In the Saint Augustine bulletin two weeks ago, there was a notice that a couple of families had moved out of the parish, and as a result, there was an unexpected opening in the seventh grade at the parish school on Mount Pleasant Avenue in Providence.
Unexpected, to say the least.
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St. Augustine, like most Catholic Schools in Rhode Island, is thriving. In fact, a 1999 enrollment study by the Diocese of Providence’s Catholic School Office, found that six Catholic elementary schools – St. Augustine’s and St. Thomas in Providence; St. Rocco’s, in Johnston; St. Philip’s, in Smithfield; and St. Mary’s and Cranston-Johnston Catholic Regional School, in Cranston — were full or exceeded capacity and had combined waiting lists of over 500.
The only Catholic elementary school in the eastern section of Washington County, Msgr. Matthew F. Clarke Regional School, which includes grades K-6, has been at capacity for several years with a current waiting list of nearly 100. The only Catholic high school in that area, The Prout School, which serves students in grades 7 through 12, reached its capacity of 500 students this year.
Waiting lists are also the norm at larger Catholic high schools throughout the state, where rising tuition costs have done nothing to slow the momentum toward Catholic education.
According to the Providence Business News “2001 Book of Lists,” it costs $6,000 per year to attend LaSalle Academy in Providence, $5,650 per year to attend Bishop Hendricken in Warwick, $5,280 to attend Mount Saint Charles Academy in Woonsocket. St. Mary’s Academy – Bay View, an all-girls secondary school in East Providence, has an annual tuition of $6,150.
Seats at all of those schools are in demand.
Now, armed with a report by Meitler Consultants, Inc., of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Diocese of Providence is considering how to best address the demand, including the possibility of adding more Catholic school seats.
The Diocese commissioned Meitler Consultants last summer, according to Brother William Dygert, superintendent, to follow up an in-house study with a more thorough analysis of the demographic changes in western and southern Rhode Island and to project how those changes would impact existing Catholic schools.
Brother Dygert noted that the Meitler report offered recommendations for creating additional seats in both of the two regions specifically researched. In the greater Johnston area, for example, Meitler recommended:
Constructing a new K-8 school, with two classes per grade at Holy Apostles Parish, Cranston;
Expanding the existing school at St. Philip Parish, Smithfield, to accommodate two classes per grade, K-8;
And, after these projects are completed the Diocese should review the need for another K-8 facility to be located at St. Robert Bellarmine Parish, Johnston.
Cost and financing of school construction and operations were not addressed in the survey.
“We conducted the survey to help us determine if a need exists,” said Brother Dygert. “Issues regarding financing, constructing and operating a school are relevant for discussion only after the need is established.”
The Meitler report also an enrollment history at Msgr. Clarke and The Prout School, both in South Kingstown, along with a study of local demographic figures.
The results, according to Brother Dygert, offer convincing evidence of the need for two more classes of each grade, K-8, and an expansion of Catholic high school capacity to 500 in grades 9-12. The report focused on the areas of Washington County with the highest rates of growth, South Kingstown and North Kingstown, and recommended:
Providing for two more classes of each grade, K-8;
And relocating the seventh and eighth grades from The Prout School to facilitate the expansion of its 9-12 enrollment to 500.
The Meitler study offered two options for implementing the suggested relocation of these grades from Prout. The first option would expand Msgr. Clarke School to include grades 7 and 8, and build a new Catholic elementary school with two classes of each grade, K-8. The other option would expand Msgr. Clarke to include four classes of each grade, K-5, and build a new middle school with four classes each of grades 6-8.
Either option requires available, adequate and affordable land, which is difficult to find in rapidly developing areas.
And according to Bruce Daigle, program director for the Catholic School Office, there are no parishes in that area with the land necessary for a school.
“We are working with the Diocesan’s Building Commission to develop and assess options,” he said.
But it is clear in Daigle’s view, that the direction in which the diocese is moving has been set.
“The need for more seats has been established,” said Daigle. “The financial questions will be complex I don’t want to minimize that. But there is a shared commitment on the part of the diocese, and our pastors and principals. Our mission is to provide Catholic education to those who want it.”
There has not always been such a demand for Catholic education. In fact, from the mid-1960s to about 1990, Catholic schools struggled to fill the seats in their classrooms. It was a time of turmoil within the Catholic Church, and later, an economic climate marked by inflation.
But the turnaround in the past decade has been nothing short of miraculous.
Daigle believes there are several reasons for the surge in demand for Catholic education.
“In the last ten years, parents have been searching for a school environment that reflects the spiritual values they want for their kids,” he said. “And some parents are looking for discipline and they feel that we have a reputation for providing that.”
The Catholic schools have also delivered, he said, on academics
Unlike public schools, which only require secondary schools to be accredited, both Catholic elementary and high schools are required to seek accreditation from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC), every few years.
Not only does every school have to meet the standards set by the diocese, but every school has to meet the standards set by NEASC, and is accountable for maintaining those standards, Daigle explained in a previous interview with Providence Business News.
For several years, according to Daigle, 98 percent of Catholic high school students have graduated, and more than 95 percent of those students have gone on to college.
Brother Dygert said diocesan leaders have been and will continue meeting with each other and with pastors, principals, school boards and parish teams to discuss a time frame and possible funding mechanisms to implement the recommendations in the report.
New rounds of meetings will begin in September and will continue until a decision on a specific strategy is forwarded to and approved by Bishop Robert E. Mulvee.
The demand is clear, said Daigle. And the Diocese now has an obligation, he said, to increase the supply.
“I think there is a moral imperative to move on this,” said Daigle.
