By Michelle Samartino
Students at Bishop Foley High School in Madison Heights process outdoors carrying crucifixes prior to an opening school Mass last year. The high school was founded by Guardian Angels Parish in Clawson and St. Dennis Parish in Royal Oak.
—
Metro area – When Sam Serra graduated from St. Lawrence Elementary School in Utica, there was never a question that he would continue his education at a Catholic high school.
“It has become more important to me,” says Sam, who will be a freshman at De La Salle Collegiate in Warren this fall. “The teachers really impress your faith on you.”
Sam is one of more than 10,000 students across the Archdiocese of Detroit attending a Catholic high school this fall.
As local Catholic grade school enrollments continue to decline, enrollments at Catholic high schools in the Archdiocese of Detroit have leveled off since the 2004-05 school year.
In the 2009-10 school year, there were roughly as many students as there were five years ago, an encouraging trend from declining enrollments that appears to be fueled by the stability of local religious order schools, as well as the opening of new schools, such as Detroit Cristo Rey, and Everest Collegiate High School in Clarkston. Some parish-based high schools also have found measures of enrollment stability and growth.
Additional promise is ahead, with St. Catherine of Siena in Wixom opening this fall and Austin Catholic Academy in Macomb Township, scheduled to open next year.
Values draw students
Sam’s parents, Stephanie and Sam Serra, have three other children who attend St. Lawrence Elementary. Acknowledging the financial sacrifices involved, they express no regrets for choosing a Catholic high school for Sam.
“Our kids know how to focus on right from wrong and these are the foundational years of their lives,” says Stephanie. “It’s all connected.”
With the exception of a spike in 2005-06, local Catholic high school enrollment numbers have remained relatively stable since a total enrollment of 10,561 in 2004-05 to 10,290 in the last school year.
Bernadette Sugrue, archdiocesan superintendent of schools, says the staying power of Catholic high schools in the Archdiocese of Detroit is based on faith, tradition, and academic excellence.
“Parents and guardians are aware of this history, and because of it, they remain willing to make monetary sacrifices for their children,” she says. Sugrue adds that students at Catholic high schools in the Archdiocese of Detroit have a 98.5 percent likelihood of attending college, which is even with the national average for Catholic schools.
Phil Robey, executive director of the National Catholic Education Association’s Secondary Schools Department, says Catholic high schools nationwide are stable in terms of school numbers and enrollment.
Out of more than 1,200 Catholic schools nationwide, there are only 23 fewer Catholic high schools today than there were in 2005, he says.
“As we look to the future, we continue to study schools that thrive under tough conditions and how we can learn from them,” he says. “We also recognize that our work is cut out for us, especially in this poor economy and with the closure of Catholic elementary schools that have traditionally served as feeder schools to our high schools.”
Success stories
Despite local Catholic elementary school enrollment dropping from 28,063 students in 2004-05 to 21,972 students last year, a few local Catholic high schools are experiencing growing enrollments.
De La Salle Collegiate, founded by the Christian Brothers, reached its record high enrollment in 2007-08 with 873 students, and has had more than 800 students in each of the past two years.
“De La Salle has done a tremendous job in the last five years in solidifying its place as a premier secondary school in Macomb County as well as the state,” says Patrick Adams, principal. “We’ve done this by concentrating on our mission, developing a research-driven approach to our curriculum and professional staff development, and implementing a campus wide approach to safety.
Validating the Serra’s decision to have Sam attend De La Salle, Adams says that parents focus on three primary factors for choosing a Catholic education: rigorous academics, faith-based mission, and safety – factors that converge in other Catholic secondary education success stories in metro Detroit.
In Allen Park, enrollment at Cabrini High School has nearly doubled in five years thanks to innovative thinking paired with Catholic values.
“In 2005, Cabrini High School’s population was in the 280s, and has steadily grown since then,” says principal Jim Wasukanis. “We ended last year with 460 and we should have more than 500 students enrolled this fall.”
Wasukanis says there is not a single dominant factor in Cabrini’s success, but rather a series of reasons for its enrollment growth.
“It is absolutely crucial to have a staff dedicated to its students,” he stresses, adding “if you’re looking for specifics on our growth, we’ve communicated pretty well with parents and we involve them in the life of the school to the extent that they see the dedication in the classroom.”
Transportation may be playing a role as well. Fr. Joe Mallia, pastor of St. Frances Cabrini Parish, instituted a bus transfer system that enables the school to be within practical reach by a much wider community, attracting students from Canton to southwest Detroit.
“More than 100 kids come from areas much farther from our parish boundaries,” says Wasukanis.
Smarts to survive
Part of being successful is also avoiding disaster. The economic downturn in recent years amplified other challenges already facing Regina High School.
In 2000, Catholic elementary schools near Regina started to falter. These were the schools whose students typically went on to high school at Regina, which experienced startling drops in its enrollment, losing 284 students in six years.
The answer, Sr. Mary Leanne Leszczynski, SSJ-TOSF, says, was to go to where the students were. Sr. Leszczynski, principal of Regina, petitioned her sponsoring order and board of directors to explore the feasibility of moving.
When the school ultimately relocated in 2007 from Harper Woods to a smaller building in Warren, enrollment stabilized at just over 500.
“We hoped that our numbers would continue to go up,” she says. “The economy did not allow that to happen. However, we have been able to maintain a steady enrollment of 500 students and we anticipate a small increase this year.”
However Catholic high schools manage to thrive or survive, Sugrue believes that the dedication of the schools’ educators helps to foster academic excellence and nurture a strong faith foundation in the students.
“After all, one of the best gifts we can offer to society is a well educated student grounded in faith and living a life of principle,” she says.
Students tend to agree.
“I’ve grown up around my Catholic faith and it has become important to me,” says Stephen Garrity, a soon-to-be classmate of Sam Serra at De La Salle. “The teachers teach it to you, but it ultimately becomes your choice.”
