MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL


Message from the Principal

Welcome to the School of Saint Elizabeth!

As you tour our website, you will learn about our philosophy, our programs and all of the exceptional happenings that take place at our school.

As principal, I believe that all children require a caring environment that is safe and structured, an environment that allows and provides for individual and collective growth.  Children who participate in their individual learning also impact their peers academically and socially.  This caring culture is based on Christian values that permeate all activities.  Since each child is a unique individual, he has the right to learn in his or her own way to insure success.  To this end instructional strategies such as differentiated learning insure the academic success of all students.  It is also important to note as a Catholic community of learners, that maximizing our learning via collaborative learning is also critical to our overall success.  An initiative for the 2009-2010 school year will include the continued development of a sense of empathy via service.  Our children were challenged by Mrs. Sullivan and her first graders to “just do something for others” this summer and register these good works on our website or mailed back to the building.  All of our students will do more in this area as we develop projects to “give back” as a community.

My vision for the School of St. Elizabeth comes from its existing mission statement: “to impact the world positively by nurturing children with Christian values in a Catholic academic tradition of excellence.”  We at our school have a ninety-three year history and tradition that we will rely upon as we move forward in the future.

During the past two years, we have begun technology upgrade initiatives with the help of our staff.  Our school is now one of the many Diocese of Metuchen‘s schools to implement the Power School program.  This web-based application automates critical functions such as attendance, scheduling, classroom grading and reporting.  Parents are able to gain access to their children’s grades and track their progress.  This time-saving tool allows our school to focus on our primary missions – faith formation and student achievement.  During the previous school year we were able to also upgrade our instructional technology with the acquisition of two mobile “ELMO” LCD projectors and a mobile internet ready lap top lab.

We are also offering several exciting professional development opportunities for our instructional staff.  Some of these offerings will be coordinated by the Diocese of Metuchen, and some will be funded and sponsored through NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND grant money.  Some of these topics are in the area of reading and writing instruction, differentiated instruction, interdisciplinary unit planning, team building, systems thinking and teachers as leaders.  As our school moves forward we remain committed to insuring excellence in staff development opportunities which is a critical microcosm of creating lifelong learners in our professional staff and our students.

Please feel free to visit our school.  We love the excellent things occurring here.  Our halls resonate with warmth and positive energy.

Thank you and God bless you.

William T. Venezia, Principal