Principal of St. Francis Xavier Catholic Academy holds post formerly held by his father

Sacred Heart School in Washington, with its bilingual classes and student body coming from different countries throughout the world, is an example of the unity...

“I will not abandon the city of Washington in its time of need.”

For Catholic Schools Week, principals, teachers and parents wrote reflections about what it means to serve students and families during this time of pandemic..

Maybe Elise Heil, the principal of Sacred Heart School in Washington, D.C., always was destined to be an educator. Her mom, Donna Heil, noted, “As a child, she’d line up her stuffed animals in the hallway and teach them. She was always going to be a teacher.”

The Consortium of Catholic Academies – a coalition of four center-city Catholic elementary schools in the District of Columbia – has done “an incredible job” of continuing to educate students despite the hardships brought on by pandemic and quarantine, according to the president of the consortium.

In a time-honored tradition, the 22 second graders in Raquel Fuentes’ class at Sacred Heart School in Washington prepared for their upcoming First Holy Communion, but with a special guest on Jan. 19, when they were joined by Cardinal Wilton Gregory in a Zoom meeting.

From the start of virtual schooling, the St. Anthony community devised creative ways to stay plugged into prayer together.

At St. Anthony Catholic School, we have assigned new meaning to the COVID acronym: C-ontinuing O-ur V-ital (and Vibrant) I-nstructional D-ays