Faith and hope-filled service to students with learning differences
“God works in mysterious ways,” the age-old saying goes.
For Linda Mitsch and Nancy Stark, the director of student support services and reading interventionist at Frassati Catholic Academy, God’s mysterious and providential provision is oh-so-obvious.
The pair of veteran special educators found their way to Frassati from the public school system suddenly and unexpectedly. In her work in the public school system, Mitsch would visit a number of schools, including Frassati, doing assessments. After a year of visiting the Catholic academy, “even more than the district probably wanted me to,” she said with a smile, she fell in love with the school. As providence would have it, her role in the public education system would be discontinued, and a new role at Frassati would be created.
“We love the Lord, and we love serving him in this capacity. It was really God orchestrating that,” Mitsch told the Denver Catholic. “There’s really no other way to say it. I wasn’t looking for this job. They found me, and I found them last year.”
Since the beginning of the 2024 school year last fall, the special educators have been hard at work “developing a student support services program from the ground up,” Mitsch said. “There really wasn’t a good system in place for meeting our students’ needs. So we put our heads together on what these kids need, how we are tracking their progress and what their teachers need to support them. It’s been a journey. It’s been great. We have so far we want to go, but we’ve made really great strides so far.”
Though brand new and with plenty of challenges, their program serves more than 30 students — about 8% of Frassati’s student body — and is already bearing fruit.
“When you see a child who is now reading a text that they previously just looked at and threw on the ground, you know you’re making a difference. It’s giving them access to the world,” Stark said of her work to help students read and understand grade-level content in class. Through her work, her students are coming alive anew.
Speaking of two students who have since cycled out of her program, she noted that they came in “very low,” with “no confidence.” After three months of differentiated instruction, she heard from teachers that those same students were participating in class and using their skills. “They like to come to school now,” she recalled one teacher telling her.
“Frassati is very blessed to have these two women here, for sure,” said Michael Zahn, the school’s assistant principal who works with Mitsch and Stark to establish the school’s special education program. “They are doing very well in facilitating this and ensuring that students’ needs are met. With them doing what they’re doing, they’re making sure that students aren’t falling through the cracks. I’m just very grateful for the work that they’re doing.”
Mitsch and Stark’s work is made all the more vital by a spiritual reality Mitsch said stuck with her from an Office of Catholic Schools student support leadership meeting.
“Our children can’t read Scripture. They can’t read the most basic things of their faith if they can’t read! So we have to do something. It’s an emergency room situation for our kids,” she said, recalling the training and its impact on her.
Together with the faculty, staff and administration at Frassati, Mitsch and Stark are “forming authentic disciples of Christ,” one word, even one letter, at a time as they help their students “access the world” through education. And in God’s mysterious providence, the pieces are coming together. As they build a program for student support, the school is investing as much in its faculty as in its students, offering various opportunities for professional development and several resources. More than just another feather in their cap, the herculean effort is a faith-filled response to their call to serve their students, families and community.
“The guiding force is serving God and loving these children and bringing them along and doing the best we can do for them in all aspects of their lives, not just reading, obviously, but for the whole child,” Mitsch said of the community of dedicated educators. “I see these teachers having a love for the Lord, a love for their students, and guiding them in their faith and in their academics.”
“I find it very refreshing,” Stark added. “The prayers in the morning with the staff, the ability to talk about Bible stories with the kids… It’s just wonderful.”
In short, Mitsch said, “We know that our kids are a part of something so much bigger here.”
Their hope-filled perspective and vision for serving students with learning differences are an apt representation of the holy hope to which Pope Francis has called the Church during the Jubilee of Hope. Though muddled by details, challenges and uncertainty, the educators are placing their trust in God, who loves their students more than anyone can imagine.
“With our program being so new, the downside is that we don’t have everything in place right now,” Zahn commented. “But the best part is that we’re able to be infused with this virtue of hope for things, for God to guide and direct us. I think that’s the real fire that’s helping us in a real way.”
“It’s trusting that God, if we’re obedient and faithful, will show us and open doors and raise our awareness and speak, ‘This is the direction I want you to go.’ So we really want to make sure we’re following what the Lord wants us to do here. That’s who my hope is in, not in things happening, but my hope is in God being sovereign and guiding and leading and showing us step-by-step what we’re supposed to do,” Mitsch concluded.
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