State of the schools: enrollment up

By Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free Press

As National Catholic Schools Week approaches, David Perda, superintendent for the Worcester Diocese, reported that “the state of the schools is very good.” The theme of the week (Jan. 28 - Feb. 3 this year) is “Catholic Schools: United in Faith and Community.”
Mission is key for Catholic schools, and good things have happened with enrollment, collaboration, professional development, and involvement of people beyond the school communities, Superintendent Perda said.
“We’ve got to be authentically Catholic,” he said. Catholicism must be “integrated into everything that we do, and that includes hiring and professional development.”
At one time it was thought that the “solution” to enrollment decline was “to de-emphasize the Catholic” and attract families with other benefits, such as order and structure, he said.
But now he credits a variety of factors – including reopening for in-person education during the pandemic – with helping increase enrollment.
He said some families, dissatisfied with remote learning in the public schools, enrolled their children in Catholic schools, and have kept them there.
In a divided society, Catholic schools also offer the freedom to talk about God, a family environment and, he said, the Worcester Diocese’s sexuality and sexual identity policy. “Catholic Education and the Human Person” was made an official part of school policy last June. “We have been operating” with the principles of the policy, but now it is included in school handbooks, whose contents parents agree to abide by, he said, adding, “We don’t want to surprise anybody.” With changes in society, there is a greater possibility that confusion about gender and sexuality will arise, and the principles will be needed, he said.
Catholic schools will not be teaching the “surprisingly graphic” sex education for young children that he has seen in the curriculum used in Worcester public schools. Catholic schools will not promote transgenderism, sex between individuals not married to each other, or ideas that take students away from the fact that God made human beings male and female. If families desire a more traditional education than public schools offer, “the Catholic schools are there for them,” Superintendent Perda said.
Enrollment in several Catholic schools is significantly higher this year than in the 2019-2020 school year, when schools went into remote learning. Superintendent Perda gave some examples.
St. Bernard’s High School, Fitchburg, which was on the verge of closing before it transitioned from a diocesan school to a private one, doubled enrollment, going from 104 students in 2020 to 208 students this year. St. Peter Central Catholic Elementary, Worcester, which is still a diocesan school, went from 339 students to 357.
Other jumps included Notre Dame Academy, Worcester, from 168 to 260 students; St. Bernard Elementary, Fitchburg, 205 to 249; Assumption Elementary, Millbury, 94 to 138; Trinity Catholic Academy, Southbridge, 119 to 141; All Saints Academy, Webster, 192 to 214; Holy Family Academy, Gardner, 145 to 197; Our Lady of the Valley Regional, Uxbridge, 181 to 227; and St. Aloysius Catholic School, Gilbertville, 62 to 86.
While remote learning seems to have promoted enrollment, the superintendent said it “led to some mental health challenges,” triggered by societal division, economic downturn, social isolation and other factors. And spending all day on Zoom calls was not a substitute for being in school, where teachers can better assess students’ emotional states and engage them in learning, he said.
“When the kids came back ... some had these mental health problems and that led to discipline problems,” Superintendent Perda said.
So, the 2022-2023 school year professional development included mental health first aid training and certification for teachers and administrators. As a result, schools in northern Worcester County collaborated to share a professional mental health counselor, the superintendent said.
“I think one of the things we learned as a system of schools [during COVID] was how to collaborate better,” he said. “Through collaboration you can get additional expertise.”
Especially well received was last fall’s professional development/religious enrichment day, he said. It was sponsored by the diocesan Office of Religious Education, the Catholic Schools Office, and Loyola Press. Joe Paprocki, national consultant for faith formation at Loyola Press, spoke about “Nine Steps to Transforming Lives: Teaching and Proclaiming a Gospel of Transformation.”
Superintendent Perda has also seen the importance of people beyond the school communities, who care about Catholic education. After Robert R. Pape, who did much for the Adopt-A-Student scholarship program, died in 2022, “we replenished the committee,” he said. “We’ve got some new individuals” to join present members and had a great initial meeting last fall. New officers and subcommittees were to be put in place Jan. 19.
This year is the first full year for another group working for Catholic education – the Board of Limited Jurisdiction for St. Paul Diocesan Jr./Sr. High School. This board has greater authority than typical school boards, which are more advisory in nature, he said. For example, the Board hires and evaluates the head of school, among other tasks, including the annual budget.
Superintendent Perda also credited the hard work of Sherry Callahan, St. Paul’s director of institutional advancement, for working with alumni to bring in revenue. This includes a $100,000 grant from the Flatley Foundation, to be used for tuition support, and a $10,000 grant from the Fletcher Foundation, to be used to create recharging stations for students’ electronic devices.
“How grateful I am to the teachers and staff” in Catholic schools, who worked over the past five years to provide a “top notch Catholic education,” he said, adding that he speaks for administrators and pastors too. “It’s unprecedented – the amount of perseverance and flexibility required.”