Celebrating 10 years

Times Reporter 

 

Years ago a Catholic school in Strathmore was a dream that a group of residents had. Through hard work and perseverance, many dedicated individuals helped the dream become a reality.  Holy Cross Collegiate (HCC) first opened its doors to students in 2004, and later this school year HCC will be celebrating its 10th anniversary. 

Three staff members have been with the school since the beginning: Principal Lavern Evans, Educational Assistant Shirley Benoiut and administrator Mary Kruse. 

“I just remember that first year having 123 kids and you could fill one set of the bleachers and talk to the entire student body, from 7-10,” said Evans of that first year. 

“It’s interesting looking back, this year we might have 365 kids in the building, and to just think of the growth and how full our building is and the growth of staff and we really have a true high school now 10 to 12 and a junior high 7 to 9.”

“I think the one thing that for me that sort of sticks out is for the first six or seven years I could walk down the hall and I knew every single student,” said Benoiut. 

“Now it’s getting to the point where I, unfortunately, can walk down and not know some students and I don’t really like that feeling. I guess I try and challenge myself to get to know the students that I wouldn’t normally see every day,” said Benoiut. 

She said she makes an effort to try to be personalble and get to know the students on a first name basis. 

In the first school year there weren’t enough students to field a sports team, and at the first graduation in 2007 there were only seven graduates. 

Kruse said over the years she has noticed the increase in all the small things the students and staff members do as a school. 

“Because I take the pictures for yearbook, I really notice over a year stuff that you would never expect we would have enough (students) to do, like sports teams, we had so many sports teams last year. We did the first musical ever a couple years ago and it was like really, we’re going to have enough kids to have a musical?” said Kruse.

“We’re still a small school compared to other (schools) but we do a lot of stuff.”

The school offers a lot of programs, all because the teachers are also putting in extra time to help the school grow and enhance programs each year.

‘The growth of the programs, even academic, fine arts and sports, I think you need those three things to have a really good school. You can have amazing academics and fine arts but then you need sports, I call them the holy trinity of an amazing school,” said Evans. 

He said even looking back five or six years ago and seeing where things were to where they are now makes him proud to think of the growth and the work that the staff put into making things come together. 

“The staff has changed over the years, but it’s always a fun staff. They’re fun, they want to do stuff with the kids,” said Kruse. 

She said that the staff always interacts well with the kids, which she feels relates to the kids and makes them feel more comfortable about approaching a staff member with a concern or issue.

“I think my job could be even more challenging if you had staff that maybe you disagreed with or weren’t the best to be the classroom, but we have good staff so it makes everybody’s job easier. As an adult and obviously from a learning standpoint, the kids are so blessed to have the staff we do, that’s what makes my job so good,” said Evans. 

Benoiut works in learning support and said there have been kids she has worked a little more one-on-one with over the years. Seeing them graduate makes it hit home and makes you realize that you had a part in that. 

Most of HCC’s staff live in town and see a lot of the kids outside of school. The kids always come up and say hi, or even after graduation they come to the school to say hi. Evans said they love to hear what the kids are doing and he thinks it speaks to the climate and nature of the school because it seems to hit home. It is also nice to catch up and see what they are doing. They know college or university isn’t for everyone.

“At the end of the day you hope you’re installing faith and then you want someone who is a contributing, productive member of society,” said Evans.

All three of them have no plans of leaving the school anytime soon. They all love working there and their roles with HCC. Evans met his wife through the division. She works at Sacred Heart Academy.

“We love living in Strathmore and we both have good jobs, our kids are happy here, we love the school. I love being an administrator, she really likes her job at Sacred Heart so really we have no reason to leave,” said Evans.

Kruse moved to Strathmore a year before she found the job at HCC. She had always worked in different administrative jobs and had never worked in a school before but thought it would be something interesting and different. She said it was really nice to be able to work in the same building as her kids and be able to be closer to them and kind of share in the school experience with them. 

 “It’s a really neat feeling to know that I’m in the office praying while my kids are in the classroom praying and it’s just a nice connection to know that we’re all together that way,” said Kruse. 

Instilling good faith and helping mould productive members of society is what the three staff members hope to continue with. 

“From my standpoint as a principal you always want to be improving. I don’t think you ever want to get comfortable and stagnant (in what you do) when you have been teaching 10 or 20 or even two years, you always want to do better and from a principal’s standpoint,” said Evans.

“I want the school to continue to improve and I want our fine art and academics and athletics to continue to evolve. I always want to be trying different things as a staff to grow as professionals and then to enhance and improve student learning.”

He said the number one goal is how are they, as staff, living and modeling their faith. For Benoiut her focus for the future is faith. How can they get the students to realize the importance of their faith and having it in good times and in bad times.

This year’s graduating class is expected to be approximately 60 students. This will also be the first year where students who started at Sacred Heart Academy in Kindergarten will graduate. Staff at HCC are still working on how exactly they plan to celebrate their 10 year achievement.