Dear Parents/Guardians,

This will be the last edition of the Marist Family Newsletter for this academic year. It truly has been an extraordinary year; I'd like to take this opportunity to share some of the highlights.

• Enrollment has never been better! Many people in our area are recognizing the value of a Marist education for their sons and daughters. As Catholic schools in our area merge or close, Marist is growing. We remain, however, committed to providing your sons/daughters with a top-notch college preparation, in a family-like, personal atmosphere. Marist is truly alive and well!
• The Library Media Center opened on schedule for the beginning of this school year. This state-of-the-art facility provides our students with the opportunity to do quality research, study in a quiet, supervised area and have access to laptops, as well as quality adolescent fiction. Has your son/daughter taken advantage of this opportunity?
• Varsity Basketball: our Girls' Varsity placed first in Hudson County; our Boys' Varsity finished fourth. Both teams treated us to exciting seasons and, we were not only proud of their records, but also of their sportsmanship. They demonstrated for all to see the values we believe in at Marist High School. We look forward to great things next year.
• Middle States Re-Accreditation: as you may already know, every seven years schools who are members of the Middle States Association of Colleges and High Schools must apply for re-accrediation. After working for almost 1 1/2 years in preparation, we were visited in February by a team of educators who were to validate what we were doing and where we planned to go in the next seven years. The team recommended re-accreditation and was quite effusive in their praise of Marist. We are grateful to all who helped to make this excellent review possible: students, parents, community members, faculty and administration. We've already begun to put into effect the first year goals of the plan!
• Our senior class - all 142 of them - have been extraordinary leaders this year. They have led the school in preparation in various activities, and service to others (e.g. Canned Food Drive, Toys for Tots, Winter Coats, CD Drive). College acceptances continue to come in. This year our seniors applied to an unprecedented number of colleges, many of which are hugely competitive. We're very proud of the Class of 2008, and we look forward to learning great things about them.

Gratefully,

Bro. Steve Schlitte
Principal