A Message from Fr. Woolley
We Live the Word!
A MESSAGE FROM FR. WOOLLEY
Dear Fr. John V. Doyle Parents:
In case you weren't able to attend, I thought I would share with you the talk I gave at this year's Back to School Night, which contains a lot of info about all the new things going on at our school.
God bless,
Fr. Michael Woolley, Pastor, Ss. John and Paul Parish and Fr. John V. Doyle School.
Welcome back to all you returning students and parents, and welcome for the first time to all you many new students and families; thank you to all of you for choosing Father John V. Doyle for your child’s education! In addition to welcoming the new students, I also want to welcome the new faculty members also beginning their first school year with us. I’m happy to welcome our new Kindergarten Aid, Mrs. Emily DeCubellis. Mrs. DeCubellis isn’t really new to our school, as her son is a student at FJVD, and her husband Doug has been one of our basketball coaches. But while she isn’t new, the Kindergarten Aide position is new to the school; last year the number of students didn’t warrant one, but this year it does. And I want to take this opportunity to thank the Holy Trinity for blessing us, as this year, we have triple the number of Kindergarten Students than we did last year!
Secondly, I’m happy to welcome another new faculty member who’s also filling a brand new position, Mrs. Heather Skidds, who is our new in-school music teacher. Mrs. Skidds will be using the after care room to teach in, I walked into it the other day, and she’s really done a good job decorating it to look like a music room.
One of my top goals when I first became Pastor a year ago, was to bring back the in-school music program, and I’m very happy to see this happening. As I mentioned in the past, I began learning how to read music and play the guitar when I was in fifth grade, and I continue to play guitar to this day, especially around Christmas time, St. Patrick’s Day, and lately at the school auction; my band is already rehearsing for this coming year’s auction on Saturday, March 28, 2020 at Harbor Lights in Warwick. We are having a Caribbean theme, and so this year, I'm throwing together a Calypso band! But not only has learning to read music benefited me in life through guitar playing, I’m also convinced that learning music also helped me excel in Mathematics. I was an average Math student in Junior High, but at the very end of 8th grade, something clicked: I surprisingly aced my final exam, and throughout High School, I was in all Honor’s Math Classes, and went on to get a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering; Math from then on was the subject I stressed about the least. While the verdict is still out on the link between music making you better at Math, I think for me at least, there looks like a connection. Either way, our new in-school music program will surely contribute to the “solid, well rounded” Catholic education offered at Fr. Doyle School.
We also welcome back to our school Mrs. Collette Maynard, who will be replacing Mrs. Samantha Tripp as the Middle School English Language Arts teacher, and Reading Resource Teacher (Mrs. Tripp is moving on to teach at Cranston East High School). Mrs. Maynard was a teacher at our school for 10 years, but in the Spring of 2018 she moved to Ireland, as her husband had a golden opportunity to study abroad for a year. Mrs. Tripp's position providentially opened up just as they were planing to return to the States. Mrs. Maynard was very well liked by the students and faculty, and so we are very happy to have her back; we’ll see if she teaches English now with an Irish brogue!
We also have a new priest at our Parish who will be involved with the school, Fr. Brendan Rowley is our new associate pastor, who replaced Fr. Fleming in July when Fr. Fleming was made Pastor of Ss. John and James and St. Mary’s in West Warwick. Fr. Rowley is a newly ordained priest, and like Fr. Fleming, he was assigned to me 5 years ago as a summer seminarian at my last parish. Fr. Rowley will be celebrating some of the First Friday Masses this year, he will also be preparing the second graders for first communion. But were also happy to have Fr. Rowley at our school, because before he was ordained, he got his bachelor’s degree in elementary education, and was for several years was a Catholic School teacher himself, teaching Math at Seton Academy in Central Falls. So Father will also be helping out on a limited basis as a Math Resource teacher.
We’ve also hired a new custodian, Mr. Bruce April, who will be cleaning the school and setting up things for the teachers during school hours.
And last, but certainly not least, we have our new Principal, Kevin Peloquin. I’ve been having a great time working with Kevin this summer, and I’m very excited about working with him as the school year begins, I think it’s going to be a great year at Fr. John V. Doyle. And not only is Kevin our new Principal, he's also our new Cross Country Coach (he has “hit the floor running,” both literally and figuratively!), and is the drummer in my school auction Calypso band! Kevin and I have been working hard all summer to get ready for the start of school. Our parish maintenance man John Ludka, the school night custodian Lori Chapman, and FJVD class of 2017 alumni JJ Cicione and James Laboissonniere have been busy cleaning and painting inside the school and landscaping outside it throughout the summer, helped by volunteers Nathan, Guinevere, and Olivia Ludka, Angie Stafford and Thien Bui. We had them repaint the bathroom stalls on the elementary school side of the building to go with the new tiles we put in last year; they also painted the lockers, front entrance, and other parts of the school with FJVD Red, which really looks nice.
One of my summer goals was to put in an irrigation system in the front of the school to increase curb appeal. The irrigation system is now up and running, just in time for the start of school! Ss. John and Paul Parishioner Gary Bourque, owner of Rhode Island Artesian Well, installed the irrigation well free of charge, and last week New England Lawn and Sprinkler put in the sprinklers. The irrigation system has been installed with proceeds from last year’s alumni appeal. An FJVD parent who is a landscaper has volunteered to get the lawn prepped and seeded and looking nice and green. In the meantime, our parish secretary Pam O’Neil has planted flowers in the three beds near the main entrance, please say a prayer that the deer won’t eat them! Finally, the class of 2019 has donated a 10 foot granite bench that will be installed in front of that flower bed near the gym, in the place where a concrete bench used to be; the new bench will be installed in early October.
Lastly, Kevin and I also spent a lot of time this summer meeting with many parents and students interested in the school. One of my ongoing goals as Pastor of the school is to increase enrollment, and I’m very happy to say that for the first time in ten years, Fr. John V. Doyle School has more students this year than it had last year! Last year we were at 143 students, this year we have 150 enrolled. But, we still have plenty of room to grow, so please, encourage your friends, neighbors and parents you meet on the sports fields to check our school out and Discover the Doyle Difference. We still are offering a tuition rebate of $500, which will be given to any FJVD parent who refers someone who ends up enrolling in our school.
So once again, welcome back, I’m looking forward to another fun and faith-filled year with all of you; I hope to see many of you at the morning prayer service, at dismissal, and at the Masses and special events throughout the year. You and your children will all be in my daily prayers, God Bless you, and may God continue to bless Fr. John V. Doyle School! – Fr. Woolley
About Us
The Mission of Father John V. Doyle School is to provide students with a solid, well-rounded education based on Roman Catholic Tradition.
We live the Word of God in a caring, safe, and nurturing environment.
Email: kevinpeloquin@fjvd.org
Website: fjvd.org
Location: 343 South Main Street, Coventry, RI, USA
Phone: 401-821-3756
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gofjvdsaints