NATIVITY PARISH SCHOOL
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Mission Statement
Established in 1991, Nativity Parish School provides an outstanding education steeped in the rich tradition of the Catholic faith for pre-school through 8th grade students. Nativity is accredited by the State of Kansas as well as the North Central Association on Accreditation. With an average class size of 22, we are able to address the individual needs of our students while encouraging the development of strong social skills.
About This Cause
Nativity Parish School is a Catholic K-8 school and a ministry of the Church of the Nativity located in Leawood, Kansas and under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas. The Archdiocese has a school system of thirty eight (38) K-8 elementary schools and seven (7) high schools, all headed by a superintendent, with the ultimate governance of the schools the responsibility of the Archbishop. The Archbishop delegates authority to the superintendent and each individual parish pastor, or in the case of the high schools to an advisory board who in turn delegates the responsibility for the day-to-day operation of the school to the principal. Nativity Parish School is financed by the parishioners of the Church of the Nativity. Advisory boards, School Council and Parish Council are elected parishioners who serve the school principal and pastor respectively to ensure the most effective religious and academic education for the students of Nativity Parish School. Nativity Parish School opened in the fall of 1991 with two half day kindergartens, two first grades and one second grade. A new grade was added each year until Nativity served students in grades K-8. Currently, Nativity has two full day kindergartens, two first grades, two second grades, two third grades, two fourth grades, two fifth grades, and two classrooms each in grades six, seven and eight. At one time, Nativity had three classrooms at each grade level with an enrollment of over 700 students. As a new Catholic school opened to meet our southern parish border taking some of our previous students, we now serve 205 families with an enrollment of 331 students in grades K-8, and an additional 67 three and four year olds in our pre-school. We have been able to maintain an average of a 40% capture rate of the school-age children in our parish, while operating within the boundaries of a highly acclaimed public school district. As the economy weakened, we have had budget challenges which resulted in asking our staff to take on larger class sizes and additional job assignments. Our average class size this year is 20. Of those students in grades K-8, 183 or 50.3% are female and 208 or 49.7% male. Of our current students 0.2% are American Indian, 0.2% are black, 2.7% are multi-racial and 96.9% are white. None of our students qualify for free and reduced lunches. We have no students who qualify for Title 1 services. We currently have 15 students who qualify for Individual Educational Plans, which is 3.3% of our total K-8 school population. Nativity is located within the boundaries of the Blue Valley Public School District which serves our students with Individual Education Plans. Nativity and Blue Valley staffs have an excellent working relationship in order to serve our students effectively. One of our challenges in the past five years is that our parish is now landlocked and the homes in our parish are not typically starter homes. We closely monitor parish baptisms as well as looking at the number of school-age children within our parish boundaries to effectively promote the benefits of a Catholic education and project our future needs. Nativity also accepts out of parish students. Our data shows in the immediate future Nativity will be a two classroom school because young families are not moving into the homes in the areas. We do see more students coming to us in grades 2-8 as parents move into what would be a larger home for a growing family, rather than a starter home. Nativity currently has 22 full time K-8 classroom teachers, 2 full time special education teacher, 7 support staff, all but one part-time under the direction of the special education teacher, 1 part time counselor, and a principal. Our students Preschool-grade 8 also receive instruction from six specials teachers including full time librarian, technology, music, physical education, and Spanish teachers, with One part-time art and one part-time band teacher. Our preschool has one director and seven part-time teachers. All of our full time classroom teachers are licensed by the state of Kansas in the area in which they teach. Over 43% of our teachers have Master's degrees in Education. Our teacher turnover rate is low with 48% of our faculty teaching at our school from 1-10 years, and 52% of our faculty teaching at Nativity more than 10 years. Nativity has always had supportive, involved and active parents who have very high expectations for their children. Our administration strives to be proactive in the latest research-based teaching trends and best practices. As a staff, Nativity strives to be a data-driven school meeting the needs of all students. Our teachers use a variety of data to identify and address individual areas of concern for each student including MAP, Lexia, AIMSWeb, Kansas Assessments, pre-tests, and formative testing. All classrooms use differentiated instruction based on information from our data. Our specials teachers work in various grade levels along with other support staff as leaders of a differentiated small group in ELA and Math. Most of all, our teachers and staff are faith-filled people who put Christ at the center of their teaching and their classrooms. The staff participates in monthly instruction at our School of Faith, so they pass on to our students their own love for our faith. We have been working for several years on anticipating and implementing as we gained additional information the Common Core State Standards. Knowing that CCSS was to be a gradual transition, the staff has been pro-active in tailoring their curriculum to include both the current standards and the CCSS so they, the students and their parents will be informed and ready by 2015 when the switch to CCSS is complete. We have been fortunate in that we have been able to stay current with the ever-changing technology demands for 21st Century learning. Nativity has two complete computer labs, one teacher manned Apple lab where technology is taught and two unmanned PC lab where teachers are able to give formative tests, have students research and write. Grades 6 through 8 have one-to-one chromebooks. All classrooms have SmartBoards.