Celebrating National Catholic Schools Week

Parents have more options than ever when it comes to their children’s education. National Catholic Schools Week helps promote the benefits and many reasons parents in Oklahoma choose a Catholic education. 

Beth Sprague chose a Catholic education for her son Beau because of the high quality, faith-based instruction. 

“We appreciate the close-knit community and development of the whole person that Catholic schools provide, and value how our school teaches faith traditions and moral values alongside the regular academic core content,” she said. 

Beau is in the first grade at a Catholic school in Oklahoma City where his mom has been a third-grade teacher for 11 years. Her younger son, Kip, will start next year. She also is a former student of Catholic schools in the archdiocese.

Darlene Marquez made the decision to send her four children to Catholic schools based on the strong sense of stability that only could be found in a Catholic school community. 

“I know there is one thing that is true, good and beautiful and that is our Church,” she said. 

For Marquez, the desire to surround her children with a family and provide a solid foundation they could rely on was the catalyst for her decision. 

“There was no question,” she said. “This is our home.”

One of the hallmarks of Catholic schools is the propensity to see multiple generations of students, and the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City is no exception. 

Laura and Jeremy Webb’s three children Eli, Margo and Elaine are third-generation students at Catholic schools in Oklahoma City. Both Laura Webb and her mother, Mari Imel, attended as well.

“It was fun growing up surrounded by my sisters and tons of cousins,” Webb recalled.

“We were taught by religious sisters and lay teachers. I have fond memories of priests and seminarians having lunch with us in our cafeteria as the teachers sat at the head table and volunteer mothers walked around making sure we drank all of our milk prior to recess. Fridays were always a special treat as we got chocolate milk (except during Lent)!”

Webb explained her family is not the only multi-generation family from their school. 

“Many of my children's friends have parents that were in my grade or the grade of one of my sisters. Some of their parents even attended with my mother,” Webb said. 

“I don't think I thought much of how lucky I was at the time, attending Catholic schools was all I knew. I'm sure I took for granted weekly Mass, school day reconciliation, visits to the church to pray for the souls in purgatory, school-wide rosaries, etc.”

It was during her time as a student at a Catholic high school that Laura met her future husband, Jeremy, and began to recognize the value of the education she had been so privileged to receive. 

“It was perhaps when I got engaged to Jeremy and we spoke with Father Joe Ross about how we planned to raise our future children, that I realized how important it was that our children, too, were raised not only in a Catholic home, but in Catholic schools,” Webb explained.

To learn more about Catholic schools, scholarships and open houses, visit archokc.org/schools.

Sally Linhart is freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic. 



Photos: (Above) Gretchen, Missy and Laura Imel attended Christ the King Catholic School in 1986. 



Third-generation Catholic school students Margo, Elaine and Eli Webb. Photos provided.