Educating each child costs more than $13,000 per year.  In order for Mother Catherine Academy to offer competitive and affordable tuition, parents must fulfill a family commitment.  This commitment includes fundraising, the SCRIP program, volunteer service, and working Saturday Bingo.  This commitment ensures that MCA remains available to everyone regardless of a family's financial situation. 

Fundraising Commitment

Fundraisers, including our popular Saturday Night Bingo, are an important revenue stream.  Fundraisers are staggered throughout the year.  Parents must participate in four (4) mandatory fundraisers each year, not including Saturday Night Bingo.  If the family chooses not to participate in the fundraiser, they must pay $100 to buy-out of the missed fundraiser. Information about the fundraisers comes home with the Principal's weekly newsletter in the Wednesday folder.

SCRIP Program Commitment

Parents are required to commit to purchase $2,000 in SCRIP cards.  The SCRIP program sells shopping gift cards at their face value.  These are the same gift cards that would be purchased from a retailer, and have no expiration dates.  MCA receives a percentage of the value from the retailer.  For more information visit the ShopWithScrip page, or download the retailer list here.  There are some SCRIP cards available at the school on a daily basis, others must be ordered.  Please visit the school office for more information.

Volunteer Hours Commitment

Volunteering is an important component of the eduction provided at MCA.  Not only do volunteering parents help the school community, and set good examples for students; they make connections with others in the MCA family.  Parents/Families must dedicate at least 15 hours of volunteer service during the school per year.  These hours DO NOT include working bingo.  There are several opportunities to volunteer at the school throughout the year.  Some of our big events that never have enough volunteers are Fall Festival, Trunk-or-Treat, and the Online Auction.  Hours can also be earned by volunteering to help with lunch, an after-school club, or doing administrative tasks to help the school.  Many volunteer opportunities are managed through Sign-Up Genius, which are emailed out throughout the year.

Please make sure you sign in when volunteering so that your volunteer hours can be logged. If you forget to sign in or are volunteering off-campus and the log book is unavailable, please email your volunteer hours information to mcavolunteer@mothercatherine.org.

Saturday Night Bingo

Each family is required to work four nights at our Saturday Night Bingo fundraisers.  Bingo Schedules are sent home as well as posted online.  The schedules are created and posted well in advance so that families can plan accordingly.  After tuition, Saturday Night Bingo is the biggest source of income for the school and the participation of all parents is vital to the financial stability of the school.  There is a $500.00 per night buy-out/penalty for each missed bingo if a parent is unable to attend is unable to find a suitable replacement!