Page 3 - Catholic Memorial Annual Report 2019-20

A Message from 3
President Donna Bembenek

This year more than most, we have all leaned on our faith. The
circumstances since the start of the global pandemic required our
parishes to close and offer virtual religious services. At Catholic
Memorial High School, we worked very hard to prioritize our Catholic
faith through daily prayer, virtual praying of the rosary, a special
weekly message from Fr. John and Campus Ministry, virtual service
opportunities and more.
When COVID-19 required us to close our campus in March 2020, none of
us could have imagined that the remote instruction we effectively pivoted
to would become the norm for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school
year. Thanks to this committed community, we were able to rise above
the challenges presented by the world pandemic and move swiftly to
ensure our students thrived. It is a true testament to the value you place
on a quality education, deeply rooted in our Catholic faith.
Your generosity provided critical funding for the technology needed to
support remote learning, training for our teachers and critical health
and safety equipment and supplies that ensured our campus was a safe,
secure and healthy environment for our students to return to. Thanks
to you, we continued to provide an exceptional, rigorous, faith-filled
education to each of our students while keeping them, our teachers, staff
and community safe.
In the midst of this crisis, your support helped us make great strides
toward implementation of our strategic plan. We continued our focus
to serve students with diverse learning styles. Since the beginning of
2020 we have delivered on key strategic plan goals by adding a second
Academic Resource Specialist in the Academic Resource Center, expanded
our strong STEM curriculum, provided real-world, hands-on learning
experiences for our students through internships, added critical mental
health services for students embedded in the school day, and have put
in place the structure to look forward with innovative educational
strategies that recognize the future opportunities our students will have
available to them.
As I reflect on the past year, my heart is filled with gratitude for each
of you – for your unwavering support, kindness, generosity and deep
caring for our students and our school. We are pleased to have returned
to in-person instruction this fall and ask that you continue to keep CMH
faculty, students and staff in your prayers.
Our Lady of Memorial, pray for us!

Donna Bembenek
President

2019-2020 Annual Report