Newest Catholic school set to open next month
Parish, students overjoyed for ‘Annunciation’
By Ambria Hammel | July 1, 2009 | The Catholic Sun
CAVE CREEK — Emily Shimkus’ prayers for a new school have been answered.
She turned her class motto — “Never give up” — into her personal prayer at Mass each week. Shimkus prayed for a nearby place to continue her Catholic education after graduating from Our Lady of Joy Preschool in Carefree in May.
The closest Catholic elementary school was more than 16 miles away. Her new school will be about half the distance.
Annunciation Catholic School will open at St. Gabriel the Archangel Parish next month to first- and second-grade students. They’ll fill two 650-square-foot classrooms in the parish hall. Construction on the permanent school — ultimately a K-8 campus — is still in the fundraising stage.
“The long range plans have always called for a school on our parish site,” Fr. Dennis O’Rourke, pastor, said of the 9-year-old campus. “We just thought it would be in the distant future. To have it come to fruition so soon is very exciting.”
Many of Annunciation’s first students will likely be graduates of Our Lady of Joy Preschool, like Shimkus. They have enrollment priority.
After 10 years, the preschool expanded to offer kindergarten two years ago and first grade last year. Our Lady of Joy once looked into further expansion, but learned early this year that it’s not feasible.
“There was a bunch of parents who didn’t want to let it die. People want the safety and security of a parochial school,” said Dulce Shimkus, Emily’s mom and a teacher at Our Lady of Joy.
Parents also wanted a school that was closer.
Families living north of Loop 101 spent the last 10 years driving their children to Pope John XXIII School near 60th Street and Bell Road in Scottsdale, the closest Catholic elementary school. That’s more than 12 miles south of Annunciation Catholic School.
“It’s really nice to finally have a school more central,” Shimkus said of the far north Valley.
Annunciation Catholic School will be capped at 50 students, 25 per classroom. Sharon Pristash, principal, will also teach.
Pristash met students and parishioners after Sunday Masses earlier this week.
“I would like to see students involved in dreaming about the new school to be built and ask for their input about what it should look like and what it should include,” Pristash said. The principal once taught at an elementary school when it expanded to eighth grade.
Pristash has spent 23 years teaching and administering in Catholic schools and is a product of the system herself. Pristash said Catholic schools provide a strong faith foundation, “a benefit that lasts throughout one’s life on earth and ensures participation in the life that is to come.”
Annunciation Catholic School will be the first diocesan elementary school to open since St. John Bosco was established in Phoenix in 2000, some 10 years ago.
