As Sr. Principal of St. Junipero Serra Catholic School, I am worried. Being In the midst of my 40th year as an educator, I have seen just about everything when it comes to education. As the leader of the school, I have many responsibilities. One of those responsibilities is being available for my staff, celebrating their shining moments and supporting them during times of difficulty. Just as I am committed to having an open door policy with you, I am committed to making myself available to listen to the faculty and staff here at St. Serra and to acknowledge their needs. It saddens me when I sense a vulnerability in the staff. The political issues surrounding COVID have created challenges for parents and students and have put undue pressure on schools, including St. Serra.

Last school year, every member of the St. Serra staff did what was necessary to ensure that we could offer both in-person learning and live-streaming to our students. Our goal, as always, was to ensure that the St. Serra students continued to receive the best education possible, with instruction that was tailored to their needs and that allowed them to grow despite the turmoil caused by the pandemic. No other school in the area did more to accommodate its families and to ensure–as far as possible–a purposeful, sound, and uninterrupted educational experience for its students. We continue to offer your children an excellent education in a beautiful environment that rivals any school in the nation!

Our teachers and staff show up every single day. They are dedicated to their craft. They continually rise to the occasion when challenges occur. What concerns me is the toll that it is taking on them. How much can they withstand? Recently, we asked teachers to consider teaching in our summer school program. Like last year, we have very little interest, and it looks as though summer school may be canceled again. This is a sure sign that teacher exhaustion is winning.

Our school staff has been getting “beat up” quite a bit this year–even more so than last year or previous years. Everyone here at St. Serra recognizes and appreciates the fact that the majority of our families encourage, praise, and support us and contribute to our school community through volunteer hours, philanthropy, and active involvement. But lately, some in our community have chosen to approach the challenges that we are all facing with negativity rather than a generosity of spirit. It comes through in various ways: in comments, in emails, through social media, in person, etc. Over time, that takes a toll. After all, we are human. The school staff isn’t invincible. We struggle daily to have enough substitutes to fill the roster. Teachers regularly give up planning time to cover classes, which means that they have to take more of their own work home. Research indicates that teachers are leaving the profession at an unprecedented pace.

As I stated in my opening paragraph, I am worried. My worries are these: What if we don’t have enough highly qualified teachers to teach your children? What if our operations staff continues to seek other opportunities? What if these challenges result in us being unable to continue providing students with the high-quality education they deserve? These are concerns that are all too real for schools across the nation right now. But what if we are unnecessarily contributing to those problems by failing to remember that we are a team with the shared goal of helping your children realize their full potential?

Sometimes we don’t realize what we have until it is taken away–but that is a hard way to learn to appreciate all we have been given. I am asking the entire St. Serra community to value what we have right now. Be patient. Be kind. Be empathetic. We have a great thing going here. Let's continue to build on it and make it even greater.

Always Striving,

Tim Tolzda, Sr. Principal

Faith in Action: Community service at Family Assistance Ministries from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Serra Socials: Mother-Daughter skincare event at Facial Aesthetics Concepts in RSM