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A Year in Review

2010-2011

Mission/Vision:

St. Dominic School, in its long-standing Catholic tradition, educates the whole child in mind, body and spirit.  Through academic rigor and Christian character formation, St. Dominic encourages each child to broaden their perspective, reach their intellectual potential, and prepare for a life of service.

 

Programming:

St. Dominic School offers a Catholic Education for students in preschool through 8^th grade.  Preschool offerings include partial days, full days, 2, 3, or 5 days per week.  Seventh and eighth grade students participate in a shared-time program with the Northfield Public Middle School.  St. Dominic students have the opportunity to participate in core curriculum classes and specialist classes including art, computer, music, physical education, and Spanish.

 

Enrollment and Staffing:
There are currently 186 students in grades Prekindergarten-8 at St. Dominic School.

School staff include 10 Full-time Teachers, 4 Part-time Teachers, 6 Support Staff, Kitchen Staff, and 1 Full-time Principal.

 

Accreditations/Affiliations:
• Approved as a Catholic School and affiliated with the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis
• Accredited by Minnesota Non-public School Accrediting Association
• Member of the National Catholic Education Association

 

Accreditation Update:

St. Dominic School is an accredited school by Minnesota Non-public School Accrediting Association (MNSAA).  Every seven years, the school must decide if they would like to renew their accreditation.  If so, the school is required to go through an extensive self-evaluation process during the sixth year to prepare for a team visit during the seventh year.  As a school, we have been working on our self-evaluation during this past year.  Together with a trained Team Chair Person, a team of people will visit the school over the course of 3 days to validate our findings.

 

School Strategic Plan:

We currently have four objectives in our School Strategic Plan.  The following are updates to each of our objectives.

OBJECTIVE 1

The school will retain middle school students in grades 6 – 8 through improved programming and increased opportunities.

-       Students have the opportunity to participate in many service projects and provide leadership in school-wide activities.

-       Students have many opportunities to use the 15 laptops the school owns.

-       Every other year, students in 7^th and 8^th grade have the opportunity to travel to Maltrata, Mexico and build relationships with the people there.

OBJECTIVE 2

St. Dominic School will provide 21^st century technology opportunities for students.

-       During the 2010-11 school year, we added a Smart Board (interactive white board) to the 4^th grade classroom.

-       With the money raised in the Principal’s Purse at the auction, we purchased two new projectors.  One is being used in the preschool room, and one is in the computer lab.

-       We moved the original Smart Board from the computer lab to the kindergarten classroom to be utilized on a daily basis.

-       A technology group has been working on determining the needs of the school and creating an updated technology plan.

OBJECTIVE 3

St. Dominic School will create a formal partnership with at least one of the local colleges.

-       This year, St. Dominic School has worked with St. Olaf and Carleton as a community partner.  St. Olaf and Carleton were awarded a STEM Grant under the title of Food and Nutrition.

-       Throughout the spring semester, students from different college courses worked with our students

OBJECTIVE 4

St. Dominic School will meet the needs of high achieving students.

-       This is an objective that we are working on over the next 2-3 years.

-       Discussions have begun regarding forming a leadership team to begin researching the topic of Gifted and Talented.

-       The leadership team will then share information with the remainder of staff over the next several months

 

Fundraising:

A total of $92,351.55 was raised through fundraisers including the marathon, Saints Night Out, etc.  In the recent survey, school families indicated that they would prefer to keep the current fundraisers in affect for next year instead of see tuition rise.

Tuition Assistance:
For 2010-2011, approximately 18% of the student body received tuition assistance.  The calculated need for those applying for tuition was over $64,000.  Tuition assistance is offered to all students in kindergarten through 8^th grade and is generated through annual donations, school fundraisers and part of the operating budget funded by tuition.  A very limited amount of assistance is available for preschool students.