New diocesan high school ready for classes

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

New students were welcomed to the new diocesan high school on the first day of orientation Tuesday.
Faculty lined the driveway, some waving, as vehicles bearing seventh- and eighth-graders pulled up to St. Paul Diocesan Catholic Junior/Senior High School in Worcester.
The school is at 144 Granite St., site of the former Holy Name Central Catholic Junior/Senior High School, which was merged with St. Peter-Marian Central Catholic Junior/Senior High School to form St. Paul’s.
“We’re excited about the work that’s been done,” not just visible renovations, but also work to ensure that “St. Paul High School is second to none in terms of its academic quality and emphasis on Catholic values, and integration of the two,” said David Perda, superintendent of Catholic schools.  
Transitions like mergers can be difficult, he said, and he’s grateful to students, families, staff and members of various committees who helped pave the way for the new school.
Classes are to start Sept. 14, after orientations for different grades this week.
Grades 7 and 8 were first. On Tuesday older students, serving as orientation leaders, greeted them outside before they entered the newly painted gym to sit on the new bleachers, facing the new mascot painted on the floor: St. Paul Knights.
“He’s super-excited to be starting and make some new friends,” Kristina (Herman) Bergeron (Holy Name class of 2005) said after her seventh-grader, Kenneth Bergeron, went inside. “He’s been with the same kids since kindergarten. He doesn’t know anybody here. … I’m so excited for him.”
Kenneth attended public school – Roosevelt Elementary in Worcester – and was planning to go to St. Stephen Elementary for seventh and eighth grade and then to St. Paul’s for high school, she said. Plans changed when St. Stephen’s closed last spring.
Thomas Decoteau, a math teacher and track coach at St. Paul’s, said his three children – a junior and freshmen twins – were at one time in the public schools.
“The experience they get here is really beyond compare,” he said. “As a kid I never had the opportunity to come here” (to Holy Name) though many friends did. He said he coached at the school as a college student, left work at public schools to come here to teach, and is now in his 15th year on the campus.
Spanish teacher Kristen Lund said she taught three years at Holy Name and last year moved to St. Peter-Marian.
“This is completely the best of both worlds for me,” she said; she’s back with her faculty friends from both schools, and students too.
“When the merger was announced I kept telling the kids, ‘We have great kids there; we have great kids here, and together it’s going to be amazing,’” she said. “I’m so excited to be here, to see old and new faces, to (see) what the possibilities are.”
“We’re excited for a new year, to meet our new students” and introduce this generation to the life and teachings of Jesus, said art teacher Michael Fleming.
The faith was introduced right near the beginning of the orientation, with Sandra Pollette, assistant principal for ministry, telling the students they are all God’s children and are to care for one another. She introduced adults who will do chaplaincy work, campus ministry and/or teach religion.
  Amy Loin, a student orientation leader, offered a prayer, asking God to bless them as they get to know a new school and teachers, and to help them go beyond their comfort zone and share their gifts.
“With You by our side we are truly stronger together,” she prayed, using the school motto (Fortior Unus in Latin).
Later Brett Penza, technology director, led students in shouting, “I am a St. Paul Knight.”
Michael Clark, head of school, had teachers introduce themselves, and Timothy St. John, assistant principal for student life, introduced older students serving as orientation leaders.
“It’s fun helping out with the kids, trying to make their experience better,” Ry Kariuki, a senior, told The Catholic Free Press. He said when he was in seventh grade at Holy Name he was impressed with the orientation seniors gave.
 Dominic Porcaro, co-president of the senior class, told this year’s middle schoolers about the work others did to get the new school ready and urged them to come to it with open minds, to “enjoy your time here and make the most of it.”
Explaining the planned hybrid learning model, Mr. Clark said there are 587 students enrolled, for a building that can hold 300 at a time with social distancing. So one cohort of students will come to school on Mondays and Tuesdays, the other cohort on Thursdays and Fridays. Wednesday is the “virtual day,” to tune in to classes online.
The days their cohort is not in school they will do asynchronous learning, which involves independent projects, small groups and an online curriculum, Mr. Clark told The Catholic Free Press.
In the cafeteria, he said, two students can sit where 12 used to sit.
“We need to come together but we need to socially distance,” he said. “Everyone’s coming into a new school … in terms of its mission identity,” though of course it’s Catholic. “It’s a bit like we’ve all moved into a new house” and have to make it feel like home.
Mr. Clark said the school can still take more students.
He talked about the need for adults and students to feel comfortable. Asked about air purifiers that teachers had asked for, he said the school ordered 63 portable units, which should be in this week.
The nearly $2 million renovation project took place in 11 weeks and included redoing the driveway, renovating the gym and restrooms, installing a visitors’ vestibule, getting new equipment for the computer lab, repainting, recarpeting and extending WiFi access throughout the building, he said.
Things that still need to be done – including some re-roofing, masonry work and wiring for the new school sign – don’t affect classroom learning, he said.
“We have a lot to celebrate,” he said. “This is THE diocesan high school of Worcester County.”
“I think that the whole school community, everyone at St. Paul, will step up to the challenges,” Janet Howard, computer science teacher, told The Catholic Free Press during the orientation. “Everyone has a positive attitude, everyone that I’ve talked to this year. Students are happy to be back, teachers are happy to be back.”