Welcome to St. Mary Catholic Middle School!
Regardless if you’re a current St. Mary Catholic Schools (SMCS) family or you’re thinking of joining our community, we welcome you!
The foundation of an SMCS education is in faith, academics, service and personal development. These tenets, in conjunction with strong co-curricular opportunities, provide a well-rounded experience that encompasses students’ intellectual, spiritual, physical and emotional growth and development in a real-world environment. SMCS faculty and staff are committed to ensuring that every student achieves his or her highest potential.
We are humbled and blessed to witness the many gifts and talents of the greater SMCS community. Together, we strive each and every day to transform the heart and mind of our growing student community discerning God’s will for what is good and acceptable and purposeful in developing Jesus centered truths. As Catholic disciples, our core is Christ.
St. Mary Catholic Schools has integrated Project Lead The Way (STEM-based program) into our curriculum. With Project Lead The Way, we have entered an exciting era in preparing students for the future and equipping them to thrive and succeed.
St. Mary Catholic Middle School benefits from its location on the grounds of St. Mary Catholic High School, but stands alone in its 21st-century layout that is designed to accommodate collaborative learning, interactivity, technology and nurture our Catholic faith. Our faculty and staff at St. Mary Catholic Middle School (SMCMS) are faith-filled, dedicated, knowledgeable and experienced professionals who strive to meet the individual needs of students and the embrace the unique characteristics of a middle school community.
At SMCMS, every student is known by name, and our instructors work to address student’s individual learning styles and social and emotional needs. Discipline issues are rare because students are engaged, involved, known and appreciated.
SMCMS believes strongly that parents are partners in the learning process and encourages parents to become involved as volunteers in school to further foster that partnership. We offer frequent after school socials so students can have fun with peers in a safe and welcoming atmosphere.
Our middle school focuses on the values that so many seek in a quality education: superior academic results, faith formation, the building of character, and a safe, caring community where each child is accepted, respected and never lost in the crowd.
Building Leaders for our Community
St. Mary Catholic Middle School is dedicated to building strong leaders in our community. Through our weekly morning leadership meetings, as well as our leadership classes in 7 & 8th grade, our students are surrounded with opportunities to learn what it takes to be a positive influence in our community.
Our morning leadership meetings are focused around school wide initiatives focused on building a student led culture where students feel welcome and inspired to learn. Also at these morning meetings, we have guest speakers who bring real life applications of leadership to our students. The students are able to ask questions of our speakers and learn about different leadership philosophies and how they apply to their future lives.
Our leadership curriculum for 7 & 8th grade revolves around two books. In 7th grade the students read Chop Wood, Carry Water which is a book about building a foundation of doing everything the right way in order to excel at personal leadership. Then in 8th grade, our students read The Twin Thieves which is a book about a team overcoming individuality and adversities to work together for a common goal.
We believe that these two classes in conjunction with our morning leadership meetings will move our students and overall culture to even greater heights.
Advisory Groups
Advisory Groups are a teacher & student-based counseling program based off the CharacterStrong program. Its purpose is to provide students with a teacher/advocate who promotes group identity, friendship, a sense of belonging, and pride in self and school. The goal is to develop an understanding and value of self, others, and life experiences.
Summer Reading Requirement
To maintain reading stamina, we recommend a minimum of 30 minutes of reading, 5 days a week. Reading material should include a balance between challenging (at or slightly above your child’s reading level) and choice – some challenging reading should require parent involvement to assist in processing higher-level concepts — other choice reading can include topics of high interest to the student. Ultimately, the idea is to foster a love of reading across a range of genres and levels. We also value journaling as a tool to develop critical thinking skills for both reading reflection as well as independent thinking and processing. We won’t require anything to be turned in, but you are strongly encouraged to find a way to hold your child accountable for this weekly reading as it will only improve all their skills and help them to be ready for school in the fall.