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Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2007 / Everest Catholic High School, Clarkston, to open in the fall

Joe Kohn of The Michigan Catholic
Published December 7, 2007

Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic Fr. Daniel Pajerski, LC, formation director at Everest Academy, chats with seventh-grader Ben Bates (center) and eighth-grader Mac McClelland (left). The students will have a chance to attend Everest Catholic High School, which opens in fall, 2008.

Clarkston — When Everest Catholic Academy opens the doors to its Everest Catholic High School next year, its focus will be to strengthen its students' minds and their relationships with Christ in the formative teenage years.

"All the works that we do are to help our students center their lives on Christ and use that relationship to spread the Gospel," says Fr. Daniel Pajerski, LC, formation director at Everest. "The more time we can spend with the youths, the more impact we can have on their lives and teach them about Christ and build up their minds in terms of academics."

Last week Everest officials made public its plans to start a high school — plans the Legionaries of Christ had hoped would come to fruition since the religious order started the academy in 1991. The school will start a ninth-grade class in the fall of 2008, and add one grade per year. A four-year high school will be operational by 2011.

The high school portion, like the grade school levels, will employ gender-specific education. The girls' high school will be located in the upper level of the current girls' grade school building. The boys' school will be in a building currently used for boarding students.

Fr. Parjerski says one of the biggest challenges the administration is addressing is giving the high school a distinct identity, and specifically addressing the issues of high school students.

"That requires more attention and a little more on our part to guide them through the tough challenges that they're going to face," he says.

They have a track record of success in the grade school, where Everest Academy currently has 425 students enrolled in its pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade program.

Richard Copland, principal of the grade school who also will serve as principal of the high school, said an evaluation of the school community showed that the timing was right to add the new high school.

"Last year, we did a self-study on starting a high school," Copland said. "It came back with very positive (feedback) from the parents."

He added that the school community already was past its goal to raise $3 million to offset the startup costs of the school. Tuition for the high school is expected to be competitive with that of other gender-specific Catholic high schools in the area, putting it in the mid-$9,000 range.

The Legionaries of Christ already has a model for academics at the high school, which will use a college preparatory curriculum, including honors and advanced placement classes.

The religious order runs Gateway Academy in Chesterfield, Mo.; Pinecrest Academy in Cummins, Ga.; and the Highlands School in Irving, Texas. All three schools use a curriculum developed by the National Consultants for Education, which was developed by the Legionaries of Christ and its associated apostolic movement Regnum Christi. The three schools also have received national recognition for their academics.

"It's not like we're starting from scratch and trying to invent something," Copland says. "We're following the plan that the other schools have developed."

Copland says he'd be guessing if he could predict how many students Everest Catholic High School will have when it's fully functional. But the administration is confident they have the numbers to support the school, noting that a number of parents drive upwards of a half-hour to send their children to the grade school.

Nancy Burgess knows what that's like. In 2002, she and her husband Richard moved to Clarkston from Commerce Township so they could keep their three grade school-aged children at the academy.

"I'm so hopeful that the high school will succeed," Burgess says, adding that her son Blake would be entering the new high school in 2009. "We're very excited that it's going to happen for him. We've been praying for it to happen for him."

Many school parents point to the strong emphasis Everest puts on the sacraments, and are glad their children will receive four more years of being able to attend Mass each day, spend time in adoration during school hours, have the sacrament of confession available to them, and receive spiritual direction from priests.

"They'll meet the child wherever they're at (spiritually)," says Dianne Toohey, who has two daughters in the school, eighth-grader Annie and fifth-grader Monica.

Mary Jo Allen and her husband, Jim, say they've been hoping the high school would open in time for their son Donald — one of their 12 children — to attend. Donald is in the eighth grade.

Allen says she knows the academics will be strong, but the continuing spiritual formation is the vital part.

"The report card is just a very small part of who they're going to be as an adult," she says.

Parents aren't the only ones happy with plans for the high school. Those in junior high at the academy have expressed their excitement, as well.

"I'm excited to be in the first graduating class, and I'll get to be with my friends again," says Jackie Ervin, an eighth grader at the academy. "Everest is a really good school."

Her classmate, Fabiana Diaz, says being able to attend Everest Catholic High School will allow the first class the privilege of setting the school traditions. Most importantly, though, she says it will help keep her close to the Lord and to the community.

"What makes me want to stay is the privilege to have priests and to receive Communion every day, and to be closer to Christ as well as to be here with my friends," Fabiana says.

Students in the boys' school seem no less excited.

"There were always all these different choices (of high schools), but I've always wanted to stay at Everest for my whole life," says seventh-grader Ben Bates. "It has great formation. My spiritual life has gone skyrocketing from Everest."

Eighth-grader Mac McClelland says that he can't wait to be the first class to enter and graduate from the high school.

"It means being a leader for all four years, and that everybody's looking up to you," Mac says.

Everest Catholic High School is one of two Catholic high schools expected to open in the Archdiocese of Detroit next year. Cristo Rey High School, which will implement a work-study program specifically for low-income families, will open in southwest Detroit under the sponsorship of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and the Congregation of St. Basil.