Fr. Leon Olszamowski, s.m., the president of NDPMA, recently penned a message that was included in the most recent alumni magazine, “IRISH.” He talks about the early days of both Harper Woods Notre Dame and Pontiac Notre Dame as well as the big plans for the school's future.
Road to excellence
Head of school says in just a short time Notre Dame has come very far. But there still is much to do.
Notre Dame Head of School Fr. Leon Olszamowski, s.m., is a graduate of Harper Woods Notre Dame.
As a Boston College undergrad, I remember well the motto on the school’s shield: “Ever to Excel” (in Greek, of course). I remember my own steep climb to excellence in what back then was one of the ten best English departments in the country. I learned a lot climbing the stairs of the “Towers on the Heights,” to old Gasson Hall, where a good part of my tenure was spent. Lots of reading, long nights of composition, old English, middle English, the great vowel shift and more than a person can ever digest in school. At the feet of terrific professors, I learned to ply my trade as both student and teacher. I was invited, pushed, and shoved to “Excel.” I have to admit I was better prepared than I thought, falling back on the great high school education I received at Notre Dame in Harper Woods. Some people, not all, know that I went to school until I was thirty-five, before the Marist Fathers finally told me to go to work. I developed a great love of learning, having been taught by some of the best. I remain a lifelong learner and sometimes teacher.
It seems only natural that when I took the helm at both Notre Dame in Harper Woods and Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy in Pontiac, that I was on a mission to continue a great tradition of excellence at my alma mater and build, almost from scratch, a tradition of excellence at the Prep and Academy. For me, building a great school, is both a mission and a compulsion; and, in my own passionate way (having attended wonderful schools and having had great teachers), I knew what I “had” to do. So, building excellence at Harper Woods Notre Dame during my tenure there continues here at NDPMA. They are both schools in which I take great pride. And both schools were built in the Marist Fathers way with loving care as Fr. Jean-Claude Colin, our founder, prescribed.
Many people have asked me how we, the Marists, could build such good schools. In the case of Notre Dame in Harper Woods it was already there; I only helped push it along. In the case of Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy, the answer remains simple to state but complex to deliver. First, we Marists possess an unrelenting belief in the power of the Mother of God, Mary, whom we see as the force behind all we do. How often I have said that Mary always seems to come through and drop what we need in our laps. So the first part of the recipe for our school is belief and prayer. Second, great people. It is hard to fathom how so many wonderful teachers and staff were led to come our way, willing to work as ministers of the gospel and ardent advocates for young people. I was proud of the staff I worked with at Notre Dame High School and equally proud of the staff I work with today at Notre Dame Prep and Marist Academy. Third, hard work. We have, by “getting into it up to our elbows and sweating it out,” built one of the best schools in the state, perhaps, the Midwest; and we are not even what is often considered a mature school. We are only 22 years old. And, since school building is very much like people building, we are just moving out of adolescence—full of ideas to build a future fueled with the vigor to execute the dream. Fourth, hard cash, provided by men of great vision at the Archdiocese of Detroit, who, led by Cardinal Adam Maida, took the risk by inviting the Marist Fathers and investing a lot of money to rebuild (we say, “re-engineer”) the school. And by men like Fr. Joe Hindelang, s.m., and his provincial council, who had the courage to accept a school in northern Oakland County.
We say that we have come from humble beginnings to where we are today. From a school of 183 students and 16 staff members in our first year, we are as I write this article at 1,165 students (our highest enrollment since 2001-2002) and 145 staff members who offer a cornucopia of traditional, honors and AP courses; and of course, our distinctive and engaging International Baccalaureate programs—the only Catholic high school in the country to offer the Diploma, Middle Years, and Primary Years programs under one roof.
And what a blessing the International Baccalaureate programs have been for our school. Each program (DP, MYP and PYP) has raised the educational bar considerably, and our entire staff and student body have risen to meet that bar. The IB, unlike the AP, is not a series of à-la-carte discrete courses; it is based on the “IB Learner Profile” and “Approaches to Teaching and Learning” that address both the hard-skill aspects of academic education and the soft-skill dynamics of growing up to meet the needs of today’s society. It addresses the heart and mind of students, helping them exercise their personal and intellectual talents. Ask any IB student what this “Quest for Excellence” has done for them. It was a steep educational mountain, yes, but well worth the climb!
It would be foolish to say that Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is a school for every student. Students must be prepared to engage people and the curriculum. Extracurricular activities often help to take care of the people-engagement part; a student’s educational background and willingness to explore new ideas addresses the schooling part. Finally, students must be “mission-oriented” to act in a Christian manner engaging other people as good school citizens, while absorbing well their academic subject, employing critical-thinking skills.
You may be asking the question, “Where is this school going? Some of us have been here for many years, and we certainly know where the school has been as well as the pitfalls to be avoided. We are growing in size and prowess, but there is limit to growth. We would like to grow our middle and lower divisions by perhaps as many as 50 students each. However, we are not pursuing major growth in the upper division; a growth of only about 25 more students is in the cards. We want our upper division to be strong across the board and not lose anyone in the cracks. 775 students or so allows us to build a strong curriculum and still give needed attention to individuals. We are a very good school but strive for greatness as we fulfill our school mission.
We now see a need to add more academic, arts and athletic space to the campus. Our master plan shows our current campus of about 100 acres. We are currently concentrating on adding a new wing in back of the 1300 Giddings campus to serve both the middle and upper divisions. The plan also shows a new chapel, a new welcome center, a new performing-arts building, and new athletic complex at the south end of the 1300 Giddings property. For now, we hope to add the new wing (around 35-40,000 square feet) in the next couple of years.
The new Notre Dame lower-division building, which opened in August 2013, enabled junior-kindergarten through fifth-grade students to move onto the same campus as the other two divisions.
We are a school that follows the price/value model inasmuch as we give the education we can for what we charge. We distinguish our school from others by offering a Marist Fathers approach to Catholic education along with the blossoming International Baccalaureate program.
Down the road, we may add a STEM, STEAM or STREAM program, but for now, we have neither the technical programmatic expertise nor the resources to offer such a complex program. The program calls for more than just building small or large robots (although we participate in robotic competition through FIRST, VEX, and Lego League); a STEM-type program calls for a considerably different set of teaching skills and equipment, which we do not possess at this time.
Our main aim is to be an academic school of excellence at a price many families can afford. We also offer very fine athletics and arts programs (fine and performing). We have a vision for the future, both short- and long-range; but we do not want to overreach and end up thinning out or spoiling what we have carefully built.
Today, our school is doing very well. We have a fine student body and teaching staff. We see the need for more space but not a lot more students. We see areas for improvement, and we are addressing those areas as time and money allow. Just moving out of what I have called “school adolescence,” we are forging our future despite growing pains. We, the Marists, our Board of Trustees and our staff associates believe we have a bright future. We believe that we are successful because we do what we do so well. We are not prone to jump on fad bandwagons or undertake unrealistic projects. You might say we are maturing with grace. As Jesus once said, “The good steward is the one that can bring forth from his storehouse both the old and the new.” We think we are good stewards of your children’s Christian education by adhering closely to our Catholic, Marist mission.
Comments or questions? mkelly@ndpma.org.
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About Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy
Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. The school's upper division enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame's middle and lower divisions enroll students in jr. kindergarten through grade eight. All three divisions are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDPMA is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy, visit the school's home page at www.ndpma.org.