Holy Family Students Celebrate School Choice, Catholic Schools Week with Activities

Students at Holy Family Catholic School in Coeur d’Alene spent the week swapping uniforms for pajamas and sports jerseys, taking part in mixed-grade games and wrapping a classmate in crepe paper as the school combined National School Choice Week with Catholic Schools Week. The festivities underscored community bonds at a school that serves 230 students from preschool through eighth grade.

The week’s lighter moments included a crepe-paper activity in which an unnamed eighth grader laughed, "I don't know, not great," when asked how he was doing under all that crepe paper, then admitted it was "a pretty fun way to wrap up National School Choice Week." Seventh graders Quinn Bailey and Brooklyn Stroud described the program as a chance to deepen ties across grades. "I love that we get to build our community so much in our school. We get to hang out with different grades and really be a community together," Quinn said. "We do a lot of fun games and we always do fun dress-up days during the week," Brooklyn said. Preschool and pre-kindergarten teacher Jennifer Sather reflected on the pace and purpose: "It's been a crazy week, but it's been a fun week," and added, "I love that National School Choice Week is the same week as Catholic Schools Week so we can do it all together."

Combining the two observances allowed Holy Family to marry the parish-centered traditions of Catholic Schools Week - including Masses and family events - with the statewide visibility aims of National School Choice Week. National School Choice Week is intended "to raise awareness and share information about the K-12 learning options available, from public, charter and magnet schools to private, online, homeschooling and other nontraditional learning environments." This year in Idaho, 256 schools and nonprofits hosted NSCW events across 34 of the state’s 44 counties, giving local families more opportunities to compare options and engage directly with schools.

For Kootenai County families, the activities at Holy Family are more than pageantry. They act as a recruiting and retention tool in a competitive K-12 marketplace, a community-building mechanism that strengthens parish ties, and a public demonstration of the school’s student-centered culture. With enrollment at 230 students, events that bring parents, parishioners and prospective families through the doors can affect short-term enrollment trends and, over time, influence local school funding choices and family decisions about where children will spend their formative years.

As the school moves beyond the weeklong celebration, expect follow-up opportunities for families to learn more about Holy Family’s programs and for local education leaders to note how visibility efforts shape enrollment patterns. For now, the week ended with crepe paper on a laughing eighth grader and a reminder that community often determines whether families choose to stay local.