The Official Newspaper of the Diocese of Little Rock
With almost a semester into the school year, Catholic Schools in Arkansas have been busy adding new safety initiatives, spreading kindness and fundraising. In this section, you’ll read about the only school resource officer in the state, Father John Antony’s new book, Ozark Catholic Academy’s new “houses” for students and more.
Our Lady of the Holy Souls School in Little Rock recently completed Arkansas’ first kindness-focused fundraising campaign called Raise Craze.
During the fundraiser, students went out and paid it forward by completing acts of kindness for others. During the first few weeks, the students completed more than 3,000 acts of kindness and raised more than $54,000.
“When we were brainstorming new fundraisers we thought Raise Craze looked like a pretty good one,” said Al Malzewski, Holy Souls More... 
CONWAY — For 20 years, Bradley Fornash worked at the Conway Police Department, including 17 years as a hostage negotiator and 13 as a detective.
Today, it’s less about diffusing life or death situations and more about solving conflicts. Instead of investigating crimes, he’s monitoring the playgrounds. Rather than interrogating criminals, he’s a mentor to students who need it.
Fornash was hired Aug. 15 as the first school resource officer for St. Joseph School in Conway. He More...
FORT SMITH — Father John Antony is continuing his tradition of writing books to benefit Catholic education in the diocese.
His third book, “Oh, Lord Have Mercy” was just published to benefit Trinity Junior High’s Strike a Match campaign. The “match” is a promise of up to $2.5 million from an anonymous donor for every dollar up to $2.5 million raised by the campaign.
“Our thermometer stands at about $1.7 million,” Father Antony said, “and our goal More...
TONTITOWN — Head of school John Rocha stood in front of the students, faculty and staff holding small packages. Each was neatly wrapped in brown craft paper with a small feather attached. The packages' contents would reveal the name of the house each recipient would represent for the duration of their high school years.
It was “sorting day” at the diocese’s newest Catholic high school, Ozark Catholic Academy.
While four banners emblazoned with the crest and name More...
The Office of Catholic Schools provided these statistics for the 2018-19 school year in the Diocese of Little Rock.
Enrollment
• Schools: 28
• Total enrollment: 6,643
• Elementary enrollment: 4,776
• Secondary enrollment: 1,867
• Percentage of Catholic students: 75.7
• Total enrollment in preschools: 678
Race and Ethnicity
• Percent of white students: 89.9
• Percent of multi-racial students: 4
• Percent of Asian students: 3.4
• Percent of black students: 1.8
(The remaining students are Native American, Pacific islanders or unknown.)
• Percent of Hispanic students: More...
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