Good Afternoon Royals Family, Students and Parents!
Welcome to the 2020-2021 school year at Mission College Preparatory Catholic High School. We are so blessed in this community to have a collection of parents, grandparents, guardians, students, staff, and faculty who have united together to carry out this ministry of faith-based, high school education. At a time when our nation is facing great challenges, it is only great people who can steer us through, and never has a Catholic education been more important in forming the young leaders necessary to overcome the challenges we are facing.
What truly makes this school special is our commitment to each other; to work towards the fulfillment of our Mission. That Mission, is to “create a culture of care and accountability, in partnership with families, to form women and men of scholarship, inspiration, and leadership, in service, to deeper life with God, and deeper life with one another.” We achieve this through the grace of our Lord; because it is His work that we are doing. But it also comes from each of our own human responses to be open to, and trust in, that same grace. As we look forward to a truly exceptional year, we are ready to deliver. Our teachers have been preparing and refining their Canvas courses all summer in preparation of the on-line opening of the school year, and we cannot wait for our students to rejoin their classmates in this community.
I am including a couple of resources here to help parents and students succeed this year. We have delayed the paper printing of the school calendar and handbook but those resources are available online at the MCP website www.missionprep.org. Also on the school website are the bell schedules for the year. Here is the direct link to that page MCP 20-21 Bell Schedule. As you can see, classes begin at 8:30 am each day and the instructional day ends at 2:25 pm.
This is a change from last year and it allows greater time in the morning for students to prepare for school. This new schedule also allows for appropriate breaks between class sessions so that both students and staff may transition well to the next class period. These same bell schedules will be retained when MCP is given permission to return students to campus for instruction. Please note, occasionally in the semester a Gold Day may begin or end with no FLEX period programming, in which case the online calendar will declare it to be a “Late Start” or “Early Dismissal,” but please also note that unless that is explicitly stated in the online calendar then school still begins at 8:30 am and ends at 2:25 pm. We will occassionally update and amend the online calendar as conditions change so please do check it frequently. We hope to make few changes but we have all certainly learned over the past few months to be flexible and to adapt.
For this coming Monday 8/17 school will begin at 8:30 am with an online assembly (again, note that this is NOT a “Late Start” day) and roll will be taken. All students should access their Canvas account at 8:25 am Monday by going first to cloud.missionprep.org and then clicking into CANVAS. Students will then click on the “MCP Community” course. From there, they will click the Zoom tab at the left of the page and then click into the Zoom meeting titled: “First Day of School Welcome, All Students CLICK HERE”
Classes on Monday will be the GOLD Day rotation which means that after the opening assembly students will visit their E, F, and G periods. These class periods are 70 minutes in length but instructors will be easing into the school year for the first few days. Again, all classes will start according to their posted time on the bell schedule. Tuesday 8/18 will also begin at 8:30 am and periods A, B, C, and D will meet that day. Instruction on both days will end at 2:25 pm.
We continue to live through historical times. Our children are being asked to grow up faster than we ever could have anticipated and we are so grateful to have you all as partners in this ministry. At MCP we are preparing our students to move into the world and change it for the better, to become “women and men for others.” They are being asked to fully invest their time and energy this year, striving to become the persons God has called them to be-the MCP graduate: people of faith, achievement, inspiration, ethics, responsibility, and service.
We will do our best this year to exceed your expectations but we also know that we are in this together. Please look for opportunities to engage in your child’s learning. Give us your feedback in surveys and other communications as they come available this fall, and remain active in the parent life of this amazing high school.
We remain hopeful that as health conditions improve in our county that we will be able to resume the rich and vibrant campus life that MCP has enjoyed for so many years, but regardless, we know that the fundamental mission of our school is to produce the critical thinkers and faith-filled leaders of tomorrow. We have placed our trust in God. We know that there will be an end to this crisis, and WeWill arrive there as a community.
Yours in Christ,
Mike Susank
Principal