Principal's Page

Sacred Heart School was established in 1888.  The original building burned to the ground in 1908.  The "new" school was built in 1909.  We've been there ever since.  The school is small, one class of each grade.  Average class size this year is about 18.   The largest class is 24 (24 is the max. for any class).  The smallest is 12.  Sacred Heart was historically the Catholic School serving Taftville.  Over the years the demographics have changed considerably, the young families have moved to the suburbs.  Even the public school population in Taftville has declined.  Sacred Heart has continued to be vibrant because it attracts so many students from neighboring towns.  Because of the large number of families with children already attending Sacred Heart School from the greater Colchester area the school started to provide bus transportation in the fall of 1999.  Helping with the transportation has become and important component in the life of Sacred Heart.

What makes Sacred Heart different?  Why do so many people choose to go the extra mile?  One answer is the quality and dedication of our staff.  We have excellent teachers who know each student as an individual and treasure each as a child of God.  Teaching is not just a profession, but a vocation.  Religion and religious values permeate the entire curriculum.  We strive to help students look at their world through the eyes of faith, confident that God knows them and loves them and expects much from them. Sacred Heart School also fosters a family type atmosphere where each child is known and valued as an individual.  We strive to help each student become more respectful, responsible and resourceful.  This translates into students who are respectful toward adults and each other, responsible for their personal behavior and their academic work and resourceful problem solvers.  In short, we try very hard to support the Catholic values that you as parents are teaching at home. In Catholic schools we have learned to do a lot with a little.  We have remained focused on our main mission - a sound moral focus and solid academic achievement.

The children also recognize the importance of Catholic education.  When asked about the school some of the comments were:  “I really want to stay at Sacred Heart School.  I like learning about God and His people.”  “I love this school”.  And my favorite – “there is a good principal”!

At Sacred Heart we also strive to make students aware of the world at large and encourage them to respond to the needs of other people, the sick and suffering in their own families and neighborhoods as well as those in third world countries or the victims of natural disasters.

We recognize that taking a moral, gospel based stand on issues in our world today is counter-cultural.  We are swimming upstream - but we have to.

For a small older parish much is going on at Sacred Heart.  The parish has always been very supportive of the School.  Five years ago the parish kicked off a capital campaign to raise funds for a "Parish Life Center".  Our parish has had no social gathering space since the Church burned in 1958.  On October 30, 2005 we celebrated the groundbreaking ceremony.  This new building will serve a great need in the parish, but will also serve as a gym and cafeteria for the school.  The new facility will be completed during the summer of 2006 and will be ready for the opening of the 2006-07 school year.  The children are very excited and can hardly wait!

I have served at Sacred Heart School for nearly twenty years, the first five as a teacher and the last fifteen as principal. I am very proud of what our parish and school families have helped to accomplish at Sacred Heart and I look forward to the new Parish Life Center and the continued expansion and development of our academic program.

If Sacred Heart School sounds like it might be right for you and your children please call.  I’d love to hear from you.

God bless,
Sister Mary David, SCMC
Principal