Principal’s Posts

SJS Students Excel at ACT,  Klawitter Shatters School Record (Again!) In February of 2020, St. Joseph Catholic School learned that Natalie Meath and Jack Van Nurden, Waconia High School Students and 2016 St. Joe’s graduates, were named National Merit Finalists, a prestigious national award based in part on their college entrance examinations.  Since then the … Continue reading

TWAS (This Week at St. Joseph) – July 10, 2020 Hello everyone, I hope that you had a wonderful 4th of July weekend and that you are staying cool. It has been an absolutely crazy busy start to July for me. Typically, this is the slowest month of the year for a principal – not … Continue reading

6.24.20 God isn’t finished Why is an education at St. Joseph School, no matter how the learning happens (pandemic or under normal conditions) a valuable education, making it worthy of investing time, resources and finances? There are many layers to this question, and today I will begin a series of articles about our mission statement … Continue reading

SJS Annual Report_2019-2020

06/15/2020 St. Joseph Catholic School in Waconia has been awarded a $25,000 challenge grant to help support the school in its efforts to open this Fall, welcoming our beautiful students back into the classroom!  The Schulze Family Foundation has awarded this grant as a challenge grant meaning that St. Joseph Catholic School must raise $25,000 … Continue reading

June 12, 2020   Hello St. Joseph families and supporters and welcome to our 2020 summer series of TWAS (This week at St. Joe’s).   As the summer begins at St. Joseph School, it is a crazy time of finishing up year-end reports as well as starting preparations for the next year. This week, our … Continue reading

June 11, 2020 2020 8th grade graduation commencement Good evening graduates, parents and family members.  Welcome to the beautiful commencement exercises of this very strange year.  It brings me and our staff great joy to be able to see all of you tonight so that we can honor these wonderful young people as they cross … Continue reading

June 3, 2020 Hello everyone, This message has two objectives: A call to respond to the events in our community and some info about next school year. To this point, the events of 2020 have left us shaking our heads and wondering about our future.  First Covid-19 and now the senseless murder of George Floyd. Our Twin … Continue reading

5/1/2020 Much has changed at St. Joseph Catholic STEM School.  With school closed due to COVID-19, we want you to know how we have adapted to online learning. Now more than ever, we treasure the value of St. Joseph School’s mission, traditions and community. When it became clear that students would not be allowed to … Continue reading

4/3/2020 A message for families experiencing some financial crisis. The “Aim Higher” Foundation has been supporting families through scholarships to attend Catholic Schools for several years. In this extraordinary time, the Foundation has opened up opportunities for families that are experiencing some financial crisis. If this is you, we invite you to take advantage of … Continue reading

When Minnesota Governor Tim Walz announced on March 15 that schools across the state would close to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the teachers and staff at St. Joseph Catholic School in Waconia sprang into action. Although Governor Walz declared that schools could use a two-week time period to prepare for online learning, St. Joe’s … Continue reading

St. Joseph School staff has embraced the challenge put forth by our current reality to provide quality education in a virtual format.  The first things we did as a staff included prayer and hosting a virtual meeting so we could feel what that was like.  Throughout the first part of last week, teachers collaborated to … Continue reading

  Need urgent assistance or have a question that can’t wait for an email? Call Emily (school office), through this new temporary phone number – (952) 479-0537‬. Messages will be responded to each day between 9:00 am – 3:00 pm. Text messages are welcome! UPDATE 3/23/2020 UPDATE 3/19/2020 UPDATE 3/16/2020 UPDATE 3/15/2020 UPDATE 3/12/2020 Waconia … Continue reading

St. Joseph Robotics Team Heading to State Tournament St. Joe’s First LEGO League (FLL) 7th-grade robotics team competed at the sectional tournament in St. Paul on January 12 and advanced to the state competition, to be held on February 22. In addition to posting the second-highest robot performance score in their division, the team received … Continue reading

ADVANCEMENT UPDATE January 23, 2020 CHARTING A NEW COURSE St. Joseph C-STEM School will begin to chart a new course for our future. School leaders are focusing on the need to plan on how we can develop more resources; attract and retain more families; communicate better; and, invite, involve and engage more people into our … Continue reading

Hope Dealers  Over the past few weeks, I’ve had an opportunity to volunteer for Catholic Charities.  Each week I visit a home for men who are chronic addicts.  These men have lost everything.  They have no home, no job, no money and most of their families have given up on them.  As sad as this sounds, … Continue reading

Homework – tips for parents Consolidated from the United States Dept. of Education website. Now that we are a few weeks into the school year, we are settling into some patterns. One of those patterns is regular homework. I recently consolidated some info on homework from the US Dept. of Ed website. At St. Joseph, … Continue reading

Grace Abounds  The new school year has opened with great enthusiasm.  There is much joy in the building and this community has once again demonstrated an amazing welcome for one another.  I heard one of our teachers comment earlier this week how they could feel the grace of the Holy Spirit moving through the building.  How true!  One of my favorite songs … Continue reading

What makes C-STEM learning a good thing? There is a lot of research about 21st Century learning that makes our C-STEM model an excellent option for our school.  There are strong cries throughout the country for innovative schools to continue to grow so as to advance the excellence of our nation’s school system.  It has … Continue reading

St. Joseph Catholic STEM School is a faith & family based Toddler-Grade 8 school. We are the leading C-STEM School in the Archdiocese, offering small class sizes, a caring before and after school care program and have award winning programs. Come visit our school to see how we have we inspiring hearts and minds since … Continue reading

St. Joseph Catholic School is a member of Northwestern University’s Midwest Academic Talent Search (NUMATS).  Based on standardized test scores, Northwestern University of Illinois invited several seventh and eighth grade students from St. Joe’s to take the ACT college entrance examination alongside local juniors and seniors. St. Joe’s middle school students Andrew Klawitter, Alison Klunkel, Jake Kooiman, and … Continue reading

At St. Joseph School, we are always striving for excellence, we are reaching for those things that makes us stronger so that our students and families can be assured that they are receiving a great education.  For the past two months, we have been working through a process to develop a partnership with Groves Academy … Continue reading

Happy Spring, St. Joseph Parents, Alumni, Friends & Staff! Boogie Blast THANKS Thank you to all attendees, bidders, workers, committee members, and donors for the 13th Annual Boogie Blast Dinner Auction held Saturday night, May 4th. Special thanks to Boogie Blast Committee Members; Lonnie Fette, Nate Buska, Kelly Buska, Sarah Richards, Kelly Peterson, Jenny Kohrman and … Continue reading

As St. Joseph Catholic School moves into the end of the 2018—2019 school year, our sights turn to the incoming students for 2019-2020.  We have always attracted top quality students who believe in our mission and who grow here at St. Joseph Catholic School and become leaders throughout our Faith Community and beyond. Please take … Continue reading

The Frontline – Principal Bruce Richards “I see clearly that the thing the church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity.  I see the church as a field hospital after a battle.  It is useless to ask a seriously injured person … Continue reading

Make it your BEST LENT EVER – TOP 10! Sign up for Dynamic Catholic’s Best Lent Ever Attend Daily Mass! Tuesday-Thursday 8:15 AM, Fridays 7 AM Join us for Stations of the Cross on Fridays Journey as a family with the Lenten Passport! Coming home soon! Save the Date for Wednesday, April 3, 6 PM. … Continue reading

If you were not able to attend the Parish Prayer Fair this past weekend, we hope your family will participate in the next 7 week Gifts of the Holy Spirit Challenge!  Please click on the attachment for the packet.  We have extra puzzles so if you want one they will be in back of church … Continue reading

St. Joe’s Tuition and Fair Share for 2019-2020   January 10, 2019 Hello St. Joe’s School parents, As we begin the new year, we are putting our budget in place for the upcoming school year.  Here are the rates and fees: Tuition will remain the same for the 2019-2020 school year; $4950 *Registration fee: $150/student, … Continue reading

St. Joseph School Families,   Welcome to the 2019-2020 School Year.  It may seem early, but we are already beginning to plan for next school year.  We are modifying our enrollment process to make things easier for families and staff.  The new procedure is called, “Continuous Enrollment”.  This new process has already been put into … Continue reading

Choose Wisely As Fr. Stan completes his trip to the Holy Land, I’m humbled to fill in as a guest writer this week.  Have no fear, Fr. Stan will be back for next week’s bulletin. The church year is coming to a close next weekend.  Over these last two weeks of the church year, we … Continue reading

On Friday, November 2nd, All Souls Day, St. Joseph School students, alumni, parents and staff will be participating in the Annual Minnesota Marathon for Nonpublic Education, a program sponsored by the Knights of Columbus, which we call our Service Rake-a-thon. We start the morning by encouraging all families to attend the 7:00 am Mass, which … Continue reading

Thanks for voting us #1 for the 5th year in a row, Readers Choice Awards 2018! #1 PRIVATE SCHOOL 5 years in a row!   #1 PRINCIPAL Congratulations to Mr. Richards!   #1 TEACHER! Congratulations to Mrs. Kristi Klawitter – Middle School Math Teacher!

The Wardrobe    One day last week I was reading a book in the comforts of my lounge chair at home.  My wife Pam was opening the mail when suddenly I heard a loud, “Yes!”.  I wondered what she may have found in the mail that caused such a reaction, and so I turned to … Continue reading

All Pro Dad    One of my favorite movies is the movie “Dad”.  It premiered in 1989 and starred  Ted Danson playing an adult son of Jack Lemmon.  The plot develops around the relationship that never took place during Danson’s character’s childhood.  Now health problems have called him home to be with his ailing and … Continue reading

  Perfection, a blessing or a curse?  Mr. Richards 09/21/2018   Over the past few weeks I have come across many different thought producing messages that promote a pursuit of perfection.  Whether it be in playing a musical instrument, doing a math problem or acting like a Christian we all receive challenges to improve who … Continue reading

Hello everyone, welcome to This Week At St. Joe’s (TWAS).  Contrary to popular belief, summer is a crazy busy time around school.  A lot of things happen that keep us energized and focused on the future during the summer.  Here are a few things that happened This Week at St. Joe’s (TWAS):   Two new … Continue reading

An important update from Mr. Richards – SCIENCE TESTING RESULTS As we complete different segments of our spring testing, I will aggregate results and share them with you. We start science testing in 4th grade, so to show growth of our students, we will look at grades 5-8 to show the spring to spring growth. … Continue reading

Next Saturday evening, May 5th,  is our most anticipated event of the school year, Boogie Blast! I wanted to write this note to personally invite each of you to come and support us and see some familiar faces from the past. RSVP HERE. For those of you that follow us on Facebook,  I hope you have … Continue reading

Open the Gates! I imagine that all of us have had experiences where we are eager to open our doors for a much-anticipated guest.  Prior to the guests’ arrival we work hard to prepare the rooms of our homes, to make some food to share and we plan some entertaining activities for our guests.  There … Continue reading

Our world needs light; God’s light of love. Can you commit to 1% more in prayer, fasting and almsgiving all year long? 2%? 5%? Let’s be a Beacon of Light to our community that brings more souls to Christ, and evangelize our community like never before!

The gospel story of Jesus destroying the temple is at the forefront this week.  For some reason, the imagery of Jesus being angry and overturning the temple is one that I can see very easily. 

What if? I’ve always been a wonderer. I find myself wondering and dreaming about things, some are realistic possibilities, others are just far off thoughts. At adoration this week I found myself wondering about what my life would have been like if I had lived at the time and place when Jesus walked the earth? … Continue reading

In today’s American culture, one of the fastest growing responses to faith affiliation is a reply called, “NONE”.

I have the best job in the world! Here are a few stories that justify my point.

At adoration this week I found myself wondering about what my life would have been like if I had lived at the time and place when Jesus walked the earth? What role might I have played? Would I have been one of the first disciples? Would I have been a Roman soldier or a ranking member of the Sanhedrin who was directly responsible for his death?

If these strangers are able to share so much love with someone that they don’t personally know, how much more love and comfort will the Father’s loving care bring us when we rely on Him? We can’t begin to imagine the joy of heaven.

“Comfort, Give Comfort to My People” Isaiah 40:1 I looked up to the heavens as I stepped from my vehicle and asked myself why Linda was here. I could hear the whir of the helicopter blades as I approached the hospital doors. My heart raced and a sense of dread filtered through my veins as … Continue reading

St. Joseph Catholic School has been in existence since 1860!  That was the year the Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States.  In that time, thousands of students have roamed the halls of the school and hundreds of teachers have dedicated their careers to the youth of our parish. Over the next several … Continue reading

Take a closer step to heaven today, and don’t go alone!

We are called to live our parish mission to Know, Love and Serve the Lord. Someone out their needs you today, how will you answer the call?

This week we celebrate All Saints Day. Each and every day we have an opportunity to make decisions that can lead us to heaven. Once we make it there we will join the host of saints. Here is a great story of a modern day saint. I hope it can give you inspiration to Serve the Lord each and every day.

This past week I was thinking about God’s response to our broken humanness and I was wondering if He ever gets tired of man’s rejection of the gift of faith. Here’s my line of thinking, starting with the history of our faith, with Abraham. Here’s a Bible history in less than two pages… God made … Continue reading

According to the Catechism (part 1, chapter 1, paragraph 33) the human person discerns signs of his spiritual soul. The soul, the “seed of eternity we bear in ourselves, irreducible to the merely material”, can have its origin only in God. In the glossary of the Catechism, a soul is defined as the spiritual principle … Continue reading

I have an invitation for each of you who are seeking a deeper relationship with Jesus. In the next few weeks, we will be hosting a ‘Christ Renews His Parish’ experience for both men and women (ages 18 and up) here at St. Joseph. The men’s weekend is next weekend, Sept. 30 – Oct. 1 and the women’s weekend is Oct. 14-15.

All are invited to attend the SJS first school Mass on Wednesday, September 6. Wear red!

The question is: If you could be the patron saint of something, what would you be the patron saint of?

Our mission statement drives us to become the best version of ourselves, day in and day out. That best version of self is the one who God made us to be. If each of us does our part, we can become saints!

What is it that you pray for so fervently and relentlessly? Health for a loved one or ourselves? Financial freedom? Peace and justice in our world? Healthier relationships? Prayers for vocations?

St. Joseph Catholic School Discovery Center Preschool located in Waconia has earned accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) – the nation’s leading organization of early childhood professionals. “We’re proud to have earned the mark of quality from NAEYC, and to be recognized for our commitment to reaching the highest … Continue reading