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.

Getting kids into heaven — that is how Deacon Rob Rysavy, the president of St. Mary’s High School, explained the goal of Catholic education in a conversation recently. 

His characterization brought to mind an experience I had earlier in April in the gymnasium at Divine Redeemer School. Catholic Charities of Central Colorado had been chosen as the recipient of the Extreme Lenten Project to collect toiletry items for our community’s poor and vulnerable.  

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. Supporters of Catholic education understand that Catholic schools are fundamental to the survival of the Catholic faith. As part of its ongoing effort to bring quality Catholic education to Colorado Springs, Corpus Christi School is adopting the Classical (Catholic Liberal Arts Education) model starting in the 2021-2022 school year.

COLORADO SPRINGS. This year, Catholic Schools’ Week at Divine Redeemer looked very different. Popular activities such as the Eye Opener Breakfast, the National Geographic Geography Bee, and schoolwide Mass and adoration were canceled due to COVID-19 restrictions.

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. Chesterton Academy of Our Lady of Walsingham, a member of the Chesterton Schools Network, has begun compiling a waiting list for high school students interested in the school’s inaugural semester in Fall 2021. This classical Catholic high school is the first Chesterton Academy in Colorado Springs and one of 30 across 14 U.S. states, Canada and Italy.  Twelve new Chesterton Academy high schools opened in 2020.

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.