Students at Notre Dame School in Hermitage are celebrating this week with appreciation days for the community, nation, students, teachers, priests and parishioners.

The students are dressing up as their favorite literary characters, dressing in their pajamas, hosting an appreciation breakfast and having an all-school Mass followed by a pep rally.

St. Patrick’s School in Hubbard is holding a spelling bee, an all-school Mass, a teacher appreciation day and a student appreciation day. The students are holding a skating party Friday at Olympic Fun Center in Hermitage.

Students at Monsignor Geno J. Monti School in Farrell are having a Communion breakfast with students at St. Michael’s School in Greenville; are reading stories to younger students through the Reading Buddies Program; having a family spaghetti lunch, bake sale and talent show and an teacher appreciation day. There will also be a Kennedy Christian High School information session, spirit/dress down day, First Friday Mass, an honors assembly, pep rally and basketball game.

St. Michael School in Greenville is hosting a grandparents’ breakfast and talent show, an eighth-grade Communion breakfast, a breakfast with the principal, a radio broadcast from the school and a Buddy Day lunch.

The students are also having a family skating party Tuesday at Olympic Fun Center in Hermitage.

Youngstown Diocese Bishop Thomas J. Tobin said Catholic schools were established as early as 1606 by Franciscan Missionaries in Florida.

There are 8,144 Catholic schools in the United States and 6,923 of them are elementary and middle schools, according to the National Catholic Educational Association. The enrollment in these schools is 2,013,084.