June 24, 2021
Dear Walla Walla Catholic School families,
As we complete this 2020-2021 school year, I want to express my gratitude to all the members of our Walla Walla Catholic Schools community who have worked cooperatively to overcome this year’s unique challenges, allowing us to provide quality in-person education while also maintaining a healthy and safe school environment for our students. Support has been given from our community in the form of prayer, offers of assistance, flexibility, adaptability, financial generosity, and more. All of this has resulted in our ability at the WWCS to provide continuous in-person full day instruction the entire year for our younger learners at Assumption, and for the majority of the year at DeSales. The benefits of this instruction have been seen not only in the continued academic growth of our students, but also in their immediate social and emotional health. Though the success of this year is due to the support of the entire community, I would like to acknowledge certain groups and identify their particular contributions to our accomplishments.
To the health care professionals in our community and our contacts from the Walla Walla County Health Department – your knowledge and resources helped the WWCS to establish and implement procedures and protocols that allowed for a safe and healthy school environment for our students, staff and faculty. It is because of these procedures and protocols that we have maintained minimal case counts and unrecorded transmission through a full year in-person instruction, activities, and events.
To our parents – thank you so much for your understanding and support in following our various COVID-19 safety protocols and for sticking with us throughout the different modalities of remote and in-person education at the upper grade levels. You were willing to submit your children to health screenings each morning, observe a time of quarantine after travel, or keep your child home from school if they were exhibiting symptoms. Your efforts were absolutely vital to the health and well being of each of our students during this year, and we are so grateful for your constant cooperation in these areas.
To our staff – your tireless efforts and extra work over the course of this year to provide the best possible education for our students has been inspiring. You were willing to complete daily health screenings for yourselves and for our students, implement and enforce our COVID-19 protocols in the classrooms, constantly adapt to a different teaching atmosphere, be extremely flexible in your lesson plans and classroom structure, and so much more. You accomplished all of this while looking out for the best interests of our students and families rather than just yourselves. This allowed for our students not only to succeed academically, but also to participate in activities outside of the classroom such as sports, drama, and Mass. We are blessed to have such self-sacrificing teachers and staff as members of our community.
Finally, to our students – thank you for your perseverance and adaptability throughout this challenging year. Our efforts to move to in-person education would not have been successful without your cooperation and commitment as we transitioned from online classes, to hybrid classes, and then eventually moved to full time in-person classes for all grades. Your adherence to mask wearing and social distancing protocols while still bringing a positive attitude to school each day played a key role in the success of this school year. I would like to mention in particular our graduating class of 2021, who despite experiencing one of the most irregular senior years in history, still had a 100% graduation rate. All of us are very proud of our seniors, and know that they will go on to accomplish great things.
At DeSales we live by the motto of our patron Saint, St. Francis DeSales: “Be who you are and Be that well.” Through the past year our community has exemplified this idea. Because of the cooperative efforts of everyone mentioned above, our younger learners were in the classroom in-person for the whole year, and the other grades were in-person full time for the majority of the year. We were able to offer uninterrupted sports seasons and activities for our students. Importantly, all of this was able to happen while still being committed to our COVID-19 protocols and procedures, keeping our students and families safe and healthy. Thank you again for all that you have done, for being companions on this journey, and for being a part of this incredible Walla Walla Catholic Schools community.
John Lesko
Principal, Walla Walla Catholic Schools
Please Return School Laptops!
There are still several school Chromebooks (and even more chargers) that need to be returned for the summer. If your student or students have not yet completed that task, please make sure to turn those laptops and chargers into the school office as soon as possible. This will help us to have an accurate assessment of the number of devices available for student use next year. Thank you for your help with this!
Stadium Chairs Online Sale!
Courtesy of your WWCS Booster Club, you can now order your DeSales Stadium chairs online!
- The cost is $72, with the option to personalize the chair for an additional fee of $8.50
- Green or Black colors available
- Make sure to order by July 16 to ensure delivery before the start of the fall sports season!
To visit the online store and make a purchase, click the button! Thank you for supporting the Booster Club and Irish Athletics!
Walla Walla Mass Times Reminder
If you have been away from the weekend Masses for a while because of the pandemic, you may find it helpful to see the most updated Mass times at our three local parishes. For your convenience, the weekend Mass times are listed below.
- St. Francis
- Sunday - 8:30 AM | 9:30 AM
- Assumption
- Saturday - 4:00 PM
- Sunday - 10:30 AM
- St. Patrick
- Saturday - 7:00 PM (Spanish)
- Sunday - 7:30 AM | 9:30 AM | 12:00 PM (Spanish)
The Weekday Mass schedule is as follows:
- St. Francis
- Monday-Friday - 7:00 AM
- Assumption
- Wednesday and Friday - 8:30 AM
- St. Patrick
- Tuesday and Thursday - 12:00 PM
To see the latest Tri-Parish Bulletin, click here!
WWCS Holy Hour
Wednesdays at 4:00 PM - St. Patrick Church
The WWCS Wednesday Holy Hour is held every Wednesday at 4:00 PM, at St. Patrick Church. Though this is a Walla Walla Catholic Schools event, it is also open to the community and we hope that you will join us in prayer!