Aloha!

 

Welcome to the St. Theresa School website. Mahalo for considering our school as an option for your child. I am excited and humbled to be the newly appointed principal for the 2024-25 school year. I was a teacher and administrator for over thirty years in Catholic high schools and elementary schools in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and I have been at St. Theresa for four years. 

 

St. Theresa is a hidden gem that dazzles and sparkles right next to an awe-inspiring ocean view on the west side of Kauai. It really is an amazing place. It is a school where state standards are not the maximum level of education, they are the minimum level of achievement. It provides a values based education of justice and truth and compassion and love, where the risen Christ is the role model for everything we say and do.

 

We are ohana! We nurture the whole child. We work in partnership with parents to foster the development of every learner in every way: intellectually, spiritually, emotionally and physically. Our small class sizes and low teacher:student ratios allow us to encourage each child to discover their own unique abilities, talents and gifts. We learn and grow together, and we have fun!

 

The financial choice of a Catholic school education can be incredibly difficult for families in the current economy. In this economy we are all making difficult choices about all kinds of things.  If we are in a store buying clothes, and we see one item for $60 and a similar item for $40, the $40 item becomes “good enough.” 

 

But when it comes to the education of our children, good enough isn’t good enough. Who knows what challenges and problems our keiki will face in the future? Think back to five years ago. In 2019, who could have predicted the Covid 19 Pandemic, the January 6 uprising in Washington D.C., the war in the Ukraine, the war in the Middle East, the fires on Maui? Our children need an education that will help them to deal with the world with Christian love, understanding, compassion and justice. At St. Theresa, we strive to give them that education.

 

St. Theresa is a wonderful place for our keiki. Call us, come visit us. I want us to help educate and nurture as many learners as we can hold.

 

 Mahalo and God Bless!

 

David Verdugo, M.A.