Dear Parents, Students and Friends,

After a long summer of planning, re-planning, and refining, Jesuit Sacramento is officially in session! 

The start of a school year always involves a fair amount of effort, anticipation and even anxiety, for students, faculty, staff, administration—everyone. With everything so fluid and new, we have had to depend on one another as a school community to bring the vision for 2020-2021 to fruition. I extend our gratitude to everyone who helped us essentially redesign our school and to you for entering the new year with confidence in us, understanding and flexibility.

I am especially grateful to all of my colleagues, the members of our faculty and staff who have been adapting their curriculum, instructional strategies, and programs for the distance learning environment to best serve your son. After last week’s series of faculty formation and development days, there was great enthusiasm for the year to begin. I am excited to hear about the innovative ways our dedicated teachers and staff will work with their students this year and how it is received by our Marauders.  

Our campus looks and feels different right now, as it has since March when we sent students home. Our students give life to our mission—they are our mission. But even if they cannot be on campus with us just yet, as we welcomed students this week via computer, I felt a renewed sense of purpose as we embark on another year working together to form young men of competence, conscience, and compassion.

What a joy it was to see our returning students once again, and to see our newest students for the first time when they arrived via Zoom for their orientations on Monday and Tuesday! Wednesday morning brought the first day of instruction–and 39 classes officially started on Zoom at 8:30 a.m. Within seconds, the new digital classrooms were full and vibrant with the promise of new learning communities. Thursday continued more classes, and by the end of today, all of our students will have met their teachers, practiced the distance learning protocols a few times, and—I hope—felt a glimmer of the excitement that comes at the start of a new school year. 

We are now solidly executing our plans to navigate the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. But this week brought even more challenges: an unrelenting heatwave, fires raging to the west and the east, smoke thickening the air throughout our region, even an on-campus evacuation triggered by a fire alarm (thankfully, a false alarm). Amid all that can seem bleak, dreary, or disorienting, we return with confidence to our mission and the core of our students’ experience—teachers and students working together through a meaningful, engaging curriculum— and we reflect and feel inspired that this week has brought us new life. We now move forward; we have much to discover together!

Thank you all for choosing Jesuit Sacramento and entrusting your sons to us on this journey. May God continue to bless you, your families, and the entire Jesuit High School community.

Gratefully,

Colin O’Connor ‘04

Assistant Principal for Academics

Next Week’s Calendar At-A-Glance

• Monday   C-1-2-3-4-5  |    Fall Play Info Meeting  
• Tuesday   C-6-7-8-1-2
• Wednesday   C-3-4-5-6-7
• Thursday  C-8-1-2-3-4  |  Yearbook Distribution
• Friday    C-5-6-7-8