In 2000, the old St. Thomas More Catholic Church at 828 Fourth St. gave way the new St. Thomas More Catholic Church at the corner of Eighth Street South and 17th Avenue South.
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BROOKINGS — In 2000, the old St. Thomas More Catholic Church at 828 Fourth St. gave way the new St. Thomas More Catholic Church at the corner of Eighth Street South and 17th Avenue South. In 2002 came the mission of a pre-school. In 2005, Meghan Kelly “joined the team” and remains with it to the present day — as “St. Thomas More Catholic Schools Week Fun” gets underway on Jan. 28 and runs through Feb. 3, ending with “Celebrating Families” and the “6th Annual Winter Gala and Grand Auction.”
“I’ve been here since 2005, working as a pre-school teacher, pre-school director and then transitioning into the role of school administrator as the school has grown,” Kelly, now principal, explained. “We started with the kindergarten in 2017 and we added a grade every year up through third grade. Then we had a couple years that we didn’t add a grade. This year we added the fourth grade. We plan to add fifth grade in the fall. The present facility serves about 120 students in pre-school through fourth grade. Classes sizes range from about 12 students all the way up to 118 students.”
The new church was built with enough classrooms for housing a school. However, for now the fifth grade is planned to be the last grade housed in the present spaces. Any future grade or grades being added would demand additional building.
As pastor of St. Thomas Catholic Parish, the Rev. Thomas Fitzpatrick also serves as superintendent, CEO and administrator. During his life in ministry, he’s filled those roles in other Catholic parochial schools.
“There’s definitely a desire in our community for private schools,” Kelly said. There are several options for private schools, some of theme religiously oriented, in the Brookings community. “Several Lutheran churches have started private schools.” And while STMCS is private and “Catholic,” one need not be a Catholic to attend.
“But I would say that we’re the most traditional setting, in that we have one teacher at each grade level,” the principal explained. “Our students receive opportunities to attend Spanish, PE (physical education), music, library and art class.” The STMCS faculty has seven lead teachers, two teachers aides and five special teachers.
What makes St. Thomas More Catholic School really a Catholic school is the religious education faith formation imbedded in all the activities of the kindergarten through the fourth grade: daily religious lessons and prayer, celebration of feast days and Mass every Wednesday afternoon.
“They have specific religious classes, but it’s built into everything they do,” Kelly explained of the school’s curriculum. “It’s tied into their math lessons, to their reading lessons, to lunch time, to behavior: calling on God’s desires for us to be good and holy.”
In second grade comes what in a fashion could be, even at that young age, a Catholic rite of passage: the preparation for and reception of First Holy Communion, Jesus in the Eucharist.
One reality of most private schools is that they are not free — and that applies to Catholic schools. Going back to the 1970s and earlier, Catholic parochial schools were pretty much tied to their parishes. And they were pretty much free because they were taught by faculties that were primarily made up of religious sisters. But then with the coming of Vatican II, many nuns and priests left the Catholic church. And following that exodus came the Catholic schools of today: staffed mostly by laypeople and dependent on tuition for survival.
“We do work really hard to keep our tuition rates reasonable,” Kelly explained. “We’ve set up a lot of things behind the scenes to be able to support that. We have an endowment that helps support our school. The more that grows, the more financial support we receive from that.
“That’s kind of a mission of Catholic schools is that we really want to offer students an equal opportunity to participate. We actually have a lot of people who choose to donate for tuition specifically. It goes into its own fund until it’s allocated out.”
With all of the above as background, for a week St. Thomas More parishioners will be “celebrating” the goodness and blessings that come from having their own school. A variety of themes will be noted throughout the week.
Sunday is “Parish,” with students singing after communion at the 8:30 a.m. Mass. Monday is “Community,” with students encouraged to wear their STMCS logo gear; and students will be collecting “gently used books for ‘Sleep in Heavenly Peace.’”
Tuesday is “Students,” with free dress day and the wearing of favorite outfits. Wednesday is “Nation” and the wearing of red, white and blue patriotic gear. Pastoral Assistant Phil Carlson, an Army veteran, will be guest speaker for all classes and talk about America’s armed forces, our flag and our country.
Thursday is “Vocations.” Students are encouraged to dress in ways symbolic of vocations — big, such as priests, nuns and religious — and small, such as other daily jobs. Classes will make cards for priests, religious and seminarians.
Friday is “Faculty, Staff and Volunteers,” starting with breakfast and board games. Students and their families are encouraged to attend.
Saturday is for “Celebrating Families,” culminating in an STMCS major fund raising event: the 6th Annual Winter Gala and Grand Auction. There are tickets still available. Contact Angela Bucholz, school secretary at 605-692-6756.
Contact John Kubal at jkubal@brookingsregister.com.
