COLORADO SPRINGS. When Michelle (Polliard) Quaney last walked the halls of Corpus Christi Catholic School as a student in 1976, the United States was celebrating its bicentennial and “Silly Love Songs” by Wings filled the airways. Yet when she returned to the Colorado Springs campus as a teacher six years ago, the feeling invoked by the building was the same.

COLORADO SPRINGS.  Service isn’t something that happens only during the holiday seasons at St. Mary’s High School. But holiday service projects do hold a special place in the hearts of the community. This year students and advisers were thrilled to be able to give back in concrete ways after a year of restrictions due to the pandemic.

COLORADO SPRINGS. Students at the Unified Catholic Schools of the Diocese of Colorado Springs practice service throughout the year, but each holiday season, special projects help them focus on giving rather than receiving.

COLORADO SPRINGS. Starting with the 2022-23 school year, families in the Diocese of Colorado Springs considering Catholic education for their children in grades K-8 will have a more streamlined application and tuition assistance program. As part of the changes, Unified Catholic Schools of the Diocese of Colorado Springs has also rebranded its tuition assistance program with the name “Bishop’s Scholarship Fund.”

COLORADO SPRINGS. Visitors to four of the campuses in the Unified Catholic Schools of the Diocese of Colorado Springs may feel as if they’ve stepped back in time. Students are reading from printed books, collecting science data using a pencil and paper, and there isn’t a computer in many of the classrooms. The change to a classical education model for these schools wasn’t about joining the growing movement towards this type of education. Instead it was about returning to the roots of Catholic education and a commitment to deepening the knowledge of each student.

COLORADO SPRINGS. After an extraordinary year of learning to educate during a global pandemic, Catholic schools in the Diocese of Colorado Springs are excited to welcome their students back to campus in person for the 2021-2022 school year. School administrators have worked with health guidance experts to develop a plan for the year that addresses the students’ mental, emotional and physical health.

COLORADO SPRINGS. Building on a solid foundation, rooted in tradition while leaning into the future, describes the upcoming 2021-2022 school year at St. Mary’s High School. Two academic tracks have been created to ensure that St. Mary’s is fulfilling its mission of preparing students for both college and life.

COLORADO SPRINGS. For St. Mary’s High School, what started off as a challenge has turned into a tremendous opportunity. In 2020, the school’s Gala Committee had four weeks to move its annual live event online when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down live events. With social distancing requirements still firmly in place in 2021, the Gala Committee planned this year’s event, which was held on April 10, to be virtual, and what resulted was the most successful gala in the school’s history.

COLORADO SPRINGS. For St. Mary’s High School boys basketball coach Jim Masterson, basketball is more than a game — it’s a way to teach faith. The motto of the team is “win or lose, give glory to God.” That idea was tested this year as the team experienced an undefeated season that carried them to the state championship game only to lose in the title game. While the disappointment of the defeat still stings, Masterson and his team are grounded in faith and looking toward the future.

COLORADO SPRINGS. One week ago marked one-year since St. Mary’s High School was last together as a whole community. On March 29, St. Mary’s will return to full in-person instruction with students and teachers on campus five days a week. It will have been 54 weeks and three days — 381 days total — since the pandemic forced the school into the “new normal” of combining in-person and online instruction.

COLORADO SPRINGS. When the Klein family moved to the Colorado Springs area in 2011 from Indiana, they had only one year in the local Catholic education community before their oldest daughter, Lucy, entered St. Mary’s. They made some connections during that one year with their children attending St. Paul Cahtolic School, but their community was small and high school would be a new experience for the family.

COLORADO SPRINGS. Empowered by Knowledge. The second part of St. Mary’s High School’s identity focuses on knowledge. Since its inception in 1885, St. Mary’s has been providing excellence in education for the Colorado Springs community.

COLORADO SPRINGS. Catholic education in Colorado Springs offers parents quality academics with a foundation in faith that will guide students for life. In the coming months and years, that commitment to excellence will only improve with the signing of a Strategic Alliance agreement between St. Mary’s High School and the Diocese of Colorado Springs.

COLORADO SPRINGS. Inspired by Faith. Everything at St. Mary’s High School is inspired by faith. The theological foundation that the school helps build in its students is one of the many reasons that families choose St. Mary’s for their children’s high school education.