The GRACE 2023-24 academic calendar is here! You can view it in English or Spanish.

The calendar highlights key dates such as early dismissals, parent/teacher conferences, holiday vacations, and more. Spring break will be March 4-8, 2024. We are excited to announce it even includes the spring break dates for the following academic year, which will be taking place from March 10-14, 2025.

Keep these important dates in mind when scheduling future family activities and vacations. Have a great year!

Join us for the Day of GRACE – a day of giving – to be celebrated during Catholic Schools Week on February 1, 2023. You are an important part of the equation: it takes people, programs, prayers and your participation to build the GRACE community where every student has the opportunity to learn, lead and succeed.

Celebrate with us, make a donation in support of our students, spread the word, and follow along with us on social media for a Day of GRACE!

Learn more on GRACE’s website.

GRACE parents are invited to respond to the Voice of the Customer Parent Survey. The survey is open Dec 7-19, 2022 and is utilized to provide parental feedback to our Board Education Committee. This is an annual survey to help assess our progress from the parent perspective. All are asked to respond. The survey link can be accessed from your GRACE school’s weekly parent e-newsletter.

Thank you in advance for responding — your perspective is valued!

Today we would like to highlight the outstanding volunteer at our school, Ms. Carol Kekula!

Our principal, Mr. Jere Kubuske, states, “I am honored to recognize Carol Kekula as this year’s Holy Family Volunteer of the Year. Ms. Kekula is a dedicated servant of the Catholic Faith and helps us at HFS move closer to Jesus by becoming active participants in the Faith. She organizes our school masses including practicing with our participating classes, she helps students with the morning prayer on our announcements, and organizes all of our special events at the church like Stations of the Cross, May Crowning, and graduation. She is always there to serve and help our students, no matter the day or even the personal circumstances or even tragedies that she may be facing. We are a better school because of the commitment of Mrs. Kekula and we are forever in her debt.”

Thank you, Mrs. Kekula!

The GRACE Catholic School System is committed to our mission. We are not just Christians on Sunday but at all times and in all aspects of our life. Likewise, at school, we aim not merely to integrate our Catholic faith but to be rooted in it in all ways. One of the defining characteristics of our schools is that we are always “steeped in a Catholic worldview.” So whether we are teaching the Revolutionary War in middle school social studies or learning about how seeds become plants in second grade, we seek to find opportunities to show children the centrality of God and the influence of the Church in the world.

This year the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) announced a national Eucharistic Revival, whose aim is to encourage “a movement of Catholics across the United States, healed, converted, formed and united by an encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist.” In support, Bishop David Ricken wrote a beautiful letter to our Diocese titled, Encountering Jesus in the Eucharist: Disciples Called to Worship.

During these next three years, Bishop wishes to lead us on a journey to better worship Jesus by focusing on encountering Jesus more deeply in the Word and the Eucharist. At GRACE, we aim to support this mission as we endeavor to help make sure all children know and love Jesus Christ.

Catholics believe that the greatest prayer of all is the Holy Mass, and it is especially beautiful when we bring our family on Sunday. As we seek to grow in our relationship with Jesus and strengthen our prayer lives, consider how your family will continue to make Sunday Mass attendance a priority.

In The Sacrament of Charity, Pope Benedict XVI told us, “The love of God that we receive in the Blessed Sacrament should lead us to love our neighbor (88).” Our GRACE teachers are hard at work each day, teaching children to pray, how to approach the Sacraments, and how to live our Catholic morality by guiding the way they act in the classroom and on the playground. We are proud of the ways we celebrate liturgical seasons like Advent and Lent, and each school attends Mass weekly as a community.

This year we ask all members of our GRACE community to join this great movement in our Church as we seek to encounter Jesus deeply and personally through the Eucharist. Parents can support our faith mission by asking their children what they are learning in religion class, taking time to pray as a family, going to Eucharistic Adoration, and attending Mass weekly as a family.

GRACE is proud to announce that technology services team member Lynn Fink has been recognized in a recent article by the local Catholic Diocese publication, The Compass, for her outstanding work in IT. Lynn has been working in the GRACE System since 2004 when she was first employed at Our Lady of Lourdes in 2004. Read the entire article celebrating Lynn’s work on The Compass’s website by clicking here!

Project Lead the Way (PLTW) enhances our rich educational experience through interactive, hands-on experiences. Our faith-filled teachers will lead the instruction while ensuring that our Catholic values and Catholic Social Teaching concepts are expertly woven throughout the content. Through PLTW Launch (K-5), students will become collaborative problem solvers and creative thinkers. Students use structured approaches, like the engineering design process, to employ critical thinking skills to solve scientific issues that relate directly to real life experiences. They will apply STEM knowledge and learn that it is okay to take risks and make mistakes.

Our Catholic worldview will be threaded through each lesson and hands-on experience. This program will allow students to develop a strong foundation in math and science, and make connections between their classroom and future careers. PLTW Launch taps into students’ exploratory nature, engages them in learning that feels like play, and encourages them to keep discovering — now and forever. Each semester, GRACE families receive their student’s individual NWEA MAP Student Progress Report accompanied by an explanatory summary letter.

Impact of Project Lead the Way

A recent study shows PLTW students outperform their peers in school, are better prepared for post-secondary studies, and are more likely to consider STEM careers compared to their non-PLTW peers. Students find PLTW programs relevant, inspiring, engaging, and foundational to their future success.

GRACE middle school is also updating its science curriculum resource to iScience. During the selection process, iScience stood out to our middle school teachers because it enforced the three key discipline areas: Life Science, Physical Science, & Earth and Space Science. In addition, the materials the program provides will prepare students for high school science classes. This includes non-fiction reading skills, hands-on collaboration experiments, academic writing, and more.

I am pleased and humbled to serve as the newly appointed Superintendent of GRACE school systems. I wish to outline and clarify some of the distinct duties and responsibilities that fall into my role as Superintendent. My service to our GRACE schools has a primary aim of looking to the future for our growing system rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

• Curriculum– GRACE has many ongoing processes to review, update and adopt curriculum resources. In collaboration with GRACE Curriculum Director Laura Blicharz, I will lead and oversee these processes. Likewise, I will lead the planning and implementation of the professional development of our teachers to ensure they are prepared to teach our students.
  
• Technology Integration– Along with the leadership of Technology Integration Coordinator Carrie Gossens, I oversee the long-term planning in place for the ways technology is used to support learning. Aspects of technology integration that fall into my duties include overseeing how technology is used in our classrooms, the training our teachers have, and the so ware that is approved.
  
• Communications/Marketing– Building on the success of GRACE’s enrollment growth and successful techniques to invite families to join
  our community, I am developing comprehensive strategies and identifying new ways to tell our
  story and engage new families. With the support of Marketing and Communications Director Madeline Janssen, I am overseeing our internal and external communication plans to continue sharing the Gospel and the good work going on in our schools.
  
• Support for Leadership and Strategy– Our GRACE principals are some of the strongest, most hard-working leaders in Green Bay, and I am supporting their work and leadership by providing resources and helping to steer unifying long-term strategies in our GRACE system.

My office is located at the GRACE Riverside Drive office, and I enjoy regularly getting into each of our nine schools. It is a full-time role, and I report to the President, Kim Desotell. I welcome you to reach out and connect with me as we work together to provide the best in Catholic education for the children in Green Bay.

In Christ,

Drew Mulloy

GRACE Superintendent