Detroit Catholic co-ed high school to offer work-study, Gospel values
Joe Kohn of The Michigan Catholic
Published June 22, 2007
|
Larry A. Peplin | The Michigan Catholic
Fr. Thomas Sepulveda, CSB, and Sr. Barbara Stanbridge, IHM, whose communities are sponsoring the school, say Detroit Cristo Rey will teach Gospel values in real-life settings. |
Detroit When Cristo Rey High School opens in southwest Detroit for the 2008-09 school year, the community can expect a school that is fundamentally Catholic and has a proven way of ushering its students on to college careers.
"It is truly a Catholic school," said Fr. Thomas Sepulveda, a Basilian Father and pastor of St. Anne de Detroit Parish, who's on the planning committee for the new school. "Secondly, it is for college preparatory and a very high percentage of Cristo Rey students graduate and go on to college. Third, it's for urban kids."
Cristo Rey, which will be sponsored spiritually by the Basilian Fathers and the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, will open in the former Holy Redeemer High School building. It will be one in a network of Catholic high schools across the country meant to serve low-income students from urban areas.
The coeducational high school will operate on a work-study model students work five days per month for a local corporation or institution to help pay for their tuition.
 How they pay
70 percent of Cristo Rey tuition is covered by the work-study program.
15 percent of tuition is covered by development funds, corporate donations, grants, etc.
15 percent is a tuition bill of about $2,200, which sometimes can be paid with scholarships. |
|
A planning committee that has worked for two years to gauge the feasibility of the new high school last week announced plans to open the school, with a blessing from Cardinal Adam Maida. It will be the city's only coeducational Catholic high school.
Sr. Canice Johnson, RSM, who's been project director for the feasibility study for the past two years, said students in Cristo Rey schools in other cities 19 of the schools will be open at the beginning of next school year have found the work-study model especially encouraging.
"Some of them are in a setting they've never experienced or dreamed of before," Sr. Johnson said. "They get an experience that, for many, is just marvelous."
Already, 25 businesses have committed to providing jobs to the students most of which are entry-level clerical jobs, Sr. Johnson said.
Most weeks, students at the school will attend classes four days. On the other week day, they'll be at their place of employment. Every fourth week, the student will work two days and attend classes for three days.
From the company's standpoint, they provide one full-time paid position that will be shared by a team of four students. Some corporate work-study partners are the Mexicantown Community Development Corporation, Detroit Salt Company, YMCA, Capuchin Soup Kitchen, colleges, hospitals and automotive suppliers.
Work-study model
Classes: Students attend classes four days per week. On every fourth week, they attend classes three days.
Work: The weekdays that the students are not in school, they are employed by a local company, in partnership with the school, doing an entry-level job.
Tuition: The part-time job pays for 70 percent of the student's tuition.
Encouragement: The job also acclimates students to professional workplaces and encourages them to go on to college and pursue careers.
Results: Even in urban areas such as Detroit, where on-time graduation rates languish below 50 percent, Cristo Rey school students graduate about 90 percent of the time. | |
The employment is meant to account for 70 percent of tuition. An additional 15 percent will be paid by development funds corporate donations, grants, etc. The last 15 percent will be a tuition bill of about $2,200 per student. Even that, Sr. Johnson said, can be reduced through scholarships.
By contrast, the average tuition at Catholic high schools in metro Detroit is between $6,000 and $8,000.
As far as Catholic identity goes, the IHM order and the Basilian Fathers were chosen to sponsor the school because of their respective accomplishments in Catholic education. The Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary have educated in southwestern Michigan for more than 160 years, teaching in 150 schools, including current ministries at Marian High School in Bloomfield Hills and Detroit-based Marygrove College.
The Basilian Fathers have served in Detroit parishes, and have ministered in education for more than 75 years at Detroit Catholic Central High School, which was founded in Detroit and now is in Novi.
Fr. Sepulveda said the CSBs would like to commit a priest to the school, should one be released from a current ministry when the school starts. The religious community's presence, he said, is meant "to guard, protect and enhance the very nature of what the school is. It is a Catholic school. We're there to give it its Catholic nature."
Cristo Rey's goal is to have 100 to 125 students from low-income families enrolled in the freshman class by the beginning of the 2008-09 school year. Each subsequent year, another class will be added. The capacity of the school will be 500 students.
Sr. Johnson did say there will be restrictions on what students will be accepted based on the income of the family if a family makes too much money, the child will not be accepted. While no cutoff figure has been decided, the average income made by the family of a Cristo Rey school attendee across the county is about $33,000.
The next step for Detroit Cristo Rey High School, Sr. Johnson said, is to conduct a nationwide search for a school principal, and continue fundraising.
Cristo Rey High School will be the first coeducational school in Detroit since the closing of Holy Redeemer, East Catholic and St. Martin de Porres high schools in 2005.
To learn more about the Cristo Rey network, visit www.cristoreynetwork.org.
Related Link:
