Dear St. Thomas Parents,
Welcome back to the 2016 – 2017 school year. It has been a lonely month since the end of summer school and we are excited to have you and your children back to school. I would like to especially welcome all of our new parents to the St. Thomas the Apostle community. I had an opportunity to meet all of you already but would like to extend another warm St. Thomas welcome. This is a special school year because we will be going through our accreditation through the Western Catholic Education Association and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. Parents, students and staff play an important role in this process and I look forward to telling you all more about it at back to school night.
We also have some changes in our teacher line up for the 2016 – 2017 school year. St. Thomas school would like to welcome Andrea Castaneda, Adrian Cuevas and Kevin Nguyen to the St. Thomas faculty. Ms. Castaneda comes to us from the PLACE Corp Program at Loyola Marymount University and will be teaching 1st grade. Mr. Cuevas was a teaching fellow at Loyola University in Chicago and will be our English teacher and 8th grade homeroom teacher. Mr. Nguyen has been teaching in the Archdiocese for a couple of years and will be our substitute teacher for Mrs. Avila’s 5th grade class. Mrs. Avila is on maternity leave and will be returning in November. I encourage the St. Thomas community to give them a warm St. Thomas welcome.
Lastly, we will start the school year with mass. Our first school mass will be on Friday, August 19. Due to increased security and an update to our procedures, mass will be returning to St. Thomas Church and will continue there every Friday for the remainder of the school year. For any questions regarding mass please do not hesitate in contacting me in the school office.
You and all of your children have been in my prayers and will continue to be this school year. I look forward to seeing you all at back to school night.
Sincerely,
Michael Santa Maria
Principal