Ascension Catholic School

Ascension Catholic School was founded in 1961. When it opened it had 425 students, four teaching sisters and five lay teachers. Today, our school has 630 children, 72 of whom are non-catholic, 447 families have children in our school, twenty-eight of whom receive tuition assistance.

We have 28 full-time teachers and 2 part-time teachers, 2 administrators, 8 full-time instructional aides and 1 part-time instructional aide, a development director, technology coordinator, school nurse and 4 office support staff. Ms. Donna Violi, our Assistant Principal, holds a Masters Degree in Educational Leadership from Barry University. All teachers hold at least a bachelor's degree and a valid Florida teaching certificate. Nine staff members hold a master's degree. Teachers in Catholic Schools in Brevard County are paid 96% of what teachers are earning in the public school system.

Awards and Distinctions:

U.S. Department of Education School of Excellence (Blue Ribbon School 1986 and 2003), Reading Renaissance Master School (first Catholic school in the nation 2000-2005), Computer Learning Foundation Certified School, Nation's first middle school Spanish Honor Society, a French Honor Society, International Computer Driver's License Certification Program (grades 7th & 8th). Seven staff members are listed in Who's Who Among America's Teachers.

Our school has 22 classrooms, a cafetorium, a science laboratory, an art room, a fully-equipped computer lab, a music room, a library with over 13,000 titles, a stage, and rooms for remediation, speech therapy, and guidance counseling. A full range of sports activities is offered and competitive teams are basketball, flag football, tennis, track, volleyball, softball, baseball, soccer, and cheerleading. Ascension students win awards each year at the regional and state science fairs, at the national level of the Daughters of the American Revolution essay contests, locally with the Elks, the VFW, and the Genealogy Association of Brevard. Our school choir performs each Christmas at Walt Disney World. Our chess club competes and wins awards at local levels. Each class performs service projects throughout the year-this year's theme is Give Drink To The Thirsty. This years school budget is $2.2 million dollars. This week as we celebrate Catholic School's Week, I thank all the parents who sacrifice to have their children in our school. I thank our very dedicated school staff who work very hard to make our school a great place for children and families. I thank all the school parents and non-school parents who volunteer at the school. I end with a letter about Catholic schools that appeared in a recent edition of the magazine U.S. Catholic, Brendan McGrath writes:

As a devout 23 year old Catholic who just graduated in May from Georgetown University and who attended Catholic Schools since kindergarten, I am totally devoted to the Catholic School system. I believe that for education to be fully authentic, it must be permeated by religion, which for Catholics means Catholicism. True education cares for the whole person and since our spiritual/religious dimension permeates our whole existence, body and soul, an education that is not religious is inherently incomplete. This doesn't mean that public schools aren't of value; certainly God's grace is a work in their students, and their teachers are doing God's work in building the kingdom as well. However, public schools operate on a reduced and qualitatively different level compared to Catholic schools, like a circle compared to a sphere. This would remain true even it all public schools were better academically than Catholic ones.

Public schools may have "character education," but Catholic schools have God and the Blessed Mother and so much more. Certainly there are numerous good reasons why parents send their children to non-Catholic schools, but we should work to minimize those reasons however we can. Catholic kids in public schools are really missing out.