Catholic Education Arizona (CEA) recently lauded St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School's commitment to helping students reach high academic performance.

One of the best-performing Catholic schools in the Phoenix area, St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Grade School boasts high levels of academic performance from preschool to eighth grade, a release issued on the CEA website said.

Their recipe for success is a combination of factors, one of which is keeping the classrooms to a manageable size of no more than 24 students. This limitation in classroom size ensures that each child gets the attention that they need to thrive.

St. Thomas Aquinas also believes in giving their students a holistic Catholic schooling environment that serves the whole person, while also keeping them safe and giving them the opportunity to grow as individuals.

The school was founded in 2003 by the Rev. Kieran Kleczewski. In its early days, the school had fewer than 180 students. Today, their enrollment has grown to more than 500.

66% of the school’s staff have master’s degrees or higher, the release said. The school works hard to instill Catholic values in its students, seeking to develop them fully in their academic journeys.

The school utilizes Scholastic Reading Counts, a program that allows students the opportunity to participate in an independent curriculum for reading, while leveraging software-based assessments and opportunities to improve their skills.

Additional areas of academic development include technology, physical education, art, music and Spanish. The students are also raised with an understanding and awareness of decision-making skills, motor skills and social skills; with the Catholic faith and the Catholic worldview always being kept in mind.

St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School’s students can be supported with an Individual Tax Credit or Corporate Tax Credit, which has disbursed more than $268 million in tuition scholarships to approximately 138,000 students since 1998. Last year’s donations accounted for $16.4 million to help the state’s Catholic school students.