Today's Hidden Gem: Our Lady of Peace Elementary School
I've spoken of Our Lady of Peace Church before and some of the wonderful events and fundraising activities spearheaded by this community.
In fact, going back into the archive vault, I believe my first Hidden Gem focused on OLP.
Well, Thursday night was the end of an era.
My entire family went to Our Lady of Peace School. They've always had the best teachers, staff, and offered a terrific education coupled with those incidentals that you can't teach.
On a personal note, receiving a Catholic Education was probably one of the best things that I could have experienced in my lifetime. It laid a priceless foundation for the rest of my life. I will forever be indebted to Our Lady of Peace, the Ursuline Nuns and all of the teachers who pointed me in the right direction to become who I am today (someone I really like).
Our Lady of Peace Church survived the 'cluster' chopping block and was the only church in its cluster to survive. Epiphany has already closed and St. Cecilia will be closing.
Unfortunately, OLP Elementary School did not fair quite as well. Now, it's not as dismal as I make it sound. But, quite a surprise.
With all the flurry surrounding the Cleveland Catholic Diocese Church closings, what was happening between Bishop Lennon and the Cleveland Catholic Elementary School Pastors was sort of swept under the carpet.
Just a few weeks after the dust had settled with the Church closings, it was announced that Our Lady of Peace would become a satellite campus for Archbishop Lyke School. OLP will have a preschool, 3 kindergartens, 3 first grades, and 3 second grades.
4 thru 8 will be on two other campuses.
There was no discussion with parents or parishioners, as there had been with the Church Clustering.
This is what is happening.
Extensive information on how this decision came about was supplied along with answers to questions that may pop up. There had been many meetings with the Bishop, school administrators, and the Cleveland Catholic Diocese Education folks.
It appears that this was a viable solution to keep all of the schools involved vibrant, alive and strong for many years to come as they give the children of Cleveland the best education.
But, this decision can not take away the fact that Thursday night was the final graduation which will ever occur at Our Lady of Peace Elementary School. Now, there will be Pre thru 2 kids roaming around campus. They are cute little bundles but the bigger kids, who have done so much for the neighborhood, the community, and the parish will no longer be on site to assist in invaluable ways.
In fact, just recently, OLP Junior High students raised over $1,000 to put a roof on the new St. Mary's Church in Kenya. These kids, though many of them coming from lower income families themselves, always thought of those less fortunate.
The upper grades had a wonderful choir which will be silenced.
OLP will still have First Communion and possibly some very young servers.
It will be a great challenge to start these youngsters in the education world, and hopefully, lay a great foundation that they can take with them wherever they wind up after the 2nd grade.
I'm sure this will be a wonderful transition for this Parish and will work out for all involved to keep the Cleveland Catholic Schools alive contributing to the future of our children.
The process is just in the beginning stages.
However, that does not take away from the fact that those of us who graduated from the 8th grade at OLP with so many tremendous memories will have a little bittersweet feeling in our hearts knowing how much OLP contributed to our rich history, how the dedicated teachers encouraged us all to dream and reach for the skies, and helped immensely in who we have become today.
If you are not familiar with Our Lady of Peace Elementary School, trust me! The kind, caring, selfless, thoughtful, and successful students they have produced and sent out into this world is my reason for making OLP this week's Hidden Gem. It surely is the end of an era. I am proud to be an OLP Alum and can not say enough great things about this wonderful institution, which hopefully, will continue guiding the little tikes from the very beginning--giving them a tremendous foundation with which to start their education and their lives!
I've spoken of Our Lady of Peace Church before and some of the wonderful events and fundraising activities spearheaded by this community.
In fact, going back into the archive vault, I believe my first Hidden Gem focused on OLP.
Well, Thursday night was the end of an era.
My entire family went to Our Lady of Peace School. They've always had the best teachers, staff, and offered a terrific education coupled with those incidentals that you can't teach.
On a personal note, receiving a Catholic Education was probably one of the best things that I could have experienced in my lifetime. It laid a priceless foundation for the rest of my life. I will forever be indebted to Our Lady of Peace, the Ursuline Nuns and all of the teachers who pointed me in the right direction to become who I am today (someone I really like).
Our Lady of Peace Church survived the 'cluster' chopping block and was the only church in its cluster to survive. Epiphany has already closed and St. Cecilia will be closing.
Unfortunately, OLP Elementary School did not fair quite as well. Now, it's not as dismal as I make it sound. But, quite a surprise.
With all the flurry surrounding the Cleveland Catholic Diocese Church closings, what was happening between Bishop Lennon and the Cleveland Catholic Elementary School Pastors was sort of swept under the carpet.
Just a few weeks after the dust had settled with the Church closings, it was announced that Our Lady of Peace would become a satellite campus for Archbishop Lyke School. OLP will have a preschool, 3 kindergartens, 3 first grades, and 3 second grades.
4 thru 8 will be on two other campuses.
There was no discussion with parents or parishioners, as there had been with the Church Clustering.
This is what is happening.
Extensive information on how this decision came about was supplied along with answers to questions that may pop up. There had been many meetings with the Bishop, school administrators, and the Cleveland Catholic Diocese Education folks.
It appears that this was a viable solution to keep all of the schools involved vibrant, alive and strong for many years to come as they give the children of Cleveland the best education.
But, this decision can not take away the fact that Thursday night was the final graduation which will ever occur at Our Lady of Peace Elementary School. Now, there will be Pre thru 2 kids roaming around campus. They are cute little bundles but the bigger kids, who have done so much for the neighborhood, the community, and the parish will no longer be on site to assist in invaluable ways.
In fact, just recently, OLP Junior High students raised over $1,000 to put a roof on the new St. Mary's Church in Kenya. These kids, though many of them coming from lower income families themselves, always thought of those less fortunate.
The upper grades had a wonderful choir which will be silenced.
OLP will still have First Communion and possibly some very young servers.
It will be a great challenge to start these youngsters in the education world, and hopefully, lay a great foundation that they can take with them wherever they wind up after the 2nd grade.
I'm sure this will be a wonderful transition for this Parish and will work out for all involved to keep the Cleveland Catholic Schools alive contributing to the future of our children.
The process is just in the beginning stages.
However, that does not take away from the fact that those of us who graduated from the 8th grade at OLP with so many tremendous memories will have a little bittersweet feeling in our hearts knowing how much OLP contributed to our rich history, how the dedicated teachers encouraged us all to dream and reach for the skies, and helped immensely in who we have become today.
If you are not familiar with Our Lady of Peace Elementary School, trust me! The kind, caring, selfless, thoughtful, and successful students they have produced and sent out into this world is my reason for making OLP this week's Hidden Gem. It surely is the end of an era. I am proud to be an OLP Alum and can not say enough great things about this wonderful institution, which hopefully, will continue guiding the little tikes from the very beginning--giving them a tremendous foundation with which to start their education and their lives!
