Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2008 / Cristo Rey High school on track for fall opening
Cristo Rey High school on track for fall opening
by Joe Kohn of The Michigan Catholic
Published January 4, 2008
Open House
• Cristo Rey High School will hold the first open house in its own building at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 16. The school is at 5679 W. Vernor Highway in Detroit. For information, call (313) 843-2747.
• For information about Detroit Cristo Rey High School and the Cristo Rey Network, visit www.detroitcristorey.org, or attend an informational meeting about the school at 5 p.m., Jan. 17 at the Mercado in Mexicantown, 2826 Bagley Ave. in Detroit. | Detroit – Six months after announcing the launch of a new Catholic high school in Detroit, Cristo Rey High School president Earl Robinson, Ph.D., says everything's on target for the school's fall 2008 opening.
"It's going very, very well," says Robinson, was formerly was interim provost at Marygrove College and president of Lees-McRae College in Banner Elk, N.C. "There seems to be a lot of good interest out there (from prospective students), which is very gratifying for us."
Cristo Rey, sponsored by the IHM sisters and the Basilian Fathers, will open in the building that formerly housed Holy Redeemer High School in southwest Detroit. The school is based on a work-study model that's been proven in different urban areas throughout the United States, and will cater specifically to low-income families.
So far, Cristo Rey has conducted an admissions open house at the neighboring Holy Redeemer Elementary School building. Also in the elementary school building, two rounds of high school placement tests have been administered.
While the school's small staff now works from the offices of the Detroit Catholic Pastoral Alliance on Gratiot Avenue, Robinson says the high school building will be their new home in January.
Financially, Robinson says the fledgling school is in good shape. In fact, Cristo Rey just received a large boost from the Skillman Foundation, a philanthropic organization dedicated to improving conditions for children in the inner city.
The Skillman Foundation — which regularly awards grants to high-achieving Catholic elementary and secondary schools in Detroit — awarded a $900,000 grant to the new high school, to be dispersed over a three-year period. Cristo Rey will receive $400,000 the first year, $300,000 the second year and $200,000 the third year to help start the school.
"We are exceptionally grateful for their vote of confidence in us," says Robinson of the Skillman Foundation.
The school is making progress on the personnel front, as well. Robinson's hired a director of admissions, Pamela Ford Kelly, who's worked on developing plans for and conducting the feasibility study on the high school.
He hopes to complete a nationwide search for the school's principal in January, and also hire a business director, director of development and someone to head up the school's work-study program. The work-study program, a distinguishing feature of the high school, allows students to help pay tuition by having them work one day per school week at a business or nonprofit.
Cristo Rey is scheduled to open one grade at a time for the next four years.
Detroit Cristo Rey High School is a part of the national Cristo Rey Network, which includes 19 other high schools in urban areas. Ideally, 70 percent of tuition at a Cristo Rey school is paid by the student's participation in the work-study program. Another 15 percent is paid through development funds, grants and corporate donations. The remainder is paid by the parents — sometimes with the help of scholarships — in the form of a tuition bill that comes to approximately $2,200.
With University of Detroit Jesuit and Loyola high schools being the only other Catholic high schools in Detroit, Cristo Rey will become the only Catholic high school in the city that accepts young women. It's one of two Catholic high schools in the Archdiocese of Detroit slated to open in fall 2008, the other being Everest Catholic High School in Clarkston.
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