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“Our allies in doing so change, but the intense education of children will always remain our goal,” Charles J. Chaput said Monday morning at St. Gabriel School, 2917 Dickinson St. “We have great love for that duty and a responsibility to uphold it.”
The 68-year-old Archbishop of Philadelphia traveled to the Grays Ferry institution to mark its official designation as a participant in the Independence Mission Schools system. Along with 13 other parochial elementary facilities, including St. Thomas Aquinas School, 1719 Morris St., St. Gabriel will operate independently of the Archdiocese and consult its own board of directors to expand enrollment and opportunities for enrollees.
“Today’s kids have many more learning options than we did,” George Sumner, a 1968 St. Gabriel alumnus, said. “They’re pretty much going to school for everything, including help with their character and self-esteem, so we have to get them to stand out.”
The resident of the 1200 block of Durfor Street will serve as the board chairman for his alma mater, Grays Ferry’s lone Catholic school. He and his peers have begun raising scholarship funds, with their site’s new overseers to facilitate further connections with local business heads, civic leaders and other potential financial saviors. They are uniting as a result of the Feb. 16, 2012 announcement that the Chaput-appointed Blue Ribbon Commission would not shutter the now-105-year-old location because of a six-figure deficit and equally abundant parish subsidies. Had the body closed the school’s doors, pupils would have needed to continue their faith-based tutelage at Newbold’s St. Thomas Aquinas. Each spot petitioned to remain separate, with the committee saying they could yet with supervision.
“As Catholics, we define ourselves by our values and that includes tending to the underprivileged,” Independence Mission Schools president Aldo Cavalli, whose organization becomes the first one to obtain complete ownership of a group of Catholic elementary schools, said of adding the 14 molders of young minds, with all but East Lansdowne’s St. Cyril of Alexandria within the city’s limits. “This model is one that we believe will set the standard for urban Catholic education nationwide, and we are proud that Philadelphia is where it begins.”
His employer’s website notes the outreach will benefit “underserved neighborhoods,” with nearly 4,100 children, 65 percent of whom are non-Catholic registrants, set to receive enhanced educational offerings through “lean, entrepreneurial business management practices and academic accountability.” Since the Independence Mission Schools personnel began intense promotion of the system earlier this year, enrollment figures have increased by seven percent, heavenly news for Brian McElwee.
“This marks the first time since 2006 that many of these schools have seen bumps in enrollment,” the chairman said, adding he hopes the tally swells to 5,500 within four years, with fundraising and overhead costs allowing his company to provide lessons for under $4,200 per student.
Next year’s enrollees tentatively stand to receive $4 million in scholarships, with the Educational Improvement Tax and Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit granting corporate taxpayers up to a 90 percent tax credit on annual program contributions totaling as much as $400,000 to a qualified, nonprofit endowment fund. St. Gabriel students already have prospered through such gifts, as representatives last fall joined figures from Calvary Temple Christian Academy, 3301 S. 20th St.; Ss. Neumann-Goretti High School, 1736 S. 10th St.; St. Anthony of Padua Regional School, 913 Pierce St.; and St. Monica School, 16th and Porter streets, at Our Lady of Hope Regional Catholic School, 1248 Jackson St., to share $98,416 from the Harrisburg-based Bridge Educational Foundation.
“Scholarships will be the key to keeping students flowing into this school,” 1971 St. Gabriel graduate Basil Merenda, former Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania under Gov. Ed Rendell, said. “We’re eager to help people to understand the nuts and bolts of applying for them.”
With plans to accumulate a plethora of supporters, the Independence Mission Schools team desires more than sustainability for its assisted facilities, a sentiment that Merenda, a native of the 1900 block of South Hollywood Street, seconded when he said he wants an unlimited lifetime for his career-inspiring grade school. Cavalli, McElwee and their colleagues seek to contribute to the 14 schools’ communities by tracking student progress beyond the youths’ elementary days, with high school, college and vocational program monitoring to augment their efforts.
They will execute their brainchild with a four-principle approach aiming to bridge the academic achievement gap often separating urban learners from greater endeavors; provide student-centered academic programs with faith matters at the core; offer a relatively low-cost alternative to the public education model by optimizing existing infrastructure for cost reductions and calling on entrepreneurial business management; and sustain institutions that have served as neighborhood beacons that can come to give more help to underserved and immigrant demographics. That approach perfectly meshes with what Pat Doherty and his cohorts presented in trying to salvage St. Gabriel last year.
“This announcement will level the playing field and then give kids an advantage because it will encourage them to want to achieve even more,” the ’75 alumnus said. “Regardless of ethnicity or creed, whoever sits in those classrooms is going to get a great education.”
Monday’s event came exactly two weeks after the actual beginning of the Independence Mission Schools’ tenure as the new keepers of the facilities’ future. With McElwee at his side, Chaput signed the official transfer of the schools yet made clear that though he is parting with their main maintenance, he is not losing them as carriers of Catholic values.
“They are still our schools, and we wish them well,” the archdiocese’s ninth archbishop said. “In fact, we believe they will thrive because of the committed teams now assembling.”
As the Archdiocese and its churches continue to combat financial problems, Chaput acknowledged more schools might need to become mission facilities, yet he revealed any changes would have the sustenance of brighter days for youths as their inspiration.
“Our mission is education,” he said. “That can’t be altered or neglected.”
Contact Staff Writer Joseph Myers at jmyers@southphillyreview.com or ext. 124.
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