Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
In Search of Catholic School Excellence
Exploring the programs, people, and practices making a difference in Catholic education. Join host Thomas Boles as we hear from principals, teachers, and innovators shaping the future of Catholic schools. Whether you're a leader looking for ideas or an advocate for Catholic education, this show is your guide to what’s working—and why it matters.
Be sure to check out the show notes, as each episode comes with a companion guide to help you implement the ideas discussed during the episodes.
**Transcribe automatically. Please excuse any errors...
Welcome back folks. This week we are joined by Megan Rabbitt of St. Bridget Academy in San Francisco, California, and St. Bridget Academy is a new school. It's , a transitioned school from a school in our diocese prior, and it's got a, a unique, , model, a unique focus. We're here to talk about what makes St.
Bridget Academy so cool. So Megan, thank you for joining me today and, for sharing a little bit about the school, and the story behind it. I'd just like to start off with discussing, St. Bridget School has been around for a long time in the San Francisco diocese, and it made a transition a couple years ago to be much more focused
, around students with either special needs or learning difficulties, and I would just love to hear more about that history. How did that decision come to it? How did you arrive at that position? And, , give us a little bit of story of that, that behind the scenes.
Okay. Thank you Thomas, for having me here today.
I wanna say that first off and I can share with you that this is a passion project for me, um, that hits home personally as well as professionally. So, I've been a teacher. Since 2000 and a couple other diocese as well. And so when I moved to San Francisco, I took a position in a traditional Catholic school and I'd been a general ed teacher for some time.
And it wasn't until I had, my oldest son and he has learning differences and that really sparked my interest to dive into special education. And so kind of. Along with him, I learned with my students how to support, um, students that have learning differences. And so that's kind of where my personal push is for this in the archdiocese.
But it's also a need that's been here for many years, maybe generations. They've noted that at least people from different parts of my life that are in the Catholic system have said, you know, this is a long time coming. We really needed it and with the way that things were going in the archdiocese at that particular time, the previous superintendent, Pam Lyons, she reached out when I had put my application in for a principalship and knowing my background in special education, it just seemed to work out really well.
The timing was there and, and I just couldn't imagine myself being anywhere else but here at St. Bridget. So. That's pretty amazing. I mean, the, , obviously it was a, a mission that was meant to happen if that timing worked out so beautifully. But that's, that's unique in the sense that, , normally you'd have students be turned away, , because the school couldn't meet their needs.
Right. Uh, and they wouldn't know what to do with those differences. And here you have an opportunity to not only meet those kids, but also, potentially help other schools, who would normally be turning students away because they can't help them be like, Hey, we actually have a place that really knows what they're doing.
How have you seen that kind of play out, , the what those first, , couple years have been like and , has it been easy to transition staff, et cetera. What's it been like in these first couple years? Well, you know, we, we actually launched July 1st, 2024, so this is the very beginning of our second year, so, right, right.
Um, it's pretty fresh. We have nearly an entire new staff this last year, which we had to hire and, um, they've done a phenomenal job of the transition because everything from curriculum to just starting something new with new ideas is a lot, it's a heavy lift. Mm-hmm. And it's been wonderful to be a part of, or at the helm of, you know, a team of self-starters, shall we say.
So not only, you know, are you thinking about how you're scheduling, you're thinking about it looks different because we do a different program called Walk to Read and Walk to Math. Mm-hmm. So the constant thought behind how the student is doing and personalizing their education and making sure that they're being leveled properly.
So we have students that are twice exceptional, that might be 1, 2, 3 grade levels ahead. We can actually move them to be leveled appropriately. And then we have students who might be in a subject area, one, two, even maybe three below, and so we can properly move them. There's no stigma in the school because we, we don't call our
our classrooms by grade. This is not level one. This is the yellow room. This is the purple room. So students, when they walk in, in and about in the hallways to go to their classes it's just a common like thing that we've climate and culture that we've created. So, but it takes a lot of backend for, for our staff to be able to get there because in a traditional setting,
you would have your curriculum, pretend like grade two, here's all your curriculum for grade two. This is what you're producing and creating. But when you have students of all these different levels, it's like you have to be 10 feet ahead to make sure that you're getting their needs met, um, and leveling them appropriately.
But they do come and stay together for their homeroom and all those things. It's really the only two major classes where it's, um, their switching levels is reading and math. We rely heavily on our diagnostic testing. Mm-hmm. Whether it's star testing, we implemented iReady this year to see how that can go in, in tandem with what we're doing
plus, you know, obviously we would do their testing that's within the regular,, scope of their content. And then just the observations that you see and then you pull heavily on if. They arrive with a neuropsych evaluation. That is a huge piece at the very beginning of each time we get a new student, we have to dive into those and make sure that we're providing accommodations for each student modifications if needed on top of any kind of movement with the curriculum.
So it's, it's a heavy lift for our staff, but they are so passionate about this project that I think like all the extra hours and things that goes into this it's just a beautiful thing. Yeah. And you have the flexibility being new and also small, that you can, you can morph it as you need to, right?
Mm-hmm. So it's not just something like, there's not like this manual for this kind of situation that just laying out, and you would love to have that, I'm sure, actually the flexibility to be able to meet the needs and to continually refine what you're doing, I think is probably an advantage, a huge advantage for the school.
Yeah, it is. And, and we call it fluid. So you know, if a student suddenly is struggling in this new leveling, we're not gonna keep them there. We'll put 'em back where it's a little more comfortable for them. We always want them to feel challenged just at the right instructional spot. So, so yes, I guess.
We are fluid in that regard, you know? Yeah. Versus like in a traditional model, maybe it's like you're in second grade, maybe I can differentiate a little bit up a little bit down, but there's no probably going three grade levels ahead, you know? Right, right. Well that makes it a lot of fun. Mm-hmm. How is, how is the structure, , so you already mentioned that the classrooms
, Instead of talking about grade levels, you're talking about a color. So you're gonna have math in this particular class, whatever. You're gonna have your homeroom in this particular class. How else is the structure of the school different from a traditional, , is the model, the model from the top down, different?
Are your faculty working together in a different way? How else are, are they, is it different? You know, we have a ratio of four students to one educator or staff member. So that's different in itself. , Wow. We also, I wanna say that I'm, I'm called the head of school, and then we have a director of operations.
So it is a little bit different than maybe a traditional model with the principal at the top and doing a, like everything underneath. So that piece is unique to our situation. I think that we have a very, very robust counseling department, which is needed when you have a school like ours.
Students often come to our school with a lot of trauma from their previous schools, so we have to be able to meet them where they're at with their social emotional growth and development. So we have a very strong SEL program. We have a pupil services counselor who's full-time, who goes in and out of all the classrooms, knows all 41 children very well.
And then we have an an A part-time MFT. We will come in, do you know the therapies as needed at the age appropriate age levels? And we also have a resource teacher who has A, B C BA. So this person is someone who has a master's in behavioral therapy. And in his past he had actually, , worked with students with autism one-on-one in that regard.
So when you have someone who can intervene in the moment with students just like our people services counselor, being able to actually kind of stop the behavior and redirect and support in that way. It's wonderful to have a person like that on staff as well. So it's very robust. That's unique to our program.
Mm-hmm. And we implemented a program that ties into our religion as well. It's called Frenzy. I found it when I was at a conference in the Los Angeles last year, and we were looking at different ones, and this one really seemed to really stand out to me. Um, looking at how we can teach social emotional learning, but also have a religious twist to it, to, to spirituality.
And at least in a Catholic school, I think all ties into character. Education. Mm-hmm. So, Frenzi has been a great program that our school counselor has implemented this year, and it's a school-wide program, so we use the same language and the thoughts to be, um, to have our kids all on the same page, teachers all on the same page, and how we're promoting this positive energy in our building because we have a lot of students who might, you know, struggle with their regulation and things like that, but to be able to have a common language that we're using with them, it's helping the, well, the environment's just very positive place to be in. Yeah, it sounds, , obviously very intentional about how you're doing everything. And somebody who would be a casual listener or a principal in another school might be listening and going like.
Wow. How can they possibly, , have all those people, but that's really what the students need. And , and you can do this in little pieces, but together you can build a program that's actually what the students need. And if, if, uh, if anyone would take a lesson away from it, it would be like, , let's meet the students where they are and let's find the services that we need to be able to, to help those kids.
Mm-hmm. But thankfully there's a school, at least in our diocese here, where that's being, addressed and not like, swept under the rug or ignored because they can't do anything about it. Yes. And, and it's part of our NSBECS. It's something that we strive to do, , in every diocese in in the nation.
We should be supporting our diverse learners. And it's really exciting to be a part of something in, at least in our archdiocese, where we can actually support the ones that need a little bit more. Then there might be some students with mild learning differences that can still maintain themselves in typical, , traditional models.
But once you get closer to moderate, it can be really challenging in classrooms that are 25 and up or whatnot. So, to have the, our, our cap is 12 students per grade level because that's kind of the mark where it gets a little challenging to, if you go past that, the teacher will be not be able to support them as well, and it wouldn't be as effective.
So kind of make that our mark. And then we split the grades. We had our first, it was kind of exciting. Our fourth grade is a standalone this year, and we didn't do that last year. So we're finally getting there where at least one grade level was able to split off. We had enough students in, um, in that group, so.
, I think as we grow eventually the hope is 12 per each, , grade level, but we're still gonna use our colors and we have archangels also, I don't know if you know about our history, but our mascot is the Blue Angels because of where we're located in Pacific Heights right there. And it, since I think of the eighties maybe the nineties, I'm not sure, but.
It's really neat to continue that on. And then we decided with our color rooms, we're gonna label our rooms. An archangel was gonna look over each of the classrooms. Oh, that's cool. It's really sweet. That's fun to be able to just talk about like why this particular angel, , for this particular room and mm-hmm.
, It adds just so much more character to the situation. Yeah, and the teachers chose them and we have pictures of the archangels outside their, their classroom. And, uh, they're the color. We had our development assistant help us put color into them. So the yellow room has a yellow archangel.
It's fun. That is fun. Well, I think you, , just a second ago you brought up an interesting point where. Most schools and this is happening all over the country, but , most schools are struggling, , for enrollment. They gotta get bigger class sizes 'cause that's gonna allow them to pay for whatever services.
Right. And of course you, you want good enrollment too, but you're actually purposely keeping it small and you've got a cap that most schools would be, , frightened by. Mm-hmm. You know, oh my gosh, we've only got 12 students per class. So it's, it's definitely a different model. And how do you see that well, obviously there's an advantage of just having, , more attention per kid, but are there other advantages that you see with those small classes and being so nimble?
I think the best part about a micro Catholic school is that you're able to get to know every single student at a level that you probably wouldn't otherwise known. I've taught in Catholic schools where I've had 41 in a class and I am, I kind, I mean, I knew them at their academic levels, but to really know them personally and their parents and , it's a different
it's a different situation. It's, and that piece is really, really awesome too. So the, the community itself is very tight because they're so few. And there's some advantages with also those kids almost act like a, it's almost like a family situation sometimes when you walk in the classroom versus in, you know, traditional rows.
The kids are so many in a room, they have to be in rows and it's much more mm-hmm. Not they're kind, uh, especially in the lower grades, you know, there's a little more flexibility. So students can do things in small groups within a small group, and they can work individually and get just the right amount of attention.
They can flip and do centers. I'm just imagining my, my lower floor right now, we can even still do centers up through fourth grade, so. Mm-hmm. Which is not something you would typically see in a, a traditional Catholic school. So many opportunities to try different things out. Experiment, play with it.
Um, and not just randomly, but you know, you, you're able to follow research and, and kind of mm-hmm. Be able to see if, if these things will work for your students. And that's, I think a, a huge advantage. Um, oh one, I was gonna say one thing that I also find really a lot of fun and there's research behind it is STEM.
We're able to do, we have a makerspace and our science teachers, um. They work in tandem together to create, while they're following state curriculum for, you know, each of the grade levels, to make sure the students get those standards, the they UNC incorporate stem with almost everything they do for our special learners, because a lot of them need more of a hands-on approach and they're getting that in our makerspace and that's been really neat to watch.
Yeah. Oh, that's fun. So then, you know, what are some of those other rooms you just mentioned the makerspace how, what are some of the other, uh, academic pieces that you have? Okay. Our schedule is set up really unique as well, because we can do this. All the students are multi, since it's multi-aged we're able to make it so that recess and lunch, recess are all together.
All the students are together, so. In typical school, you might have the lower floor goes first and then the upper floor or whatnot, but we keep 'em all together and that gives us the flexibility to have all our instructional minutes from the time they get to school when it starts at eight 20 and then we go until 1230, all instructional minutes.
We don't have any of these special classes like PE or anything like that early in the day. So then they have their lunch period, and then from one 15 until three 30 are all their special classes. So they have PE twice a week. They have a music class on Fridays once a week, and they have an alternating art and drama program on Wednesdays.
Wow. We provide them every single special you can give them. Or at least try to. Um, but it's all in the afternoons when that's kind of like a, a lighter load where it's more a participating grade versus mm-hmm. Their academic grades. Mm-hmm. And also with students with learning differences, their attention might be waning by the time after lunch hits.
And I really, even at the middle school level, I don't wanna see a reading class happening at like, , two o'clock, you know? Right, right. So that heavy lift was something that we decided in our schedule from the very beginning, and it's really seeming it, it's working out well to have all the instructional up until lunch.
Oh, it sounds like a lot of fun too. I mean, that's, I mean, there's another lesson there for, for the average you know, school where, you know, how can we best use that time and like, how can we play with that schedule so that things that make the most sense to get done can happen in that morning.
You know, you can focus all that academic energy, uh, but then you can also, you know, play around with the specials. Not to mention if you do really something cool or somebody needs to come in, you've got that buffer of lunch to bring somebody in and kind of get things set up. And so you can do lots of, lots of cool things.
That's a, it's a fun way to look at the schedule. Yeah, it's kind of cool. And we partnered starting last year, um, with a nonprofit called Reading Ready. So if a student might have dyslexia or some kind of reading difference, or maybe they just really struggle and need pull out one-on-ones, they work with our students in the afternoons.
So if they're missing maybe one PE class a week, that's okay. I just would rather them have, if you look, look at the minutes, um, have their instructional heavy and then that extra pump of supplement to happen during a a class, that's not gonna be a grade for them per se, you know? Right. Right. And it's not like they're losing out on PE altogether.
They're getting what they need in both cases. Yes, exactly. But you have the ability to pull them to, to do that extra work. Mm-hmm. That's great. So where do you see this kind of going and growing? You're starting year two, you know, there's still probably a, a lot of bumps you gotta iron out, but I know you've probably got a pretty big dream board of what the school could do.
I really, it's just, I, I imagine that five year strategic plan, I'm imagining having those 12 students in each of the grade levels. Mm-hmm. That's what my dream is. And to see us eventually being able to take in more students with, maybe they are closer to moderate with, um, maybe autism or intellectual disabilities.
Mm-hmm. And we can provide, um, maybe not us, but being able to allow for paraprofessionals to start coming in. We do have one student this year with pretty significant A DHD that has, uh, a para support and that's probably one of the few that are happening in the archdiocese. But our school's definitely the place for it so we can support those Catholic families and students that wanna remain in Catholic education.
And so more students like that I'd like to see here because I think we can do it. Yeah. And, um, a message for the, you know, the other principals out there, you know, you've, you're a great place for, for those students. Especially if they can't help them then perhaps this is be a great place for them.
I want to finish off with a couple questions. Uh, one more specific, one, a little bit more general. But if somebody was in, let's say, another diocese or in a school that, that had, you know, is feeling this need, this the seeing kids who could benefit from a program, a school like yourself how would they go about starting something like this or even having the inclination to go after this?
What would might be a first step for somebody? I know this wouldn't happen, uh, necessarily in our diocese, but, you know, uh, for the folks who might be listening from around the country who are not yet there. Well, I think you would start with some kind of like swot, you know, like what are your needs in the community?
And do an analysis of, you know, kind of top down really, like talk to their superintendent and or those at that level and say, okay, let's try to find out, well, how many, how many students. in these schools have learning differences and how many students have been asked to leave or, or they just, you know, their parents pull them out.
So get those numbers and see, you know, it depends on, I'm imagining that it's everywhere, right? So in all of the dioceses everywhere. So kind of getting an idea of how many people that really need to be served and. Are those parents willing to take them outta public school, where those services are free?
Do they really wanna be in Catholic school? And if they do, I know there's a huge popul like number of folks that really want this. Yeah. Then I think have your answer. You, you should, they should certainly consider it because Catholic education is really special. And um, for those that really want their kids to be educated that way, they should be able to be.
Yeah, and I, I know, I don't know necessarily all the schools in the country, but , I've probably come in contact with three to five schools and, , that's three to five dioceses now in the country who have addressed,, the learning differences of their students. There's a whole lot more that could probably use that.
So, well hopefully this will be a, a lesson for them. My final question is a little bit more, a little bit more general. If we, if we pull back and look at, , the, a lesson that like any principal can pull from this and it's, really about meeting student needs and maybe they're not as, uh, severe or as challenging.
Mm-hmm. What advice would you give a principal who is , , wrestling with, , how do I play with the schedule? How do I change, , what we can do to help our students? Whether that be something of, , as simple as, , maybe it's only a reading comprehension issue in the school, or maybe it's, um, you want your specialist to be better, ?
How would you encourage a principal to take a step towards really meeting the needs of the students? I think that you first wanna do find out, talk to the parents first and see like, if they could provide a little bit more information on what they, what's happening at home as well.
So you wanna meet with the parents first 'cause they're their primary educators, and try to create that synergy of, we wanna support them in our school still. How can you help us at home? Start with that. Mm-hmm. Obviously then the teacher who was teaching the student you wanna do a response to intervention.
So let's pretend it was a, a reading comprehension as you're saying. So then maybe look at a combination of their testing, how they're doing in the class, and then you have to evaluate where the teacher can then support and differentiate. So maybe you pull them out for, whether it's a small group that needs reading support or maybe it's one-on-one time, , find that time in the day, some during that schedule, somewhere where they can give them the extra reading support or whatever it might be.
And then if it gets to the next level. , Maybe it's really not working. Even with that, just that pullout reading group. Okay. Then you put your heads together, parents and teacher and principal or whatnot, and figure out, okay, what kind of supports do they really need? Do they need to get evaluated for the first time?
If they've already been evaluated? Maybe it's, we need to go back and get them reevaluated. Find out if there's something more. How can we meet the needs on the evaluation that we have. Mm-hmm. And I think it's a lot of coaching. Also 'cause sometimes there's teachers that may not know how to meet the needs with the accommodations and modifications that might be on the report.
So making sure that those teachers understand what these interventions might be, so. Right. And I think that, if the principal isn't quite sure how to do it themselves, then, then they need to seek some training before they're trying to coach or get the right person involved to help them,?
Right, right. Yeah. So could be outside resources, like a professional development, , a series of those or, , it could be, there's already someone on staff that is their resource teacher that needs to be going into the classrooms more, and actually, like in the classroom, not just doing pullouts, but this is one of my biggest pieces of advices for Catholic schools is the more that the resource teachers can push in, the better because they start to see what the content is that the, the general ed teacher is teaching.
They can then better support the students that need the support. So yeah, I think that's, that's great. As a general class trained teacher, myself, I always know that like when you watch a really good resource teacher or somebody who is, who is teaching, , a special class, that it's got that kind of extra skill, the creativity that they have is like amazing, right?
So it's like we should all be trained for all of these things. It would make all of our lives that much easier, right. ,
I, I appreciate you sharing that bit. I know it's, , it's a challenging job to be a principal. It's a challenging job to then also to be a principal of a school that's, you know, brand new and trying to do, you know, important things.
So, , I appreciate you sharing the story and, , your advice with folks. And hopefully somebody out there will be listening to this and, and be able to pull something from it. And, maybe make a change at their school or, or push for something different, , for their students. Thank you for having me.
It was really fun to be able to talk about St. Bridget Academy. I get so excited and it just, it, it warms my heart that there are people that are interested in learning about it. So thank you. No problem. Glad to have you. And, um, perhaps we'll have, uh, more stories from you in the future as, as things change and develop.
I hope so. Alright. Thanks Megan. Thank you. Bye.