Principals, other school officials excited, grateful with Catholic school enrollment growth

Principals and school officials with the Archdiocese of S. Paul and Minneapolis expressed excitement and gratitude as they reflected on a third straight year of enrollment growth in Catholic schools across the archdiocese.

The numbers tell part of the story: More than 31,000 students are in Catholic preschool through 12th grade in the archdiocese this school year, a nearly 9 percent increase from 2019-2020.

“Last year, 69 percent of our schools experienced growth,” said Jason Slattery, director of Catholic education in the archdiocese’s Office for the Mission of Catholic Education.

“The growth sustained in K-8 schools has been remarkable, as has the ninth through 12th grade segment — they’ve been able to hold on and grow during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Slattery said.

“And our preschool segment, which was probably the most impacted by the pandemic in the early days, has seen a strong trend of rebuilding and strengthening those enrollment numbers,” he said.

Founded in 1952, St. Raphael Catholic School in Crystal — a preK-8 school celebrating its 70th year of providing education based on faith — is celebrating a 22 percent increase in school enrollment this past year.

“Our low point was in 2019 when we were down to 88 students in K-8,” said Jason Finne, St. Raphael principal.

“At the end of last school year, we had 112 enrollments; this year we grew to 149,” he said. “Our largest and fastest-growing class is our preschool, which we hope will translate into kindergarten enrollments.”

Finne noted that the school is in an area where there are many new families to Minnesota.

“In our communications with these families, we’re able to overcome the lie that Catholic classical education is inaccessible,” Finne said.

“This year we implemented a new tuition option called the variable tuition rate, a process by which families are able to share their financial needs and our school tuition rate adjusts accordingly,” he said.

“Made possible thanks to the generosity of donors, this new option prioritizes Christ-centered education for families that otherwise may never have applied to our school,” he said.

“Half of our students are from first generation or immigrant families, largely from west Africa and Mexico, and oftentimes our school parents speak English as a second language,” Finne said. “The beautiful result is that our school really does represent the universal Church.”

“Also, our parent volunteer groups are becoming increasingly active with our growth, and the families are united in their love of Christ and of our school,” Finne said. “We are excited for another year of steady growth.”

St. Jude of the Lake Catholic School in Mahtomedi has been a robust part of the community since it opened its doors in 1954. But from 2012 to 2017, the school’s enrollment had been in a steady decline.

“There was a perfect storm of a very well-respected public school and a challenging financial climate putting pressure on the school’s enrollment,” said Carrie Hackman, the school’s principal. “The difficult decision was made in 2014 to close the middle school to release some of the burdens on the budget.”

In 2017, the school’s enrollment was 43 students in K-5; the following year it grew to 53, and in 2019, the number of students totaled 74.

“We implemented a business plan that included an overhaul of the school building from top to bottom, a robust marketing plan to start sharing our story, a school spirit revamp … and an active campaign to connect with our alumni,” Hackman said.

“Currently, our enrollment is at 198 students — nearly 500 percent growth in five years,” she said. “In addition to growing enrollment, another blessing is that we are retaining the students and families at an over 95 percent rate each year.”

“Word of mouth brings family, friends and neighbors to our community,” Hackman said. “In a lot of respects, our enrollment growth has been our greatest recruiting tool and fundraising engine.”

As enrollment started to grow at St. Jude of the Lake, families asked to reinstate the middle school, Hackman said.

“Our pastor, Father Chad VanHoose, pulled together a committee to determine the viability of adding a middle school; there was an overwhelming positive response, and in 2021, sixth grade started the three-year reinstatement timeline, adding seventh grade in 2022 and eighth grade in 2023,” she said.

“Currently there are 35 happy sixth and seventh graders in a newly-renovated middle school environment, space that is super innovative and custom-built for the specialized needs of our students; it is seriously cool,” she said.

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GROWING ENROLLMENT IN A PANDEMIC

There are 78 Catholic elementary schools — including 77 preschools — and 16 high schools across the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ 12-county region. On March 17, 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was announced that all school buildings would close on or before March 19.

“We opened then with the buildings closed but students still in school through the end of that school year, and we announced in May 2020 that we fully anticipated opening the buildings in the fall of 2020,” Slattery said.

“We in earnest spent that summer building school safety plans. Families wanted their children in school, and we proved that fall that we could operate safely during the pandemic,” he said. “And we grew, which was kind of remarkable.”

“What the pandemic did was show in an unmistakable way the relevance, vitality and essential nature of Catholic education,” Slattery said. “It gave us that space to provide with an encounter of Jesus Christ in the classroom, and a space where the whole child is educated — their complete wellbeing — which was essential with families experiencing significant challenges and children coming to school with different fears than ever before.”

Holy Family Catholic High School in Victoria, which opened in the fall of 2000 with 134 ninth and 10th graders, currently serves 561 students in grades nine-12, as well as several seventh and eighth grade math and language students from partner schools and nine international students. The school added 11th grade in 2001-2002 and 12th grade in 2002-2003, graduating its first class in 2003.

“Our enrollment was trending upward before the pandemic started; however, COVID certainly helped accelerate our trajectory,” said Mike Brennan, Holy Family president.

“The curtains were pulled back on all academic institutions — parents got a good look under the hood of how their local schools were operating, what their focus was and what drove their decision making,” Brennan said.

“Families are coming to and staying at our school because they are finding a school community that is clear about its Lasallian Catholic college preparatory identity; all decisions start and end with the whole student in mind,” Brennan said.

“While most of our students come to us from about a 10- to 12-mile radius of our school, we are seeing exponential growth from communities without a nearby Catholic high school option,” he said.

“The demand is real.”