Dear Saint Ursula Community,

Happy New Year!  Lelia and I hope and pray that 2024 holds many blessings for you and your family.  After all of the holiday happenings, this time of year with its return to more “ordinary time” can feel relaxing in its own way.  

One of the focuses of this time in the school year is that planning for next school year is in full swing.  A most exciting initiative is a new partnership between Saint Ursula Academy and the University of Cincinnati Carl H. Lindner School of Business to provide our students with college-level course work in entrepreneurship and many co-curricular activities promoting women in business.  A full article later in this bulletin provides all of the details.  We could not be more excited to offer our students these unique and robust opportunities through the RDI Entrepreneurship Program starting in 24-25!

This is also the time of the year when we share our “year-at-a-glance” calendar for 2024-2025.  As a parent, I know how much the school year calendar impacts family life.  I thought it might be helpful to explain how we ”come up” with some of these dates.  Believe it or not, the placement of the Christmas break is the primary determinant of when we start school in August.  We need to have two equal quarters prior to the Christmas break so that our students can conclude their courses and complete exams before the break.  We are committed to that schedule because we know how beneficial it is for the students to have that true break between the semesters.  Fortunately, Christmas 2024 will allow us to start school in mid-August.

Another important feature of the calendar is the spring break.  Easter is very late in 2025:  April 20, 2025, to be exact.  We have decided to hold the spring break the week prior to Easter so that it is not too close to the end of the school year with AP exams, many events celebrating our Class of 2025, and culminating activities.  With the variability in the date of Easter, some schools have developed the practice of regularly having their “spring break” between the third and fourth quarter - with some days off around Easter as Catholic schools.  This is a thought that I will explore with our community prior to setting the school calendar for 25-26 to gauge if it would help families who are trying to navigate multiple school schedules.

As we look ahead to 2024, I have been thinking a lot about the Class of 2024.  We will cherish our time with them during this last semester at SUA and look forward to celebrating all of their accomplishments and future goals in the months ahead.  

Go Bulldogs!

Kathy

Here is the 2024-2025 year-at-a-glance.  It will also be posted on the school website.

Here is the updated two-week calendar.  Remember, Monday is a day off to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!