When three Lancaster city parishes in partnership with the Diocese announced in April the closing of Resurrection Catholic School, their pastors and the Diocese made a commitment to assist families in transitioning to area Catholic schools to continue their children’s faith-based education.
They’ve made good on those promises. More than 70 of Resurrection’s 102 students have, as of mid-July, enrolled in local Catholic schools for the fall, including Sacred Heart and St. John Neumann in Lancaster, St. Leo the Great in Rohrerstown and Our Mother of Perpetual Help in Ephrata.
“A high percentage of those students who were registered for Resurrection will attend another Catholic school. This is such a testament to the faith and determination of these families,” said Dan Breen, Diocesan Secretary for Catholic Education and Superintendent of Catholic Schools.
Of the 70 students continuing their Catholic school education, 45 have enrolled at Sacred Heart, a city school located two miles across town.
And Sacred Heart – coming off last year’s K-8 enrollment of 154 – has been busy with some monumental efforts to ensure a warm welcome and a successful transition for the new students and their families.
Sacred Heart principal Kathy Alton said the efforts got underway as soon as the school received word of Resurrection’s closing, an announcement made by its supporting parishes of St. Anthony of Padua, St. Joseph and Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
“We were heartbroken when we heard the news that Resurrection was closing because it is such a beautiful community,” she said. “From the start, we wanted to make this a positive experience for the new students and families coming to us, because we know they’re hurting from the loss; they come from a school community that runs deep. We wanted to help as much as we possibly could to help ease the transition.”
Sacred Heart stepped up in big ways, one of which was partnering with area parishes and donors to offer no-cost uniforms for the kids coming from Resurrection.
While Sacred Heart had initially offered to allow Resurrection students to wear their former school uniforms, Resurrection’s school board advised that the incoming children would prefer to wear Sacred Heart uniforms as a way of showing they’re part of one school community.
So to help abate the cost, Sacred Heart’s instructional support teacher Maria Hayes suggested a request for financial contributions. Bulletin announcements at Sacred Heart, St. Anthony, St. Joseph, Assumption BVM and San Juan Bautista asking for donations to help defray the cost of uniforms quickly resulted in $13,265; $6,000 of which came from a fund established at San Juan to support Resurrection students.
“It was a total team effort from our area parishes and parishioners,” Alton said.
Ann Weaver, Sacred Heart’s Development Director, said $300 worth of Flynn O’Hara gift cards were delivered to the former Resurrection students via Sacred Heart’s welcome bags in early July.
“The gift cards allowed each Resurrection family to completely outfit their child with summer, winter and gym uniforms for Sacred Heart,” she said.
At the Diocesan level, Sacred Heart School was provided with $185,000 in financial assistance through the EITC and OSTC programs. Scholarship assistance through the programs were also given to the other schools accepting Resurrection students; in total, they are being provided with nearly $285,000 in scholarship money.
“It’s important for people to know that we all feel the loss of a school very personally, and that these students are still our students,” Breen said. “Our commitment to them continues, and I am so grateful that we can support our families financially as they make the transition to a new Catholic school.”
A Spirit of Welcome
In addition to the financial assistance and the logistics of adding desks, planning for additional school lunches and accounting for a sufficient number of classroom supplies, Sacred Heart is endeavoring to give a sincere welcome to the newest members of its family.
Students coming from Resurrection can expect to see familiar faces in Father Matthew Morelli, the pastor of St. Anthony’s who has been welcomed to celebrate school Masses and make classroom visits, and in Paola Amonte, Resurrection’s liaison for the Latino community who has been hired by Sacred Heart.
“Paola is the abuela of the Resurrection community and knows the families so well,” Alton said. “We have a significant number of families where the parents don’t speak English, so she will be very helpful with phone calls and parent-teacher conferences. She’s very warm and friendly, and we’ve already seen the students’ and families’ excitement when they see her; they light up and hug her immediately.”
Open houses, ambassador families and a classroom buddy program have also played a significant role in the transition. Alton said the reaction has been positive, with Sacred Heart’s ambassador families reaching out to Resurrection families to form community bonds before the school year begins.
“We’ve received an outpouring of appreciation for the welcoming efforts,” Alton said. “Our school building has a very strong Catholic identity and one of the ways that’s expressed is through the religious art and statues here. Several of our new families told me their children were worried about going to a school where they can’t talk about Jesus. Their hunger for a Catholic education will enhance this school community.”
“Yes, there is the logistical aspect of bringing in 45 more students, but what is most important is making them feel welcome,” Alton said. “Sacred Heart has a great charism, a great community. We want to incorporate the new students and embrace the gifts they bring in order to enhance what already exists here. That’s what we’re working toward.”
Learn more about Catholic schools in the Diocese at www.gocatholicschools.org.
(Photos courtesy of Sacred Heart School.)
By Jen Reed, The Catholic Witness
