Child poverty – Page 19 – St. Joseph's Indian School

Guest blogger: Fr. Anthony

With the approach of Lent, it was time to bring things to an end and begin here at St. Joseph’s Indian School.

The homes were asked to bring their old palms to church today so they can be burned and used on Ash Wednesday.

The inter-city girls’ basketball season came to an end with a 6^th, 7^th and 8^th grade all-star games. As part of the end of the season activities, there were free throw and three-point contests as well as drawing for door prizes. Trophies and ribbons were then handed out to those on the championship team.

My one arm feels a bit longer than the other since we had bowling yesterday for our regular bowling league of 6^th, 7^th and 8^th graders and then did it again later Saturday night with our high school students and some of their house parents. It is exciting to see the improvement some are making and frustrating as others keep find the gutter rather than the head pin, your humble scribe included.

As Sunday was Girl Scout Sunday, we honored those in scouting in grades 1 to 5. We asked them to stand at Sunday Mass and then gave them a round of applause for their willingness to help others while having fun and discovering various things about themselves and the world around them.

Frances Jetty, the wife of Deacon Bud Jetty, who helps out at St. James in Chamberlain and here on campus at times, has been facing some medical problems. The students here have been keeping her in their prayers and today she asked that the Mass be offered for all the sick of the area. At the start of Mass, the students were asked to pause for a moment to think about anyone they knew who is struggling with health issues and then we lifted them all up to be remembered in the Mass intention. I lifted up any of our Benefactors who are going through some physical or emotional difficulties at the moment.

Fr. Steve is schedule to return on Monday afternoon from the donor luncheon in Milwaukee, WI; he could be running into another big snow storm that is supposed to hit our area again. Please say a prayer that he and the group that went with him will be able to make it back to campus safely.

Have a great week. May your Lent get off to a wonderful start with the celebration of Ash Wednesday as we begin a time of reflection on what we can let go of so as to draw closer to God.

Thanks again for your interest in St. Joseph’s Indian School. Our students and staff are grateful for your generosity.

Fr. Anthony Kluckman, SCJ

Chaplain

PS – Remember that Day Light Savings goes into effect next weekend. Set your clocks ahead an hour when you retire this coming Saturday night.

Guest blogger: Mary Jane

Hello, My name is Mary Jane. I am the Outreach/PQI Director here at St. Joseph’s Indian School. I cover a variety of areas which include admissions for our students, maintaining our waiting list, working with alumni and former students, as well as college scholarships.

The Native American students love reading at St. Joseph's Indian School! — The American Indian students love reading at St. Joseph's Indian School!

Several of the outreach programs include setting up recruitment and alumni gatherings and organizing the summer Reach Out van that travels to over 30 communities on the reservations in South Dakota. This program gives away new books that are purchased through a federal grant from RIF (Reading is Fundamental). Each year we give away more than 2,000 books to children!

Currently, I am setting up recruitment and alumni luncheons in Rapid City and Eagle Butte for the month of April. We encourage alumni to return to campus to visit. We have had some come to visit with our current students about what they have done since they left St. Joseph’s Indian Schools.

I came to St. Joseph’s Indian School in 1972 to work in the elementary school. Over the years, I have worked in the dorms, taught 4^th grade, was principal and now I am privileged to work with families, their children and our alumni. I have met and visited with former students who went to St. Joseph’s in the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. They love to share their stories of how St. Joseph’s impacted their lives.

Truly, my job is the best job on campus!!

Guest blogger: Julie

Greetings, I am Julie, the Residential Director for the 1^st-8^th grade homes here at St. Joseph’s Indian School.

The boys also played against the staff last night. What a great time!

Our residential environment allows staff to participate in many events and activities with the students. For example, each year as our 8^th graders wrap up their basketball seasons, we celebrate by having a staff vs. student game. Last night, I joined seven other female staff to form a team. Great fun was had by all! I think the best part for the students is teasing staff the next day as they hobble about and complain of body aches. 🙂

This morning started on a busy note with a staff development session. All 1^st-8^th grade house parents attended this, followed by the school staff in the afternoon. The session topic was bully prevention (Sticks and Stones) presented on behalf of South Dakota Health EDventure. This was an excellent training! Our staff was presented with many hands-on resources and given access to the South Dakota Health EDventure website for additional resources as needed.

The best things about working at St. Joseph’s Indian School is the students!

One of the best things about working at St. Joseph’s Indian School is the students; the second is the fact that things are rarely boring! Our weekends tend to be as full as our week days. Currently students are able to participate in archery, bowling and wrestling on Saturdays. While these events change with the season and vary by age group, there is generally an activity for the students to enjoy!

Guest blogger: Kathleen

Hello!

My name is Kathleen, I am the Principal at St. Joseph’s Indian School here in Chamberlain, South Dakota. Our school is composed of Native American children in grades one through eight. The students’ day runs from 8:00 AM to 3:30 PM.

During the course of the week their studies include, reading, writing, grammar, spelling, mathematics, science, social studies, computer, art/music, religion and Native American studies. The class sizes run from nine to fourteen students. We have additional staff for the classroom teachers to further individualized student learning. They range from teachers aides, reading and math specialists, occupational, speech, and physical therapists.

Every day we live our motto: to teach and serve, receive and learn.

Our goal is to help each individual Lakota child reach their potential and to address any difficulties they may have academically. Each student has an academic file which tracks progress and identifies what strategies are being used to help the student achieve. Students that are noted as ‘intensive’ receive multiple services. ‘Strategic’ students receive help in specific areas and ‘benchmarked’ students are challenged to exceed their goals.

This week, five of our students in grades 3-8 competed in the Regional Spelling Bee and our eighth student came in third place. Later this month, we will have our eighth grade girls attend a day-long workshop dealing with math, science and engineering projects.

Guest blogger: Shana

Hello,

My name is Shana and I’m the Director for the High School Program here at St. Joseph’s Indian School.

I’m in my fourth year here at St. Joseph’s Indian School and we’ve seen many positive changes and improvements in our program during these years.

The girls basketball team just finished up a successful season and one of our St. Joseph’s students was co-captain of the team, she’s a senior and her last game was very emotional as it’s one of her first good-byes during the end of her senior year.

Tonight is our boys District basketball game with our Chamberlain High School rival Crow Creek. The homes are all excited and ready to go cheer our team as well as our St. Joseph’s Indian School boys who play on the varsity team. I just left our high school learning center and the students there were busy trying to get some homework done before they left for this evenings game. They were full of smiles and warm welcome, which is not always the case when students are doing homework.

Our houseparents recently attended our student’s parent teacher conferences at Chamberlain High School and then our students enjoyed a four-day weekend. Many of our homes scheduled their home skiing trip for this long weekend, but due to blizzard conditions had to postpone their ‘family vacation’. There were some disappointed students and staff, but it’s better to be safe than sorry on our South Dakota roads during the winter.

The homes are trying to find another weekend for skiing. Prom is fast approaching and some of the girls have already picked out their dress, this is always a fun weekend and Chamberlain High School has a post prom party to ensure it’s also a safe weekend. There is never a dull moment in our high school program for our Lakota youngsters!

To learn more about our Native American children in need, please visit us on our St. Joseph’s Indian School’s website.

Guest blogger: Julie

Hi, my name is Julie, I am the Clinical Services Director at St. Joseph’s Indian School. I supervise the Clinical Department which includes the Family Service Counselors, Prevention Coordinator and Family Liaison. I also oversee the Health Center.

Some activities that we have going on this time of year are the FAST (Families and Schools Together) program and our Spring Sobriety Celebration. Our FAST program is an eight session program of family meetings that provide a “Circle of Support” for student success in school, home and community. The goals of this program are to improve family functioning, promote child success in school, prevent substance abuse by the child and family, reduce the stress that parents and children experience from daily life situations and promote healing through culture.

Last year’s spring Sobriety Walk at St. Joseph's Indian School.

The Spring Sobriety Celebration will be held in April. This celebration includes a sobriety walk that all of the students take part in, a dinner and a speaker and/or presentation of some kind. We also have a t-shirt design contest that the students can enter and the winner gets their design put on the sobriety t-shirts that the students are given to wear for the celebration. The celebration promotes a drug-free lifestyle.

Guest blogger: Fr. Anthony

Greetings once again to all of you who have a special place in your heart for St. Joseph’s Indian School. As Fr. Steve is away for some meetings and another donor luncheon, he has asked several of the staff here to keep you informed of what is happening on campus.

I just got back from the airport in Sioux Falls, South Dakota picking up one of our college SCJ’s who is on Spring Break. As he has been out to St. Joseph’s before during the summer when very few students are around, he desired to come and see the program in action. He’ll be helping out as a student aide and will help with our Home Prayer program in which each of our 19 homes are visited for the purpose of a prayer service based on a selected theme. This month we were reflecting on self-control.

Yesterday, I had the chance to go with St. Joseph’s Indian School’s principal and the victors of St. Joseph’s spelling bee to the Corn Palace Regional in Mitchell, South Dakota. The students were broken up into class groups. This is the first time St. Joseph’s students have been entered into the program that ends at the National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC. Some went out on first or second words, others went deeper into the competition and our 8^th grade student won third place. For being a first time endeavor, we are very proud of all those who competed. They set the bar high.

We got back from Mitchell with time to spare, so we got to help officiate in the Chamberlain Chamber of Commerce basketball tournament. This tournament is offered for 4^th, 5^th and 6^th grade teams from the local areas around the state of South Dakota. St. Joseph’s hosted the 6^th grade boys and our team earned 4^th place. The championship game went into overtime and was won literally on a last second lay-up that brought victory to a team from Spearfish over the Chamberlain Cubs team. Our recreation staff was happy to help since it gives people from around the state the chance to see our school and find out about what we have to offer here at St. Joseph’s. Many kind comments were made about our gym facilities, which your generosity makes possible. Thank you.

The wanbli - eagle - is a winged symbol for the Lakota (Sioux) people.

All the grade school students had the chance to take part in a bald eagle presentation put on by the Minnesota Raptor Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. They brought over four birds to show our students—a red tail hawk, a peregrine falcon, a horned owl and a magnificent bald eagle. The presenter shared insights into their lives and capabilities, then answered a wide variety of questions from our Native American students. It was an impressive sight since several of the birds have special significance for the Native American people. It was also pointed out how the birds are being affected by the use of chemicals for farming and lead for fishing. Read more about bald eagles on St. Joseph’s Indian School’s website.

The last bit of good news this weekend is that another of our high school graduates received word about being accepted at the University of Minnesota-Morris and receiving a scholarship. Two other graduates also found out they will be attending the schools of their first choice, so is this selection the first choice of the student involved. We congratulate them all.

May the Great Spirit bless and keep you all safe and healthy this upcoming week.

All for this week, but I’ll be in touch again next Sunday since Fr. Steve will still be away. May the Great Spirit bless and keep you all safe and healthy this upcoming week. If anyone wants snow, we have lots to share since we got hit again Saturday morning.

Fr. Anthony Kluckman, SCJ

Chaplain

St. Joseph’s Indian School

On the road again

I hit the road for the next 11 days, and spent much today wrapping up things in the office as best I can before traveling.

First, I travel west to California, where a group of us from the business office have been invited to attend a planning retreat that starts on Monday. I’m going a few days early to visit my aunt and cousins in the area.

When that’s finished, I head east to Waukesha, near Milwaukee Wisconsin, for donor appreciation luncheons. I will be back in the office March 8.

In the meantime, I’ve asked some of our staff to be guest bloggers, and give you a different perspective in the coming days. I’ll fill you in more when I return.

Stretching the Lakota children’s horizon

Burnt toast set off the fire alarms in Central Offices and got our attention as we were just settling in for our morning meetings. We all passed the impromptu fire drill. Several of our staff are on the volunteer fire department, and once everyone had cleared the building, they checked things out and quickly determined the threat was past, and we all went back to work. A fire could break out most anywhere on campus and it was a good reminder to be prepared.

Fr. Steve, William and Tray at a donor luncheon earlier this year.

I practiced with LaToya, one of our Lakota high school girls who will speak to donors in the Milwaukee area about her experiences at St. Joseph’s Indian School. The high school boys for the next trips in April and June were also selected, so I stopped by their home to congratulate them and answered their questions.

The students are very excited to get to visit a different part of the country and experience something different from what they’ve know and experienced in South Dakota. One of St. Joseph’s Indian School’s mottos a few years ago was, “The World as a Classroom”. Travel and meeting new people stretches their horizons and their understanding of the world. And for me too!

PS – for schedules and more information about attending donor appreciation luncheons, please visit: http://bit.ly/cyor7m.

Decisions and advice

This morning our principal stopped in to discuss our priorities for next year in hiring specialist teachers, since we had some turnover last year. Do we add to our Lakota studies program? Can we find replacements for our Music teacher or Personal Living Skills teacher who have taken jobs elsewhere?

We have so much that we want to teach our children in need, but only so many class periods in the day to do it. We even talked about possible electives at the end of the school day or offering some Saturday lessons. It is a hard balancing act.

God never promised trying to reach out to people in need would be relaxing or easy.

Most days are fun and delightful here, but some days are heavy and draining. This afternoon, I fielded a call from an alumni who was having lots of personal difficulties and was very depressed, struggling to find reasons to keep going.

After that, I met with a disabled person who is in danger of losing his apartment. Then it was a trip to the law office to try to straighten out complicated legal issues we’ve been working on for a long time.

At day’s end, I felt tired and had a tension headache. God never promised trying to reach out to people in need would be relaxing or easy. That’s just part and parcel of the call to ministry.