st. mary's school

’Serving Others, Having Fun, and Living Prayer’

By Henrietta Gomes
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the Issue of 1/25/07)

To call the school day “busy” would be an understatement for one of the largest elementary schools in the Arlington Diocese. St. Mary School in Old Town Alexandria is bustling with classes and various activities throughout the day. “Here we have to work as a team,” said Louis Frisenda, principal of the school, which serves 700 children from pre-K through eighth-grade. He continued, “We have to put in a lot of effort and come together.”
The school, staffed with 62 faculty members, is supported by St. Mary Church, the oldest parish in Virginia, located a few blocks from the school. “We’re spreading sacredness across six blocks,” said Frisenda, who has served as principal for the last three and half years. “Our purpose is to exist because Christ exists,” he said. “That’s the foundation of everything we do, and that cements us.”
Students are immersed in a spirit of prayer and works, which seems to permeate throughout the school and seeps into the community. Many fourth- through eighth-graders are involved in the Corporal Works of Mercy Club, where they participate in activities such as caring for the parish cemetery across the street by planting flowers, or picking up debris. Some students in the club hold fundraisers to purchase diapers and other items for St. Ann Infant and Maternity Home in Hyattsville, Md.
“We’re giving our kids an exposure to the world,” said Frisenda, noting that last year students donated toys to children in Peru, and participated in a Walk for the Homeless. Teachers at St. Mary strive to “educate the whole person,” he said.
Whatever the day’s activities hold, all the works first begin with prayer in front of the Blessed Sacrament in the school’s chapel. The Adoration Club gives students the opportunity to focus solely on praying for various intentions including an increase of vocations and peace in the world. “My feeling is that if you don’t infuse education with faith than we’re not fulfilling our mission…” The faculty is also encouraged to live the life of prayer, said Frisenda, who leads morning prayer for the staff in the school’s chapel before students arrive.
The school consists of two sections of pre-K classes, and three sections of kindergarten through eighth-grade classes. Despite the large size of the school, the dynamic between student and teacher does not suffer. “Teachers really get to know their kids,” Frisenda said. He praised his teachers for having “the ability to form solid relationships with the students.” Teachers at St. Mary, “are confident in their job, and that’s a joy that I have.” Many of them have been in education for up to 25 years, he noted.
One of the benefits of being such a large school is the ability to cater to the various needs of the students. “We make an effort to reach all children,” said Frisenda, who explained the goal of the school’s Learning Center, which serves students with learning disabilities. “We’ve had great success,” said Frisenda praising the work of Marjorie Malloy, who has served as the head of the center for three years. Recently, the parish Conference of St. Mary awarded the school with a $50,000 grant to assist with the operational costs of the center. He emphasized the importance of ensuring that no students are left behind.
Due to the large number of students the school uses a second building for the seventh- and eighth-graders. The building once served as a convent for the Sisters of the Holy Cross. According to Frisenda, the sixth-graders will soon join the ranks of the junior high students and share their building.
The junior high students, however, are not segregated from the rest of the school. Many opportunities exist for them to interact with younger students. One such occasion is through the school’s “study buddy program,” Frisenda explained, as a stream of silent, but smiling third-graders and kindergarteners passed through the hall. The third-graders mentor the kindergarteners; the fourth-graders mentor the first-graders; the fifth-, sixth-, and seventh-graders mentor the second, third- and fourth-graders. Students are instilled with the desire to help others, said Frisenda, “These are the most amazing kids I’ve ever encountered,” he said.
One of the most important aspects of the school day, said Frisenda, is making sure the students have fun. “We believe in order and discipline, but it must be applied in balance,” said Frisenda, as the sound of music and incessant laughter from the gym echoed through the lower level of the school. Even though the school is constantly full of activity, the principal said, “We all share the same vision … and we live prayer.”