Just east of the crossroads of the 210 and 10 freeways in Pomona are three Catholic schools which have, with the support of the Shea and Daniel Murphy Foundations, made efforts to assist each other and re-imagine their future - a future marked by the sharing of resources, facilities, and quality programs.

Their goal: to provide the best in Catholic education for the students of St. Madeleine School with the assistance of Pomona Catholic High School for girls and Damien High School for boys.

On Sept. 2, Pomona Valley Catholic Middle School opened as the sixth, seventh and eighth grade students of St. Madeleine School began their first day on the Pomona Catholic High School campus. San Gabriel Region Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala blessed the new middle school wing, and prayed for teachers and students who will now be able to take advantage of expanded facilities and resources.

Those opportunities include peer mentoring and tutoring, larger classrooms, student lockers (a cherished possession), access to science and computer labs, a high school library, a college and career center, instruction in musical instruments, and priority entrance into Pomona Catholic and Damien High Schools.

St. Madeleine principal Adela Solis will travel between the two schools as she works with teachers and students. Middle school students will attend weekly Mass at the St. Madeleine campus transported by Damien's student bus.

"One of the first things we did was to tell the students that we are still one school," explained Solis as she visited middle school classrooms on the first day. "We are still one family, the Spartan family. So we will keep our traditions."

After one day of orientation on procedures, expectations and policies for parents and students, the class switching common in middle schools began on day two.

"There will be trial and error," said Cristina Cadena, eighth grade homeroom and math and science teacher. "but it offers students great opportunities. Yesterday we had a new student, a seventh grader, and later he said, 'I've never seen so many kids excited to begin school.'"

Cadena told her homeroom students that they were "pioneers" and "trailblazers" as they incorporated a middle school on the high school campus. Knowing that she had the power as a teacher to elicit strong reactions from her students, Cadena talked to her sixth grade science class about how, later in the year, they would dissect earthworms. That elicited questions ("Will we tie them down?") and reactions (a collective, giggling "Ugh!") when she spoke about the number of hearts inside an earthworm and how they will be looking at them all.

Bishop Zavala congratulated the students and teachers on their new campus, sprinkled holy water along the halls of the middle school wing, and presided at a Mass for the middle school and high school students.

"I am very excited about this," Nancy Nicholas, San Gabriel regional supervisor for the Department of Catholic Schools, who attended the blessing ceremony. "Kevin Baxter, Superintendent of Catholic Elementary Schools, wants to have innovators and innovative thinking in the way we look at our Catholic schools."

That includes the development of a pre-school at the St. Madeleine Campus in the former upper grade classrooms. Said Nicholas: "They are moving forward to secure the future for St. Madeleine School."