The Sagada Postboy Alumni Edition
Homecoming 2003 Issue 1
Homecoming 2003 Issue 2

Saint Mary’s School
Sagada Mt Province

Special Issue of the 6th SMS Alumni Homecoming
April 10-12, 2003
No. 1

_____________________________________________

Saint Mary’s School Alumni Meet to Move Forward

SAGADA MT. PROVINCE - April 10-12, 2003 marks a crucial date in the schedule of thousands of alumni of Saint Mary’s School here in their 6th alumni homecoming. For one major reason, taking a role and making a difference for a better St Mary’s School drives the intention of holding the event while meeting former classmates and reminisce about those good old high school days.

Chairman of the locally-based Steering Committee alumnus -Mayor Thomas Killip said the gathering is not just an activity to come together but an occasion to center energies and move forward in charting the direction of the school in the coming years.

Saint Mary’s School, one of the four mission schools located in the Mt. Province, of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines is one among the church’s institutions facing financial crisis since ECP gained its autonomy from the ECUSA (Episcopal Church in the USA) in 1990.

The school currently with a P1.6 million budget sources 80% of its funds from tuition fees and donations with 20% coming from the subsidy of the church through the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Philippines. SMSAA (St Mary’s School Alumni Association) this school year donated nearly a half a million pesos in pledges to augment the school’s budget.

At least 14 Protestant mission schools in the Cordillera including Mt Province based St James High and St Alfred’s in Besao, All Saints Mission in Bontoc, St Paul’s in Balbalasang, Kalinga; and Easter School in Baguio City face at least a P300,000 to P1.5 million deficit a year. The mission schools heavily rely on tuition fees comprising 80% of the budget. Like Sagada-based SMS, the remaining 20% of the budget come from donations and income generating projects of the school.

SMS Administrator Bernice See said there is a need for the school to program its financial self reliance much as it faces some P300,000 annual deficit. SMS currently has 11 full time faculty and staff serving at least 203 students the current school year.

Making the school financially autonomous is a major thrust much as the ECP church in their recent summit considered self reliance programs a primary work in the life of the church in the coming years towards its full autonomy by 2007 when ECUSA shall fully stop giving subsidy to the Philippine church. Since ECP gained autonomy in 1990, ECUSA gradually decreased its subsidy to end by 2007.

EDNP Bishop Edward Malecdan, during a recent management council meeting and local based alumni meeting hinted that schools are challenged to program ways of becoming totally self reliant upon the church’s full financial autonomy from ECUSA.

Keeping the school alive is a major concern of the school’s decision makers, parents, friends, and alumni. The alumni themselves sponsor the tuition fees of some students. At least 75 students are currently supported by the school’s alumni including SMSAA Chairman Frank Longid and some other 25 alumni-benefactors.

Incorporating the institution is one major agenda of the alumni association. The school’s grads in their previous homecomings batted the need for the school’s incorporation as an organization with a legal personality of its own, but still within the structure of the church. The draft articles of incorporation are still under study and endorsement by the Standing Committee of EDNP.

Activities

Highlighting the April 10-12 meet are business meetings on issues of incorporation, the school’s financial situation, and need for quality and upgraded education among others. Organizational concerns shall be discussed on the 11th.

A parade begins in the afternoon of April 10 to be followed by a social hour at night at the school quadrangle. The program committee advises alumni clustered in areas including Baguio-Benguet , Tadian-Bauko, Isabela, Manila, Sagada, Besao, Bontoc, Tabuk, Southern Philippines, US-Canada, Hongkong, Australia, and Europe to prepare their own numbers for the cultural night. Surprise prizes await the winners.

The participating alumni shall be one with local based musical band, Alpha Rithma mostly composed of SMS alumni, and other local performers in the evening of April 11 to celebrate the alumni meet’s theme, “Dinmenat nan Tagowan”, meaning the hearth has lit up. The current theme started from the previous homecoming’s: “aguwan nan tagowan”, or to kindle the hearth, followed by the millennium reunion’s “gumabgabbang nan tagowan”, that is, the hearth is warming up./Gina Dizon

sagada.org >> The Sagada Postboy
:: Alumni Edition _____________________________________
Sagada Postboy
January 20, 2003
_____________________________________

Alumni and Friends of Saint Mary’s School;

Once again, our tribe gathers for another homecoming. Once again, we come together to chart the path and direction of our alma mater. And as we make a another journey to St Mary School, and into the next century, we alumni, shall ever be challenged to fulfill the vision- mission of St Mary’s School for which the institution was built in the first place. For Saint Mary’s School is not just an institution of learning.

More than that, it has a philosophical foundation and mission which every alumnus must aspire to fulfill, We did not go to this school to become successful only for ourselves but to give the best of ourselves to our neighbors and our fellowmen. True to God’s mandate, and expressed in the motto of our school, “Adi Tako Bokodan Di Gawis”, we have studied at St Mary’s School to become stewards of Gods’ creation, to inspire grace in others, and to become selfless leaders of our time.

Let me therefore take this occasion to greet all the alumni and friends of St Mary’s School and to encourage everyone to come and join the coming reunion and homecoming on April 10-12 , 2003

Finally, let the message of Hope ring out in the valleys, the hills and plains throughout the land and let a thousand voices sing, “St Mary’s Stands”!

(Sgd) Hon. Thomas A. Killip
Chair, Local Steering Committee
Alumni Homecoming Committee
Saint Mary’s School Alumni Association