Our Lady of Mount Carmel School achieves national recognition

A Newport News Catholic private school was named a member of the Catholic Education Honor Roll, joining a national list of schools that excel in providing faith-based learning to its students.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic School, which runs from pre-K to eighth grade, is the first school in the Diocese of Richmond to receive this distinction and one out of 12 elementary schools on the list.

“To have what is most important to us be recognized by an impartial entity like the Cardinal Newman Society can validate what we are doing here in the school,” said admissions coordinator Kathy McKenna.

The Cardinal Newman Society, based in Merrifield, Virginia, created the honor roll. The nonprofit’s website says its mission is “to promote and defend faithful Catholic education.”

The school decided to apply in May, when students and faculty transitioned to a virtual platform.

“Our teachers went above and beyond to turn in-person instruction to online instruction, which is not easy to do,” McKenna said.

The school, with an enrollment of 265 students, returned to in-person classes for the current year.

“This interaction with each other is incredibly important for our students’ social development in their youth,” said Sister Anna Joseph, the school’s principal.

“(It is) wonderful for our school to be publicly recognized for the great ways we allow our students to encounter the Lord in our school and the ways we are trying to instill a deeper faith in them,” she said.