MPR: The Catholic Revival

The Catholic Revival
By Tim Pugmire
September 4, 2000

Catholic educators in the Twin Cities are celebrating an enrollment revival as they open four new schools.

Officials with the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis say it's been 30 years since a new Catholic school building opened its doors. They say more schools are expected in the next few years as Catholic and non-Catholic parents try to fill a spiritual void in their children's education.

CONSTRUCTION CREWS HAD A BUSY SUMMER trying to finish their work at Saint Ambrose School in Woodbury in time for the start of the school year. Up to 450 students are expected to enroll in kindergarten through 8th grade classes. The $16 million suburban complex also includes an early childhood pre-school program. The adjacent parish church will open later this year and school classrooms will also be used for evening catechism instruction. Catholic students get plenty of religious content woven into their classes and attend mass each school day. Principal Matthew Metz says the shiny new school will also be home to some time-honored, rigorous academics.

The $16 million St. Ambrose School complex also includes an early childhood pre-school program. The adjacent parish church will open later this year and school classrooms will also be used for evening catechism instruction.
(MPR Photo/Bob Collins)

"The bread and butter for Catholic schools has been that we maintain fairly traditional methods, so they are the ways that children have been educated for a long time," Metz says. "That doesn't mean we're still using Dick and Jane books, but we take the best of new concepts and incorporate them with the concepts that have worked for a very long time, and emphasis the basics of reading, writing, mathematics and science, and with the faith values, and people are looking for that."

Saint Ambrose in Woodbury is one of three new Catholic schools built in fast-growing Twin Cities suburbs. A new high school in Victoria, near Chanhassen, will eventually serve 1,000 students in the southwest-metro area. Holy Family High School is the first new Catholic high school built in the Twin Cities metro area in 35 years.

Three parishes in Eagan and Mendota Heights joined forces to build Faithful Shepard Elementary School, where 450 students have enrolled in kindergarten through 6th grade. Seventh-grade classes will begin next year. Faithful Shepard Principal Barbara Vergenz says the school was needed in the area for a long time.

"We are serving mostly families who are coming out of the public school system. So, we feel these are families that wanted the choice of Catholic education but the opportunity has not been there for them, because of location and because of the fact that our south of the river Catholic schools are full with waiting lists," Vergenz says.

The 1970s and '80s were tough times for Twin Cities Catholic schools. Declining enrollments forced more than 50 schools to close or merge. An enrollment-resurgence began in the 1990s. Last year, there were 36,000 students attending 100 schools, and many of those buildings were filled to capacity.

Cretin Derham Hall and other high schools have long waiting lists. Tom McCarver, director of education for the Archdiocese, says about 25 percent of new people moving into the Twin Cities are Catholic. But he says population growth is only a partial explanation of the boom.

"We hear an awful lot from parents about the need for building faith in their children's lives," says McCarver. "The degree to which we're hearing that is qualitatively different."

The religious values and tough academics promised by these new suburban schools does not come cheap. Annual tuition at Saint Ambrose is $3,500. Faithful Shepard students will pay $3,300 if they live in one of the three sponsoring parishes. Non-parish residents will pay $4,600.

Most students attending the fourth Catholic school opening this week in south Minneapolis will get a substantial break on tuition. San Miguel School will eventually serve up to 75 students in 6th, 7th and 8th grades in the Phillips neighborhood. The Christian Brothers religious order will operate the middle school, which is aimed at teaching low-income Hispanic students, who've had trouble in traditional schools. Brother Larry Schatz, the school's principal, says small classes are the key.

"A lot of middle schools are doing a good job, but they are very large," he says. It is very hard for some students, specially students who are English-language learners, that sometimes slip through the cracks and that is not anybody's fault is just that they generally need more personal attention and perhaps more time."

"We hear an awful lot from parents about the need for building faith in their children's lives."

- Tom McCarver
Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

Minnesota's experience mirrors a nationwide trend. The National Catholic Educational Association says enrollment has increased by 86,000 students in the last seven years, and nearly half of all Catholic schools now have waiting lists. More than 13 percent of the students are non-Catholic, up from less than three percent in 1970.

Statistics also show Catholic school students outperforming their public school counterparts on standardized tests and graduation rates. And 83 percent of graduates go on to college, compared to 52 percent of public high school graduates. But there are no clear measurements for moral and spiritual development. Tom McCarver says the best measure of success for Catholic schools is whether parents keep their children enrolled and keep paying the bill.

"We watch the enrollments very carefully in our schools. We go out on a regular basis to parent meetings in our schools and just listen tot he tone that is there. And we find there is a great deal of pleasure that parents are getting right now in their schools."

McCarver says the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis will gain more schools next year. A Saint Paul parish plans to reopen a school it closed in the 1980s, and a merged Saint Louis Park school will once again become two schools. The new Providence Academy school is under construction in Plymouth. McCarver says he expects enrollment in the Twin Cities to grow by 12,000 students in the next 10 years.

	Sign up to receive e-mail newsletters

	Audio help

	Text: Sm : Md : Lg