A Message From Dr. Mark Williams

August 9, 2024

Dr. Mark Williams and his wife Kirsch are lifelong educators and Catholic school leaders. While Mark passionately serves our community as Superintendent of Catholic schools, Kirsch is the principal of Holy Name of Jesus school in New Orleans Louisiana on the campus of Loyola University. Mark and Kirsch have five children, all of whom attended Catholic schools. They are members of both St. Joseph Co-Cathedral and Holy Name of Jesus parish communities.

I am pleased to welcome you to the 2024-2025 school year. A new school year is exciting because it is a time to begin anew. The summer provides a time for school communities to reflect on the previous school year and set goals for the next. Rest and relaxation leads to a fresh focus, full of energy and hope.

When the month of August arrives, the time is at hand to pursue the goals and aspirations for the school year and make them come to life. As a student, this may involve setting academic performance goals, creating new routines, or pursuing co-curricular goals. As an educator, this may involve teaching a new course, grade level, or experimenting with new pedagogical methods. Beginning a new school year is always magical, filled with opportunity and hope.

A new school year often provides the opportunity to do things differently, determine new goals, and sharpen one’s focus on a new task at hand. However, there are some things that do not change. In January of 2023, while completing accreditation, the educators in the Catholic schools of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux came together to create the “10 great things.” As a professional learning community our educators came together to strengthen the value proposition that we offer to our stakeholders. This year in our Catholic schools we are confident you will encounter the following themes which bind our schools together:

1. We pray together and celebrate the love of God.
2. We build the character of students by teaching and modeling Gospel values.
3. We prepare the whole person - mind, body, and soul.
4. We are passionate about rigorous intellectual and academic preparation.
5. We provide personal attention to students and families.
6. We create a high expectations environment, immersing students with positivity
and reminders of their potential.
7. We focus on building self-esteem by developing students’ gifts and talents.
8. We construct a safe and structured environment under the direction of safe
environment guidelines and principles of ethics and integrity in ministry.
9. We incorporate home, school, and family working together to educate our
children.
10. We are vigorous in our quest to improve, striving for excellence in all things.

As we approach the 2024-2025 school year, I invite you to consider a quote from Pope Francis: “Education cannot be neutral. It is either positive or negative; either it enriches, or it impoverishes; either it enables a person to grow, or it lessens, even corrupts him. The mission of schools is to develop a sense of truth, of what is good and beautiful.”

In the Catholic schools of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, we have an enormous responsibility to help young people reach their true potential. We believe that the way to effectively do this is to create a partnership between church, school, and parents. When this partnership is strong and positive, learning occurs 24/7 and the results are often marvelous.

As we approach another academic year, it is important for our administration, faculty, staff, parents, and students to keep in mind the very essence of the purpose of Catholic schools. According to Archbishop J. Michael Miller in his book The Holy See’s Teachings on Catholic Schools, “The specific purpose of a Catholic school is the formation of boys and girls who will be good citizens of this world, loving God and neighbor and enriching society with the leaven of the gospel, and who will also be citizens of the world to come, thus fulfilling their destiny to become saints.” Here in the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux we believe the first step to achieving this purpose is strong modeling by our community. We are walking billboards for our young people, and modeling good behaviors is a strong first step towards building great citizens who are prepared for this world and the next. Holy Spirit, give us strength to maintain our fidelity to the Gospels as we inform our young people through our

actions.

Please pray for our school communities. Pray that our schools meet and exceed the spiritual, academic, social-emotional, and physical needs of our students. We want to firmly establish a culture of belonging for all and create win-win relationships with all our stakeholders. Pray that we achieve this objective. Finally, may God bless you and your family abundantly.