What if God really does answer our prayers? What if he meant it when he said, “Ask, and you shall receive?”
Nestled in the Rocky Mountains, St. Stephen Parish and School in Glenwood Springs is seeing that very loving, providential care first-hand.
After remodeling the parish hall, the community turned their attention to a complete school remodel in 2021.
“It was really a grassroots effort to raise all that money to totally remodel the school,” Glenda Oliver, principal of St. Stephen School, reminisced. “It was amazing. They took the whole building down to the studs and completely redid the school. So we are in a new building for all intents and purposes.”
Even with new facilities, a missional focus and a revamped curriculum thanks to the efforts of the Office of Catholic Schools over the last few years, St. Stephen School struggled to expand its team because of the financial challenges of living in Glenwood Springs.
The quaint mountain community boasts beautiful mountain vistas, popular hot springs and must-visit ski resorts, making it a hot spot for tourists and visitors. For locals, however, living costs pose a serious difficulty, with the average home price sitting over $800,000.
“Being in a resort community, it is really expensive here. Even the public schools are building housing for teachers if that’s any indication of what it’s like,” Oliver continued, reflecting on the difficulty mountain schools face in their recruitment efforts.
In fact, in the summer of 2023, the school was working to hire a new middle school math and science teacher but was unable to welcome him aboard because of a lack of affordable housing. Even after contacting the local Catholic community, the school administration found no leads, and the prospective teacher was forced to decline the opportunity.
Yet even amid serious challenges, God provides – and in bigger ways than one might think possible.
One day, a benefactor friend Oliver had made during the parish and school remodels called her to offer a rental property – a duplex – as a donation to the school for teacher housing.
“It was a huge gift! It’s a game changer for us,” Oliver recalled.
“This is an incredible and providential opportunity for our community at St. Stephen,” Father Matthew Magee, Pastor of St. Stephen Parish, told the Denver Catholic. “God has a funny way of surprising us, and I am grateful both to God and to the donor for their unexpected generosity.”
The new duplex is known as the “St. Joseph House” in honor of the school’s founding sisters from the order of St. Joseph of Carondelet, and will welcome new teachers through programs like the newly established Cabrini Teaching Fellows next academic year.
“This is something that allows us to finally be able to bring those good people here because housing in this area, in particular, is a big, big problem,” Oliver continued. “Especially for someone just starting out, it’s a really big problem. So the hope is that we can start attracting some of those teachers into our school, and we can help those young teachers become the teachers that God intends for them to be.”
A game-changing gift to the school community, the new duplex dedicated to teacher housing will allow new teachers the opportunity to learn from some of St. Stephen’s master teachers, to teach in a school with some of the highest test scores in the area, and to live their faith in a visible, active way.
“The culture of our school is vastly different,” Oliver shared. “It’s because of our Catholic faith. The students can talk about God, ask questions about him; we actually get to know our students on a deeper level than in a way we’re allowed to at public school. We’re partnering with parents. We’re their touchstones.”
“There are amazing teachers lots of places,” Oliver continued. “But I will say that the Catholic educators I know are some of the most selfless, caring people in the world, and the way they do it is through Christ. When Christ is at your center, and you are truly servant leaders, it’s a game changer for your life. It changes everything.”