team of teachers and staff: always available and willing to do what’s best for our students (both remote and in-person). Our school Board of Directors and school leadership: finding ways to plan for contingencies and respond to challenges. 

In particular, we would like to thank the following individuals for their contributions to our community this year:

Our Teachers

To support remote and in-person school, we estimate the extra work for each teacher (proctoring, supervisions, extra substitute teacher hours, etc) add up for each teacher to about an extra day of work each week! Band practice continued beautifully with a remote teacher, 100% of faculty & staff participated in the Annual Fund, and a number of new electives have been added to the curriculum thanks to the dedication of our team. Thank you also to Mr. Emmett McGovern and Mr. Kieran Driver, who have spend many a weekend and late-night hours working to track community exposure and communications about COVID precautions.

These are real sacrifices, and our teachers are a great example to our students. Our teachers are the central reason we are still in-person, which is very good for our students — and everyone.

Our Symptom Screeners

This team of parents has freed up our faculty and staff up in the morning, and contributed directly to keeping community spread of the virus out of the school. In particular, Mrs. Laura Bennett has been instrumental in recruiting this team. They are: Maria Loberanes, Donna Krause, Colleen Arnold, Cynthia Morales, Weena Gomez, Jazmin Golucki,  John & Gwyn Pater, Patricia Acosta, Lena Stovall, Martine Monney, Nebogna Stanic, Lucia Roman, Shazia Raza, Angela Flood, Tita Christoffel,  Kristen Hansen, Sharon Kestler, Julie Kaiser, Jinky Camara, Andrea Ghaly, Maria Chapello, Natalija Radisavljevic. Tatjana Nenadovich. Staff  Helpers: Pat Hunt, Will Rey, Pat Healy, Emmett McGovern, and Doug Klatt.

The Mothers Club and Class Coordinators

All year our dedicated parents have been building community within the school. The extra planning required for a socially-distanced event payed off, and many students and their parents enjoyed spending time with each other outside of school. This year’s coordinators are: 

• 6th Grade: Molly Kurt (Lead), Eileen Finlay, Donna Krause
• 7th Grade: Betsy Rodriguez (Lead), Kimberly Kurkowski, Anne Mazzone
• 8th Grade: Sabrina Toro (Lead), Cathy Mullen
• 9th Grade: Maura Spingola (Lead), Kristen Lolli, Susanne McNamara
• 10th Grade: Maria Athey (Lead), Alyssa Barrett , Marianne Potter
• 11th Grade: Shawn Mongoven (Lead), Kristen Brown, Suzie Coleman
• 12th Grade: Jen Schuler (Lead), Lourdes Vian, Lucia Roman

At our in-person and online Open House events, the following parents dedicated hours to welcoming prospective families to the Northridge community: Colleen Arnold, Mona Stepansky, Lucia  & Ramiro Roman, Sabrina & Walter Toro, Jinky & Jose Camara, Anne & Carl Mazzone, Jennifer & Jeremy Potempa, Judy & Tim Budge, Betsy & Heron Rodriguez, Kristin & Chris Lolli, and Susan & Dan Whalen. Thank you also to Mark Davis ‘09 and Tommy Cheeely ‘07 for putting together thia “Day in the Life” video to promote Open House. 

Earlier this year, the Ramirez family donated a delicious Papagalinos lunch for the faculty & staff. And we began getting into the Christmas spirit this year thanks to Dawn Kaczynski (Christmas decorations), our 6th grade class moms (St. Nick Day treats), an anonymous donor (Portillo’s lunch), and Mrs. Illeana Rodriguez (4 years leading the Cookie Dough fundraiser!). 

And thank you to our Annual Fund Parent Promoters, who have done a great job spreading the word about the Annual Fund!

Our Facilities Team

All summer and fall, our facilities and IT team has been working hard to adapt the facilities to our new needs. In the days leading up to the start of school, over 40 parents and student helpers prepare various aspects of the school. New additions to the facilities team Mr. Johnny Presberg ‘18, and Mr. Jason Klatt ‘20 have been assisting Mr. Ante Marovic and Mr. John Kestler — working tirelessly to keep our facilities working properly. 

In addition, our Director of IT & Data, Mr. Jeremy Potempa has worked innumerable hours to expand & modernize our IT infrastructure to enable remote learning. He has been assisted by Mr. Patrick Arnold, Mr. Joe Flood, and Mr. Mario Inguanti.

 

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On the first days back to school, the Knights found many things changed. Though unnatural to them at first, being back was worth it. Thank you all for responding to our new circumstances and policies with poise, maturity, and optimism. 

As some posters in the Northridge halls remind students: “You are writing our headline.” So far thanks to the grace of God and our generous school community, our headline makes us truly grateful.