The Diocese of Fort Worth has announced the formation of a new Catholic school to open in the fall of 2012. Holy Cross Catholic School will initially be located at 303 King Road in Frisco, and will welcome its first students in August. There will be a prospective parent meeting at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 17 in the church cafeteria. Registration for Holy Cross School will begin Wed., Jan. 25.
The new Holy Cross Catholic School comes as the result of Bishop Kevin Vann’s concurrence with the recommendation of Father Michael Holmberg, and the leadership of Holy Cross Parish. Fr. Holmberg is the pastor of Holy Cross Parish in the Colony.
In the Holy Cross Parish bulletin for the New Year’s weekend Masses, Fr. Holmberg recalled the parish’s desire to build a school at its beginning 30 years ago. That desire was thwarted when it was determined there was not enough Catholic population to justify a school at the time. He goes on to say, “Approximately two years ago, another feasibility study … was conducted by Meitler Associates on behalf of the Diocese of Fort Worth and Holy Cross. The results of that study indicate that, first of all, the Catholic population is now of sufficient size to support a Catholic school, and, secondly, the existing Catholic families of Eastern Denton County desire and want a school to educate their children in the Catholic educational tradition.”
Fr. Holmberg wrote, “The school will be accredited when it opens and will begin with pre-k3, pre-k4, pre-k5 transitional, kindergarten, and first grade, adding a grade a year,” The school will emphasize technology and the arts, with each student using an iPad while following the curriculum adopted by the Catholic School System of the Diocese of Fort Worth. Holy Cross Catholic School will be the 20th school in the system. In time, the school will transition to the new location at Teel and Lebanon.
Marie Pishko, who is a Holy Cross parishioner and member of the Pastoral Advisory Council, has been named the founding principal of the new school by Don Miller, superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Fort Worth. Pishko has served most recently as principal of All Saints Catholic School in the Diocese of Dallas. She holds a masters degree in counseling and guidance as well as a masters of business administration. She has worked in Catholic schools in the Diocese of Wichita, Kansas, the Archdiocese of Mobile, Alabama, and the Archdiocese of Dubuque, Iowa. As with other Catholic school start-ups in recent years, the school will build toward becoming a kindergarten to eighth grade school.
In closing his announcement, Fr. Holmberg wrote, “All of this being said, with the establishment of this new ministry — Holy Cross School — the dream, conceived years ago by the parishioners of Holy Cross is becoming a reality.”
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