WINSLOW — St. John Regional Catholic School is set to expand in the next two years, adding two middle school grades to become a complete kindergarten through eighth grade grammar school.
Teachers and parents say they hope that the expansion will spark enthusiasm with the school’s mission and position it for future growth.
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“This is the future of our parish,” said St. John principal Bonnie McGann in an interview Friday. “If we don’t have Catholic schools, we won’t have future Catholics.”
The school, at 15 South Garand St., has about 74 students in kindergarten through sixth grade and another 36 children in preschool and pre-kindergarten programs. Starting at the beginning of the 2015 school year, it will offer a seventh grade, and unroll an eighth grade by 2016.
While adding new grades has been discussed in the five years since St. John brought in sixth grade several years ago, parents, school officials and parish leaders set to work making it reality last year, putting together a feasibility study that addressed issues like enrollment projections, tuition and fundraising.
Bishop Robert P. Deeley, of the Diocese of Portland earlier this week accepted a recommendation from the diocesan pastoral council, finance council and school board to approve the expansion.
“It is a blessing that children in Winslow, Waterville, and beyond now have the opportunity to spend two additional, formative years in a school focused on spiritual growth, academic success, and community,” Deeley said in a news release Friday.
McGann hopes to start next year with 89 students in the kindergarten through seventh grade core and continue growing from there, possibly raising the school’s enrollment to 170-200 students in the next five years.
Adding more grades builds on the expanded programming the school has unveiled in the last few years, including a fledgling school band and new extracurricular activities. Last year, St. John students competed in the international Odyssey of the Mind competition and a student won first place in the national Daughters of the American Revolution Essay contest.
“Our purpose is not to increase enrollment, our purpose is the end product,” McGann said.
St. Johns was established in 1926 by the Rev.John W. Frawley, and has largely been in the same neighborhood of Winslow for the last 87 years. It was a full kindergarten through eighth grade school with several hundred students until at least the 1960s, according to McGann.
Even with a strong academic reputation backed by an active faith community, “A lot of people in Waterville don’t even know we’re here,” she noted.
By adding the grades, the school hopes to keep the families who already enroll their children there, but also attract new students.
Adding two grades means that students won’t have to change to a new school when they finish the sixth grade, said Michelle Giroux-Pars, a mother of two students at the school and chair of the Parents, Teachers and Friends Association.
“This way, it will be a fresh start when they go to high school,” Giroux-Pars. Her daughter, who is in sixth grade, will attend the new seventh grade in the fall.
“My daughter wants to go to school there because that’s where she can talk about God and be with her friends,” Giroux-Pars said.
But aside from academics, the school’s expansion also means two more years of instruction in the Catholic faith and inclusion in the Corpus Christi Parish, which includes Waterville, Winslow and many other central Maine communities, McGann said.
“Our school is the future of our parish,” she said. “It builds spirit-filled, reverent children.”
Like its other classrooms, the new grades will be taught in a combined classroom, so the school will only have to hire one more part-time teacher.
Tuition rates will increase next year to $3,000 for a single student, although tuition is reduced for additional children from the same family, McGann said.
While there may be a public perception that Catholic schools have faded in recent decades, Giroux-Pars said she thinks it is likely that parents may look back to them as a different form of education for their children.
“I think people are looking for options,” Giroux-Pars said. “We’re always looking for new families to join.”
McGann added, “In some places in this country schools and churches are flourishing. We want to be part of that.”
Peter McGuire — 861-9239
pmcguire@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @PeteL_McGuire
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