Decker Elementary School

St. Joseph’s is a diamond in the rough! Don’t judge the school by it’s surrounding area; physically there is room for improvement but the new principal is on it. We were looking to enroll our TK student in a dual language program and we came across St. Joseph’s. The only private Catholic DL program in the area. Public schools don’t even offer a TK DL option! The principal and faculty are very welcoming and willing to work with your family to provide a private education to your child/ren. Having been at St. Joseph’s before Covid and now we have always loved the community of families. It has been a struggle keeping good quality teachers, with the exception of a couple, in the last 3 years because of administrative issues. We were even thinking about pulling our student. A new school year, a new (experienced) principal, progress, and plans for updating and expanding the school to two language tracks later (one English only) and we decided to stay. The whole school (currently TK-5) is dual language English/Spanish and will continue expansion to 8th grade. Being a (newer) DL school there is definitely room for improvement in the caliber of Spanish curriculum, the teachers who teach it are fluent and are receiving continuous training and development for it. St. Joseph’s has even participated the last two years in a national Spanish Spelling Bee facilitated by Notre Dame University placing in the top ten both years. Promising progress. We love the fact that both TK and kinder are full day programs, 8a-3p! The students here seem so mature, most likely because of the full day program exposure at such a young age. There is a student council that collects items to donate to local charities and nursing homes, and visits local government offices. The student body is exceptional. We would love to see expanded music (I.e. band), art, after school programs and sports, of which the principal has discussed specifically, added next year. The school even has its own Girl Scout troop. St. Joseph School attends mass once a week at the church on the property and although the mass is not catered to the student body specifically because it is part of the community daily mass the students do get to sing as the choir. Our child does get daily religious education and loves the fact prayer and intention is part of daily morning assembly. We do see room for improvement and are positive that this school will be an educational bright spot in the region, as it should be, in the future.