NEWS UPDATE -
Morris Catholic High School
Is excited to announce
Morris Catholic Junior School
Opening for September 2010

MORRIS PLAINS - The Diocese of Paterson’s School Office has announced an innovative educational model between St. Virgil School in Morris Plains and Morris Catholic High School in Denville that will begin with the fall term in September.
In the new model, St. Virgil sixth to eighth graders will walk into their familiar St. Virgil School building in the fall, but instead will find themselves students of the new Morris Catholic Junior School. This new model will give St Virgil middle school students access to most of what Morris Catholic High School has to offer in the areas of technology, sports, curriculum and spiritual and extracurricular activities.
According to John Eriksen, superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Paterson, This new model is visionary and collaborative. It will allow each school to share the best they have with each other and to allow both schools to continue to offer quality Catholic education and formation.
Eriksen, along with other local education officials, announced the new model at a special meeting with parents at St. Virgil School in Morris Plains on Monday evening Feb. 8.
The new model call for Morris Catholic to administer the new middle school a satellite campus in the St. Virgil school building. A leader in Web 2.0 the next step in digital communications, Morris Catholic plans to update the middle school’s technology and share its faculty and much of its curriculum and programs, such as peer ministry, noted Michael St. Pierre, Morris Catholic’s president, who also spoke to St. Virgil parents.
Not only will the high-school experience come to these St. Virgil middle-school students, but also they will be able to immerse themselves directly into the high school experience with frequent visits to the Morris Catholic campus, five miles away. They will attend classes, partner up with Morris Catholic students so they become more acculturated with the high-school experience, participate in school-wide spiritual events, such as Masses and join in extracurricular activities, such as the high school’s media club, St. Pierre said.
While on Morris Catholic’s campus, St. Virgil’s students also will have access to the high school’s facilities, including its many athletic fields and its technology, which includes a state-of-the-art equipment to enable students to create high-end graphics, movies, Web pages and Internet audio programs, called podcasts. Morris Catholic also has fully embraced Web 2.0, driven by Twitter and other social-networking and other technologies, like Internet logs, called blogs, which are enabling members of the school community to communicate with Morris Catholic and each other more quickly and to collaborate more effectively and helps us promote the school in ways never possible before, St. Pierre said.
St. Virgil students will be able to do amazing things with technology, St. Pierre said. We want the St. Virgil students to feel special at Morris Catholic. We want to enhance their middle-school grades and experience. They will have access to everything here, he said.
Msgr. Francis Duffy, St. Virgil Pastor, who was also at the meeting Monday night, said, I am very enthusiastic and hopeful about this new model. I think that parents will see it as a creative option to maintain excellence in academic and spiritual formation at St. Virgil.
According to Eriksen, this new collaboration fits well with other educational models launched in the diocese, including academies in Sussex County, Clifton and Passaic.

Please visit www.MorrisCatholic.org for more information.
Morris Catholic High School (http://www.morriscatholic.org)
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Letter from Morris Catholic President - Mr. Michael St. Pierre, February 24, 2010
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The goal of Catholic Education at Saint Virgil School is to form boys and girls academically, spiritually, emotionally and physically in a community of faith that encourages intellectual curiosity and development, search for truth, moral growth, Catholic spirituality and strong respectful relationships that are supportive to these ends.


Pre-K3 through Grade 8

State-certified teachers

Small class sizes

Diverse student community

These elements insure that each child learns and grows in God´s love. We emphasize individual responsibility, with the high test scores to prove it! First-time visitors, please click welcome!

See Our Grade-by-Grade Results!
For our Powerpoint Presentation, please click here

High Schools Our Graduates Attend:

St. Virgil prepares its students for the demanding tasks of secondary education. Our graduates receive acceptances not only in the best of but also top high schools and selective Preparatory Schools in the country. Among those schools are:

Delbarton School
Kent Place School
Oak Knoll School
Oratory Preparatory High School
Miss Porter’s School
Seton Hall Preparatory School
St. Peter’s Preparatory School
Morris-Catholic High School
Villa Walsh Academy
Academy of Saint Elizabeth


More importantly, as our graduates move on to secondary schools, they are better prepared to meet the challenges of higher academia. Below are comments from their professors as cited in their respective academic reports:

She is an exemplary hard worker, and this will serve her well as she progresses through the myriad social and academic situations...[Honors]Physics is a highly complex subject, and [she] made significant personal investment in understanding the material. I am pleased with [her] progress as it speaks well of her commitment to academics.
-Physics Professor

An exemplary student,consistently earning the highest grades in class and amongst the highest of all my students.
-Western Civilization Professor

Come pray with us...
At St. Virgil School, each day begins with traditional morning prayer. The School community invites you to pray with us; simply call the school (973-539-7267) to let us know you’ll be joining us for this moving spiritual experience.