A Message to Parishioners Regarding School Facilities

Greetings from the Little Flower Parish Business Office

The final celebration of the life of Little Flower School brought bittersweet feelings, especially to those of us who had several generations of children educated at Little Flower School.

We are however encouraged by the formation of Our Lady of Grace Catholic School. Establishing the new regional school along with our covenant parishes, St. Ann, St. Margaret Mary, and Assumption Mt. Healthy, makes it possible for our children to continue receiving a Catholic education while remaining connected, along with their families, to their home parish. No one likes to see a long tradition change. However this change allows us to avoid the trauma many Parishes have faced by being forced to close schools when funds were exhausted, leaving parents and children to fend for themselves.

School Building Lease

We are also happy to announce that a lease that we have been negotiating over the past months was signed on June 5th, 2008 with the Cincinnati Waldorf School for rental of our school buildings.

Cincinnati Waldorf School is a private school established in Cincinnati more then 30 years ago. It is also affiliated with the National Waldorf School Organization. The schools curriculum focuses on academic excellence, artistic expression, and critical thinking. There are no geographic boundaries on enrollment. Students who attend come from residential areas throughout Greater Cincinnati.

Little Flower Parish has retained four rooms in the school building for exclusive parish use. These rooms will provide office and meeting space for our religious education program as well as meeting space for parish staff and organizations. In addition the Parish and Cincinnati Waldorf will have shared usage of the school cafeteria, kitchen, the Parish Center, the Athletic fields, and campus grounds. During school hours Waldorf will use these areas. After school, evenings, and weekends will be scheduled for use based on applications submitted by Parish staff, Parish organizations, Our Lady of Grace School, OLG Sports Programs and Cincinnati Waldorf.

Everyone knows that vacant buildings are an open invitation for vandalism and deterioration. We are very fortunate to have our school buildings in full use and to have a source of revenue for operating costs and upkeep of the school buildings. We look forward to a successful Landlord/Tenant relationship with the Cincinnati Waldorf School.

New School – Renewed Commitment

Our Lady of Grace is well on its way of being prepared to greet the students on the schools opening day in late August. The workload is tremendous but there are willing hands working very hard to make our new regional school become a first class school providing a top quality Catholic education for the children of the four covenant parishes. As of this writing we have 744 confirmed registrations and more arriving everyday. We will soon be at capacity. Mike Johnson, Our Lady of Grace principal, is committed to developing a program of education at OLG that will be respected and admired by educators and families throughout the Archdiocese. He has put together an excellent staff of teachers, and administrative employees who have been working very hard to help him reach this goal. Here at Little Flower we have been extremely busy preparing equipment, books, and supplies for transfer to OLG. We are also beginning preparations to get the building ready for our new tenant Cincinnati Waldorf School.

Little Flower Parish has a responsibility and is committed to providing financial support for every Little Flower student attending OLG. The parish is also committed to assisting the new school as it comes to life and experiences its growing pains. To accomplish this we need the help of all school families and all parishioners. There is need for all kinds of expertise from construction trades, school volunteers, transportation monitors, cafeteria volunteers and many more. Financial support is extremely important and needed. The income from the annual festival as well as other funds raisers will be used to support the student subsidy. We need everyone to step up and do his or her part.

Our Parish Center and athletic fields will be a used in extending the OLG campus. The Parish Center will continue to host drama presentations, as well as sport practices and games. The OLG home football games will be played at the Little Flower fields this season. Our fellow covenant parishes will also be providing support to OLG.

The important thing to remember is that Little Flower Parish is not going away. We will continue to provide our ministry in all areas of parish life. The parish staff is here to help, but you are the parish and it’s your commitment that will keep Little Flower Parish a viable anchor of the Mt. Airy Community.

As Business Administrator since 1988 and a parishioner since 1961 I am personally committed to assist in any way possible to help the development of Our Lady of Grace Catholic School and the anchor of Mt. Airy, Little Flower Parish. Can I count on you to help us? Call me at 541-5560 or email BusinessAdmin@littleflower-church.org to get on board.