Dear St. Germaine School Community,
I am delighted to write this letter as your new Principal, and take this opportunity to once again express my enthusiasm for joining the St. Germaine community. The importance of community has been highlighted by the challenges we have experienced with Covid over the past few years and ensuring a sense of belonging and connectedness is more vital than ever.
This past year at St. Germaine, I have experienced the engagement of our students, the dedication of our faculty, and the partnership of our parents and parishioners. I have held the hands of smiling pre-schoolers entering the building, I have felt the excitement during games of trivia in the second grade, and the passion of academic debates in seventh grade. I watched in awe at the talent exuding from our eighth graders during their Passion Play, and felt the warmth from our “kinder-cats.” I marveled at the skill of tower building in our first grade, and witnessed the challenges of rock identification in sixth grade. I heard the student’s excitement in fourth grade with their agricultural studies unit and watched the creative minds of third graders at work as they designed cards. Not to mention I assisted in the development of the infamous “class character” in fifth grade!
This year, with community and collaboration as our focus, our teachers will be engaged in Professional Learning Communities, working together to continue our tradition of academic excellence and live up to our commitment to being lifelong learners. As a school, we will continue to grow in faith, love, and kindness, and commit ourselves to fostering a welcoming environment for all.
My collaborative spirit extends to parents as well. Your support and willingness to volunteer are imperative to the success of our school, and I look forward to seeing more faces on our various committees and teams.
I have appreciated every minute of my time at Germaine and look forward to our prosperous future.
With Gratitude,
Philip O’Rourke
Principal
mrporourke@stgol.org