St. Francis Xavier School has been providing quality elementary education within a Catholic Christian environment to students from the parish, from the neighborhood and from the greater Grand Rapids community since 1914. Its educational philosophy focuses on supporting the family as the primary and most important teaching environment. The professional staff at the school seeks to model Gospel values and reinforce the teachings of the Roman Catholic faith that are learned in the home.
The well-rounded curriculum and opportunities for extra-curricular activities at St. Francis Xavier School provide each student with a strong academic foundation. Students also learn the importance of working with others and for others through their service to the community. St. Francis Xavier School students graduate well prepared to meet the challenges that life will bring them. They go on to become productive citizens who make valuable contributions to our community.
As the leadership of St. Francis Xavier School looks ahead to the new millennium, they recognize a challenge that is also an opportunity. Because of its location in a central city neighborhood that is home to many single-parent families and families living at or below poverty level, the school has a significant opportunity not only to nurture children academically, spiritually, physically and emotionally but also to support family life. The school and family work hand in hand to instill Catholic Christian values, to focus on learning, to experience the joy of serving others, to "raise" children to be self-sufficient, confident, caring citizens of the world.
The challenge comes in developing a strong financial base to ensure short-term and future economic stability. The school must reach beyond its families to form partnerships with others to attain financial stability. As the school plans for the next five years, its board of education is committed to securing adequate operational funding as well as expanding educational programs to the neediest of families in the area surrounding the school.
Recently, the board completed a resource development planning process that
focuses on increasing the level of financial support beyond what it
receives from the St. Francis Xavier Parish family. Beginning in the
school year 1999 - 2000, the board is committed to raising nearly five
percent of its revenue from new funding sources and growing that funding to
17% over the next five. The board's primary interest in raising this
additional money is to:
* Open its doors to more students from the immediate area, offering the
life-long benefits of Catholic education to children who otherwise have no
options
* Stabilize the operational budget so that the salaries of teaching staff
can be brought into parity with other Catholic schools
The development program will focus on four primary appeals;
* a scholarship program
* an operational appeal to the parish families
* a business and industry appeal
* a direct mail appeal to school alumni.
Combined with enhanced communication to all connected with St. Francis
Xavier School and those who appreciate the benefits of a strong academic
and Catholic-Christian value-based education, these appeals will assist in
securing the financial future of St. Francis Xavier School and Parish.
In this day of growing competition for philanthropic dollars and increasing demands on our time and talents, we hope that you will find a way to make a tax-deductible gift to the St. Francis Xavier Elementary School. St. Francis continues to do good work with the help of good people but now more than ever, needs partners to help make that happen.
Please contact Mr. Tom Priest, Principal, at the school Office, 616-243-5474, or in writing to 240 Brown St. S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507, to find out more about how you can help.
We are looking into networking the school classrooms, office, and computer lab and have prepared a rough estimate of our needs. If you can assist us with this project please contact Mr. Tom Priest, Principal, at the school Office, 616-243-5474, or in writing to 240 Brown St. S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507, to find out more about how you can help.
Current date and time is Friday, 09-May-08 16:14:56 EDT and the Greenwich date and time is Friday, 09-May-08 20:14:56 EST. You are viewing this page from 38.103.63.18 and are visitor number 3225 . This page was first published on 20 August 1999 and was last updated on Thursday, 23-Nov-00 21:12:32 EST.
Please feel free to download, copy, use, or republish the information from our pages for personal or non-commercial use provided you attribute the source to St. Francis Xavier School and include the source URL. Commercial use and all other rights require prior written permission. Copyright (c) 1999 by Kreigh Tomaszewski for St. Francis Xavier School.