On Thursday, May 14th, Father Ron hosted a Town Hall meeting in DeLazzer Hall and presented information to more than 80 current and prospective St. Mary School parents and guardians. His presentation included three main components which included:

Father Ron was asked to summarize his presentation-

In summary, I talked about teaching to the whole person. We have the opportunity and challenge to address all aspects of what makes us human, the truth of who we are because God has revealed himself fully in the Son-the good which guides us to live what we believe; this is a call to not only teach rule, but to do more which means to live life integrally and finally, beauty means that we take all together and see the wholeness in the aesthetic. This is the opportunity that we have in offering a Catholic education.

 Secondly, in light of the above, we include the responsibility to service. It's not just about ourselves, but sharing with others and seeing the needs of others. We only grow and mature to the extent that we learn to be forgetful of self.

 In reference to tuition, the importance of transparency was discussed. It's not just that we pay an amount but we also need to keep in mind that the actual per pupil cost is $5700.00 and this needs to be met with fundraisers, and cooperation. It's a common mission that we all take together and call the families to be responsible for.

   ~Father Ron

After the presentation, questions were written by attendees and read aloud by St. Mary Catholic School Advisory Council (SAC) Chairperson, Marcus McCutchen and Parent Teacher Organization(PTO) President, Dan Alcazar.  Questions were answered in a collaborative effort by Father Ron, Principal Gigliotti and Business Manager, Susan Benke.  If you’d like to review a full report of the Q & A session, please click here for a full report.


Representation from the SAC committee, PR committee, Athletic committee and PTO were all present to help Father in his facilitation of information to guests.

At the conclusion of the meeting, guests were asked to fill out a comment card.  Thirty cards were received and below are some of the general responses.

Some things we did well:

Some things we could work on:

A book fee ($150 value) was raffled off and the lucky winner was Andrea Davidson!

The class who had the most parent attendance won a dress down day.  That went to Mr. Kendall’s 7th Grade class for 15 parents in attendance!

On behalf of Father Ron, Principal Gigliotti, Development Director and St. Mary Catholic School Committee Chairpersons, thanks to all those who helped make the evening successful and thanks especially, to those who took the time to attend the very informative Town Hall Meeting with Father Ron.

For more information, please contact Sunny Longenbaugh.