Mike Rockers at the opening Mass for the 2019-2020 school year in Aug. 2019. (HCH file photo)
Hawaii’s Catholic schools’ leader for close to a decade, Michael Rockers, will retire at the end of this academic year.
The official announcement came on Jan. 8 via an email from the diocese’s human resources director, Dara Perreira, and a later email from Rockers to pastors and school administrators.
“Please pray for the Holy Spirit to care for Mike and his family, his next chapter of retirement, and for finding our next Hawaii Catholic Schools Superintendent,” Perreira wrote.
Rockers started in the job in Aug. 2011 but has 43 total years of experience in Catholic education including as a teacher, principal and superintendent of other dioceses’ Catholic schools.
“His leadership has demonstrated a deep-rooted love for the Catholic faith, decision making with compassion and a great interest in raising children to be disciples of Christ, both in the schools he’s served and in his family,” Perreira said.
Rockers last day is expected to be June 30, 2020. Perreira said a search committee will soon be formed to look for a new superintendent.
For more read the Jan. 24, 2010, issue of the Hawaii Catholic Herald.
In the June 28 issue of the Hawaii Catholic Herald, I reported on a hands-on, Montessori-based, faith formation program for children called Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, which is done in conjunction with the Diocese of Honolulu. The program is slowly growing here in Hawaii and there are “atriums,” in several places on the island like Mary, Star of the Sea Early Learning Center.
I’d first heard of CGS a few years ago in Seattle when a co-worker mentioned she led an atrium at her parish.
Teachers training in the Mary, Star of the Sea Early Learning Center atrium in June 2019
So when we moved back to Hawaii, I was excited to find out that St. John Vianney Parish in Kailua offered an atrium to 3-6-year-olds and enrolled my own preschooler in it.
Parents of CGS students have had the chance to sit in on a few sessions this past school year, and I love just how gentle and approachable CGS is. Along with group activities, children get to pick from the materials they’d like to “work” with during atrium time.
Joan Hiel, Owen’s catechist and a CGS formation leader herself, emailed me after one session to share a sweet photo she’d captured of my son. “He asked my daughter Ondina to read the Good Shepherd story to him today,” she wrote. “After he listened to her, he set up the figures and ‘read’ the story himself. It was a precious moment.”
As a young 4-year-old, my son can’t “read” yet but the presentation of this story of Jesus guiding the lost sheep back so captivated him that he wanted to “read” it himself.
The author’s son reading the story of the Good Shepherd
As much as we reinforce taking our children to Mass each Sunday, I think sometimes my son, in his squirmy preschool age, gets much more out of his atrium time than he does during Mass.
The CGS kids’ celebrated the upcoming feast of Pentecost on their last day of religious ed for the school year. Each child lit a small candle with their name on it and laid it in front of different words representing the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Reading about PentecostChoosing a gift of the Holy Spirit to put a candle in front of
My son has since pulled out his little red candle at home to play with. While he may have recently tried to “sell” it to his dad while playing with his cash register, I am also reminding him of the word in front of which he placed his candle and who the Holy Spirit is.
I’m looking forward to seeing how he grows in his faith next year in the atrium.
Hawaii Catholic Herald Blog 