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View our Quarterly Update for SJOA Alumni & Friends
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Transformations
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Our Story
We take pride in educating the whole child --- mind, body, and soul. Watch how we're forming leaders and preparing students for life beyond St. Joan of Arc.
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Letter from the Principal
Dear Saint Joan of Arc School Family,
Recently, I was purchasing a home appliance to learn that there are now smart appliances, real smart appliances. Who would have guessed, even a short time ago, that we could make a grocery list on the digital refrigerator that communicates with our smartphone so it can be accessed while grocery shopping? And we can actually operate home appliances from our phones. Newer appliances practically require a Ph.D. to operate they come with so many bells and whistles. Similarly, the adoption of school textbooks has evolved far beyond the basic reading, writing and arithmetic.
Go Math! It may sound like a cheer, but it’s not. It’s a formal mathematics program published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and the program that teachers at SJOA selected to implement this year. Much like today’s appliances, math programs have evolved as well. We hired a curriculum expert to assist with implementing the new adoption and support classroom teachers.
It doesn’t stop with textbook adoption and hiring a math coach. One of the basics in school improvement is to ensure that programs and curriculum are aligned to the Indiana Academic Standards. When it comes to standards, there are power standards that appear more frequently on the state assessment. We have been blessed to work with MA Rooney Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides strategies to prepare for ILearn, the state assessment that replaced ISTEP+ as well as useful data reporting.
Tools for Success , a company that supports schools with various improvement efforts, has been added to our PLC model. Professional Learning Communities are working together to compare data to what we are spending time teaching. Along with teachers, they are working to create a scope and sequence and to align measurable data to the standards. They provide teachers a key outline of what to teach. This allows for the school administration to assure parents that students will receive a fluid educational experience along with a Catholic formation.
As a Title school, we would not be able to afford such partnerships in coaching and data reporting on our own or within our budget. We are grateful to receive funding for academic areas and social-emotional learning.
Thank you for your interest in Saint Joan of Arc. We are a school comprised of dedicated educators who take great pride in the rich tradition and many years of educating Indianapolis’s finest.
God Bless,
Janet Andriole
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Letter from the Pastor
Dear St. Joan of Arc School Family,
Our newsletter is titled, “Transformations.” For years we have used the image of the Monarch Butterfly at St. Joan of Arc as an analogy for the growth and formation of our students. The butterfly begins as a caterpillar, and goes through a series of transformations to become a beautiful and majestic Monarch.
There are a few reasons why we chose the Monarch for our school mascot. The most familiar image for St. Joan of Arc herself was the fleur-de-lis. The fleur-de-lis is a Christian symbol, which represents the lily (a symbol of purity) as well as the Holy Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The shape of the fleur-de-lis resembles the shape of the Monarch Butterfly. Our school logo is the Monarch superimposed on the fleur-de-lis. Also, the word “Monarch” contains the word “Arc,” from “St. Joan of Arc.”
A “monarch” is a king, a single and powerful leader of people. Who is the real “King of Kings?” It is Jesus Christ. Jesus is a Monarch who leads by serving in love, and laying down His life freely for the salvation of His people. When we are baptized, we come to share in the kingship of Jesus Christ, and our mission is to usher in His Kingdom by loving and serving one another in His name.
As we look again at the Monarch Butterfly, we are reminded that each human person undergoes many transformations in life to become what God has created and called us to be. At St. Joan of Arc School, we recognize that a Catholic education is much more than just the lessons we learn from books or in the classroom. Catholic education is about forming the entire human person in the image of Jesus Christ. Catholic education is truly “transformation,” which builds upon the foundations of the past, uses the resources of the present, and looks ahead to the future, striving always to be our best. But being best does not mean being “better” than others, or trying to defeat others. Being our best means becoming just like Jesus, so that by our service to one another, we all may grow in love and holiness, and transform the entire world by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I am proud to be pastor of the St. Joan of Arc Community. May this school year be a time of continual transformation for each of us in the image of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessings, Fr. Roberts
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