By Julie A. Miller
Catholic Herald
Catholic schools face different enrollment challenges
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While Catholic schools enrollment nationwide has seen a slight gain recently, most schools in the Superior diocese have remained steady or have lost students. (NCEA graphic) |
Demand for Catholic faith-based education remains strong. In the 1999-2000 school year, 37 new Catholic schools were opened in the United States, and enrollment jumped by 4,600. Over 2 million students are enrolled in Catholic elementary and middle schools and another 640,000 attend secondary schools.
The Diocese of Superior has 17 Catholic elementary schools with 2,874 students enrolled in the 2000-2001 school year compared to 2,889 for 1999-2000. The schools face different enrollment challenges, depending on their geographic location within the diocese.
Population is growing rapidly in St. Croix County, the section of the diocese nearest the Twin Cities. According to principal Patricia Brandner, St. Patrick School in Hudson is close to full in almost all of the grades and they have had to turn away some prekindergarten students. Current enrollment is about the same as last year at 374 students.
Due to enrollment growth in the past few years, the school has given up its art and music rooms, using the space for homerooms instead. They have no extra space for a computer lab.
Brandner said there is a capital campaign in progress to raise funds for eight new classrooms. The addition will meet current needs, but will not accommodate anticipated growth. The school expects to be short one classroom next year and two the following year. They are considering various alternatives for temporary classroom space, Brandner said.
"There is not room to take all the children that census data says we are getting," Brandner said. "The school has so much to offer students, but marketing is on hold right now. Our test scores here are excellent. The whole faith-based education you are giving kids for living their lives, you wish you could give that to all students," Brandner said.
Our Lady of Sorrows School in Ladysmith faces different challenges. Principal Tami Stewart said, "We're kind of in that corridor where the enrollment is decreasing, not just in our school but the public school is losing as well."
Enrollment for the current school year is 105 students, compared to 115 in 1999-2000. "Enrollment is down this year and we're hoping to at least stay where we were. We need to do some marketing," Stewart said.
The school has a committee of teachers working on ideas, such as sending brochures to day care centers and soliciting written testimonials from alumni. Stewart said one idea they are trying is an expansion of their yearly round up program, which is usually aimed at kindergarten enrollment. This year they will invite prospective students in all grades to visit the school with their parents.
Betty Swiston, principal of St. Louis School in Washburn said keeping enrollment numbers up is always a struggle in her area too. The school has a capacity of 95 students, but in 1990 enrollment was down to 42 children. To reverse the trend the school began a marketing campaign and instituted a preschool program. Enrollment reached a peak of 93 students in 1996, partly due to a large number of preschoolers. For the 2000-2001 school year they have 85 students.
"We've been building up slowly we have an educational goal to increase every year by 10 percent. The last two years we have been working on enrollment and we've been meeting our goal," Swiston said. "Our preschool this year was filled to capacity. So was our third and fourth grade," she added.
The prekindergarten program remains a great success. Because of its good reputation it attracts a number of non-Catholic students, Swiston said. They don't usually stay through the sixth grade, but Swiston said the Catholic preschoolers do.
© Superior Catholic Herald, 2001