Catholic Schools Keep Enrollment Up

Despite the downturn in the economy, local Catholic schools have still been filling enrollment relatively well. Several in the area have said they have maxed out their enrollment, and are also filling up admissions waiting lists.

Director of Admissions Lynn Gale said the school’s enrollment is maxed out at more than 1,000 students, with many on waiting lists for the Attleboro school.

“When the economy dropped a few years ago we thought we were going to see a drop in admissions, but in fact, it was quite the opposite,” she said. “We haven’t seen a decrease in [enrollment] numbers. We have people calling every day about admission.”

She attributes the success of the school to the level of excellence in the academic program, as well as the religious nature of the school.

“It’s not just that we’re a private school, it’s that we’re a private Catholic school,” she said. “We offer many beginning, intermediate college and accelerated-level classes. We also have many extracurricular activities as well.”

Feehan is also expanding its academic ability. It has been in the process of converting the convent that used to house the Sisters of Mercy Convent into a modern school building with a state of the art technology lab.

in Mansfield started only 10 years ago, but continues to grow and expand. It has a maximum enrollment of 225 students, and is filling its waiting list as well. This year the school graduated its first kindergarten class, which enrolled in 2001. The school offers classes for students in grades K-8.

The story is somewhat different in Rhode Island, however. The state was already experiencing financial difficulty before 2008, and was hit pretty hard. The state unemployment level is still hovering around 11 percent, and, according to the census bureau, has lost more than 24,000 middle class families between 2010 and 2011. In a state with population just over a million residents, that’s a large chunk of population.

Still, schools like in Woonsocket are putting out college graduates and offering many programs that public schools are cutting. School President Herve Richer said these programs give students a wider range of study and allow for more academic opportunities.

“With the economy taxing public schools, and a lot of public schools tending to cut programs like athletics and music, most of the Catholic schools, at least in the diocese of Providence, are maintaining those programs,” he said.

While Richer did say that enrollment at Mount Saint Charles is down in the past few years, he believes the quality of education has not declined. He said he believes the most important part of the curriculum is the religious classes and activities.

 “We can do a lot of value-based teaching,” he said. “We talk about things and deal with things not only with regard religion, but also with spiritual life and those kinds of things that you don’t have [in public schools].”

Mercymount Country Day School in Cumberland is increasing its enrollment this year. For the past two academic years since the 2008 economic downturn, it had stable enrollment — no increase but no decrease either.

Mercymount Director of Development Lisa Lydon said one of the contributing factors to the stability of the school's enrollment is the fact that they just built and finished a new middle school, which will features state-of-the-art computer and technology education.

“We’ve made changes to our science program and curriculum that are consistent with the diocese curriculum as well, but also changes in the science program that is probably contributing to keeping kids here as well,” she said.

She added that as a Catholic school, tradition is grounded in moral and ethical education as well as traditional academics. She said students from Mercymount move on to the high school of their choice, usually a private or Catholic school, and are generally successful in college as well.

“It’s an all-around education, but tailored to the individual based on what the student needs,” she said. “We’re small enough to do individual education plans.”

One thing these schools all have in common is expense. Tuition has gone up steadily in each school, generally with a $300 to $400 increase per year.