As St. Didacus Parish School begins its 71styear of excellence in education, it wel-
comes three new teachers to campus: Ms.Heather Turtzer (fourth grade), Mrs. TimarieLang (fifth grade) and Mrs. Katy Sepulveda(sixth grade in a team teaching role with MrsMeghan Hamler).
Ms. Turtzer, a Whittier native, describesherself as a people person. After attending ele-mentary school at St. Mary’s, she went to St.Paul High School. A travel buff, she obtainedher travel degree through an ROP program outof high school and worked for Princess Cruisesas a manning agent. Soon after she attended CalState Northridge and received a multi-subjectteaching degree. Ms. Turtzer feels that her trav-el experience helps her to better teach socialstudies and geography. She is gratified to seeher students in class interacting and workingwell together. Recently, Ms. Turtzer becameengaged and is looking forward to planning herwedding.
Mrs. Timarie Lang hails from Wheaton, Ill.,and grew up down the street from her husband’sfamily. She attended St. Francis High Schooland St. Ambrose University. An exercise enthu-siast, Mrs. Lang enjoys yoga, marathons, hik-ing and camping. She appreciates how all thewonderful teachers she has experienced in herlife influenced her career choice. Mrs. Langadores her chocolate lab, Elly, who recently gother through her husband’s first deployment inAfghanistan. She loves teaching and her high-lights revolve around the “light bulb” moments,the instant a student understands. Mrs. Langcan be found most mornings cradling a hot cupof coffee while supervising the drop off process.
Mrs. Katy Sepulveda describes herself asfun, caring and energetic, all great qualities forteaching junior high. Born and raised inOrange, she attended Holy Family CathedralSchool and Mater Dei High School in SantaAna. She obtained her teaching degree from theUniversity of San Diego and her masters inteaching from Chapman University. Mrs.Sepulveda credits her high school scienceteacher, Mrs. Kalisky, for influencing her careerchoice. In her free time, Mrs. Sepulveda likes todance, a hobby she has done for 18 years. Mrs.Sepulveda describes her current sixth gradeclass as one of the best she has ever taught withstudents full of life and eager to learn.
Each of these teachers brings new experi-ences, ideas and excitement to the St. Didacuscampus. While each is unique, all three havebeen educated in Catholic schools and feelblessed to be teaching at St. Didacus. All havefelt welcomed and instantly a part of the St.Didacus family. They are anxious to meet themany families at the school and are looking for-ward to a great school year. ❖
For most parishioners, walking up the stepsto enter St. Didacus Catholic Church is
something taken for granted. For those who arewheel-chair bound or use walkers, the task ofentering the church through the small and inad-equate ramp on the south side of the buildingwas time-consuming and difficult.
Something had to be done.
After conferring with the parish’s Financeand Pastoral Councils, Pastor Fr. Mike Sinordecided that building a new ramp was “theright thing to do.”
After four months of planning, and withpermits in hand, the building contractor, PacificBuilding Group, broke ground on the project inJune. The ramp, which blends nicely with thearchitecture of the existing church building,was completed in August and dedicated at aparish celebration on Aug. 29.
The cost of the project was originally esti-mated at $76,000. But with the added expenseof repacking the clay soil, bringing the auto-matic door up to code, and the related permitand plan fees, that figure rose to nearly$100,000. The parish saw the improvements asan opportunity and was up for the task.
The project was truly a parish-wide under-taking.
Funds were raised primarily through themonthly Building Fund collection at mass. Inaddition, the Altar Society donated $5,000 andthe Hispanic community sold tamales, snow-cones and other items for many months.Several families made significant donations. Tocomplete the project, the Spanish MarriageEncounter, Encuento Matrimonial, labored formany hours installing new irrigation systemsand new sod.
The addition of the ramp has put a tangibleresult to the words of the parish community’smission statement, “to vibrantly celebrate theliving presence of Christ in our lives as we liveeach day in service to others.” ❖
Fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Timarie Lang,on safety duty.
Moving On Up Gets A Whole Lot EasierNew ramp makes church more accessible
Sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Katy Sepulveda.
Fourth grade teacher, Ms. Heather Turtzer
stdidacusparishschool.org
A Letter WorthOpeningThe St. Didacus DevelopmentBoard reaches out to you
It seems that the St. Didacus SchoolDevelopment Board never rests. Made up ofeight new and veteran volunteer members, theboard does an incredible amount of work for thebetterment of the school now, and in the future.
The annual Adams Avenue Street Fairalways includes a booth manned byDevelopment board members armed with infor-mation and a smile. It attracts the attention ofboth alumni and people who want to learn aboutthe school. The board, which meets monthly,also is constantly improving on annual eventswhile introducing new and varied ideas.
The development team at St. Didacus wasformed in 1998. The team works with theParent-Teacher Group and the Advisory Board tomake sure its work is effective and timely. Thefact that a grammar school has such a committeeis quite progressive, as many schools don’t havea development effort. While it is important towork on present programs at the school, it is alsovital to plan for the future. The kind of progressmade by the board is similar to that you wouldsee at the high school level, where developmentstaff is paid and not volunteer.
Last year’s first Annual Appeal proved suc-cessful with $13,000 raised for student scholar-ships, technology and building funds. For thisyear’s Annual Appeal, the focus is on eitherimmediate financial aid or a long-term scholar-ship endowment fund, whichever the donor
Volume 10, No. 1 Fall 2010
F UTURE V I S IONFUTURE V I S IONThe Development Newsle t ter for S t . Didacus Par ish School
4630 34th Street, San Diego, CA 92116 • (619) 284-8730 • Fax (619) 284-1764 • Preschool (619) 284-6192 • stdidacusparishschool.org
Eager To Know You And Be PartOf The Parish School FamilyThree new teachers join the St. Didacus faculty
‘Building the new ramp was
the right thing to do.’
FUTURE VISION INFO The Future Vision newsletteris a product of the St. DidacusParish School community.Father Michael Sinor is theparish pastor and Elizabeth LaCosta the school principal. The newsletter was devel-oped to foster a stronger, andlonger, relationship betweenstudents, alumni, school par-ents, friends and parishioners.
Development Core Team
Mike Herrera - ChairpersonMarlene Gros • Felipe EncisoHeidi DiPaolo • Pam Brock
Yvonne Audiss • Susan NicholsKristina Gonzalez
Elizabeth La Costa - Principal
Printing of Future Vision is cour-tesy of Neyenesch Printing. Forinformation on how they can meetyour printing needs, call (619) 297-2281 or (800) 748-4276
The new ramp blends in nicely with the church's1920's architecture.
Parishioner Jim Barnes tests out the new ramp.
Save the Date!St. Didacus Parish SchoolGrandparents Day 2011Thursday, February 3 • 9:00 a.m.
Contact stdidacusparishschool.org if you do not receive an invitation by year’s end.
Hope to see you there!
chooses. The mailings will go out soon. Thosewho don’t receive the information can get in theloop by going online to the school’s website.
The St. Didacus school community hascommitted itself to a year-long emphasis on theconcept of “gratitude.” That is a perfect matchfor how grateful the school is for the generosityof its donors, past, present and future.
The Development board is attuned to theneeds of the entire community. Parents of
young school children are beginning to planearly for sending their children to Catholic highschools. In response, the Development Board ishosting an informal event in December for stu-dents and parents. Representatives from thelocal Catholic high schools will be on hand toanswer questions and help families.
St. Didacus Parish School has enjoyed morethan 70 years of excellence. With your help, thattradition of innovation and improvement willcontinue. ❖
LETTER from page 1
Development Chair Mike Herrera is ready totalk about St. Didacus at the Adams Avenue
Street Fair.
see LETTER page 4
Aclass of 1968graduate, St.
Didacus alumnusMr. Tom Cudal hasspent almost hisentire life in theclassroom. His for-mal educationbegan in 1959when he enteredkindergarten at St.
Didacus, joining his older sister, Tina, who wasthen in third grade.
His fondest memories include the time hespent as an altar server. Mr. Cudal recalls thatthen-pastor Monsignor Deignan truly loved thestudents and taught them to be kind to others.As a result, Deignan made Mr. Cudal feel goodabout himself and develop a desire to serve atMass. “I would serve as often as I could andattended daily Mass hoping the other altarservers did not show up, so that I could serve,”he remembers.
While attending St. Didacus, Mr. Cudal alsowas involved in sports. His coach, AlThomason, had a huge impact on him, teachingthe students about life on and off the field.Coach Thomason would sometimes yell, but itwas only because he knew each player’s poten-tial. Mr. Cudal enjoyed playing football, basket-ball and baseball from sixth through eighthgrades. To this day, he proudly displays in hishome the baseball MVP trophy he received ineighth grade.
Mr. Cudal has many fond, and tasty, memo-ries of his nine years at St. Didacus. His fatherwas a baker who made donuts for students afterthe first Friday Mass. He also made the majorityof the cakes for the school’s carnivals. Oneyear, Tom won two cakes from the cake walk.His friend, Tom Humphrey, offered to rideCudal home on the back of his bike while hebalanced the two unboxed cakes. The twolaughed on the ride and ended up crashing thebike, ruining their pants and the cakes. Friendstoday, the two Toms still get a good laugh aboutthe incident.
After graduating from St. Didacus, Mr.Cudal attended St. Augustine High School. Hewent on to earn a bachelor’s degree in Englishfrom San Diego State and a masters degree inEducational Administration from Azusa PacificUniversity. During college, he worked in a tuxe-do shop and was a teacher’s aide in theGrossmont School District.
After teaching for one year in a publicschool, Mr. Cudal was offered a job at his almamater, St. Augustine. He taught English for 10years and was the English department chair forfive years. He also served as the drama directorfor three years and the ASB moderator for four.In his free time he coached all levels of football,from freshmen to varsity for a decade. Today heserves as the Assistant Principal for Academicsat Saints, a job that he has held for 22 years, andstill teaches Honors English.
Because of his longevity at Saints, Mr.Cudal has been able to reconnect with severalSt. Didacus classmates whose sons or relativesattended the high school. He has been marriedsince 1981 to his wife, Lucinda, a 1973 RosaryHigh School graduate and a 30 year teacherwith the San Diego Unified School District. Thecouple have two children, Nick, a 2007 Saintsgraduate and Rebecca, an eighth grader at HolyTrinity who hopes to attend Our Lady of PeaceAcademy next fall.
Mr. Cudal has impacted and touched thelives of thousands of students in his long educa-tional career. Little did Monsignor Deignan andCoach Thomason know that when they positive-ly influenced young Tom at St. Didacus that hewould return the favor many times over. ❖
10 Ways….When The Student BecomesTeacher Alumnus Tom Cudal uses grammar school lessons throughout his life
‘Monsignor Deignan truly loved
the students and taught them to
be kind to others. He made me
feel good about myself.’
stdidacusparishschool.org stdidacusparishschool.org
to stay engaged with your alma mater, St. Didacus Parish School!
1. Join the online community at stdidacusparishschool.org and visit it often.
2. Volunteer at a St. Didacus School or Parish event.
3. Plan a reunion for your class. The school will help you.
4. Support Scholarships for current St. Didacus students by making a gift to the Annual Fund.
5. Come back to campus for a reunion or stop by if you happen to be in town. You are always welcome!
6. Share a memory or fun story about your days at St. Didacus or news or photos by contacting the principal at [email protected].
7. Recommend St. Didacus Parish School to prospective students and tell them what agreat place it was for you.
8. Come back to campus for the Annual All-School Reunion in May.
9. Attend a school Fall Festival, Auction or sporting event.
10. Read the Future Visions Newsletter!
St. Didacus Parish School would like to recognize and thankParishioner and Fall Festival first prize raffle winner,
Mark Haaserfor generously donating $250 back to the school.
Then.......And Now.Class of 1960 enjoys fifty year reunion.
The Class of 1960 gathers for their graduation photo.
The reunion included a tour of St. Didacus School.Eighteen 1960 classmates sit for a photo fifty years after graduation
My Goal ForThis SchoolYear Is...
...to get straight A’s. Megan Noviski, Fifth Grade
...to work harder on homework and get betterat soccer.
Alex Haller, Fourth Grade
...to make the Honor Society this year. Vanessa Dominguez, Eighth Grade
...to get the best grades I’ve ever gotten. Malcolm Johnson, Eighth Grade
