Comments:
I left the Lower School at the end of the 1982-83 school year. I returned in September 1984 after the school closed to clean out the building and find a buyer. In the Spring of 1985 I moved to Denver and taught for two years in a parochial school. In September 1987 I became the principal at St. Mary's Academy Lower School. SMA is a Loretto School, started in Denver in 1864. I stayed at SMA until the end of the 2002 school year when I began working full time for the Loretto Community. In 2001 I was elected to the Executive Committee of the Sisters of Loretto and did not feel I could do both jobs well so I left St. Mary's. I am on the Board at SMA so I do keep in touch with education.
In the mid 1990's a group of us (Loretto, St. Marys, Jesuits, parishioners at Our Lady Of Guadalupe Church) got together to start a school of low income Hispanic kids to try to address the huge drop out rate in Denver among Hispanics. The school finally opened in September 1999 and this year celebrated the 10th anniversary. I am on the Board and although we constantly struggle with the lack of funds, it is a great school. It is a K-5 dual language school. By third grade the children are learning everything in both languages. We work very hard at getting them into really good schools for 6th grade and beyond and will follow them through graduation from HS.
