In late October, Aquinas High School (AHS), San Bernardino, announced the establishment of “The Committed to Teaching Excellence Endowment,” which has the goal of raising funds to pay faculty at or above public school teacher salary levels.
“The teachers do such important work,” said Aquinas President Chris Barrows. “In the public school, teachers are asked to teach a subject, here we ask them to teach the whole child, the mind, the body and the soul. We’re asking a lot more from our teachers yet paying them less than the public schools. So, we think that it’s only right to do what’s just and pay them what they are definitely worth.”
As part of the announcement campaign for the endowment, AHS will highlight different teachers, sharing their personal stories, why they love teaching at Aquinas and why it’s important to them. This will provide the Catholic community outside of AHS the chance to connect with the teachers, get to know them and why they would want to support them through this endowment. In addition to getting the endowment started, Aquinas has committed to matching the first $400,000 that is donated.
“I’ve been at Aquinas, this is my 26th year and over the years, I’ve seen and I understand what it takes, the sacrifices people have to make to work here and to work at a place like Aquinas or any Catholic school, it’s definitely a calling, it becomes a vocation and not just a job,” Barrows said. “So, when people feel this, ‘God is calling me to work at a place like this,’ That’s great, that’s fantastic, but there is a reality of bills and being able to live and if you don’t make it possible we really are preventing people from living out God’s will for their life and this is what we want to do.”
Aquinas has a legacy of inspiring the next generation of Catholic school teachers, as many of its alumni become staff. In addition, the school has a very strong sense of community as many alumni also choose to enroll their own children at the school. Barrows describes this as his favorite part about working at AHS.
“My favorite part is, there are people who work here, that are my co-workers, that I actually taught. To know them as 14-year-old kids and now see them working here and watching them raise their families and send their kids to Catholic schools. In some cases, there are kids that are here going to school whose parents I taught. So obviously what those families learned here when they were students, they want their kids to have that same experience and be given those same opportunities that they were blessed with.”
To learn more about “The Committed to Teaching Excellence Endowment” or to donate, please visit Aquinas High School’s website at aquinashs.net or call 909-886-4659.