CHARLOTTE — St. Gabriel School has added a fifth kindergarten class this year to meet overwhelming interest in the school.
It’s the first time the school has had five kindergarten classes.
The new kindergarten students started Feb. 2, said Principal Michele Snoke. The class is taught by Nicole Caprio, a board-certified kindergarten teacher who had been teaching the school’s STEM program for kindergarten to fifth grades.
Creating a new kindergarten section was planned by Superintendent Dr. Greg Monroe, Father Richard Sutter, pastor of St. Gabriel Church, and Snoke.
“We added the class in the middle of the school year because the need and opportunity was there,” Snoke said. “The timing was right. Our mission is to provide a Catholic education for all children. We had the ability to serve the children in our community.”
The new class was added to accommodate a waiting list that dates back a year, Snoke said, as well as increased enrollment interest prompted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The school has four other full kindergarten classes with 25 students in each.
“All the pieces fell into place,” Snoke said.
The new kindergarten class was quickly filled, she said. The admissions office for Mecklenburg Area Catholic Schools contacted the families on the kindergarten waiting list, and most families expressed interest in starting kindergarten at St. Gabriel as soon as possible.
This change won’t affect class sizes in the future, Snoke said. Next year, the school will have five first-grade classes.
Total enrollment at the school is now 612 students.
To accommodate the growing number of classes, school leaders are working on a plan to renovate and add classroom space.
The school’s current students were not affected by this change, and none of the previous kindergartners were moved to the new class.
The new class is being taught in the room planned for the STEM classes this year, Snoke said.
Replacing Caprio as STEM teacher is Carolyn Lux. STEM was taught remotely during the first half of the year, and moving forward some classes are being held in individual classrooms as well as in space available adjacent to the music room.
— Kimberly Bender, Online reporter
Making a world of difference
CHARLOTTE — Our Lady of the Assumption’s Principal Allana Ramkissoon, who helped guide the K-8 school through many significant transitions over her 13-year tenure, is set to retire June 24.
She is becoming an assistant superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Charlotte. Ramkissoon takes on her new role July 1.
A native of Trinidad and Tobago, she came to the Diocese of Charlotte from Turks and Caicos in 2005, after answering an advertisement for teaching opportunities in North Carolina.
She assumed the role of principal at OLA, the diocese’s most diverse school, in October 2008. Her appreciation for diversity and her mission to offer a Catholic learning environment for all who seek it is evident in her dedication to her students, families and staff who have been a part of the OLA family over the years.
“Most of the work I have done here has really been to help the school find itself, and I think it has,” Ramkissoon says.
“As it says (on the signage) when you come in: ‘We’re not just a school, we are a family.’ That’s really what I wanted it to say. I wanted to appeal to people who want a Catholic education (for their children) to know when they come in, it is nice and small.”
Ramkissoon believes that OLA has something unique to offer among the diocese’s 19 Catholic schools. “What we have here is really something special. It shows that everybody has a place. Everybody can find a place. We happen to be in a neighborhood where there is a lot of diversity,” she explains.
OLA has gone through several transformations, which Ramkissoon has helped spearhead. For example, the school expanded to include sixth through eighth grades in 2011.
“Parents wanted kids to go back to a small school environment,” Ramkissoon says. Expanding the middle school grades meant siblings could stay together longer, which many families preferred.
“(This addition of the middle school) helps kids flourish at OLA before they go off to a larger high school environment,” she says. Roughly 95 percent of OLA’s eighth-graders go on to either Charlotte Catholic High School or Christ the King High School in Huntersville.
“The faith, the shared values, devotions, celebrations of the saints, the liturgical seasons… those are the things that really make a world of difference,” Ramkissoon believes.
In 2012-’13 OLA went through a rebranding to reflect the expansion in 2011. The mascot became the Phoenix, a mythical bird which represents new life and resurrection.
“OLA was going through a rebirth, so little things like that helped the students feel like the school had a new purpose, a new vision,” she recalls. “We had to consider how we could preserve the glory of the past and chart a new way that was meaningful and relevant.”
Ramkissoon oversaw a major gymnasium renovation, which improved what was a multipurpose space used for physical education programs, as well as updates to the cafeteria that included adding a stage for theatrical performances.
“Because we were so committed to English language learners, we applied for a grant and received $500,000 in 2018. This allowed us to create a ‘cafetorium,’ a space for dining, performances, instruction, and our breakfast program, which allows us to offer breakfast foods and snacks to hungry students,” she explains.
OLA also underwent a major transformation in the creation of a STEM lab and Makerspace adjoining the updated library.
“I have learned so many different things, how to do so many different things – and made some mistakes,” Ramkissoon admits. “But in the end, the result is a place where parents feel 100 percent confident that their students are safe and are being formed in Gospel teaching.”
She says she will miss OLA and “just being in the midst of it all. It’s not one thing, but the fact that I am not going to be here, not be part of this daily mission.”
Tearing up, she adds, “You feel like you are in the middle of something great happening every day. You feel like you can almost feel the breath of God every day.”
Ramkissoon notes that when you work at a place that keeps God at the center of every day’s activities, it’s easy to understand how real God is.
“As teachers, especially at a Catholic school, you understand the responsibility that is put on you. You embrace it. The work is beyond teaching them to get into a good university. The work is so you can see what has been promised, or what will come to pass. That is what the job is,” she says. “This is a spiritual calling. When you are in the school, you put yourself on holy ground ... because of the work we do.”
— SueAnn Howell, senior reporter