January 5, 2023 – The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph is pleased to welcome Our Lady’s Montessori School (OLMS). Beginning with the 2023-2024 school year, OLMS will welcome students to its new location at 58th and Michigan Ave. on the St. Therese Little Flower campus in Kansas City, Mo.

The school is an apostolic work of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT) offering an authentic Catholic Montessori education to preschool and elementary aged children of all faiths and backgrounds. It has outgrown its current location on South 7th Street in Kansas City, Kan., so its board of directors recently voted to relocate to a larger building in Kansas City, Mo.

OLMS Executive Director, Sister Maria Laudem Gloriae, SOLT, said, "Our Lady's Montessori School has been growing considerably over the past few years, and after exploring different ways to accommodate our increasing enrollment, Bishop Johnston graciously and generously offered us an opportunity to relocate to his diocese. We are grateful for the warm welcome we have received from St. Therese Little Flower Parish and at the chance to open in the historic school building on its grounds. We are also grateful to Bright Futures Fund for their abundant help and support as we transition to this new location. We're eager to continue serving our current families as well as welcoming new families to our wonderful community at Our Lady's Montessori School. We are humbled by the way Our Lord has generously provided a new home for our growing school in a way we never expected."  

This is the first new elementary school to open in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph since 1999, punctuated by a nearly 10% increase in enrollment in diocesan Catholic schools over the last year. 

Dr. Karen Kroh, superintendent of Catholic schools for the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, said, “Over the past two years our Catholic schools have experienced tremendous growth. The opportunity to expand the blessing of Catholic education in partnership with Our Lady’s Montessori School is a gift to our Diocese and the neighborhoods on the east side of the city.”

Our Lady’s Montessori School joins Holy Cross Catholic School and Our Lady of Hope Catholic School as one of three Bright Futures Fund schools serving communities in vital need of a good, dependable education.

Jeremy Lillig, executive director of Bright Futures Fund added, “Bright Futures Fund is excited to work in collaboration with Our Lady’s Montessori as they open in our Diocese.  Bright Futures is excited to help provide a quality education at this location renewing its long legacy of Catholic Education.”

Our Lady’s Montessori School will locate in an existing school building adjacent to St. Therese Little Flower Church at 5814 Euclid Ave. in Kansas City, Mo. 

Father Don Farnan, pastor of St. Therese Little Flower Parish, said, “What an incredible blessing for our Catholic community. After several recent losses and closures, it is great that our diocese is opening its first elementary school in nearly a quarter century. It’s a bonus that it will be in the heart of Kansas City, where educational needs and spiritual expression are so great. After some dormancy and important reflection, people are eager to rally around the church doing what she has done well for centuries.” 

Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph Bishop James Johnston has envisioned a new Catholic school for the neighborhoods of Kansas City’s east side, serving an area that has experienced closures of Catholic parishes in recent years.
 
Bishop Johnston said, “One of the greatest opportunities we can provide for families and children is a Catholic education. Few things can impact the future of a child as much. I am grateful that Our Lady’s Montessori School will be bringing their beautiful and growing school onto the Saint Therese Little Flower campus as the newest member of the Bright Futures family.”

​Piece originally posted at: https://kcsjcatholic.org/2023/01/our-ladys-montessori-school-becomes-first-new-school-in-two-decades-to-open-in-kcsj/

Kansas City – The Bright Futures Fund is pleased to announce the awarding of the first 100 scholarships in the new MOScholars program. Scholarships have been awarded to students attending 26 qualifying Catholic schools in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph.

The Bright Futures Fund was one of the six Educational Assistance Organizations certified by the Missouri State Treasurer’s office to administer the MOScholars program. These 100 scholarships are concurrent with fundraising generated from individuals and companies purchasing Missouri State Income Tax Credits.

“We are excited to begin to fund these scholarships and to further our mission with the MOScholars program, giving families the best tool to succeed: a high-quality education,”  said Jeremy Lillig, Executive Director of the Bright Futures Fund.

To date, the Bright Futures Fund has generated more than $1 million in Missouri State income Tax Credits with more pledged. To donate, or to learn more, please visit www.brightfuturesfund.org.  Individuals and Corporations can receive a 100% tax credit for 50% of their annual State Income Tax obligation.

Piece originally posted at https://kcsjcatholic.org/2022/08/moscholars-scholarships-1st100/

Bob Dylan once said “times they are a changin.” Change can sometimes bring about a negative perception but in the case of the new MOScholars program it’s anything but. In my 11 years at the diocese we have been involved in discussions with various groups about how to overcome the restrictions of the Blaine Amendments — a series of amendments to state constitutions in the late 19th century aimed at preventing the use of public funds to support parochial schools. There have been many attempts but no immediate success … until now.
​
HB 349, a bill for school choice in Missouri, was signed into law in 2021. Since then, Bright Futures Fund has been at the forefront of discussions with the State Treasurer’s office learning about implementation of this new program. Much to our excitement, Bright Futures Fund was recently approved for a minimum of $2.5 million in tax credit scholarships for the 2022-2023 school year. As one of six newly certified Educational Assistance Organizations, Bright Futures Fund will offer state income tax credits to Missourians and award scholarships to students and families in two categories:

1. Students with an IEP or ISP (new or currently enrolled) under the Individual Education Disabilities Act. (No income restriction)
2. New students (having been enrolled in public school 12 months prior) whose families earn no more than 200% of the Free and Reduced Lunch income maximum. (a family of 4 earning less than $102,676 per year.) 

*Both categories must live in Kansas City, Missouri; Jackson County or a city with a population of more than 30,000.

Eligible families who meet one of these two requirements and live in an approved area will qualify for $6,375 in scholarship money per year to attend a Catholic school in our diocese.

By Jeremy Lillig, originally posted on the Catholic Key

Learn more about

• Applying for the MOScholars program

• Contributing to the MOScholars fund through Missouri income tax designation beginning July 1, 2022

It comes as no surprise that teachers’ job descriptions have shifted the most throughout this past year of coronavirus. These professionals have faced enormous challenges in how they perform their duties and manage their jobs during this pandemic.
 
Our classrooms, transformed from desks and work tables, to stacks of books on stools and kitchen table, with fifteen faces looking back at you in the classroom, to fifteen glowing boxes on a single computer screen. We never could have imagined we would be exchanging our workbooks and glue sticks, for conference calls with children and purchasing rolls of stamps with daily visits to the post office.
 
What didn’t shift across these past few years? Standards.
 
“I am exhausted every day, but our kids are excelling,” Shelly Henn, teacher and new principal for Holy Cross reiterates.
 
Teachers were tasked with teaching every subject differently, and in many instances, to students in person and at home simultaneously, with expectations to do so effectively. “The simplest tasks become difficult over Zoom, like teaching how to hold a pencil properly,” says Kerri Ysals, Our Lady of Hope teacher.
 
“The impacts of COVID were felt by everyone,” Holy Cross parent Geoff Henngeler explains. “Teachers were unprepared, students were unprepared, and parents were unprepared. Holy Cross went above and beyond to allocate resources to families and teachers who needed support services.”
 
Lillian Klein, office manager for both Our Lady of Hope and Holy Cross, provides an example, “Before the pandemic, the only internet device a family had were smartphones, and only the parents had them. Those phones left the home as parents went to work. We quickly recognized the importance of getting technology to our families at home and made it a priority.”
 
Our faculty and staff enacted a one-to-one ratio, matching each student with what they needed technologically for virtual learning. Together, we secured Chromebooks and partnered with Spectrum to ensure that everyone enrolled had essential access to the internet.
 
Our student population was not where the problems stopped. During an Advisory Council meeting, a member recounted seeing a teacher give an online presentation with a cracked computer screen. “Our teachers needed resources just as much as our families,” stated this council member.
 
With technology needs being graciously met, finding partners to feed our students and their families, navigating new ways to keep our student body healthy and safe, have been triumphs for both schools and our teams.
 
In speaking with our students, they continue to be exuberant about how much they love and appreciate their teachers. It is evident and felt in each and every classroom as you poke your head in to say 'hello.'
 
This year has been incredibly hard on so many and it's important to acknowledge, that despite each setback, bad day, or sleepless night our Bright Futures Fund teachers, faculty, staff, and teams at Holy Cross and Our Lady of Hope, along with all teachers everywhere, have gone above and beyond for our students and tomorrow's leaders. In a year, with the potential to be heavy and dark - we have continued to Shine Brightly.

By Kendra O'Sullivan

​​How you can help!
You can insure that our students continue to have access to an incredible education. Click below to see some of the incredible changes that will be coming to our students and our schools through the SHINE Brightly Capital Campaign.

​Looking around our classrooms at Holy Cross and Our Lady of Hope, you can see the determination on the faces of our students. Speaking with teacher after teacher, you are constantly informed of the motivation level of Bright Futures students. Journal articles, report findings of post quarantine, students returning to their schools, not only excited to be there, but excelling in STEM coursework.
 
“This school year has been great! The kids are happy to be here, they are working hard, they are following the procedures, and they have a new appreciation for classroom learning. They want to be here.” - Shelley Henn, incoming principal for Holy Cross reports.
 
Speaking with a group of second grade parents we were told that while virtual instruction was not the “optimum learning mode.” Learning their multiplication tables and overcoming these challenges with new technologies, outweighed standardized test scores or the results of one semester. Also, the parents shared how their children were more relaxed than either themselves or their guardians in welcoming the use of technology to learn.
 
As Shelley Henn of Holy Cross reminds us “Students had to work really hard this year, it was not easy, but they did the work and they are where they need to be.” One of the biggest changes took place in choral music classes. CDC requirements did not permit in-person singing in our schools because neither Holy Cross nor Our Lady of Hope had adequate social distancing space for that type of airborne activity.
 
An obvious question that follows is how does a choir teacher fulfill music education requirements based on new regulations?
 
Jennifer Weiman, choir teacher at Holy Cross, informs us, “What started out as regulations determining execution, very quickly adapted to student-lead implementations.” As a direct result of no singing, Miss Weiman shifted the curriculum to focus on music theory and percussion instruments. This brought new to life our Christmas program, using bucket drums, boom-whackers, bells, egg shakers, sticks, body percussion, and scarf dancing, as a new take on a more traditional pageant, brilliantly and beautifully executed by our Bright Futures students.
 
“Only a handful of kids actually love to sing, especially in middle school, so this change allowed more students the ability to enjoy something else and become more invested in the classroom,” Miss Weiman goes on.
 
Teachers incorporating students learning was paramount both virtually and in classrooms settings. Kerri Ysals of Our Lady of Hope, shined brightly in working with grandparent Linda Anderson in creating the possible experience for her three students at home. They created a program named “Taylor Time,” where Taylor, a third-grader, was able to regularly practice reading out loud to her younger sibling’s preschool class virtually.
 
During a time when community seemed to be so scarce, and students felt isolated, the creativity and determination of Miss Ysals gave her students a sense of togetherness and inspiration for them to keep learning and growing academically.

By Kendra O'Sullivan

​​​How you can help!
You can insure that our students continue to have access to an incredible education. Click below to see some of the incredible changes that will be coming to our students and our schools through the SHINE Brightly Capital Campaign.

​“The inherent difference of this year comes down to procedures, like mask-wearing and hand washing. Luckily, procedures are not new to kids; they are used to walking in lines and having assigned seating for lunch. The difference really comes down to virtual learning. That challenge becomes an extra burden for the students, families, and teachers – it’s a whole new job,” verbalized Lillian Klein, office manager of Our Lady of Hope and Holy Cross.
 
Geoff Henggeler is a parent and serves on the advisory council for Holy Cross. He explained his responsibility to our organization is to listen, hear and see the needs of our community.
 
“Home environments suddenly were transparent in online learning. Every Zoom exposed the needs of the students’ home as opposed to learning outside the home, where children did not have to bring their home life into the classroom like they do now,” Geoff tells us.
 
These never-before-seen views into our student’s homes are what sparked our Bright Futures response to technology, married with the need for internet access and food support. Working alongside our partner, Spectrum, ensured connectivity for all students and their families, utilizing Care Act funds so each student had a tablet for continuing online learning. Along with the Seamless Summer (a food distribution program) and Giving the Basics initiative (an additional food distribution program) to their daily roles, went far beyond the job description of a classroom teacher or school administrator.
 
Office manager of Holy Cross and Our Lady of Hope, Lillian Klein, took on a far more involved role this past year as well. “If I didn’t focus on the needs of these families, there really wasn’t going to be someone who would.” Her list, pages long, included bringing a parent a tank of fuel for their vehicle, working with the USPS to set up mailboxes and delivery so families could collect or drop off school materials, as well as helping with utility payments.
 
In this hybrid year, families could also make the choice to keep students home for full-time online instruction. This option added a lot of logistics to the average daily lesson plan. Holy Cross and Our Lady of Hope teachers were able to incorporate students who were learning online to be included alongside students learning in the classroom.
 
Kerri Ysals and Linda Anderson are shining examples of this partnership. Linda, a grandparent to Taylor, JD, and Amari, took on a full-time at-home teacher role and worked with instructor, Miss Ysals, to ensure the online learning options were still optimal for their students.
 
The week leading up to Christmas break, Miss Ysals brought a substitute teacher into her classroom, to take her place while she made house calls, visiting her students and joining in on the classroom Zoom from the other side of the screen.
 
“Being a part of a community, where teachers become loved ones, is why I want to stay so involved,” grandmother Linda Anderson tells us. “There isn’t a greater sense of certainty that families can have during a pandemic than knowing our school is listening and changing to the needs.”
 
Adapting and adjusting, be it technology, education, or safety, is something we all know from these past 18 months across our Bright Futures Family, and both Our Lady of Hope and Holy Cross, have continued to Shine Brightly.

By Kendra O'Sullivan

​​​How you can help!
You can insure that our students continue to have access to an incredible education. Click below to see some of the incredible changes that will be coming to our students and our schools through the SHINE Brightly Capital Campaign.

These past 18 months have included a nonstop discussion on health and safety, mask mandates, surface and hand sanitizer, and of course, social distancing. Like it or not, each of us has been a part of that conversation, be it in our parishes, workplaces, extracurricular activities, and our own homes.
 
One aspect that has not received the coverage it deserves has been in logistics, hoop-jumping, sleepless nights, and countless hours that have gone into meals for students. Not only for those in our schools, but those at home, and in our neighborhoods. Our Bright Futures Fund educators, staff, and principals of Our Lady of Hope and Holy Cross, have gone above and beyond ensuring that meals have been continuously provided to students and their siblings from the beginning of quarantine, across the summer, and throughout this past school year.
 
“When told last March we would not be going back to school after spring break, my first thought was “How will the children be fed?” - Lillian Klien, office manager who oversees Our Lady of Hope and Holy Cross.
 
Her thinking was spot on. Ninety percent of Bright Futures Fund students arrive daily for both breakfast and lunch provided by our schools. Many of those students additionally receive their supper as well through a partnership with Upper Room.
 
As the coronavirus landed in our city and neighborhoods, our schools were restricted to online learning by City mandate from Spring Break, lasting to the end of our 2019 schoolyear. Just because we were not meeting in our buildings did not mean that they sat empty and our teams went on hiatus. Faculty and staff at both Our Lady of Hope and Holy Cross immediately began applying for grants to purchase food ingredients and worked tirelessly organizing food distribution to keep the children in our community fed.
 
“When Barbara Dean, the principal of Holy Cross, sees an obstacle she will literally drive a school bus through it,” Shelly Henn, incoming Principal of Holy Cross vividly (and accurately!) describes.
 
The Our Lady of Hope campus became a community resource center for students, families, and the whole neighborhood over the summer via the “Giving the Basics” program. This program operated outside of the “SNAP” program and acted as an additional supplement, providing families the basics for everyday life.
 
Our Lady of Hope also offered food and resources via the “Seamless Summer” program, providing two meals plus a snack each day of the week for our children. In addition to those three programs, the team applied for two USDA programs, allowing access to supplies of frozen meat, dairy products, along with fresh fruit and vegetables. These resources were completely free to anyone who arrived at our school and requested them, no questions asked.
 
Drive a school bus through it they did!
 
Adding and assisting with the effort, the leadership at Bright Futures Fund made it possible to serve our greater Kansas City community beyond our student body and further identify our schools and parishes as a safe haven for all.
 
“The inherent difference of this year comes down to procedures, like mask-wearing and hand washing. Luckily, procedures are not new to kids; they are used to walking in lines and having assigned seating for lunch. Overall, it only took a couple of weeks for the students to get into a new routine,” disclosed Lillian Klein.
 
Our procedures followed all CDC advice: social distancing, mask-wearing, cohort groups, hand sanitizing stations, and routine sterilization of desks and surfaces. Drinking fountains were replaced with bottled water via a grant, along with sensors added to sinks, toilets, and hand dryers to create a touchless environment inside our buildings.
 
Daily, our students are greeted before entering the building, temperatures are taken, and one by one, they enter the building and to their classrooms. As the day comes to a close, students are dismissed and each is taken individually to their parents, guardians, or older siblings, who meet them outside our buildings. These additional safety measures have certainly contributed to the health, safety, and well-being of our students and staff, and are expected to continue after the pandemic.

By Kendra O'Sullivan

​How you can help!
You can insure that our students continue to have access to an incredible education. Click below to see some of the incredible changes that will be coming to our students and our schools through the SHINE Brightly Capital Campaign.

“Unlike so many public schools, we were able to continue to meet in person,” says Barbara Dean, Principal of Holy Cross School.
 
Untold in that sentence were the countless hours spent, countless hours in preparation for what was to come; time spent outside of teaching, additional meetings, phone calls, logged into Zoom conferences, scouring the web, and speaking with mentors, advisors, and other experts on how they also plan to move forward.
 
Principal Dean doesn't speak about the importance of our school’s educational commitment to students without mentioning the role of the school to protect and keep our students safe. Shelley Henn, teacher and incoming principal for Holy Cross, echoes that sentiment. “Safety was as much of a priority to our students and our staff as education is.”
 
One of the most effective ways both Holy Cross and Our Lady of Hope were able to ensure student health and safety and preserve the in-person learning environment was to group students into cohorts, keeping them together as much as possible. Meals, recess time, and of course, classroom learning at both Holy Cross and Our Lady of Hope provided a safer and healthier space to diminish potential exposure and halt school-wide spread if there was a positive COVID test.
 
If a positive test was presented these small groups could shift to online learning and quarantine for 14 days without additional disruption to the remainder of our student body. The goal all along was to have as many children in our building actively being educated in as familiar a manner as possible each day.
 
Incoming Principal Henn of Holy Cross reflects, “I liked having students in their classrooms for meals. It was a perfect way to start the day because I knew that our kids had all eaten before jumping into learning.”
 
Families were also given the opportunity to keep their children home full-time for online instruction, challenging teachers to fine-tune their lessons for both in-person and virtual students. For example, Kerry Ysals, pre-K teacher at Our Lady of Hope; ensured that the online instruction option was still optimal for her students, building lesson plans producing at-home packets for these children weekly. “The simplest tasks become difficult over Zoom, like teaching proper holding of a pencil,” Miss Yslals remarked.
 
Another way we navigated the challenges of the pandemic was through our events. Choir concerts were one such example as they needed to be fully reimagined. Where music rehearsals could take place in-person during school hours with students in their smaller ensembles, concert attendance was hosted via Zoom and social media streams to adhere to health guidelines.
 
Students worked in our classrooms to record their performances, with Jennifer Weiman, the choir teacher at Holy Cross, managed all aspects of production. Her efforts in filming, editing, and streaming created a fantastic full virtual Christmas recital of our students for their families, friends, and our community that was shared in a safe manner. This school year has included many changes and challenges, for students, families, teachers, and administrators alike. The learning environment certainly has been different for all, and we are pleased to see how open to change our students and their families continue to be.

By Kendra O'Sullivan

How you can help!
You can insure that our students continue to have access to an incredible education. Click below to see some of the incredible changes that will be coming to our students and our schools through the SHINE Brightly Capital Campaign.

In one of the largest single foundation gifts to Bright Futures in its 31-year history, the J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation of Midland, Texas has issued a $650,000 challenge grant for the construction of the Shine Brightly Neighborhood Center. Bright Futures will have one year to meet our challenge to complete funding for the Shine Brightly Neighborhood Center off the corner of St. John Avenue and Quincy.

To date the Shine Brightly Campaign has raised more than $1.9 million toward a $3.2 million goal to build these new facilities that will include an expanded Early Childhood Development Center, community meeting and social services space, multi-purpose athletic facility and exterior playground. Connected to Holy Cross Grade School, this 13,000 square foot extension is meant to be used by the entire community during after school and weekends year around.

“This center will not only allow Holy Cross needed facilities during school hours, but will be a great boost to other neighborhood social services with whom we currently partner like Mattie Rhodes,” comments Lamar Hunt, Jr., board member and campaign leader. “We are so thrilled by Mabee’s decision as these new spaces will allow us and our partners to offer numerous programs, not only to our 400 Bright Futures students, but hundreds of other at-risk youth and their families throughout the northeast urban core.”

Officially begun less than a year ago, the Shine Brightly Campaign has already provided benefits in upgrades to its two flagship PreK-8 inner city schools: Holy Cross and Our Lady of Hope. Beyond capital construction the campaign is working to grow the program’s endowment called the Matthew McCullough Endowment Fund, which as of this writing has raised $470,000.

Bright Futures Fund thanks Bishop Johnston for his leadership, its board of directors for their vision, the Campaign Cabinet for their commitment and to all the early donors who have shown their faith and been moved as we all have by the Holy Spirit.

For more information on Bright Futures and the Shine Bright Campaign, including how you can help us raise the funds for the Center to complete Mabee's challenge visit the links below:

• Donate directly to the Bright Futures Shine Brightly Capital Campaign Here
• Watch Videos on the Shine Brightly Campaign Here
• ​See a birds-eye view map of where everything will be here!

Article from ​https://www.catholicschoolsystem.net/

KANSAS CITY ― In mid-March, the lives of kids across the country turned inside out as the coronavirus swept inward from the east and west coasts to converge in the nation’s heart.
In Kansas City, as in many other cities, businesses and schools closed in an effort to contain and prevent the virus from spreading. Mayor Quinton Lucas issued a stay-at-home order pertaining to all but essential services and businesses, restaurants and stores closed, workers furloughed or laid off and, for kids dependent on breakfast and lunch at school, this was no extended Spring Break. It could have proved bleak.
Like teachers across America, the teachers at schools in the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese switched to online learning, with hard copy lessons for students without the Internet at home. They work to stay in contact with their students, often daily, offering encouragement and study aids.
The principals, faculty and staff at Holy Cross and Our Lady of Hope schools are going about 20 steps further.

Each Tuesday, Barb Deane, principal of Holy Cross School in Old Northeast Kansas City, several faculty members and office staff stand curbside by the school – six feet apart – to distribute, without contact boxes of five breakfasts and lunches and 10 small cartons of milk for each student under age 18 in a family. Each meal is prepared by American Dining Creations and comprised of a fruit, a vegetable, a protein and a grain, according to national school meal guidelines. Each box has the child’s name on it and, if there is no computer at home, the box also is packed with hard copies of lessons, worksheets, and folders to return the finished work.
On Wednesdays, the same thing happens at Our Lady of Hope School in the Westport area. Mary Delac, principal of Our Lady of Hope, several teachers and office staff, practicing social distancing, greet each car as drivers pull up, check the list for the family name, and ask the driver to pop open the trunk. They load the boxes of 10 meals, 10 milks and any needed classwork for each student in the family into the trunk, call out “30-second ‘Hi’s,’ shut the trunk and the driver waves goodbye and drives home. No contact.
Holy Cross teachers are using ClassDojo to communicate with their students. Deane said students begin their daily online learning with prayer, the Holy Cross School Pledge: “Just for today, I will do the right thing, even if I don’t feel like it. I will treat people right, even if I don’t feel like it. Today, I will remember that I can choose how I feel and what I think. With God, all things are possible. The Good News is meant to be shared.” followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.
Not every family had the Internet or wifi in their homes, so when Deane learned that Spectrum was offering a 2-month free trial, she had families set up for the trial so students and parents could access ClassDojo to keep up with classwork and stay connected with their teachers.
March 31 was the first day classwork folders were returned, Deane said. The work of the middle schoolers included Kansas City Science Fair project boards they had begun earlier in the school year. Deane said younger students were making art projects with “found” objects.
Teachers are posting videos and other messages on the Dojo site, including one video of a teacher speaking to his students with his dog in his arms.
Speaking of dogs, Addie, Holy Cross School’s Emotional Support Dog, continues to offer virtual comfort to the students on ClassDojo.
Deane said a teacher or staff member voluntarily comes in daily, so that at least four days each week, if families call, the phone is answered.
Holy Cross is blessed with many community partners, including the Kansas City Fraternal Order of Police. The FOP contacted the school to see which families were not eligible to receive free or reduced lunch, the common denominator of the government food distribution program. Fourteen families were identified, many of whom had applied for citizenship and thus had to be self-sufficient, no food stamps, or other governmental food programs.
In partnership with a local ALDI grocery store, the police delivered 14 boxes of food, milk and eggs donated by the grocer, to the school, and the boxes were then delivered it to the families. This will be an ongoing gift to the families.
Deane shared a prose poem a friend sent her, as a message of hope to school families, in fact to all who read it. It has gone viral on social media. The poet is a retired teacher living in Madison, Wis.
“The people stayed home. And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still. And listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently.
And the people healed. And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.
And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed.’  Catherine “Kitty” O’Meara, 2020
Our Lady of Hope students in grades Kindergarten through fourth, Delac said, receive two-week learning packages with their breakfast and lunch boxes. Teachers post daily assignments on Google Classroom for students in grades five through eight, which are completed online. Students in fifth through eighth grades without a computer at home, have been loaned Chromebooks by the school until classes resume.     
Along with online instruction, both schools offer “Office hours” ― opportunities for students to receive help and instruction from their teachers based upon their individual need. Our Lady of Hope teachers also use ClassDojo to stay in touch with their students, post photos, videos and messages.
Every evening teachers of both schools host a “Zoom classroom” where students can ask questions about the day’s work and virtually interact with other students during some communal time to help continue to foster the important relationships that Catholic schools foster. Students and teachers also spend time in prayer to close out the school “day.”
While it is easier to type papers and assignments on a laptop, with ClassDojo and Google Classroom, all technology can be performed on a smart phone, enabling all the families to access it.
Mary Delac said the governmental breakfast and lunch program helps families make it to the end or the pay period, a big help in these unsettled times. 
Delac said she heard from a parent that when her family opened the box of food, one of the children said, “It’s like Christmas!”
Last week she discovered a big multi-colored heart drawn in chalk on the sidewalk by the school with the words. “We miss you! Love, Hope, Faith.”
“I feel like a rock star,” she said with a laugh, adding more seriously that the school’s faculty and staff were doing “the best we can. Covid-19 may be dangerous and frightening for many reasons, but we’ll never let it bring Our Lady of Hope down!” Barb Deane of Holy Cross would surely say the same thing.