This year, in keeping up with the school’s mission to provide a holistic academic and Catholic education, St. Edmond will continue its Virtues in Practice religious curriculum, Principal Tabitha Acree said.

“My hope this year is to instill our love of God and our virtues,” she said. “We’re always trying to develop Christian leaders and Christian disciples, to continue to strengthen the whole person.”

In the three-year curriculum, this is the year of hope, Acree said.

“As long as we have God, we have hope — that’s our big theme for the year,” she said.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
St. Edmond Catholic School elementary students recite the pledge of allegiance during the flag-raising ceremony on the first day of school on Tuesday.

In addition, the elementary school will have a new religion series as well.

“We’re excited about that because it has a strong family component and we feel like that will engage more of our families in religion and education,” Acree said.

Acree is also looking forward to seeing students get into their extracurricular activities.

“Being a small school, our kids are involved in everything,” she said. “They may play two or three sports, and be in academic clubs. They get to kind of do it all. You don’t have to just choose one thing and I love that about our school.”

The school also welcomed some new staff for this school year. Among those new faces is the Rev. Ross Caniglia, the new school chaplain.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
Lt. Col. Jason Kolacia, commander of the Iowa Air National Guard 133rd Test Squadron, raises the American flag on the first day of school at St. Edmond Catholic School on Tuesday morning.

The school has right around 600 TK-12 students and is growing, Acree said.

“We’ve actually added another section of second grade,” she said. “So now we’re running three sections of kindergarten, first and second and we’re hoping to keep that going.”

Next week, the school will welcome its preschoolers, and new this year is the 3-year-old preschool program.

“We had only anticipated two sections, but we’ve added a third section because we had a waitlist,” Acree said.

With recent criminal activity happening just one block north of the school in the Dodger Townhomes complex, safety will be at the top of the priority list this year, Acree said.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
Jacque Batz, K12 music teacher, greets students in the hall on the first day of school at St. Edmond Catholic School on Tuesday.

“Safety is always our priority with our kids,” she said.

The school has added more supervision outside at dismissal and drop-off, the principal said. At dismissal, students who are not picked up within 10 minutes of the end of the school day, will be brought back inside to wait for their ride.

“There’s a new safety assessment that’s going to be happening in our building,” Acree said. “We’re looking at updating our protocols.”

In September, the school will host a parent session to go over safety protocols and procedures.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
St. Edmond Catholic School students fill the halls on the first day of school on Tuesday.