Three elementary schools gain national Cognia recognition

By Peter Finney Jr.
Clarion Herald

Three elementary schools in the Archdiocese of New Orleans were recognized as “2022 Cognia Schools of Distinction” among the 96 that received the honor across the United States.

The honored schools were Holy Name of Jesus School in New Orleans; St. Angela Merici School in Metairie;  and St. Charles Borromeo School in Destrehan.

The Clarion Herald asked the three principals to highlight what distinguished their schools in the competitive assessment. 

Approximately 1,500 schools applied for the honor during the 2021-22 school year – one year after the COVID-19 pandemic affected all aspects of education. Those tough challenges makes the award even more special.

Holy Name of Jesus School

6325 Cromwell Place, New Orleans

Principal: Kirsch J. Wilberg

Grades: Infants through 7th grade

Enrollment: 520

Faculty and Staff: 85

Website: www.hnjschool.org

Kirsch Wilberg: The recognition means we were one of 96 schools that were selected out of 1,500 from last year, so, to me, it says that we’re in the top 5% of all schools in our ability to offer programming to support students. The process took place all of last year. We finished at the beginning of April (in 2022). In our process, every single faculty member contributed to the narratives that we gave to Cognia. It wasn’t just two or three people putting together information to showcase our school. I think that’s what made us so successful. We asked everybody to take a deep dive and look at specific areas and offer feedback on what should be shared with Cognia. 

Cognia asked for a lot of data, and we were able to show in both the interim testing that we used and also the standardized testing (through ACT) that our data rose consistently throughout the entire pandemic. We were able to show that our academic programming was strong even through some of the virtual learning and students coming in and out. They asked for data in four areas: science, math, English and reading – and we were in the top quadrant in each area.

One of the things that was most challenging, honestly, was that there was a principal change over the last few years. We had to show that we had programming in place to support all the new things that we had, and we were able to do that. 

As a school, we’ve learned that when you give ownership of learning to the students, then the students are more successful.

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St. Angela Merici School

835 Melody Drive, Metairie

Principal: Paige Bennett

Grades: Pre-K2 through 7th grade

Enrollment: 385

Faculty and Staff: 45

Website: www.stangelaschool.org

Paige Bennett: We’re such a strong team. It’s great to see that what we believe we are doing well every day is recognized by an outside party. We did go through this process six years ago, and at that time we really were making a lot of changes at school and putting things in place for who we are today. One of the things Cognia reported back to us was how our stakeholders understood and supported the vision and mission of the school. For us, that was huge, because we feel like we have a very specific mission – to educate kids in Christ but also for their own personal excellence. Wherever that child is, we meet them where they are. For Cognia to come back and say our grandparents understood that, our community members understood that, our parish, our parents, our students – that was huge because we’ve been working on this mission for so long. We’re not just a great academic school that builds leadership in servicing kids. At the end of the day, we’re here to make sure that they go out and serve God and serve their community. For them to be able to say that all these stakeholders knew that, that was the biggest thing.

They asked me for a stakeholders’ list, and I started typing, and it was like, “OK, I meet with these people every week. My administrative team works with these people. Every week, we go to the pastoral council meeting. I couldn’t believe how many times we interact with stakeholders throughout a week, a month and a year. The more you’re talking to them and speaking that message, the more that mission becomes ingrained. We’re all on that same mission.

Our work during the pandemic speaks to the commitment of our teachers, administration and parents and the importance of communication. We were sending home emails every week asking parents, “What worked this week? What did you have trouble with on your homework? What did you have that you might need? Do you need a printer, a computer?” Our administrative team was going through these notes and calling each parent who left a comment to follow up. That effort paid off. It was a quick, five-question survey every Friday. Our teachers, administration and families put in the effort to fill out the survey.

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St. Charles Borromeo School

13396 River Road, Destrehan

Principal: Rachel Levet Hafford

Grades: Pre-K3 through 7th grade

Enrollment: 456

Faculty and Staff: 56

Website: school.scbhumilitas.org

Rachel Levet Hafford: I feel it’s a true testament to all of our stakeholders being invested in our overall school success. It’s definitely a team effort – not just one person but it’s the parents, the teachers, the administrative staff and the students always striving to improve and always striving to be the absolute best version of ourselves. 

We do this every five years, and it’s important to us. We don’t have to do this. We could just be the great school that we are. But what we really like about Cognia is that it’s external people coming in and looking at all aspects of your school life and giving recommendations on “this is what you’re doing well, this is what you can improve on.” It’s one thing being in the trenches and you feel like you know what you’re doing well, but to have someone external, who’s not connected to the school and is looking at schools all over the world, come in and give you recommendations is truly a beneficial experience. Sometimes it’s good to hear that you’re doing really well.

I was most proud of our student engagement. It came back to us that our students are very engaged and that they’re in a loving and fruitful environment. Cognia is not a Catholic organization, so they can’t come back and say that the students are in a Catholic, Christian environment, but I know that that plays a role. That is why our kids are so happy and feel safe here and feel comfortable to explore and to take risks and to develop into the person that God wants them to be.

Coming through the pandemic was probably one of the most humbling parts of the entire experience. Education was halted abruptly right in the spring of 2020. And, you know, we could have just put our hands up and said, “We don’t know what to do.” But, we all came together. To think four years ago that we would be where we are now and see all that we have done is amazing. We were still in the middle of the COVID situation, but we decided we were going to do this because it was important to us. It was a huge pat on the back. I feel it inspired our teachers that what we’re doing is making a difference. It was a huge affirmation that we truly are doing God’s work here.