Jean Houghton looks at artwork St. Agnes School presented at its Red & White Benefit Dinner and Auction Feb. 12. RICHARD GRANER | COURTESY ST. AGNES SCHOOL

As a mom volunteering in the lunchroom and library at St. Agnes School in St. Paul in the early 2000s, Jean Houghton felt grateful that her three children had the gift of Catholic education.

But she knew some children didn’t have that opportunity, and her sorrow in that knowledge ignited a passion for making Catholic schools more accessible. That became evident in 2007 as she helped St. Agnes School stay open — and it continues now as she serves as president of the Aim Higher Foundation in St. Paul, which provides scholarships to students from low-income families who want to attend Catholic elementary schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Houghton, 58, a Cathedral of St. Paul parishioner, was honored Feb. 12 at St. Agnes’ Annual Red & White Benefit Dinner and Auction for her contributions to the prek-12 school, and to Catholic education as a whole.

“Part of the reason our school is where it is today is because Jean Houghton went out and got students and helped us secure the financial backing of supporters so we could build a new building, which we opened up in 2015,” said Kevin Ferdinandt, St. Agnes School headmaster and a parishioner of St. Anne in Hamel. “We’ve got waiting lists, we’ve got a healthier financial picture, an extraordinary student culture, a terrific faculty and staff culture, and a beautiful building, and without Jean we wouldn’t have those in that same way.”

Houghton began as a volunteer, librarian and grant writer at St. Agnes. In 2007, she left a business consultant position at McDonald’s Corp., and months later she became St. Agnes’ admissions director. In 2012 she became the school’s director of advancement, a role she held until she was hired as in 2017 as president of the Aim Higher Foundation.

When St. Agnes School faced a major financial crisis in 2007, partly due to a longstanding pattern of unpaid tuition, Houghton was very involved, said Father John Ubel, Cathedral of St. Paul rector, who in 2007 was St. Agnes’ pastor and school superintendent.

That spring, the school was $1.25 million in debt and faced declining enrollment as many families were not signing up for the following academic year, Father Ubel said. The school stood to lose up to $600,000 by the end of that school year, he said.

In April, the late Archbishop Harry Flynn authorized closing the high school. But Father Ubel and a team of staff and others, including Houghton, rallied families and supporters. They had two weeks to raise money and increase enrollment before teachers would be given notice that May, he said.

A donor offered Father Ubel $500,000, which the school needed to match in a week. He called Houghton, who with the rest of the team and staff, redoubled their efforts, encouraging families to step up again, cold-calling potential donors and continuing to recruit new students.

Houghton “was doing anything and everything she could,” Father Ubel said. “She understood that we needed to do a much better job of recruiting and working with families and actively going to meet with families, not just having open houses and seeing who shows up. It’s basic things but it’s the little things.”

The school met the match. By May 8 that year, Houghton and others had raised a total of $1.5 million in cash, including $100,000 from an additional performance of the school musical. And they had registered 58 new students. Fundraising continued, and altogether the school raised just over $3 million, including endowment funds, Houghton said.

An enrollment of 426 K-12 students in April 2007, with an expectation that the number would be dropping, has turned into a preK-12 student body of 826 today, school officials said.

“The children, the families, everybody banded together,” Houghton said. “They stuffed envelopes, made phone calls, prayed the rosary, anything they could to make sure the school would remain in a stable position and be able to stay open.”

Houghton’s husband, Thomas, and their three children, now ages 25 to 30, were very involved in the effort and were present as the school honored her, she said.

At Aim Higher Foundation, Houghton supervises strategic advancement, fundraising and foundation management as she continues to help bridge the gap between what some families can afford to pay for Catholic education and actual education costs.

During the 2021-2022 school year, the foundation awarded 2,076 scholarships of $1,000 at all 82 archdiocesan K-8 schools — three times as many scholarships as in 2017, said Ricky Austin, Aim Higher vice president of advancement and operations.

Houghton also has been involved in developing the Roadmap for Excellence for Catholic Education, a strategic initiative to strengthen archdiocesan Catholic education and make it more accessible and sustainable. Houghton also served on the archdiocesan COVID-19 economic task force.

Seeds she planted at St. Agnes for helping low-income and working-class families seeking a Catholic education, serving others with an all-in mentality and ensuring Catholic schools thrive are bearing fruit now, Austin said.

“It’s not only that Jean is able to say ‘yes, I believe we can make this happen’ but that ‘I’m going to use my God given talents to bring other people with me,’” he said. “That was transformational at St. Agnes, and it’s been transformational at Aim Higher Foundation.”