A Message from the President, Kay Sullivan

Dear Salpointe family,

It’s a great time to be a Lancer! We continue to live the sacred mission that is the essence of Salpointe. Let’s review the key elements of this mission: We are a Catholic, Carmelite school focusing on the virtues of prayer, service and community. We work with parents to prepare our students for college and career, for this life as well as for eternal life. We serve Tucson’s economically, academically and culturally diverse population. We offer a holistic education that fosters faith, encourages the pursuit of excellence, develops servant leaders, affirms the dignity of every individual, and promotes global social justice. This mission is our promise to you and to every Lancer. 

Last week Salpointe celebrated National Catholic Schools Week. We honored 83 Lancers selected by our faculty and staff as models of courage, leadership, compassion or simple kindness. Click here for a list of these highly respected Lancers. Last week also featured IMPACT. We participated in a school-wide Mass on Wednesday, then on Thursday, 1200 Lancers and 120 faculty/staff members touched Southern Arizona’s vulnerable populations by serving dozens of nonprofit organizations: we sang in hospitals; we supported migrant shelters; we prayed with hospice patients; we fed the hungry at soup kitchens; we stocked food banks; we read books with underserved children; we worked at disaster relief agencies; we honored planet Earth by planting trees, prepping community gardens, pulling buffelgrass and clearing trails. This litany of service demonstrates the Beatitudes in action. Congratulations to Jessikah Eller, Service Learning Director, and her inspirational team. Click here to see photos of Salpointe students serving our community and living the Carmelite mission of our school.

This week Salpointe is proud to host the national Carmelite Secondary Schools Commission and the Laudato Si Showcase. Our guests include the presidents, principals and advancement directors of U.S. Carmelite schools: Crespi Carmelite in Encino, CA, Joliet Catholic Academy in Joliet, IL, Mt. Carmel in Chicago, IL, and Carmel Catholic in Mundelein, IL. Participating in this week’s activities are the leadership of our Carmelite Order, Very Rev. William J. Harry, O.Carm., Provincial, and Rev. Paul Henson, O.Carm., second Councilor. Also participating is the leadership of the international Carmelite NGO, Sr. Jane Remson, O.Carm., and Sr. Blaise Fernando, O.Carm. We welcome 12 representatives from Catholic schools across America who want to learn how to initiate the tenets of Pope Francis’ Laudato Si encyclical in their schools. Salpointe is proud to offer Lancer hospitality to these prestigious Catholic leaders. Also this week, as a demonstration of Salpointe’s attempt to reduce the use of non-recyclable plastic bags, the Laudato Si committee will distribute canvas tote bags designed by Lancer Devin Dinh ‘22 to be used at your favorite grocery store! Click here to see Devin’s design!

Salpointe’s principal search is underway. We all miss former principal Sr. Helen Timothy, IBVM, who is loving her new leadership position in her religious order, and we are completely confident in Keith Gibalski as he assumes the role of Interim Principal. I will keep you posted.

We are energized by last semester’s high level of excitement and accomplishment generated by classroom learning, athletics, fine and performing arts, Kairos, and so many other unique-to-Salpointe activities. This past fall was marked with grand “happenings” in many diverse areas: completion of several aspects of the Aspire campaign (see below), installation of state-of-the-art Promethean boards in every classroom, drama presentation of ”Leading Ladies” at the Edward B. Berger Performing Arts Center, College Planning and Get out of Town workshops, Back to School Night, Parent Teacher conferences, Homecoming celebrations, Community of Concern seminars, faculty/staff professional development, and Kairos 267, 268, 269 and 270, to name a few. 

Under the guidance of Athletic Director Phil Gruensfelder and Assistant AD Danny Preble, our fall sport athletes racked up high honors and made us proud: Cheer, State Runner Up in Show Cheer and qualified for Nationals; Dance, 4th in State and qualified for Nationals; Girls Cross Country, State Runner Up, led by Individual State Champion Zoey Delgado; Boys Cross Country, 4th at State; Girls Swim/Dive, 3rd at State; Boys Swim, State Runner Up; Girls Golf, 7th at State; Boys Golf, 6th at State; Girls Volleyball, State qualifier; Football, Open Division State Semifinals. Greg Hansen, sports columnist for the Arizona Daily Star named the top 100 sports figures in 2019 and six Lancer coaches are included: Dennis Bene, Kelly Pierce, Danny Preble, Jim Reynolds, Amy Rocha and Wolfgang Weber. Congratulations to all fall Lancer athletes and coaches and best of luck to our winter sports teams. Click here to visit our Athletic Department webpage to learn about more outstanding Lancer athletes and coaches in the news! Salpointe Catholic is thrilled to be partnering with Positive Coaching Alliance to provide our coaches and student-athletes with skills to become better leaders. Kelly Walbert Cagle '92 has worked with over 150 of our students this year, providing them with real-life tools that they can use on and off the playing field to help influence their peers in a positive way. We look forward to continuing these workshops into the 2020-2021 school year. 

Serving Southern Arizona’s diverse population is part of Salpointe’s mission. About half of our Lancer families qualify for financial aid. Without the Arizona tax credit, many of these students could not attend Salpointe. Please participate in the individual tax credit by directing a portion of your state tax liability to CTSO. If you are a principal in a C or S corporation, you can direct a portion of your corporate tax liability to help our 300+ families who live at 185% or less than the federal poverty level. Give me a call if you would like to learn more. To those of you who are already participating in the individual or corporate tax credit, thank you. You are making an unparalleled positive difference in the lives of our Lancers! Click here to learn more.

Great progress in construction and fundraising is underway as Salpointe’s “Aspire: Arts Academics Athletics” project moves forward. With this $10M campaign, Salpointe is energizing the holistic educational experience by upgrading three key areas of student development: arts, academics and athletics. In the area of fine and performing arts, we are creating the transformative, synergistic Stearns Center for the Arts, with new or renovated learning spaces for Drama, Band, Choir, Dance, 2D and 3D Art as well as a theater lobby/art gallery. Academic and athletic components of Aspire were dedicated on October 18: six fully renovated multipurpose learning spaces, including the Jane and Tim Garigan 411 classroom; the expanded Ashton Family STEM outdoor workshop; the Stevens Strength and Conditioning Center in Honor of Paul Sayre ‘82; the Kalil Family Gymnasium; Fr. John Lyons Bistro; and the addition of lights on the baseball, softball and track fields. We have raised $7.8M to date and need $2.2M to finish the campaign: please Aspire with us! For more information, contact me at ksullivan@salpointe.org or 520-547-5878. (For photos, click here.)

Finally, the Salpointe experience is not just for students. We invite our Lancer community, and especially our treasured alums and their families, to join us in cheering on our Lancers at athletic, artistic, social and spiritual events. Lancers love nothing more than to have you support them in their passions!
 
Go Lancers!
 
Kay Sullivan
President
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Salpointe Catholic High School

1545 E. Copper St.,
Tucson, AZ 85719
(520) 327-6581
Attendance: (520) 327-1990
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