Sister Hughes talks about Sacred Heart mission at the New Employees Retreat. New employees listen to Sr. Hughes' talk. From left, Christopher Horton of Doane Stuart School, Albany, N.Y.; Maureen Crowley of Convent of the Sacred Heart, Greenwich, Conn., Deborah Osredker of Academcy of the Sacred heart, St. Charles, Mo., and Eileen McEntee of Country Day School of the Sacred Heart, Bryn Mawr, Pa. Carol Haggarty, RSCJ, office administrator for the Network of Sacred Heart Schools (left), and Madeleine Ortman, the Network's executive director, chat during a break. Participants share stories. From left, Kris Schulte, Stuart Country Day School, Princeton, N.J.; Eva Carrasquero and Robert Cushman, Convent of the Sacred Heart, Greenwich, Conn., Elizabeth Poiencot, Academy of the Sacred Heart, Grand Coteau, La. From left, Kimberly Runyan, Schools of the Sacred Heart, San Francisco; Sarah Vandergriff, Academy of the Sacred Heart, New Orleans; Michelle Dong, Schools of the Sacred Heart, San Francisco; Evangelina Ervin, Academy of the Sacred Heart, Bloomfield Hills, Mich.; Christine Hanson, Villa Duchesne, St. Louis.

Veteran educators and new employees of the twenty-one Sacred Heart schools in the United States gathered over the weekend of June 24 for conferences at Academy of the Sacred Heart in St. Charles. The conferences were sponsored by the Network of Sacred Heart Schools.

The national Network conference, the first of its kind, drew 120 veteran employees of Sacred Heart schools. Eighty new employees attended the New Employees’ Retreat.

The two groups worshiped together Saturday evening at the Shrine of St. Philippine Duchesne in St. Charles.

Madeleine Ortman, executive director of the Network, said the national Network conference will be held annually, on a three-year cycle, so that conference topics can be varied according to different groupings of school personnel.

This year’s conference, called “Outside the Classroom, Inside the Mission,” was aimed at people who work with students outside the classroom: counselors, campus ministers, social justice and community service coordinators, for instance.

Next year’s conference will be for classroom teachers. The following year, the conference will be aimed at administrative personnel.

The agenda for the New Employees’ Retreat included a three-hour presentation Friday morning on the mission of the Society of the Sacred Heart by Sr. Kathleen Hughes, Provincial.

Madeleine Ortman said it is “vitally important” that the Network gather employees to focus on the Society’s mission because the future of the Sacred Heart mission in Network schools depends on the laity. “People working with our students have to be infused with Sacred Heart tradition and spirituality,” she said. “That is what these conferences are intended to do.

“We will really talk about how the goals and criteria of Sacred Heart education drive the way we teach, coach, and counsel; the way we do campus ministry, the way we make decisions and discipline students.”

The Network of Sacred Heart Schools is based in St. Charles.