News
Cathedral High to welcome middle schoolers in the fall by Brandon Simes
Managing EditorWednesday Feb 10, 2010 Staff hoping move will give younger students a leg up
An excited group of Cathedral High School staff and board members announced the addition of a junior high program for seventh and eighth graders at the 74 Union Park Street building beginning this fall at the school on Thursday afternoon, Feb. 4. With broad success in the high school, where 100 percent of students have graduated over the past several years and entered into some form of post-secondary education, 85 percent at four-year colleges, Cathedral has decided to expand its programming to a younger crowd.
"Cathedral High School has continued the mission of educating the poor and marginalized of Boston’s most challenged neighborhoods [since its founding]. Currently, 90 percent of our students come from Roxbury, Mattapan, Hyde Park, Roslindale, Dorchester, and the South End," said Headmaster Thomas Arria, Jr. "We’re 98 percent minority, 90 percent of our kids live in families at or below the poverty line, 39 percent come from homes where English is the second language, and 50 percent of our students come to us somewhat under-prepared in as much as they’ve scored in the 25th percentile or below on the high school placement test, making the success that they have ... all that much more amazing."
Because of its success, the school has seen a rise in applicants of late, with a fifty percent increase over the past year, as other Catholic schools have seen a decrease in applicants.
"We have become an oasis of hope for many of Boston’s inner-city youth in Catholic education because of the ever-improving strength of our academic program and because of the affordability," explained Arria.
The move has been in the works for about four years, but thanks to impressive fundraising efforts-the school’s board of trustees annually raises nearly $3 million for its programs-the board unanimously approved the plan on Jan. 15. The frenetic fundraising has allowed Cathedral to keep its tuition low, with the cost of attending high school resting at $4,550. In turn, attending the junior high will cost $2,600 this coming fall, a number Arria called "almost unheard of." The school estimates the true cost of educating each student at Cathedral to be about $14,000.
Michael Daley, representing the board of trustees, said he has seen the student body transform since his time at the school from one that served primarily Caucasian Americans to Asian Americans and now mostly African Americans and Hispanic Americans. The mission of educating the poor and marginalized has remained the same throughout the years.
"I don’t know where the young people that we service would go and get the quality of the education that they get from Cathedral High School," said Daley.
The new students-up to 40 in each grade-will take up residence in four classrooms located on the top floor. They will also have access to the cafeteria, the gymnasium, and language and science labs, but will mostly keep to themselves by design, according to Arria.
"We’re doing it so that students at this level will have the opportunities provided by an updated facility that they otherwise wouldn’t have," he said, adding that more opportunities should help set them on course to take honors and Advanced Placement courses before graduation.
Cardinal Sean O’Malley, also present at the school on Thursday, hopes local families will consider the new program.
"Today represents a very exciting development for Cathedral High School and the archdiocese," said O’Malley. "With this announcement the Cathedral is making it possible for an additional 80 students to experience the advantage of an affordable Catholic education and to help develop the skills needed to succeed in high school, college, and throughout their lives. It is our sincere hope that the families throughout Greater Boston and Quincy, Everett, Lynn will consider the opportunities this new junior high position affords."
Part of the plan involves Cathedral Grammar School, located just down the road at 595 Harrison Avenue, ending its middle school programming in cooperation with the expansion at the high school. Seventh and eighth grade will no longer be offered at the grammar school starting this fall.
Sister Eleanor Daniels, the former principal of Cathedral Elementary School, will serve as the director of the junior high.
"I have always loved the South End, I was principal over at the grammar school many years ago, and always had my heart with the families of the poor and the marginalized. I am a sister at St. Joseph [in Brighton], and the sisters of St. Joseph opened Cathedral High School 82 years ago," she said.
If early indications are correct, the move will be popular with the seventh and eighth graders moving in with the high schoolers. An informal poll of Cathedral’s women’s basketball team at practice showed nine out of nine would liked to have started at the school in seventh grade as opposed to ninth or later.
An informational night and open house at the school will take place on Feb. 24 for interested sixth and seventh grade students and their families from 6:00 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. Applications are now available by calling the school at 617.542.2325 or by visiting www.cathedralhighschool.net. Applicants will be accepted on a rolling basis.
|
|
|
Email
Print
Share