St. Joseph's Indian School

Mike, our Food Service Director and his staff make sure our school lunches are not only tasty, but nutritious.

St. Joseph’s Indian School has received the Silver Award for the Healthier US Challenge. This recognizes schools that are creating healthier school environments through their promotion of good nutrition in the National School Lunch Program and physical activity including nutrition education in the school.  St Joseph’s Indian School is the first school in South Dakota to apply and receive this award under the new standards.  St. Joseph’s Indian School will receive an award plaque and Banner from the USDA and a monetary award of $1,000.

Congratulations!

Heading into Easter break, we’ve had our usual share of student discipline issues. It’s easy to look at the list of students on restriction or supervision and get discouraged. But one of our family service counselors was telling me about a student whose father died by suicide several years ago. The student is only now able to start opening up about the pain the dad’s loss caused the family. Working through the loss has helped the student turn things around in a positive way. Instead of constantly being in trouble, they are now building on successes and good behavior. The student remarked to the counselor, “ I didn’t realize how good being good could feel”!

It’s Palm Sunday. It was my turn to preach, which of course I did, but Palm Sunday has enough ritual and story to carry its own weight. The passion story inspires me to not give up when the going gets tough, and I hope our students hear that same message. The gospel is long and split up into parts, and I appreciated the high school students who were willing to take some of the parts and help dramatize it.

When the younger students even quit waving the palm branches during that time I could tell they were paying attention better because other students were proclaiming the readings.

This afternoon I got in some exercise in the Rec Center. I shot baskets with 4^th graders. We didn’t do a whole lot of talking, but they appreciated a few pointers, and the shared activity  was relaxing and quality time for me.

When I arrived at Stevens Home (6^th-8^th grade girls) the house was uncharacteristically quiet – reading time! Each student can read anything they’re interested in, but has to spend ½ hour of  reading each day. Because they wanted to have evening Rec time, they voted on the afternoon to turn the pages. Girls were scattered into all three common areas, some curled up in chairs, some on the couch, still others lying on the floor – all intently reading. Wanda banished me into the kitchen to chat with Frank who was cooking supper. I reemerged for their house meeting which consisted mostly of coordinating the week’s upcoming activities. Then we sat to a good meal for a cold day – homemade chicken noodle soup. Shared with that crew it was indeed good for the soul.

Despite snow and slushy weather yesterday here in Chamberlain, South Dakota, ten FAST (Families and Schools Together) families made it here for the last day of our spring session and for the graduation ceremony. Our Chalk Hills Singers led the procession with a drum song, and the families were proud to pose together for a family photo as each received their certificates. While I’ve observed the ceremony many times, I’m reminded of how much it means anew to our families who participate. Through this program they can take part is quality activities, celebrate times of togetherness and receive positive recognition as a family.

Donors from the East Coast who have supported St. Joseph’s Indian School for over ten years were passing through and dropped by unexpectedly. They wanted to see the our campus for the first time before giving me 4 boxes of chocolates to share with the kids and a check almost large enough to cover half a houseparent’s annual salary. I am amazed at the generosity that comes seemingly out of the blue – which always causes me to rededicate myself to building strong programs for our students. We visited a couple of homes and had the students give us a lively tour. Then our guests hit the road for their next leg of their journey.

A few years back, a Long Beach California teacher named Erin Gruwell worked with inner city students to help them tell their stories through a project know as “Freedom Writers”. Their writings were published as a popular book and the story was made into a successful movie. Richard, our Religious Education teacher, organized a Skype video conference for our 8^th grade students with one of those original Freedom Writers, Darrius Garret. Darrius had experienced homelessness and gang life, and many of our kids could identify with the poverty he grew up with.

Our students prepared many questions to ask, but were a bit shy at first. One question was, “How do you handle the hate when you feel like people are treating you like a 2^nd class citizen?” Darrius warned how hate consumes you. He told them especially when others treat you wrong, you can’t stoop to their level and still have to do the right thing. That will eventually bring to light the wrongs that exist. He told our kids the best response is to study hard and get a good education so they can be in leadership positions one day, and be able to set examples of how people should be treated.

Once the ice was broken our timid crew started to have more back and forth interaction. Darrius asked our kids how they could make things better for their reservation.

“ If you had a million dollars, what would you fix?”

“Drinking” was the number one answer that continues to cause hurt and heartache for our Native American students’ families. That’s not an easy fix, but helping our students deal with that reality is key for their success. My hope is that our students can find their voice and tell their story, and in the end make it a story of triumph over tragedy.

This afternoon, Steve’s 4^th grade class dressed in biblical looking clothes and acted out Stations of the Cross.

Today, I was either meeting or eating. At our management meeting, we keyed in on strategic planning and preparations for the Board of Directors meeting. Mike, our Executive Director of Child Services, celebrates a birthday this week, so afterward we enjoyed a lunch together. We’re always tempted to talk business, but it was fun to let our talk drift towards sports and personal anecdotes.

This afternoon Fr. Jack, another of our SCJ Board of Directors arrived. While there is always work to be attended to, when SCJs come to visit it’s always a joy to sit around and talk, and find up what confreres are up to across the province. After Fr. Charlie’s death in Milwaukee over the weekend, we did some reminiscing about him. During Lent, we have all been spending extra prayer time praying for vocations so a new generation of SCJs can take up the great work that’s been started, and take up new challenges that our world will pose.

Today was a picture perfect sunny spring day on the St. Joseph’s Indian School campus. I enjoyed it by walking around quite a bit to check in on folks around campus. Mark, who oversees our printing press operation, is back at work after recovering from a surgery. With most of our spring mailings printed, they are doing maintenance on the presses, but Mark has to be careful to supervise and not do any lifting for now. Dave is back in central storage after vacation where he did lots of fishing. He was getting supplies ready to deliver around campus. Another Dave, in the maintenance shop had a birthday, so I stopped in at morning break to wish him well. Then I met with Kory-our Executive Director of Development-to review finances,  mail campaigns and look at our strategic business planning.

Usually Monday brings a slew of campus emails, but today was oddly quiet on that front. A large group of our Child Services staff spent most of the day in training, trying to build team work. In the midst of the day-to-day activities with the students, we still need to set aside time to give staff the tools they need to do their job well, and have them reflect on ways we can improve.

Tony and Odis are heading up our 7^th grade cultural trip this summer, and they stopped by to firm up some plans. This week the students will have a lesson about one of the sites they’re most interested in visiting: Battlefield at the Little Bighorn or the Greasy Grass as it was known to the Sioux. Some of our students can name great-great grandparents who fought for their people’s freedom there!

 We SCJ’s received sad news today that one of our confreres, Fr. Charles Bisgrove, had a stroke and died at the young age of 58. When I was in Novitiate, he taught a class on the Documents of Vatican II, and also a course on Liturgy. He brought such enthusiasm to his teaching; it was contagious. I learned a lot from him. It reminds me how much impact a good teacher can have on their students, even many years down the road. May he rest in peace.

It reminds me how much impact a good teacher can have on their students, even many years down the road

I helped Fr. Anthony with the regular Sunday morning mass. I led a second one at 4:00 p.m. so our prom students could have a chance for a little shut-eye after post prom and actually be awake instead of struggling to stay awake in church. I enjoyed praying with a smaller, more focused congregation. I preach to high school students differently than when I’m trying to reach a first or second grader, and can talk from the heart about more serious subject matters. Like their relationship struggles and questions of self-identity that weigh heavy on their hearts and minds.

We also invited students from town who wanted to join us, and it’s nice when classmates from Chamberlain High School can feel welcome and take part in our campus activities. I also noticed that the students who volunteered to read the scriptures were more relaxed when there were fewer people around, and all did a good job.