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January 25, 2018
Valerie Schmalz
ST. ANTHONY-IMMACULATE CONCEPTION PRINCIPAL BARBARA MOODIE WITH STUDENTS AT A ROBOTICS TOURNAMENT THE SCHOOL SPONSORED WITH ST. PETER AND ST. JAMES SCHOOLS IN THE FALL. (PHOTO BY VALERIE SCHMALZ/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)
St. Anthony-Immaculate Conception School charges tuition based on family income – and principal Barbara Moodie says that fact makes the Mission District school very affordable for Latino families who might have thought Catholic school was out of reach.
“Our tuition is based on your income,” said Moodie, who said enrollment increased to 153 students this year, up from 131 in the 2016-17 school year. “A lot of families are very proud. They are embarrassed” to apply for financial assistance, but can see the sense of tuition based on income, Moodie said. The long term enrollment goal is 225 students, Moodie said.
St. Peter School is financially attractive as well, with one of the lowest tuitions in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, said Sandra Jimenez, principal.
A big factor in the schools’ success is Father Moises Agudo, who is pastor of St. Anthony-Immaculate Conception, St. Peter and St. Charles Borromeo parishes, Moodie said.
“I can’t emphasize enough how important a pastor who really supports the school is,” Moodie said, noting, “He recruits.”
“If you have the pastor working with the principal, magic happens,” said the University of Notre Dame’s Latino Enrollment Initiative director Manny Fernandez.
Founded in 2012, the Catholic School Advantage program’s Latino Enrollment Initiative identifies and assists Catholic schools with substantial unmet capacity (open seats), favorable demographic potential – namely, a growing number of Latino families in the surrounding area – and motivated principals by offering a framework to transform schools, working with pastors and principals, in order to attract and serve Latino families, according to the Latino Enrollment Initiative website.
In the Archdiocese of San Francisco Department of Catholic Schools, the coordinator of the Alliance of Mission District Schools, Gustavo Torres is participating in the summer and school year educational program and sharing information with Mission District schools.
On Dec. 9, Father Agudo invited representatives of St. Peter and St. Anthony-Immaculate Conception and Torres to present the advantages of Catholic schools to the parents of the 540 children who are in the joint parish religious education program that serves St. Anthony-Immaculate Conception, St. Peter and St. Charles Borromeo parishes.
The size of the religious education program is also an indicator of how much farther Catholic schools need to go to attract Latino families to a Catholic school education, Jimenez said. “Over 500 kids and they are not in Catholic schools. If we just got 10 percent of them, it would boost our St. Peter’s enrollment up to 300,” Jimenez said.
Catholic schools have statistically been shown to be a major factor in children retaining their Catholic faith as they grow up, Fernandez said. For the schools themselves, the under enrollment of Latinos is a critical issue, he said.
“There is no better evangelizer of the faith than Catholic schools. My daughter is six. She is with her teacher and her school way more than with us. She really has a great relationship with Jesus because of her teacher,” Fernandez said. “We’re losing Catholics to the evangelicals. If we don’t do something to stop it, it’s a problem.”
“Right now, 4 percent of Latino children are enrolled in Catholic schools,” Fernandez told Catholic San Francisco. “The last number we saw was 57 out of 100 Catholics between the ages of 0 and 10 are Latino.”
At St. Peter’s and at SAIC, the principals rely on “Madrinas” and “Padrinos” who go to preschool fairs and talk to individuals and families from the perspective of Spanish-speaking parents who have children at the school, said St. Peter School principal Sandra Jimenez. She said that is a big factor in recruiting new students. For SAIC, the parent outreach includes cafes and local cafes frequented by families, Moodie said.
“If they are coming from a Latin American country, Catholic schools are only for the elite. They do not even think it is available to them,” Fernandez said. Finances are also a major factor, Fernandez said, “But the biggest issue is schools are not reaching out to these families to say the school is safe, we are not going to ask for documents, it is affordable.”
“The Madrinas program is a relationship builder. That is why those schools will be successful, because they are getting Latin American mothers and fathers to help recruit.”
SAIC is blessed with plentiful assistance intended to help families afford Catholic school, including the Dominicans of Mission San Jose’s Vision of Hope, the Basic Fund, archdiocesan aid, Alliance of Mission Catholic Schools, and aid from Father Agudo, Moodie said.
St. Peter is also fortunate to have generous benefactors and support from the Basic Fund, said Jimenez, who said the school has one of the lowest tuitions in the archdiocese, and a system where additional children from the same family pay a graduated tuition to make it more affordable for families.
Moodie implemented an idea from some Southern California schools: Families who are interested in SAIC can enroll their children in the spring semester, if they are willing to join the school midyear, at a reduced tuition to see if they like it. This year, five students tried this pilot program, she said. The mid-year enrollment also allows St. Anthony-Immaculate Conception to offer new families help with filling out financial assistance forms generally due in March or April. Enrolling midyear “helps the kids to transition earlier,” Moodie said.
STUDENTS AT ST. PETER SCHOOL, WHERE PRINCIPAL SANDRA JIMENEZ SAID OUTREACH BY PARENTS IS CRUCIAL TO BUILDING ENROLLMENT. (PHOTO COURTESY ST. PETER SCHOOL)