Catholic Schools Week, January 27, 2012

F A I T H

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A C A D E M I C S

Why I teach

Struggling K-8 schools improving . . . . 3

Two teachers at St. Finn Barr School in San Francisco share their vocation for Catholic education.

How to pay? A pressing issue. . . . . . . . 6

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S E R V I C E

New high school religion texts . . . . . . . 8 Catholic education for all faiths . . . . . 10 Program combats bullying . . . . . . . . . 16 Gloria Naber

National campaign to fill Latino gap . 18

(PHOTO BY CNS)

CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK

Teaching sisters making a difference Holy Angels Principal Sister Leonarda Montealto talks with children on the playground at the Colma school. The Dominican Sisters of the Most Holy Rosary teach at two of the eight schools in the Archdiocese of San Francisco where women religious maintain a significant presence. More than 25 schools have women religious on staff. See Pages 12-13.

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Catholic san Francisco

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Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper

Around the archdiocese 4 (PHOTO COURTESY BEN DAVIDSON)

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ANNUAL SPECIAL ISSUE

1 Students at Mercy High School, Burlingame are raising chamomile and lavender and nurturing some older trees on campus hoping they will again bear fruit. The chamomile is being dried and used to brew tea for visitors as they follow the footsteps of Mercy Sisters founder Catherine McAuley, who was known for “offering a comfortable cup of tea.” Tending the garden are, from left, freshmen Miranda Perry, Gianna Mazzoni and Nina Moutoux. 2. Dilsy Mendez and Marin Catholic High School President Tim Navone are pictured with Dilsy’s Heart of Marin Youth Volunteer Award. 3.

Junipero Serra High School physics teacher Eric Plett has had students building toothpick bridges since 1990. Here he looks over one of the projects with senior Griffin Herr, left, and Serra alumnus Matt Gomez.

4. Preschool students are pictured at St. Rita School, Fairfax.

J A N U A RY 2 7 , 2 0 1 2

Catholic San Francisco

January 27, 2012

“Faith. Academics. Service” – the theme of this year’s Catholic Schools Week – combines values that have defined U.S. Catholic education since its beginnings 150 years ago.

Today, Catholic education faces two struggles at once: Ensuring that the organization of the schools makes economic sense and sustaining the evangelical drive that made the Catholic classroom a crucial institution in the church and in society as a whole.

Articles in this special section of Catholic San Francisco show how the challenge is being met on both fronts.

George Raine reports on the early success of the archdiocese’s year-old policy to support struggling K-8 schools.

Valerie Schmalz finds that women religious remain at the heart of the mission of many archdiocesan schools. Lidia Wasowicz reports on principals’ and pastors’ efforts to maintain their schools’ strong Catholic character for students of this and other faiths.

One hears much in the news about Catholic schools closing but less about those adapting – San Francisco’s St. Anthony-Immaculate Conception, for example.

The school’s new principal, Miguel Martinez, could speak for the entire archdiocese when he says, “My goals for the school are pretty simple: to keep increasing the enrollment and to really show off to the city the quality education we have here.”

– Rick DelVecchio

(PHOTO BY JOSE LUIS AGUIRRE/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)

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Enrollment is up by 35 percent at Our Lady of the Visitacion School, pictured last November.

The change at the southeast San Francisco school reflects the closure of other parish schools in the area and growing interest by alumni and parish families.

Saving a pearl of great value sluggish economy, high unemployment, increasing costs and demographic shifts. Catholic schools are closing in At the end of each day, after watching the national and record-breaking numbers across the United States. In our local news, I become dismayed by all of the troubles and own archdiocese, we have closed five parish elementary problems in our communities, our country, and around the schools and merged two others in the past eight years. globe. I wonder how people without faith in the Many schools are under-enrolled and therefore Lord Jesus deal with these daily ordeals. My underfunded. Families are struggling to afford Catholic faith passed on to me by my parents Catholic school tuition. Parish resources are and nurtured in me by my Catholic school teachstretched to their limits. How do we sustain this ers, sustains and uplifts me each day. This faith, pearl of great value in this economy? If we go this understanding and love of God, emboldens back to basics, back to putting others before me to continue striving for a better world. ourselves, back to service of others before being In our Catholic schools, learning and livserved, we may find the answer and save what ing the tenets of our Catholic faith is a daily is most valuable to us, to our country and to experience. Students and adults together learn our church.

Maureen what it means to be a person of faith through The benefits we received from our Catholic Huntington their interactions, observations, and language. school education continue to enrich our lives What we say, do, text and write, does count. Schools, and every day. During Catholic Schools Week, take some time Catholic schools in particular, are places where children to reflect on the many challenges and blessings that lay and teens learn how to interact, connect, collaborate, before each of our Catholic schools and how you might cooperate and compete in appropriate and healthy ways. be able to assist in solving them. Your prayers for our In the classroom, on the athletic field, on the stage, or teachers, principals, pastors and students will enable us just hanging around school, children observe how adults to move forward into the next decade, providing quality interact, solve problems, make mistakes and enjoy time Catholic elementary and high school education for our together. Catholic schools are teaching and learning envi- Bay Area families. ronments that immerse students in an atmosphere steeped Maureen Huntington is superintendent of in Jesus Christ. the Archdiocese of San Francisco Department This pearl of great value, the Catholic school, is experiencing significant challenges due to the continued of Catholic Schools.

By Maureen Huntington

St. Philip the Apostle Elementary School 665 Elizabeth Street San Francisco, CA 94114 (415) 824-8467 Fax (415) 282-0121 www.saintphilipschool.org e-mail: info@saintphilipschool.org Open House: January 29 PreSchool 10:30 – 12:30 K-8 11:30 – 1:00 Please join us for 10:30 am Mass

sacred heart cathedral preparatory Celebrating Catholic Schools Week

We are people of . . .

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January 27, 2012

Catholic San Francisco

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Struggling K-8 schools make progress under new archdiocesan rescue policy One year after the Archdiocese of San Francisco put in motion an effort to help nine struggling elementary schools, one, Corpus Christi School, was closed, another did not want the archdiocese’s help and the seven that remain in the program have made varying degrees of progress but “are not out of the woods yet,” said Maureen Huntington, superintendent of Catholic schools.

The future of the at-risk schools is unclear, while efforts to stabilize them and improve their financial condition continue, because, says Huntington, keeping Catholic schools open and viable “is critical to fulfilling the mission to teach and to evangelize.”

For the first year of the plan’s implementation, a comprehensive review of 52 parish elementary schools identified nine that were at risk, having hit benchmarks spelled out in the Strategic Plan in Support of Catholic Parish Grammar Schools. Of those nine, only one declined to participate in the archdiocesan plan. Of the remaining eight, one closed (Corpus Christi, June 2011) and the remaining seven continue to receive the archdiocese’s close attention.

One or two of the seven may be released from the plan by school year’s end in June if by then their enrollment and financial stability have increased substantially, said Huntington. It is premature to say, however, what the future holds for the seven schools along with the eighth that did not want to participate in the effort directed by Huntington and the schools department.

It is also possible that no closures will be necessary, while in the fall of 2011 the superintendent said that possibly as many as three more elementary schools could be shuttered by 2014.

(PHOTO BY JOSE LUIS AGUIRRE/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)

By George Raine

Students are pictured on the playground at Corpus Christi School in San Francisco last February before the financially struggling parish school closed under a new archdiocesan policy to monitor K-8 school viability.

Seven schools are receiving help from the archdiocese.

The rescue plan offers assistance with marketing, building parent advisory boards, improving financial management and other services that are in-effect lifelines for struggling schools.

The nine schools that met the criteria for struggling were under-enrolled, they had financial difficulties, some had major problems with facilities, some had a greater need for financial assistance for families than they would garner. The grade school enrollment

benchmark criteria had three separate guidelines within it: enrollment falling below 225; a trend of three years of declining enrollment, and a decrease of 15 or more students from previous years.

Huntington has declined to name the schools, although Corpus Christi’s crisis was well known.

In most cases, said Huntington, “They have great programs but they are serving immigrant families, poor families, and they just didn’t

A.M.D.G. For the Greater Glory of God

have the money for tuition.” The struggling schools are serving poor families with fewer financial resources or are in areas with a small population.

She added, “I would say all of them are doing better” in efforts to increase enrollment or find efficiencies, and a few have had a change in leadership at the parish or school level and Huntington wants to see how that plays out.

One or two schools in particular, she said, “are becoming more stable and more solid,” and may no longer need to participate in the save-the-school effort, “depending on how they do with their enrollment going forward.” Their fortunes improved because their enrollment has increased substantially, there has been a change in leadership either at the parish or at the school level and their finances are improving.

Improvements are being made possible, said Huntington, largely because there is increased community attention to the schools “bringing the situation to a larger audience in the sense of engaging the schools, the community, whether it was done by the parish council, the school advisory board or parent group,” she added. “It’s making more people in the community aware of the situation and setting up expectations for real intense work on the part of the community to help move the school forward, she said.”

Huntington added, “That kind of additional spotlight on the school has made other community resources available (to the schools) but also has helped them to a higher level of accountability for how they manage their finances or how they market or how they recruit. It stepped up everybody’s game.”

Enrollment in 2011 - 2012 in the archdiocese’s parish elementary schools declined by RESCUE, page CSW17

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Catholic San Francisco

January 27, 2012

Immaculate Conception Academy lowers tuition to reach more families All-girls academy claims status as area’s most affordable prep school SAN FRANCISCO – Immaculate Conception Academy, an all-girls, Catholic college preparatory school, has lowered annual tuition to $2,900 effective with the 2012-13 school year. At its meeting Nov. 17, the school’s board of directors determined to make the change, decreasing tuition by $1,100.

The change has made Immaculate Conception Academy the most affordable college preparatory high school in the Bay Area, ICA said.

“The board of directors determined to make this change to more effectively communicate to our market that we are a place for families of limited income,” ICA told Catholic San Francisco, “and that lack of ability to pay tuition should not keep anyone from applying. Also, the tuition change was more in line with the nationwide Cristo Rey average.”

ICA, founded by the Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose in 1883, is a Cristo Rey school. The Cristo Rey school offers its students classroom and workplace experience, with each of the students working five days a month in a corporate position of a cooperating company and the salary from that job going to the school to help cover tuition costs above the $2,900. Students at Cristo Rey schools must meet lower income criteria as part of the admission process.

Job sponsors pay a set fee of $29,000 for each full-time position, which is filled by a team of four girls. The fee covers about 45 percent of a student’s education. ICA currently works with 70 Bay Area companies. The actual cost of educating a student at ICA is approximately $15,800. The school also benefits from fundraising events, private donations and grants. Currently 240 students are enrolled at ICA. “It was evident the school needed to make this change because 75 percent of our families are still on some form of financial aid,” ICA said. “With the average family income of our market being $36,000, a listed annual tuition of $4,000 makes our school seem out of the realm of possibility. By lowering the maximum listed tuition and continuing to emphasize it is based on a sliding scale, we hope more families will see that attending ICA and receiving this education is a possibility.

Around the archdiocese

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Immaculate Conception Academy seniors celebrate graduation in 2011. The San Francisco all-girls school opened in 1883 with a mission of serving the city’s young women, especially “the young, the poor, and the vulnerable.”

“This change simply acknowledges a more reasonable maximum tuition amount for our families and keeps us mission-minded. But our tuition will continue to be on a sliding scale based on family income.”

It has been Immaculate Conception Academy’s mission since its opening in 1883 to serve the young women of San Francisco, particularly “the young, the poor, and the vulnerable,” as founder Mother Maria Pia Backes determined. In the spirit of Cristo Rey schools, ICA has been particularly focused on serving students from families of limited financial means.

The decision to lower tuition was to promote this mission.

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1. Congratulations to Peacemaker Award winners at St. James School in San Francisco. “The award is presented to students, one from each level, who have exemplified qualities of peacemaking, love and justice,” said Dominican Sister Mary Susanna Vasquez, principal. Pictured after receiving the honor are kindergartner Yasmine Calija, fifth grader Milian Pon and eighth grader Jonathan Silva.

2. The Catholic Charities CYO sixth grade girls basketball team at St. Anthony of Padua Church in Novato started the season 2-0.

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“ICA provides a rigorous academic program complemented by a Corporate Work Study experience which enhances learning and develops skills necessary for life,” said the president of ICA, Dominican Sister Diane Aruda.

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Immaculate Conception Academy is one of 24 schools in the Cristo Rey Network nationwide. Immaculate Conception Academy is the only all-girls school in the network. Visit www.icacademy.org and www.cristoreynetwork.org.

January 27, 2012

Catholic San Francisco

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New principal, 34, starts at growing Mission District K-8 school SAIC’s Miguel Martinez plans to extend previous leadership’s enrollment success

By Valerie Schmalz The new principal at St. Anthony - Immaculate Conception School isn’t used to smiling this much.

At 34, Miguel Martinez is returning as top administrator to the school where he graduated in 1991.

“I grew up three blocks away. I drive by the house where I grew up every day on the way to work,” said Martinez, who attended St. Anthony with his two brothers and his sister before it merged with Immaculate Conception in 1998. “I think that is a help to connect with the kids. I know Miguel Martinez all the shortcuts, I know all the parks.”

“The kids aren’t all that different from when I was here. I think we have fewer middle class families now but overall makeup is the same – very diverse, really reflective of the city and just great kids who are trying to do their best in school,” said Martinez.

He took over in January after former principal Dennis Ruggiero retired. Martinez credits Ruggiero for increasing enrollment by 40 students to 174, pulling the school back from the brink of closure.

Martinez plans to continue Ruggiero’s marketing push, noting that for parents commuting downtown, the school is close to Highway 101 and I-280 exits. About

At Archbishop Riordan, Martinez’ stern expressions as chief disciplinarian were so notorious that students plotted to catch him on camera smiling.

80 percent of the students receive financial aid and the school qualifies for the free lunch program.

Archdiocesan Schools Superintendent Maureen Huntington praised Ruggiero for his success at SAIC, cutting expenses, increasing enrollment, and building “a wonderful faculty.” The school is fortunate Martinez could step in, she said.

“He has strong ties to the community, knows the school’s culture, is bilingual (in Spanish), and has demonstrated excel-

lent administrative skills at Riordan High School as dean of students,” said Huntington. “He seems to be a perfect fit for the school.”

With its southern Mission location, the school is not only right off South Van Ness Avenue and Cesar Chavez Street but close to Bernal Heights. Martinez plans to publicize the school to parents in the parishes of St. Elizabeth, Corpus Christi and St. Kevin, which no longer have schools.

“I think my goals for the school are pretty simple: to keep increasing the enrollment and to really show off to the city the quality education we have here,” said Martinez, who is married with two sons.

Pastor Father James Garcia is one of the school’s strengths, Martinez said. “He is a huge supporter of the school. He comes in and teaches a religion class to every single grade level,” Martinez said. “I think it is very important for the kids to see him. He is an active part of the school.”

About the smiling: As chief disciplinarian at Archbishop Riordan High School, Martinez’ stern expressions were so notorious that students plotted to catch him on camera smiling. The student newspaper published a full-page photo of a barely smiling Martinez last spring that was immediately posted on classroom bulletin boards by his fellow teachers.

“Everybody, even my family, says I am smiling a lot more,” said Martinez, adding that as elementary school principal, the job requires a gentler touch. “I cannot bring that personality to the little kids, because it would scare them.”

San Francisco archdiocese elementary students score high in math

By Valerie Schmalz The Archdiocese of San Francisco Department of Catholic Schools is beginning a new intensive training for K-8 teachers to teach mathematics even as 68 percent of archdiocesan Catholic elementary school students score above the national mean in mathematics.

The training sessions are part of preparation for a switch to new national curriculum standards for grades K-12 in the Archdiocese of San Francisco schools that is expected to occur in about two years.

The new education sessions are for teacher-trainers who will then help their colleagues teach mathematics effectively using the new techniques and standards, said Nina Russo, associate superintendent of curriculum and school improvement.

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Catholic schools will be following the lead of the state of California which has adopted national standards developed by the National Governors Association and designed to bring American students into a more competitive position globally, Russo said.

The first session for teacher-trainers was Jan. 18 and there will be three a year as the Department of Catholic Schools begins a phase-in of the new standards, Russo said. The department expects to implement the new K-8 mathematics curriculum in two years, Russo said.

California is one of 48 states and territories to adopt the common core of state standards for English-language arts and mathematics for grades K-12 which were developed under the aegis of the National Governors Association and presented to the states for voluntary adoption in 2010. The idea is to continue to improve an already impressive track record in educating Archdiocese of

San Francisco Catholic school students in mathematics with an emphasis on global competitiveness, Russo said.

Nearly 40 percent of Catholic elementary school students in the Archdiocese of San Francisco score at the 75th percentile or higher in mathematics on national standardized tests, Russo said. Sixty eight percent of K-8 students score above the 50 percentile on the Iowa tests, Russo said. In total, 39 percent are in the top quartile and 29.5 percent are in the 50th-75th percentile in mathematics on the Iowa Tests, Russo said.

The new standards are designed to better prepare students to function effectively in the 21st century by drilling down more intensively, using more technology and more hands-on modeling to teach mathematics, Russo said. “These improved strategies for teaching mathematics are more 21st-century – we call them 21st-century learning skills,” Russo said.

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Catholic San Francisco

January 27, 2012

Catholic school affordability: Progress made but still a long way to go WASHINGTON (CNS) – When educational leaders look at ways to make Catholic schools more affordable, they are happy about some of the positive steps that have been made but fully aware that there is still a lot to do.

During a recent conference at The Catholic University of America, a group of panelists focused particularly on the status of tuition tax credits and how they have enabled students who would normally not be able to afford Catholic schools to attend them.

Currently, there are fewer than a dozen school voucher programs and scholarship tax credit programs in the United States. Some states have more than one program.

Catholic elementary schools in Indiana experienced increased enrollment in the fall of 2011 because the state’s new school voucher program enabled more than 3,200 students to attend religious or private schools. The educational scholarship program, described as the nation’s broadest, has been supported by the Indiana Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the state’s bishops.

School voucher programs in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Utah and the District of Columbia offer private school vouchers to low-income students, students with special needs or children in failing schools.

The scholarship tax credit programs in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island also are primarily for students from low-income families or those with special needs.

Tuition vouchers are funds awarded by a government agency to a low-income family to spend at any school of their choice. Tuition tax credits generate scholarships for Catholic schools by allowing individuals and businesses to deduct a portion of their income taxes to donate to education. These donations can go to public or private schools. Donations to public schools typically help pay for after-school programs, school trips or supplies.

Last April, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the practice of allowing Arizona residents to

(CNS PHOTO/TIM SHAFFER, REUTERS)

By Carol Zimmermann

Downsizing, then rebuilding Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia makes remarks during a news conference to announce the closing of 48 Catholic schools at the archdiocesan headquarters in Philadelphia Jan. 6. The closings are designed as a first step in a strategy to reinvigorate the archdiocese’s education ministry by strengthening remaining schools.

take a tax credit for their donations to school tuition organizations. During the 2008 fiscal year more than $54 million in scholarship money was awarded to students through the tax credit program.

“We have made a good deal of progress in the past 15 years,” said John Schilling, chief operating officer of the American Federation for Children, a school choice advocacy group.

In fact, he noted that “it’s as good as it’s ever been” as far as choice initiatives.

But panel members were not about to rest on these laurels and almost all of them at the conference pointed out that the successes were not easy and certainly did not guarantee similar actions in other states.

To keep these programs going and see similar legislation passed, they said, Catholic leaders need to garner a lot more support for tuition tax credits from leaders of both parties, the general

public and even the wider Catholic community.

In a question-and-answer session, Michael Guerra, former National Catholic Educational Association president, asked: “Why do we want tax credits? Is it just to keep Catholic schools alive?”

In response to his own question, he said that approach “won’t fly” and the real reason to make Catholic schools an option for more students is “because they’re good for families and kids.”

Similarly, Frank Butler, president of Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities, said: “We have to do a better job of making our case that we contribute to the common good through our schools.”

Butler asked what’s holding Catholics back from “a more robust and unified effort to enlist the public’s support for more choice in education” and speculated that Catholics tend to think

locally and look to their parish and diocese for initiative on schools. He also said there has not been a lot of national leadership on this topic and “in many ways we have ceded the issue of tax credits to libertarian and conservative think tanks.”

He also said there has been a “hospice mentality” when it comes to Catholic schools as a result of recent closings and wondered if people lacked “confidence in the long-term survival of schools” coupled with a “passive disposition among Catholic laity when it comes to taking responsibility for the church’s mission.”

The Nov. 30 conference, organized by Catholic University’s Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies and co-sponsored by the Catholic Association of Latino Leaders in San Antonio, urged educational and state Catholic conference leaders to essentially get back to basics: recognizing the good that Catholic schools do and promoting that.

In luncheon remarks, Washington Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl said he was not just preaching to the choir but to the choir directors by pointing out the positive aspects of Catholic schools, which he said not only provide students with academic excellence but a moral foundation and hope for the future.

They are a “gift for the whole community,” he added.

Mimi Schuttloffel, who chairs the education department at Catholic University, also spoke of the benefits of Catholic education and said Catholic schools still have an important role in today’s society in their tradition of providing quality education to marginal groups and training future church leaders.

She lamented that this country, unlike many others, does not support religious schools and said Catholics as a whole do not support Catholic education if their children do not attend a Catholic school or their parish doesn’t sponsor a school.

“We have not been able to adequately sell Catholic education,” she said, emphasizing that this needs to be done more aggressively.

To keep Catholic schools alive and a viable option for the poor, she said, “We need leaders who get it, ... who understand our story matters.”

How you can help fund the mission of providing Catholic education

By Annette Brown Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of San Francisco are at varying levels of ability to fund the mission of providing education in a financially responsible manner. To varying degrees, all of our schools serve a population of families who need significant tuition assistance to be able to afford our schools. About a third of our schools experience enrollment at “full” levels, and have development plans that assist the schools in providing financial support for the families of their students with need. About a third of our schools operate with “break even” budgets, or bring in just enough revenue from tuition, fees and fundraisers to cover annual operating expenses. Many schools run a “tight” budget, with revenues barely able to cover operating expenses. These schools need help in creating a plan for funding their ongoing existence through increased development and fundraising efforts at the individual school, and at the archdiocesan levels.

The estimated median household income in San Francisco is about $70,000 (2009 statistic), and with the cost of living in the Bay Area, that doesn’t leave much extra for tuition after housing, utilities, food, and transportation expenses. For those families desiring a Catholic education for their students, there is often a “tuition gap” between what the tuition charge is (average $7,000

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per student) and what families can pay. In addition, there is also an “operations gap” between the tuition that is charged, and the cost to educate each student (average $9,000 per student). The tuition charged does not cover the cost to educate, and the balance is made up with parent fundraising and school development. As the “tuition gaps” grow, the amount that will be funded by parents and other sources of financial aid continues to grow The Archdiocese of San Francisco has an endowment that provides $500,000 toward elementary student family grants each year. In addition, $200,000 in archdiocesan income was set aside this year specifically for elementary school scholarships. This however, is not nearly enough to provide for either of the above mentioned tuition gaps. As we consider our options, it is clear that the archdiocese must assist the schools in development and fundraising at the local level, and in addition, must continue and strengthen efforts at the archdiocesan level to meet the needs of the families in our elementary schools.

The primary development personnel in each school are the pastor, the principal, the development officers, the parents club, alumni and friends of the school. The average financial aid award goes to fund the “tuition gap” or family obligation. The primary uses of development funds in each school are tuition assistance, capital/building needs, operations and special programs.

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Some schools have long-standing and comprehensive development plans, where they raise hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. Other schools will need help, and the Board of Education Development Committee will help these schools create a school specific development plan, where the school will begin soliciting major gifts for long-term support, and organizing campaigns and events. The pastors and the parish finance councils or school advisory boards will play a huge part in creating the school development plan, finding friends, building community and soliciting major gifts. The focus will be garnering long-term support.

You can play a vital role in this process. Become involved with the finance council in your parish. If you have the ability to assist families and schools fund the gaps between what families can pay and the cost of educating our students, consider a gift either directly to the archdiocesan endowment or scholarship funds, or directly to the school of your choice. Your gift really will make a difference in the future of a student.

Annette Brown is assistant superintendent of development and finance for the Archdiocese of San Francisco Department of Catholic Schools.

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January 27, 2012

Catholic San Francisco

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Please Call for tours and information We are Pre-Kinder to Grade 8 Saints Peter and Paul School 660 Filbert Street S.F., CA 94113 415.421.5219 Lharris@sspeterpaulsf.org www.sspeterpaulsf.org Princial: Lisa Harris, Ed.D.

Saint Brigid School Over 100 years of excellent Catholic education A WASC accredited elementary school with strong academic foundation.

Spanish, Technology, Music and P.E. are part of the curriculum in all grades. After school care and other after school programs - sports, piano, dance, chess, karate, band, choir, & other languages.

Be our guest. Call 415 673-4523 to schedule.

Visit www.saintbrigidsf.org for more information.

St. Mary’s School 838 Kearny Street San Francisco, 94108 New State-of-the- Art Facility at the crossroad of Financial District, North Beach and Chinatown • • • • • • •

15th,

Grades K – 8th Grade Fully Accredited by WCEA and WASC After school programs includes, study halls, tutoring, Mandarin curriculum for Grades K - 8 P.E., Music, and Sports program Member of the Sister of Saint Joseph of Orange Educational Network Extended care - language program

2350 Green Street San Francisco 415.346.5505

Since 1924, the St. Vincent de Paul School community has provided an excellent education for students in K-8.

The rich curriculum includes Spanish for all grades, drama, and music.

Faculty includes full time Learning and Math Specialists, and full time counselor. Extended Care is available until 6:00 pm daily. Extracurriculars include CYO sports, Chess Club, Boys' Choir and Girls' Chorus. Please call today to schedule a school tour.

NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS School tours - Available upon Request 415-929-4690 www.stmaryschinese.org

www.svdpsf.com

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Catholic San Francisco

January 27, 2012

American bishops revamping high school religion Religious instruction is going to be a little bit different at most Catholic high schools very soon.

In response to detailed national standards from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, publishers are rolling out brand-new high school religion book series, and ceasing publication of the books most Catholic high schools and teen religious education programs now use.

The new books tie directly to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a compendium of everything the Catholic Church believes, promulgated by Pope John Paul II in 1997.

Nationwide the change may take several years to occur as each diocese and high school approaches the change in textbooks differently, said Steven McGlaun, sales and marketing consultant for St. Mary’s Press.

“Everything goes back to Jesus. They want to make sure we are teaching young people about Jesus,” said D. Scott Miller, director of the division of youth and young adult ministry for the Archdiocese of Baltimore who blogs at www.dscottmiller.com.

Reaction to the change has been mixed among religion teachers, many of whom say the detailed outline and sequence of the national standards are challenging to apply to teaching teenagers in the classroom. While some schools plan to use at least some of the new textbooks, others say they do not plan to use any of the new textbooks.

“We understand this is important stuff to teach and now we will figure out a way to teach it,” said Angie Simonetti, religious studies chairman at Mercy Burlingame, which will begin using the new approved texts for at least freshmen and sophomores at the school in the next school year. Simonetti said the school was already teaching the material but in different order.

As part of a decade-long process

(PHOTO BY JOSE LUIS AGUIRRE/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)

By Valerie Schmalz

Archbishop Riordan High School students are pictured in the dining hall at the San Francisco school’s new boarding school last September. All four archdiocesan high schools – Archbishop Riordan, Marin Catholic, Junipero Serra and Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory – are reviewing new religion textbook lines with an eye to purchasing them.

sparked by concerns about omissions and errors in the way high school religion was being taught, the USCCB voted 221-0 in November 2007 to endorse “Doctrinal Elements of a Curriculum Framework for the Development of Catechetical Materials for Young People of High School Age.” In April 2011, a protocol for reviewing the texts was published by the USCCB Subcommittee to Oversee the Use of the Catechism, noting books “should promote a healthy and vital Catholic identity in such a way that the believer is encouraged to hear the message clearly, live it with conviction and share it courageously with others.”

CREATING TOMORROW’S

STEWARDS

OF GOD’S CREATION

The textbook review process is voluntary and confidential and includes review by at least one bishop and catechetical support staff. Approved texts are published in a Conformity List for all catechetical materials, K-12, on the USCCB website.

“The framework is intended to be an aid to publishers of religious education texts for high school students, as well as to be a support for dioceses in developing diocesan standards, guidelines and assessment programs and to assist high schools and religious education programs themselves,” said Peter Murphy, USCCB executive director of evangelization and catechesis.

The 80-page framework document outlines six core courses and five electives organized in a specific sequence. “The framework allows for a greater continuity in religious education, which is imperative in a mobile society,” Murphy said in an email.

While the bishops of some dioceses have mandated a timetable and even textbooks for their schools to use, Archbishop George Niederauer is giving high schools flexibility in both their choice of materials and the timeline for incorporating the changes, Schools Superintendent Maureen Huntington said.

“Almost every year Archbishop Niederauer has met with the chairs for religion departments in our high schools, emphasizing the need for the courses to cover the topics of the four major sections of the Catechism, i.e., the creed, the sacraments, moral theology and Catholic spirituality,” Huntington said.

Huntington said the archbishop expects the schools to incorporate the framework in their instruction. “Make decisions that meet your community’s needs and where you are.

Ten of our high schools are owned and operated by religious communities” who want to continue including the Jesuit, Dominican, Sisters of Mercy and other charisms in their schools’ religious instruction, something the framework guidelines do not address, she said.

Three publishers have some textbooks ready for purchase, St. Mary’s Press, Ave Maria Press, and Ireland-based Veritas, said Janet Suzio, assistant superintendent for faith formation and religious instruction for the archdiocesan Department of Catholic Schools. Our Sunday Visitor expects to have texts ready soon, the publisher said.

Right now only freshman and sophomore texts are available, Huntington said. Junior year texts will be ready for fall, St. Mary’s Press’s McGlaun said.

RELIGION, page 9

Committee notes ‘doctrinal deficiencies’ An oral report to the general assembly of the U.S. bishops on June 19, 1997, detailed 10 “doctrinal deficiencies … rather common” among catechetical series reviewed by a committee headed by Indianapolis Archbishop Daniel Buchlein. Here are some of the deficiencies noted.

– Failure to present the Trinity as the central mystery of the Christian faith. Reluctance to use “Father” for the first person of the Trinity, at times substituting the term “Parent God.” – Insufficient emphasis on the divine nature of Christ, with divin-

ity equated with being “distant and unreal.”

– Insufficient emphasis on the importance of Christ’s incarnation as central to salvation history.

– Do not always clearly present the Catholic Church as established by Christ to continue both his presence and his mission in the world.

– Too often the impression is left that the human person is the first principal and final end of his/her own existence.

– Deficient teaching on original sin and on sin in general.

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Catholic education in a family-centered community Offering a quality Pre-K and K-8 education Fully accredited curriculum and small class size Integrated music, art and computer curriculums State-of-the-art science and technology labs Extended care offered before and after school Our average class size is 17 students Classes never exceed 25 students After school enrichment programs, including home work club DISCOVER SAINT RITA! PLEASE COME TO OUR OPEN HOUSE FEBRUARY 5, 2012 FROM 10:00 TO 1:00 IF YOU WOULD LIKE A TOUR PLEASE CALL 415-456-1003 WWW.STRITA.EDU

January 27, 2012

Religion . . .

Reaction to the change has been mixed among religion teachers, many of whom say the detailed outline and sequence of the national standards are challenging to apply to teaching teenagers in the classroom.

■ Continued from page 8 All four archdiocesan high schools – Marin Catholic, Junipero Serra, Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory and Archbishop Riordan – are reviewing the new textbook lines with an eye to purchasing them.

“We as Catholics believe there are some things that are always and everywhere right and wrong,” said Serra theology department chairman Gary Meegan, who applauds the framework. The San Mateo boys’ high school will use St. Mary’s Press freshman and sophomore texts next year, he said.

St. Ignatius College Preparatory revamped its curriculum in response to the bishops’ guidelines but does not plan to purchase texts immediately, said Carol A. Devincenzi, religious studies department chair. “We have developed our own readers and rely heavily on the sacred text,” she said in an email.

Some disagree with the doctrinal framework sequence of courses and approach.

At Stuart Hall High School “we are very much a work in progress regarding the framework’s implementation,” said theology department chairman Raymond O’Connor

Delivering on the Power and the Promise of Catholic Education

Catholic San Francisco

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in an email. O’Connor is concerned the new courses may no longer qualify for University of California credit and do not incorporate the Schools of the Sacred Heart charism.

Mercy High School, San Francisco does not plan to purchase the texts, said religious studies chairman Josie Maxwell.

The new standards are the first set of specific curriculum guidelines from the USCCB since the Baltimore Catechism disappeared from classrooms after Vatican II. The framework was part of a decade long response to an oral report to the General Assembly of Bishops in 1997 by a group of bishops, including then-San Francisco Archbishop William J. Levada. That report found 10 common failures or omissions in religion textbooks, including a de-emphasis of the divinity of Jesus, failure to explain original sin and the redeeming power of God’s grace in the sacraments, and faulty explanation of conscience and the roots of Catholic morality in Scripture and natural law. The first effort was a set of protocols that did not provide enough direction, leading to the construction of the framework at the request of publishers.

Catholic Elementary Schools of Southern San Mateo County

Southern San Mateo County parish schools have been providing Catholic education to children on the San Francisco Peninsula for more than 125 years. Combining the power of Catholic faith formation and the promise of academic excellence, students and families enjoy the benefits of a fully credentialed faculty, a clear mission, vision and values, and the commitment of principals and pastors to prepare children for high school and beyond.

Immaculate Heart of Mary

St. St. Charles Charles School School

1000 Las Pulgas, Pulgas,Belmont Belmont 1000 Alameda Alameda de Las www.ihmschoolbelmont.com www.ihmschoolbelmont.com tel tel 650-593-4265 650-593-4265 fax fax650-593-4342 650-593-4342 ihmschool@ihmschoolbelmont.org ihmschool@ihmschoolbelmont.com PreK-8 10:30am am–1:00 pm PreK-8 Open Open House: House: Jan Jan 29, 30, 10:30 –1:30 pm

850 850Tamarack Tamarack Avenue, Avenue, San Carlos Carlos www.stcharlesschoolsc.org www.stcharlesschoolsc.org tel tel 650-593-1629 650-593-1629 fax fax650-593-9723 650-593-9723 Open House: January 23, 10:00 am –12:30pm

Nativity School

St. St. Gregory Gregory School School

1250 Menlo Park Park 1250 Laurel Laurel Street, Menlo www.nativityschool.com www.nativityschool.com tel 650-325-7304 fax fax650-325-3841 650-325-3841 Open House: January 29, 11:00 Open House: January 30, 11:00am–1:00 am –1:00pm pm

2701 2701Hacienda Hacienda Street, Street, San San Mateo Mateo www.stgregs-sanmateo.org www.stgregs-sanmateo.org tel tel 650 650 573-0111 573-0111 fax fax650-573-6548 650-573-6548 tdooher@stgregs-sanmateo.org lpaul@stgregs-sanmateo.org Open 29,6,11:00 OpenHouse: House:January February 10:00 am am

Notre Dame Elementary

St. St. Pius Pius School School

sponsored ministry A sponsored ministryof ofthe the Sisters of of Notre Notre Dame Damede deNamur Namur 1200 Avenue, Belmont Belmont 1200 Notre Notre Dame Avenue, www.nde.org www.nde.org tel 650-591-2209 fax fax650-591-4798 650-591-4798 K-8 Open House: January 9:00 am–11:00am Open House: January 22,28, 9:00 am–12:00pm

1100 City 1100Woodside Woodside Road, Road, Redwood Redwood City www.stpiusschool.org www.stpiusschool.org tel tel 650-368-8327 650-368-8327 fax fax650-368-7031 650-368-7031 offi ce@stpiusschool.org office@stpiusschool.org Open 10:30am–12:00pm OpenHouse: House:January January29, 30, 10:30am–12:00pm

Our Lady of Angels

St. St. Matthew Matthew Catholic Catholic School School

1328 Cabrillo Cabrillo Avenue, 1328 Avenue, Burlingame Burlingame www.olaschoolk8.org www.olaschoolk8.org fax650-343-5620 650-343-5620 tel 650-343-9200 fax Open House: January 27, 6:00 –8:00 pm

910 910S. S.El ElCamino Camino Real, Real, San Mateo www.stmatthewcath.org www.stmatthewcath.org tel tel 650-343-1373 650-343-1373 fax fax650-343-2046 650-343-2046 Open House: January 29, 11:45am–1:30pm bviotti@stmatthewcath.org Open House: January 30, 11:45am–1:30pm

Our Lady Lady of Our of Mount Mount Carmel Carmel School School

St. Raymond St. Raymond 1211 Arbor Road, Menlo Park

301 Grand Grand Street, Street, Redwood RedwoodCity City www.mountcarmel.org www.mountcarmel.org tel 650-366-8817 fax fax650-366-0902 650-366-0902 info@mountcarmel.org NEW for 2012-2013 Transitional K K Info Night: 18, 7:00 – 8:00 pm PreSchool – 7 January Open House Jan 29, Open 10:00am–12:00pm PreK-7 House: Jan 30, 10:00am–12:00pm

St. Catherine of Siena School 1300Catherine Bayswater Avenue, Burlingame St. of Siena School www.stcos.com 1300 Bayswater Avenue, Burlingame tel 650-344-7176 www.stcos.com fax 650-344-7426 Open House: January 30, 10:00 am–1:00pm tel 650-344-7176 fax 650-344-7426 Open House: January 29, 10:00 am–1:00pm

www.straymond.org 1211 Arbor Road, Menlo Park tel 650-322-2312 fax 650-322-2910 www.straymond.org Open House: January 11:00 am–1:00 pm tel 650-322-2312 fax29, 650-322-2910 Open House: January 30, 11:00 am–1:00 pm

St. Timothy School St. Timothy School 1515 Dolan Avenue, San Mateo 1515 Dolan Avenue, San Mateo www.sttimothyschool.org www.sttimothyschool.org tel 650-342-6567 fax 650-342-5913 K-8 Open House: January 31, 7:00 pm fax 650-342-5913 tel 650-342-6567 K Open House: January 19, 7:00 pm K-8 Open House: February 1, 7:00 pm

All schools are fully accredited by the Western Catholic Educational Association and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

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Catholic San Francisco

January 27, 2012

K-8 schools amplify Catholic identity in serving all backgrounds

By Lidia Wasowicz Through thick and thin enrollments, elementary schools in the San Francisco archdiocese are standing by their Catholic identity – the core of their mission to educate, engage, evangelize and empower future generations.

Buffeted by winds of change that have dislodged Catholic families, closed 20 of 79 campuses and shriveled the K-8 student population by more than half – from 34,687 to 16,568 – since the mid-1960s, pastors and principals brace against further assault with a pledge to keep the faith.

“Our school exists because it is Catholic, and we’re not going to sell out under any circumstances, even if we do not meet our enrollment and we’re struggling,” said Father John Balleza, pastor of St. Raphael Church in San Rafael.

Thus far, the largely Latino parish school of 158 kindergarteners through eighth graders – 150 of them Catholic – stands on solid footing.

“We’re experiencing a bit of a turnFather John around because our Catholic identity Balleza is strong and because we are a clear reflection of the universal church,” Father Balleza said.

Principal Tom White applies equal conviction and commitment in leading a decidedly different crowd at St. Anne of the Sunset elementary in San Francisco, where non-Catholic students of Chinese heritage dominate.

“If you want a private school, there are plenty out there,” he tells prospective families. “We are first and foremost a Catholic school, and nothing’s going to dissuade us from the importance we place on Catholic teaching.”

The message attracts enough applicants to buck archdiocese-wide trends.

In 2001, a total of 20,908 students attended 56 parish and eight private primary schools, 4,340 more than currently study at the 49 parish and 10 private schools that survive. Since 2007, elementary school enrollment has been declining by an annual rate ranging from 1.4 percent to 2.2 percent. Over the past two decades, the percentage of non-Catholics has hovered in the low 20s.

In contrast, the number of applicants at St. Anne, according to White, not only has remained “at a consistent and sufficient level that keeps us pretty happy” but also has climbed steadily for the past 15 years among non-Catholics, who now comprise 70 percent of the 465 preschoolers to eighth graders in the parish school.

“The students fully embrace our Catholic foundation, whether attending Mass, preparing for the sacraments or going to religion class,” White said. “We’ve had absolutely no pressure from families to change or water down any aspect of our Catholic identity.”

Every year, one, two or even three families visit White to express their child’s interest in formally accepting the faith.

After gauging the parents’ support for the conversion, he sends them to the pastor for further instruction. During his 21 years as principal at St. Anne, only one family was advised to wait for the child to mature before making the life-altering commitment. The others proceeded to join the church.

“That’s always such a wonderful experience,” White said.

At St. Thomas the Apostle in San Francisco, where 65 percent of the 278 pre-K-8 students profess a different belief, four asked to join the church last year.

“We are tolerant of all religions, but we leave no doubt about our Catholic identity,” said Judith Borelli, principal of the parish school.

During the last accreditation visit to St. Thomas, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges team voiced astonishment at the high percentage of non-Catholics at a school “that feels so Catholic,” she said.

The non-Catholic presence can serve as a catalyst for a deepening of the Catholic faith, said Terry Hanley, principal at the Star of the Sea School in San Francisco, where more than half of the 234 preschoolers to eighth graders belong to a United Nations of churches – Islam, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, other Christian – or have no affiliation at all.

“It’s wonderful to see non-Catholics in the sixth-grade religion class I teach,” he said. “(The non-Catholic majority) could compromise our Catholic identity, if we let it, but it can also challenge us and give us an opportunity to look more deeply into our faith and share it with others.”

At Sacred Heart Lower and Middle Schools in Atherton, the 40 percent of non-Catholic first-through-eighth graders promote discussions of world cultures, spirituality and values, provoke a deeper understanding of Catholic identity and provide resources for broadening faith formation, spirituality enhancement and prayer opportunities, Bridget Collins said Principal Bridget Collins.

“To say Catholic schools have to have a certain number of Catholics is contrary to what Christ asked of his followers,” White said. “Catholic schools have a two-pronged mission: to develop faith formation in our Catholic students and to introduce our faith to the non-Catholic ones.”

They have ample opportunity to do so in the San Francisco archdiocese, where the non-Catholic K-8 population sits at 21.5 percent – markedly higher than the 14.9 percent nationwide.

Projections leave the ratio relatively intact over the next several years.

“Whatever the number of non-Catholic students, teachers continue to teach the Catholic faith the way they’ve been asked to do by the archbishop, and parents who enroll their children in Catholic schools understand that’s the deal,” said Maureen Huntington, superintendent of Catholic schools in the archdiocese. “Catholic education is the best tool the church has to teach the Gospel and fulfill the church’s evangelization mission,” Janet Suzio, assistant superintendent of faith formation and religion curriculum, is charged with ensuring uniformity in that teaching.

She trains parochial school instructors of doctrine according to standards set by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“There are strict guidelines, and our textbooks must carry an imprimatur bearing the bishops’ approval,” said Janet Suzio Suzio, who spent 39 years as an educator, 10 as principal, before taking the job four years ago. “There have been no changes in this training since 1986.”

She does not monitor independent schools, which neither have an affiliation with a parish nor fall under the same scrutiny as do parochial schools.

“Generally, a parish school has a stronger Catholic identity than a private one,” said Father Paul Rossi, pastor of St. Pius Church in Redwood City.

His parish school serves 295 predominantly Catholic and Greek Orthodox K-8.students.

“You can’t assume just because a school says it’s ‘Catholic,’ it offers what you expect and want for your family,” White said. “You have to investigate to make sure you know Father Paul Rossi what you’re getting.”

St. Thomas the Apostle third graders Loraine Trinidad and Avery Soriano portray Mary and Joseph in the San Francisco parish school’s Christmas pageant last year.

Nearly two-thirds of the school’s 278 pre-K-8 students profess a different belief than Catholicism, and four asked to join the church last year.

Schools that misrepresent themselves as “Catholic” commit the “ultimate hypocrisy,” said Father Balleza, recently elected chair of the Council of Priests of the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

Schools with a strong Catholic identity “should serve as a beacon of hope” in areas like Marin County, where only 1 percent of residents are churchgoers, he said.

To ensure those beacons continue to shine, leaders must grapple with two key challenges: dwindling Catholic demographics and rising costs.

With the number of overall applicants declining into the foreseeable future and a third of the schools struggling financially, the archdiocese is gearing up for “increased development efforts, stable and decreasing enrollment (and) school closures,” said Annette Brown, assistant superintendent of planning and finance in the Department of Catholic Schools.

Of the 59 elementary schools in the archdiocese, 16 have no openings, 10 are more than 80 percent full and the remaining 33 report a vacancy rate of over 20 percent.

Among those enlarging their rolls, St. Thomas the Apostle has had a growth spurt in the number of students and Catholic families, which expanded from 26.3 percent in 2003-2004 to the current 35 percent.

Prodded by a word-of-mouth campaign, the increase continues, Borelli said. That morning, she had a visit from Catholic neighbors who had just learned of the school’s existence.

“Our families say we’re the best-kept secret in the Richmond,” Borelli said. “We held on to our Catholic identity with pride, and it paid off.”

As it did at St. Monica School in San Francisco, where the Catholic population has bloomed from 39 percent six years ago to half of the current K-8 student body of 166, said Vincent Sweeters, principal of the parish school with an equal mix of Chinese, white and Asian-Caucasian students.

Families no longer stick to their parish, as they did when he attended elementary schools in San Francisco in the 1970s and 1980s, said Sweeters, who is shooting for 22-25 children per class. Rather, they shop for a community they find most appealing, making for a diverse mix of neighborhoods.

“We welcome all faiths,” Sweeters said, “but I’m always clear that we offer a solid Catholic education following the SERVING ALL, page CSW14

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650.239.9175 650 highestheights@att.net Betsy Shader 254 Aviador Avenue, Millbrae, CA 94030

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WE SUPPORT CATHOLIC SCHOOLS! (415)-786-0121 (650) 871-9227

January 27, 2012

D a l y

Our Lady of Perpetual Help School

C i t y

Our Lady of Mercy Elementary School

7 Elmwood Drive, Daly City 94015 "Top of the Hill, Daly City" (650) 756-3395 80 Wellington Avenue Fax: (650) 756-5872 (between Mission & Brunswick Sts.) www.olmbulldogs.org (650) 755-4438 e-mail: office@olmbulldogs.com www.olphdc.org School tours Tues., Wed. Thurs. 9 am e-mail: olphdc@yahoo.com Open House: – CALL SCHOOL FOR PRIVATE TOUR – Sun. January 29 1 – 3 pm Open House: Sat., Jan. 28 1:00–3:00 pm

South San Francisco

All Souls Catholic School 479 Miller Avenue So. San Francisco 94080 (650) 583-3562 Fax: (650) 952-1167 www.ssfallsoulsschool.org e-mail: info@ssfallsoulsschool.org Open House: Sun., Jan. 29 10 – 11:45 am Prospective Parent Information Evening: Mon., January 30, 7 pm Pre-School opening August 2012

CATHOLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS OF NORTH SAN MATEO COUNTY

Catholic San Francisco

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C o l m a

Holy Angels Elementary School 20 Reiner Street Colma 94014 (650) 755-0220 Fax: (650) 755-0258 www.holyangelscolma.com Open House: Sun., January 29 11 am – 2 pm School tours by appointment

South San Francisco

St. Veronica Catholic School 434 Alida Way So. San Francisco 94080 (650) 589-3909 Fax: (650) 589-2826 www.stveronicacatholicschool.org Open House: Sunday, January 30 beginning with the 9:30 am Mass until 12:00 pm Please join us Church for Mass

P a c i f i c a

S a n B r u n o

M I L L B R A E

Good Shepherd Elementary School

St. Robert Catholic School

St. Dunstan Elementary School

909 Oceana Boulevard Pacifica 94044 (650) 359-4544 Fax: (650) 359-4558 www.goodshepherdschool.us e-mail: gss.office@goodshepherdschool.us Open House: Sat., January 28 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm School Tours by appointment

345 Oak Avenue San Bruno 94066 (650) 583-5065 Fax: (650) 583-1418 e-mail: strobertsoffice@gmail.com Open House: Thurs., February 2 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm School tours by appointment

1150 Magnolia Avenue Millbrae 93030 (650) 697-8119 Fax: (650) 697-9295 www.st-dunstan.org Open House: Sun., January 29 Beginning with Mass at 10 am, Call for additional school tours & visit dates

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Catholic San Francisco

January 27, 2012

January 27, 2012

Sisters in the classroom

Three or more sisters teach at 8 Archdiocese of San Francisco schools --“It is not enough that you love them, they must know they are loved”: St. John Bosco, also known as Don Bosco -- Websites: salesiansisterswest.org, http://sspeterpaulsf.org

Salesian Sisters of St. John Bosco Sts. Peter and Paul School, San Francisco -- Also known as Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians -- Founded by St. John Bosco in collaboration with St. Mary Mazzarello, on Aug. 5, 1872, in Mornese, Alessandria, Italy.

-- Three sisters work full time in the school; seven live in the convent.

-- Arrived in the U.S. in 1908; arrived at Sts. Peter and Paul in 1950 -- Largest order in world under one mother general

Dominican Sisters of the Most Holy Rosary St. Charles Borromeo School, San Francisco -- Five sisters include Principal Sister Nelia Pernicia, assistant principal and seventh grade teacher, and teachers in first, second and third grades.

-- Arrived in 1982 -- All the sisters are from the Philippines.

-- Order founded in 1925 in Iloilo City, Philippines, by Mother Rosario Arroyo, who was originally baptized Beatriz Rosario de Arroyo. Her order has presented her cause for sainthood.

Sisters of Mercy St. Peter School, San Francisco

-- Sister Nelia first came to St. Charles in 1990 and returned as principal this year after recovering from a kidney transplant and spending seven years as a teacher and support staff at Holy Angels School.

-- Order staffs both St. Charles Borromeo and Holy Angels schools.

-- Websites: Dominicansistershawaii. org, sfstcharlesschool.org

-- Three sisters work at the school, including the vice principal, first grade teacher and librarian.

-- Have staffed St. Peter School since 1878 when the school opened as a “free school” without tuition.

-- Arrived in San Francisco from Ireland in 1854 under the leadership of Mother Baptist Russell at the invitation of Archbishop Joseph Sadoc Alemany, first opening St. Mary’s Hospital and St. Catherine’s Home for women.

-- Founded in Dublin, Ireland, in 1827,

by Catherine Elizabeth McAuley.

-- Take a fourth vow, in addition to poverty, chastity and obedience, of service to persons who are poor, sick and uneducated.

-- Websites: sistersofmercy.org, sanpedro.org

Catholic San Francisco

Missionaries of the Sacro Costato St. Catherine of Siena School, Burlingame -- Four sisters including the principal, Sister Antonella Manca, who worked as a missionary in Albania before being called back to St. Catherine’s by her order.

-- Families at St. Catherine’s call them “the Italian order.”

-- Missionaries of the Sacro Costato – it means “sacred side” of Jesus -- arrived in 1975 at the invitation of Archbishop Joseph Thomas McGucken, who recruited them on a trip to Italy after the previous order relinquished administration of the school.

-- Charism: To make reparation for sins particularly through devotion to the suffering Jesus -- Apostolic work includes education of children and youth, catechetical instruc-

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tions and parish work, spiritual exercises and apostleship of prayer, foreign missions, spiritual and material assistance to the poor and the sick, and any other work of charity for the glory of God and the common good.

-- Sisters serve in Italy, Taiwan, United States, the Philippines, Ecuador, Albania, China, Brazil, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

-- Website: http://stcos.com

Burlingame Sisters of the Immaculate Conception St. Brigid School, San Francisco -- Principal and two teachers at the school; five sisters in the convent, including one retired sister -- Invited to school by pastor Msgr. Robert Hayburn in 1982 -- Founded by Blessed Carmen Salle’s, in Burgos, Spain, in 1892

-- Charism: model life on Mary; bring contemplation of the Immaculate Mother of God to daily task of education of youth -- From the order’s website: “Just as Mary was redeemed at her conception in view of the merits of her son, so education in our schools intends to be a means of preservation from sin, in order that youth may live as creative Christian citizens in our society. “ -- Websites: www.rc.net/conception, saintbrigidsf.org

St. Peter & Paul

St. Charles St. Catherine St. Peter

San Francisco

St. Brigid

Colma

Kentfield St. Cecilia

Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of Eucharist Marin Catholic High School, Kentfield -- Three sisters teach theology, chemistry and mathematics.

-- Arrived fall 2011 at the invitation of Archbishop

George Niederauer and former Marin Catholic president, now San Jose Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Daly -- Order founded in 1997 by four Dominican sisters and has now grown out of Ann Arbor, Mich., motherhouse and is building houses of formation in Loomis, near Sacramento, and in the Diocese of Austin, Texas. Sisters come from throughout the U.S., and from Canada, Asia and Europe.

-- Average age of sisters is 28; age at entry is 21.

-- Catholic education is the order’s main apostolate, and each sister earns a teaching credential.

-- Websites: sistersofmary.org, marincatholic.org

Dominican Sisters of the Most Holy Rosary

Holy Angels

Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary St. Cecilia School, San Francisco -- Founded by Blessed Sister Rose Marie Durocher in Lonqueuil, Quebec, in 1843, as Soeurs des Saints Noms de Jesus et de Marie.

-- Order’s charism is education of poor girls in rural areas and has broadened to social justice.

-- Six sisters arrived in San Francisco on May 10, 1868, at the request of Archbishop Joseph Alemany.

Were greeted by the Sisters of Mercy, who feted them

with strawberries and cream, leading to the continuing celebration of May 10 as Strawberry Day. -- Founded what is now Holy Names University in Oakland -- Staffed St. Cecilia School from its first day in 1930, invited by pastor Father John Harnett.

-- Music always a big part of whatever schools the sisters staff; the tradition continues at St. Cecilia, where 10 music teachers are on staff.

-- Websites: http://www.snjmca.org, http://stceciliaschool.org

Holy Angels School, Colma -- Five sisters include Principal Sister Leonarda Montealto and teachers in second, third, fourth, fifth grades -- Arrived at Holy Angels in 2000 at the invitation of Father John Cloherty, the pastor at the time -- The same order as those staffing St. Charles Borromeo School.

-- The sisters work in Catholic education, hospitals, on retreats, in parishes and in outreach to the poor. They are teachers, doctors, nurses, agriculturists, administrators, lawyers and pastoral ministers.

-- Holy Angels and St. Charles sisters

are part of the Hawaii province of the Dominican Sisters of the Most Holy Rosary.

-- Holy Angels is planning a medical mission to help in the Philippines this summer.

-- Websites: Dominicansistershawaii.org, holyangelscolma.com

The demise of the teaching sister has been greatly exaggerated

By Valerie Schmalz Although the majority of Catholic school teachers and administrators today are laypeople, women religious remain a significant presence in a handful of Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of San Francisco and are making a difference at even more.

Sisters are teaching chemistry at Marin Catholic High School, leading kindergarteners in the “Ave Maria” at St. Catherine of Siena School in Burlingame, and counseling teenage boys at Archbishop Riordan High School.

“It is always my hope that we will let the community feel the presence of Jesus, by the way we treat the children, the way we talk to the parents,” said Dominican Sister of the Most Holy Rosary Leonarda Montealto, principal of Holy Angels School in Colma, where five Dominican sisters from the Philippines teach and otherwise staff the school.

Women religious continue at more than a third of archdiocesan schools Women religious are on staff at 22 of the 59 Catholic elementary schools and at five of 14 Catholic high schools in the archdiocese, according to the archdiocesan Department of Catholic Schools.

In addition to the schools profiled here, religious women continue to administer other archdiocesan schools.

At the elementary level, a Sister of Mercy runs St. Gabriel School, a Dominican Sister of Mission San Jose is principal at St. James School and St. John the Evangelist’s principal is an Ursuline. A Dominican of San Rafael heads St. Raphael’s preschool in Marin County. The president of Immaculate Conception Academy in San Francisco is a Dominican Sister of Mission San Jose, the only woman religious heading a high school in the archdiocese.

There are eight schools with three to six women religious. Seven of those are elementary schools: St. Cecilia, Sts. Peter and Paul, St. Brigid, St. Peter and St. Charles Borromeo schools in San Francisco, Holy Angels School in Colma, and St. Catherine of Siena School in Burlingame. At St. Catherine, St. Charles, St. Cecilia, St. Brigid and Holy Angels, the principal is a nun. At Sts. Peter and Paul and at St. Peter, the vice principal is a religious.

Eight schools have three to six sisters on staff At Marin Catholic High School, three sisters who belong to the new and rapidly growing Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of

the Eucharist arrived in the fall to teach theology, chemistry, algebra and geometry.

The order was founded in 1997 and is growing so rapidly with more than 100 sisters and an average age of 28 that the order is building a new house of formation in Loomis near Sacramento and another one in Texas. The sisters all earn a teaching credential as part of the order’s apostolate to revive Catholic education, but Sister Thomas Aquinas Betlewski said, “For us it is not so much about the teaching but about being close to God and bringing others to God.” The Dominican Sisters of Mary start the day with Mass, a holy hour, breakfast and then drive from their convent at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Mill Valley to Marin Catholic saying the rosary. “The school here is wonderful,” said math teacher Sister Maria Jose Acosta, who was a computer scientist when her mother said, “You haven’t found the right man yet, maybe you are called to the religious life.”

In February, the Vatican is expected to announce the date of canonization for Blessed Carmen Sallés, who founded the order in Burgos, Spain, in 1892.

Every year St. Brigid students enter the Catholic Church, Sister Angeles said. “Sometimes it is the whole family that joins the Catholic faith, sometimes it is just individual students,” she said.

The same occurs nearly every year at St. Catherine of Siena in Burlingame, where the “Italian nuns,” the Missionaries of the Sacro Costato, have been running the school since Archbishop Joseph Thomas McGucken recruited them in 1975.

Individual sisters maintain a presence at many archdiocesan Catholic schools, as administrators, teachers and counselors for a total of 44 full-time women religious in the archdiocese, 38 of those in elementary schools.

Seventeen women religious work part time. Throughout the archdiocese there are slightly more than 2,000 full and part-time teachers, most of them lay people.

Students and families convert to Catholicism Evangelizing by word and example is at the core of teaching in Catholic schools, said Sister of the Immaculate Conception Angeles Marin, principal of St. Brigid School in San Francisco, where the sisters administer and teach.

Sisters’ example can lead to vocations The transforming example of faith by the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary is what brought St. Cecilia School Principal Sister Marilyn Miller to her vocation. She was a student at St. Cecilia School, staffed then as now by Holy Names Sisters.

“I was impressed with the way they interacted with each other and their friendly and generous spirit,” Sister Marilyn said. “I think that was what most impressed me, their commitment to their religious community and also to God. I saw that they were a very self-sacrificing group of women who were really dedicated to making the world a better place.”

Four Holy Names sisters are on staff at St. Cecilia including the second grade teacher, the plant manager and the school psychologist.

At St. Peter School, the vice principal, first grade teacher and librarian are Sisters of Mercy. “The presence of these Sisters of Mercy at St. Peter School offers a huge impact of education, love and caring,” said Principal Vicki Butler. “Their presence is invaluable.”

The Holy Names Sisters at St. Cecilia School live in two apartments and one of the St. Peter Sisters of Mercy lives at the motherhouse in Burlingame, while the two others live in apartments. The other orders wear habits and live together in convents. They pray morning and evening prayer together, attend daily Mass, cook and eat together, as well as share recreation time.

Joyful faith and commitment is sisters’ gift to schools The Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians, known commonly as the Salesian Sisters, have been at Sts.

Peter and Paul School since 1950. There are seven Salesian sisters in the convent and even those who are retired are at the school daily, said Vice Principal Salesian Sister Debbie Walker. Three sisters are on staff, and retired Sister Antoinette Pollini opens the gym doors each day to the children. Principal Lisa Harris says as the first lay principal, one of her requirements for taking the job 13 years ago was that the Salesians always remain.

“It is different when there is someone who has chosen to consecrate their life to God,” said Sister Debbie. By living St. John Bosco’s charism of love for young people, “we bring a different spirit into the school,” she said.

Dominican Sister Nelia Pernecia, principal of St. Charles Borromeo School, where the Dominican Sisters of the Most Holy Rosary have taught since 1982, said her order’s joyful faith is an important example to parents and students.

“We are a happy community. They can hear us in our daily routine,” said Sister Nelia, since the convent abuts the schoolyard. “There is a unity between us as sisters, a unity of love and care for each other. It changes the climate in the environment of the school because they can see we have unity with each other.”

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Catholic San Francisco

January 27, 2012

Why I teach Gloria Naber Naber has taught at St. Finn Barr School in San Francisco for 38 years. She holds an undergraduate degree and teaching credential from San Francisco State University and has taught all grades but kindergarten, first and third.

“St. Finn Barr School is a caring and nurturing community,” Naber told Catholic San Francisco. “It has become an extension of my family. Upon the arrival of my first child, I received well wishes and cards from students in every grade.

“They shared in my joy and exemplified the meaning of a warm, supportive, and inviting community.”

Naber especially likes “the look on a student’s face when he or she solves a problem. The joy, elation, and excitement is beyond comparison,” said Naber, a Herbst Excellence in Teaching Award winner.

Academic excellence and spiritual development top the list at St. Finn Barr School,

Gloria Naber

Naber said. “It is in sharing my faith with students that has called me to become a Catholic school teacher and I wouldn’t change a thing.”

Maria Sablan, principal at St. Finn Barr, said, “Watching Gloria teach is a pleasure.

She is so animated, responsive and affirming of the children.”

St. Finn Barr teachers discuss their vocation for Catholic education Karen O’Reilly O’Reilly has taught kindergarten at St. Finn Barr School for 26 years. Not only that, the San Francisco State graduate also attended the school as a youngster and is a member of St. Finn Barr Parish today.

“I work in a Catholic school because I like that we partner with parents in academics, teaching Catholic values, and building community,” O’Reilly told Catholic San Francisco.

O’Reilly, who has been honored with the Herbst Teacher of Excellence Award, said, “I continually follow research and developments in early childhood education, and apply it to my teaching. I love seeing the students light up when they learn something new!”

The teacher’s parents Pat and the nowlate Dick Parson helped start St. Finn Barr School in 1962. Mrs. Parson continues today as a St. Finn Barr parishioner. O’Reilly’s children Katie and Liam are 2001 and 2005 graduates of St. Finn Barr School.

Karen O’Reilly

“Karen is a treasure to the St. Finn Barr community,” said Maria Sablan, principal.

“She has the most incredible ability to make children feel secure and happy so they can flourish.”

– Tom Burke

Serving all . . .

get squeezed are the middle class, not the very poor, who get subsidies and tuition support, and not the very wealthy, who can afford the ■ Continued from page CSW10 full per-student cost.”

Recognizing the challenge, the archdiocese guidelines of the Department of Catholic Schools awarded over $700,000 in financial aid to and the charism of the Sisters of the Holy Names, elementary students this school year, a sum although they have retired.” it hopes to expand in the future, Brown said.

At Star of the Sea, Hanley would like to “Even in the face of difficult economic round the enrollment to 250 but is pleased times, both Catholic and non-Catholic with the strides made over the past six years families are continuing to value a Catholic that added 31 names to the rolls. education for their children,” she said. “They He credits, in part, the school’s call to realize that a good elementary education will social-justice action, popular with students, propel their children forward for their entire who have raised $14,000 in the past four years The non-Catholic population in archdiocesan Catholic schools is staying academic career.” for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, And toward a lifetime of outreach, Hanley walked for breast cancer this school year for stable in San Francisco and increasing in Marin and San Mateo counties. said. first, but not last, time and collected 15 barrels Non-Catholic enrollment in U.S. Catholic schools is about “People don’t realize how involved of the food for a food bank, a donation they 15 percent, up from a little over 11 percent in 1980.

Catholic school graduates get in services like hope to keep in the parish in the future at the nursing, police work, firefighting, politics long-vacant Star of the Sea convent, converted the parish school range of $4,870 to $11,000 and aver- and the military because of the idea to serve the comin recent weeks to housing for the homeless.

Sacred Heart Schools in Atherton, where enrollment age price tag of $7,000 before multifamily discounts or munity that we ingrain in them from the earliest days in a Catholic school,” Hanley said. “By engaging them has held steady for 20 years, report a full house and a school-provided financial aid, Brown said.

“My concern always is that we’ll price ourselves out in Catholic teachings and practices, we empower them sustained increase in applications over the past decade that is expected to continue in the next five years with of commission,” Father Rossi said. “The ones who really to change the world.” the opening of the lower and middle schools campus and continued budget cuts to public schools, Collins said.

On the tuition front, tabs reached top scales at private schools, which charge up to $24,300 a year, compared to

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convent of the sacred heart high school stuart hall high school convent of the sacred heart elementary school stuart hall for boys

www.sacredsf.org / 415.563.2900

All Souls School, So. San Francisco; Archbishop Riordan High School, San Francisco; Convent of the Sacred Heart Elementary School, San Francisco; Convent of the Sacred Heart High School, San Francisco; De Marillac Academy, San Francisco; Ecole Notre Dame des Victoires, San Francisco; Good Shepherd School, Pacifica; Holy Angels School, Colma; Holy Name School, San Francisco; Immaculate Conception Academy, San Francisco; Immaculate Heart of Mary School, Belmont; Junipero Serra High School, San Mateo; Marin Catholic High School, Kentfield; Mercy High School, San Francisco; Mercy High School, Burlingame; Mission Dolores Academy, San Francisco; Nativity School, Menlo Park; Notre Dame Elementary, Belmont; Notre Dame High School, Belmont; Our Lady of Angels School, Burlingame; Our Lady of Loretto School, Novato; Our Lady of Mercy School, Daly City; Our Lady of Mount Carmel School, Redwood City; Our Lady of Perpetual Help School, Daly City; Our Lady of the Visitacion School, San Francisco; Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory, San Francisco; Sacred Heart Preparatory, Atherton; Saint Anne School, San Francisco; Saint Anselm School, San Anselmo; Saint Anthony-IC School, San Francisco; Saint Brendan School, San Francisco; Saint Brigid School, San Francisco; Saint Catherine of Siena School, Burlingame; Saint Cecilia School, San Francisco; Saint Charles Borromeo School, San Francisco; Saint Charles School, San Carlos; Saint Dunstan School, Millbrae; Saint Finn Barr School, San Francisco; Saint Gabriel School, San Francisco; Saint Gregory School, San Mateo; Saint Hilary School, Tiburon; Saint Ignatius College Preparatory, San Francisco; Saint Isabella School, San Rafael; Saint James School, San Francisco; Saint John School, San Francisco; Saint Joseph School, Atherton; Sacred Heart Lower and Middle Schools, Atherton; Saint Mary School, San Francisco; Saint Matthew School, San Mateo; Saint Monica School, San Francisco; Saint Patrick School, Larkspur; Saint Paul School, San Francisco; Saint Peter School, San Francisco; Saint Philip School, San Francisco; Saint Pius School, Redwood City; Saint Raphael School, San Rafael; Saint Raymond School, Menlo Park; Saint Rita School, Fairfax; Saint Robert School, San Bruno; Saint Stephen School, San Francisco; Saint Thomas More School, San Francisco; Saint Thomas the Apostle School, San Francisco; Saint Timothy School, San Mateo; Saint Veronica School, So. San Francisco; Saint Vincent de Paul School, San Francisco; Saints Peter & Paul School, San Francisco; San Domenico Middle, San Anselmo; San Domenico Primary, San Anselmo; San Domenico High School, San Anselmo; School of the Epiphany, San Francisco; Star of the Sea School, San Francisco; Stuart Hall for Boys, San Francisco; Stuart Hall High School, San Francisco; Woodside Priory High School, Portola Valley; Woodside Priory Middle School, Portola Valley; admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color or national origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administrated programs.

January 27, 2012

Catholic San Francisco

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Offering excellent Catholic education in a nurturing environment

Holy Name School 1560 - 40th Avenue San Francisco, CA 94122 (415) 731-4077 www.holynamesf.com Tours on Wednesdays by appointment Open House February 1, 2012 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

St. Anne School 1320 - 14th Avenue San Francisco, CA 94122 (415) 664-7977 www.stanne.com Visit our website for school tour dates Educating students in the Catholic tradition since 1920

St. Brendan School 940 Laguna Honda Blvd.

San Francisco, CA 94127 415-731-2665 sbs@stbrendansf.com www.stbrendansf.com Excellence in Catholic Education Since 1947

Open House - January 31, 2012 Tours - 8:30 a.m. & 10:30 a.m.

Many thanks to the faculty and staff in each of our Catholic schools, who work so hard to provide our students with the best education possible!

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Catholic San Francisco

January 27, 2012

Respect and reconciliation Bullying prevention course taught at 7 archdiocesan K-8 schools to practice “healthy leadership,” not the destructive kind, and learn what it means to Kids say the darndest things. be in charge.

Sadly, sometimes they are very hurtful The text for the Archdiocese of San things, words that put young people down, Francisco pilot is titled “Peace Be With You: words said to gain social status. Sometimes, Christ-Centered Bullying Solution,” from too, these words travel through cyberspace, the Alliance for Catholic Education Press bu t t e c h n o l o g y at The University doesn’t make them of Notre Dame. It Rani Singh Mann, a less painful. Maybe was endorsed by more so.

Barbara Elordi, the prosecutor in the San Seven elemenlate victims’ assistary schools in the tance coordinator Archdiocese of for the archdiocese, Francisco District San Francisco are and recently entered engaged in a pilot the curriculum for a Attorney’s Office, and program in their one-year trial period classrooms that aims at the seven particia St. Gabriel parent, to staunch the flow pating schools. of destructive bullyOne of those is speaking to the ing. They are teachschools, St. Gabriel ing fifth and sixth School, is not students this year graders a course in a fraught with a toxic Christ-centered bulbullying climate, but lying solution that it’s not immune, say about cyberbullying in emphasizes reconSt. Gabriel School ciliation and another particular – making the sixth grade teachers particularly Catholic Mary Boland and principle: showing Geri Murphy, offerpoint that electronic respect. ing the course for Bullying has about 20 minutes records are made of become so commondaily as part of their place, especially via religion and lancommunications so that guage arts classes, social media, that nearly one-third of respectfully. nothing is anonymous. all school age chil“I think it needs dren, some 13 milto be addressed lion students, are because we are a bullied each year, according to a Department Catholic school and community and respect of Justice report prepared for a White House are really important to us,” said Murphy. conference on the crisis that President About the time that Elordi became Barack Obama hosted in March. Its main aware of “Peace Be With You,” published theme was this: Giving students opportuni- last spring, the administration of All Souls ties to be mentors to others or participate in School in South San Francisco found it as community service activities allows them well, and the school has joined in the pilot

(CNS PHOTO/BOB ROLLER)

By George Raine

Sign of the cross Children make the sign of the cross at St. Anthony Indian School on the Zuni Pueblo Indian reservation in New Mexico last October.

project along with St. Gabriel, St. Isabella School and St. Raphael School, both in San Rafael; Sts. Peter and Paul in San Francisco; St. Dunstan School in Millbrae, and Holy Angels School in Colma.

Maureen Huntington, the superintendent of School in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, signed off on the pilot in large part because it underscores training children to be respectful of each other, “of their classmates, their feelings, their ideas, their different ways of doing things and thinking and encourages and supports tolerance, and gives kids the tools to do that.” She added, “It gives them the tools to disagree without being disagreeable, to be accepting of other people’s ideas, be respectful to them.”

That was a lesson the co-author of “Peace Be With You,” Frank DiLallo, learned the hard way. DiLallo, the prevention and intervention consultant for Catholic schools in the Diocese of Toledo, wrote the book (with Catholic educator Thom Powers) in part as a cathartic exercise. The seed for the book was his memory of having bullied others during

his elementary school days.

“I realized that in a number of instances growing up I was a bully and I just felt a lot of shame and sadness around that, and so writing the book for me has really been a cleansing for me, doing a penance, doing something to create a different ripple than the one I feel ashamed of and that I created in my early, elementary years,” said DiLallo.

As he worked through that issue, DiLallo realized that his bad behavior had been connected to the abuse his father had dealt. That son-father relationship has been repaired, according to DiLallo.

There were two other triggers – the 1999 tragedy at suburban Denver’s Columbine High School, in which two teenagers killed 13 people and themselves, and a procession of Toledo educators coming to DiLallo asking for advice about dealing with bullying behavior.

His solution (there is also a secular version of the book and its companion student workbook for public schools) is developed on three themes: “Christ is Our Model for RESPECT, page 20

High court ruling over teacher’s firing could have far-reaching implications

By Patricia Zapor WASHINGTON (CNS) – The direction the courts will take with other cases related to religious employment is far from clear, but the Supreme Court’s Jan. 11 ruling opens a whole track of possibilities.

The decision in Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC held that fired teacher Cheryl Perich could not sue under federal disability discrimination laws, because the Michigan Lutheran school where she worked considered her a “called” minister.

Writing for a unanimous court, Chief Justice John Roberts said the government cannot require a church to retain an unwanted minister because doing so “intrudes upon more than a mere employment decision. Such action interferes with the internal governance of the church, depriving the church of control over the selection of those who will personify its beliefs.”

Some commentators have been quick to hail the ruling.

It’s “the greatest Supreme Court religious liberty decision in decades,” opined the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which acted as co-counsel to Hosanna-Tabor.

On the other side, David Gibson, a columnist for Commonweal, observed in a post on the magazine’s blog that while the ruling “is clearly the right one,” celebration seems premature. Under the headline “High court: Religions are free to be jerks,” Gibson cautioned about how churches might exercise their protected right.

“How can churches be held to account?” he wrote. “This is a real difficulty, given that religious institutions behave just as badly as secular groups, and often worse. And that truly does hurt the witness of religious communities.”

Anthony Picarello, general counsel and an associate general secretary for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told Catholic News Service Jan. 13 that the ruling is rich with potential for mining material on a wide variety of religious rights issues. But more immediately, two cases involving Catholic dioceses that have been pending before the Supreme Court ask related questions.

In Skrzypczak v. Roman Catholic Diocese of Tulsa, Monica Skrzypczak sued the Oklahoma diocese for gender and age discrimination after being fired from her job as director of the Department of Religious Formation. In a second

case, former math teacher Madeline Weishuhn sued the Diocese of Lansing, Mich., alleging retaliation that violated anti-discrimination laws.

Lower courts in both cases held that under the ministerial exception, the decisions fell within the bounds of a church’s

Justice Samuel Alito said the definition of minister ‘should apply to any ‘employee’ who leads a religious organization, conducts worship services or important religious ceremonies or rituals, or serves as a messenger or teacher of its faith.’ protection from state interference in employment decisions.

On Jan. 17, the court without comment declined to take both cases, meaning the rulings in favor of the dioceses stand. Picarello had predicted both cases might be declined or sent back to lower courts to review in light of the ruling in Hosanna-Tabor.

He also theorized the ruling could affect a final decision by the Department of Health and Human Services over its mandate that employers provide no-cost coverage of contraception and sterilization in their health insurance plans.

A final rule is pending for the regulations, which have been challenged by the USCCB and other church organizations as an infringement on religious liberty. The Catholic Church teaches the use of artificial contraception is morally wrong and objects to a requirement for such coverage for its employees. Picarello said the exception for churches that is part of the pending regulation is a provision the size of an “eye of the needle.”

As Chief Justice John Roberts made clear, while the court was declaring for the first time that a ministerial exception exists and Perich clearly fell subject to it, how that exception is applied to others will have to be decided later.

“The case before us is an employment discrimination suit brought on behalf of a minister, challenging her church’s decision to fire her,” Roberts wrote. “Today we hold only that the ministerial exception bars such a suit. We express no view on whether the exception bars other types of suits, including actions by employees alleging breach of contract or tortious conduct by their religious employers. There will be time enough to address the applicability of the exception to other circumstances if and when they arise.”

In concurring briefs, Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito added to the discussion about what happens next.

“The line is hardly a bright one, and an organization might understandably be concerned that a judge would not understand its religious tenets and sense of mission,” Thomas wrote, saying he would have gone further in declaring a church’s rights should always prevail in such matters. “Fear of potential liability might affect the way an organization carried out what it understood to be its religious mission.

These are certainly dangers that the First Amendment was designed to guard against.”

Alito, joined by Justice Elena Kagan, said the definition of who is a “minister,” by whatever terminology a faith uses, should always be left to the faith group. For a court to be expected to decide that, they said, would require a civil court or a jury to make a judgment about church doctrine.

“The mere adjudication of such questions would pose grave problems for religious autonomy,” Alito wrote.

The definition of minister “should apply to any ‘employee’ who leads a religious organization, conducts worship services or important religious ceremonies or rituals, or serves as a messenger or teacher of its faith,” Alito said. “If a religious group believes that the ability of such an employee to perform these key functions has been compromised, then the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom protects the group’s right to remove the employee from his or her position.”

Catholic San Francisco

January 27, 2012

Rescue . . .

The policy has focused resources on struggling schools and ‘stepped up everybody’s game.’

– Maureen Huntington, archdiocesan schools superintendent

■ Continued from page CSW3 only 0.9 percent from the previous school year.

That is the smallest decline in more than 12 years, said Huntington. With hope she said, it represents the beginning of a stabilization of enrollment “or, dare I say, a turnaround,” but that will not be known for sure for a couple of years. It may merely be a blip, she added.

Meantime, the challenge Catholic schools in the city of San Francisco face is significant: According to the 2010 census, there are just under 125,000 children under the age of 18 in the city, and Catholic schools compete for them with public and other private schools.

“That means that Catholic schools, especially in the city, have got to be really, really smart about how they position their school, market their school and attract families outside of San Francisco in order to remain viable,” said Huntington.

Shifting demographics have been applying pressure on Catholic schools nationwide since a peak enrollment in the early 1960s, and in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia this month, the most sweeping consolidations and closures

This year, archdiocesan K-8 schools registered their smallest year-to-year enrollment drop in a decade.

ever of a diocesan school system were recommended by an advisory committee: Close four of 17 high schools and close or consolidate 45 of 156 elementary schools.

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia is second in size only to Chicago among the 20 dioceses with the most Catholic schools, according to the National Catholic Education Association, and the angst caused by the potential gutting was widespread.

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Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput, OFM Cap. said in a letter to Catholics last week, “Important trends are impacting Catholic education in the archdiocese – declining baptisms, an increase of charter schools, and the rising cost of education. These factors have led to declining enrollment, resulting in higher tuition costs for fewer families and parishes bearing the financial burden of heavy operating deficits.”

Large numbers of Catholic school closures and consolidations have also taken place recently in New York, Detroit and Baltimore, among other locales, although Huntington questions whether the pain could have been lessened if reductions had been made “little by little” over a period of years. Those school systems “now are at a point where they have to close a bunch of them because they are not viable anymore,” she said.

The Alliance of Mission District Catholic Schools creates a unique collaborative partnership that continues the 150 year tradition of educational excellence in the Archdiocese of San Francisco. The AMDCS educates elementary school students from the rich and diverse cultures of the Mission District. The Alliance welcomes Catholic students and students from a variety of faith traditions.

Give

Your Child

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Catholic School Education

Saint Anthony-IC School 299 Precita Ave. San Francisco, 94110 www.saicsf.org Principal: Mr. Miguel Martinez School Phone: 415.648.2008 Grades: K through 8 E-Mail: mmartinez@saicsf.org School Fax: 415.648.1825 Pastor: Fr. James Garcia Church phone: 415.647.2704 3215 Cesar Chavez St. San Francisco, 94110

1

Ms. Maureen Huntington Superintendent of Catholic Schools Executive Director (415) 614-5660

Saint Charles Borromeo School

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3250 18th Street San Francisco, 94110 www.sfstcharlesschool.org

Principal: Sr. Nelia Pernecia, O.P. School Phone: 415.861.7652 Grades: K through 8 School Fax: 415.861.7620 E-Mail: rharo@sfstcharlesschool.org Pastor: Fr. Moises Agudo Church phone: 415-824.1700 713 So. Van Ness Ave. San Francisco, 94110

419 Hearst Ave. San Francisco, 94112 www.stfinnbarr.org

Principal: Ms. Mele Sablan School Phone: 415.333.1800 Grades: K through 8 School Fax: 415.452.0177 E-Mail: m.sablan@stfinnbarr.org Pastor: Fr. Jose Corral Church phone: 415.333.3627 415 Edna St., San Francisco, 94112

Saint Charles Borromeo

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Saint Anthony-IC School

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Saint James School

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321 Fair Oaks St. San Francisco, 94110 www.saintjamessf.org

3 Saint Finn Barr School 5 School of the Epiphany

Principal: Sister Mary Susanna Vasquez, O.P. School Phone: 415.647.8972 Grades: K through 8 E-Mail: office@saintjamessf.org School Fax: 415.647.0166 Pastor: Fr. Jerome P. Foley Church phone: 415.824.4232 1086 Guerrero St., San Francisco, 94110

School of the Epiphany

Saint Finn Barr School

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Saint James School

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600 Italy Ave. San Francisco, 94112 www.sfepiphany.org/home.html

Principal: Mrs. Diane Elkins School Phone: 415.337.4030 Grades: K through 8 School Fax: 415.337.8583 E-Mail: office@sfepiphany.org Pastor: Fr. Eugene D. Tungol Church phone: 415 333 7630 827 Vienna St., San Francisco, 94112

OPEN HOUSE / TOUR DATES ST. ANTHONY-IC:

ST. FINN BARR:

Open House Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012 11 am - 2 pm.

Open House Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012 11 am - 12:30 pm.

Family Mass 10 am Pancake breakfast after Mass.

Book Fair 10:00 am - 2pm.

Tours available by appointment.

ST. CHARLES: Open House Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012 11 am - 2pm.

Tours for spring semester in March.

SCHOOL OF THE EPIPHANY: Open House Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012 2:30 pm.

Tour request 415.337.4030

ST. JAMES: Open House/Book Fair Sunday, January 29, 2012 11:00 am - 2:00 pm.

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CSW18

Catholic San Francisco

January 27, 2012

Campaign aims to triple Latino Catholic school enrollment in US A campaign launched by Notre Dame University two years ago to greatly increase Latino enrollment in Catholic schools and help close an achievement gap is yielding some success stories around the country and gaining momentum, but dogged, difficult work lies ahead, its organizers say.

The effort aims to increase the national enrollment of Latino children in Catholic schools from about 300,000 to 1 million by 2020, and while that number has increased somewhat since the program’s launch in December 2009 – fittingly, on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe – cost remains a factor and schools must be made more culturally responsive to Latinos, said Holy Cross Father Joe Corpora, who leads the Catholic School Advantage program at Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education.

“I tell people we have gotten it wrong for 50 years so we are not going to get it right in one,” said Father Corpora, who said the Catholic Church, which for many years educated the children of European immigrants, has not made the same effort for Latinos.

The sheer numbers show the demand: Nearly 70 percent of practicing Catholics under the age of 35 are Latino, and the youngsters are not enrolled in Catholic schools in great numbers.

(CNS PHOTO/DON BLAKE, THE DIALOG)

By George Raine

Religion teacher Alicia Dominguez reviews how to receive Communion with students who will receive their first Communion at St. Paul Church in Wilmington, Del., in this 2009 file photo. According to Pew research, the growth of the Latino population in the U.S., through both immigration and births, is the primary reason that the percentage of Catholics in the nation has remained unchanged at just under a quarter of the total population.

“The church is about to fail the first group of immigrants ever,” said Father Corpora, noting that only 53 percent of Latinos graduate from high school in four years and only 25 percent of Latinos aged 18 to 24 enroll in college.

school are 42 percent more likely to graduate high school and two-and-a-half times more likely to graduate college than their peers in public schools, the report said.

The Catholic School Advantage staff LATINO ENROLLMENT, page 20

“The achievement gap imposes the equivalent of a permanent national recession on our economic growth,” a task force on the participation of Latino children and families in Catholic schools found in 2009.

Meantime, Latinos who attend Catholic

Vouchers add at least 2,000 students to Indiana Catholic schools At a glance (CNS PHOTO/MICHAEL MCARDLE, NORTHWEST INDIANA CATHOLIC)

INDIANAPOLIS (CNS) – Catholic elementary schools in Indiana are experiencing increased enrollment in part because the state’s new school voucher program has enabled more than 3,200 students to attend religious or private schools this year.

The educational scholarship program, described as the nation’s broadest, has been supported by the Indiana Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the state’s bishops.

The program was passed by the state Legislature in the spring. Since then, the state Education Department approved about 250 religious or private schools for the program, allowing them to enroll students who are given scholarship aid based on family income.

The program is currently being challenged in court by a group of teachers and religious leaders who claim it violates separation of church and state. A judge was expected to hear arguments Sept.1 about granting a possible injunction to block the program.

The program converts a portion of funds that would have gone to the public school system into a scholarship for use at a qualifying private school. Participation in the program is capped at 7,500 students this year and 15,000 the following year.

The voucher program is targeted toward students who will be coming from a public school or who received a tax credit scholarship during the 2010-11 school year. For a family of four with a total income below $41,348, the total annual voucher could be up to $4,500 for students in first grade through eighth grade, and more than $7,000 for students in high school. For a family of four with a total income between $41, 348 and $62,022, the voucher would be for 50 percent of the school tuition amount.

The voucher amount is for each eligible student in the family, and the voucher would be received for each year through a student’s senior year in high school. During an eligible student’s 12 years in Catholic schools, a family could receive more than $60,000 in voucher assistance from the state of Indiana to help pay for tuition, according to Indianapolis archdiocesan officials.

About 70 percent of the approved state vouchers are for students opting to attend Catholic schools, according to The Associated Press.

That number is not surprising to John Elcesser, executive director of the Indiana Non-Public Education Association, who said Catholic schools are receiving the bulk of voucher applicants because most of them already have state accreditation which some

Luci Mazak tells her new kindergarten students how the day begins in class during the first day at Notre Dame Elementary School in Michigan City, Ind., Aug. 24, 2011.

Catholic elementary schools in Indiana are experiencing increased enrollment this year in part because the state’s new school voucher program has enabled more than 3,200 students to attend religious or private schools this year.

private schools do not have. The Catholic schools are also more established and have more space available.

In the Diocese of Evansville, school officials noted that official school enrollment would not take place until Oct. 1, but first day numbers indicated an increase in students in kindergarten through 12th grade as well as in preschool and pre-kindergarten programs.

“The diocesan theme for schools this year is ‘All Are Welcome,’” said Daryl Hagan, diocesan superintendent of schools, adding that the theme is particularly appropriate this year with the Indiana School Scholarships Act. Hagan said the new law has ushered in “the most expansive school voucher program in the country and it allows parents to make an independent choice to find the best school to meet their child’s unique learning needs.”

According to figures provided by the State Department of Education and the diocesan schools office, 167 voucher students have chosen to enroll in a Catholic school in the Evansville Diocese, one of five dioceses in the state.

Marie Williams, director of the Office for Education in the Lafayette diocese, called the new school year “unique with new opportunities for some families to receive assistance” through the state scholarship program.

About 250 students in the diocese will be benefitting from the program, she said in a column in the Catholic Moment, diocesan newspaper. The diocese has 20 schools with a total enrollment of more than 5,300 students.

The Criterion, archdiocesan newspaper of Indianapolis, reported this summer that most of the 68 Catholic schools in the archdiocese were committed to participating in the state’s voucher program.

“Vouchers will not change the mission or purpose of our Catholic schools,” said Ron Costello, superintendent of Catholics schools in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.

“Parents who enroll students in our schools need to understand that we are Catholic first and schools second.”

Mark Meyers, superintendent of schools in the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese,

– More than 3,900 students were approved for the Indiana voucher program, making the program the nation’s largest, the state Department of Education said Nov. 3.

– Nearly 85 percent, or 3,326, of voucher recipients are on the free and reduced lunch program.

– 53 percent of program participants represent minority families, including 24 percent African-American and 19 percent Hispanic.

– More than two-thirds of students approved for vouchers are from metropolitan areas.

About 70 percent of the approved state vouchers are for students opting to attend Catholic schools. likewise said the diocesan schools office has been assisting Catholic school voucher applicants with the process.

In schools where vouchers are issued, he told Today’s Catholic, diocesan newspaper, there are no state restrictions on catechizing children, celebrating the sacraments or events linked to the liturgical calendar.

Principals have the authority to admit and retain children based on existing admission rules and policies.

He also noted that the voucher program “could help Catholic schools sustain strong programs for many years.”

As a case in point, Sara Guth, principal of St. Bernard School in Rockport, said her school’s office has been inundated with calls about the vouchers from the day the legislation passed. The elementary school currently has 104 students.

Guth told reporters at a news conference about the voucher program that her prayer for the school’s enrollment to increase has been answered.

Contributing to this report was Paul Leingang in Evansville.

CSW19

Catholic San Francisco

January 27, 2012

Catholic school enrollment 5-year comparison shows ethnic, racial distribution relatively stable The accompanying charts are based on Archdiocese of San Francisco Department of Catholic Schools census data for K-8 and secondary schools. Annette Brown, assistant superintendent for development and finance, compiled the data for Catholic San Francisco and provided this analysis.

“I find it surprising that the ethnic distribution has remained relatively the same in our schools for the past five years,” Brown said. “In the past five years, in San Francisco, the population of Asian and Hispanic children has decreased slightly (minus 5 percent) while the population of white and multiracial children has increased slightly (plus 8 percent).

Brown said she also finds it surprising that the ethnic distribution has remained constant in both San Mateo and Marin counties.

“It might be interesting to do a study over time – perhaps 50 years or so – of how well the ethnic distribution in each of the three counties in our elementary schools has tracked the population ethnicity changes,” Brown said. Brown provided this five-year comparison.

Marin County The elementary school-age population has increased from 26,754 to 29,306 children, from 10.6 percent to 11.5 percent of the general population. The population of Hispanic elementary children has increased from 29.7 percent to 40.3 percent (of the elementary-age total), yet the percentage of Hispanic elementary children in the Marin

Catholic schools has risen only slightly, from 8 percent to 9.5 percent. In Marin, white children make up less than 50 percent of the population of elementary-age children but more than 83 percent of the population in Marin Catholic elementary schools.

San Francisco County The elementary school age population has increased from 50,748 to 60,704 children, from 6.3 percent to 7.4 percent of the general population. The percentage of elementary-age children has risen 7.6 percent to 26.7 percent, and the percentage of white children in the San Francisco Catholic elementary schools is 34.1 percent, up from 30.4 percent over the same five years. The sum of Asian children has dropped in San Francisco from 37.5 percent of the school-age population to 30.9 percent of this population, and the ratio of Asian students in the San Francisco Catholic elementary schools has also dropped 5.6 percent.

San Mateo County The elementary school-age population has increased from 79,876 to 82,925 children, from 10.9 percent to 11.2 percent of the general population. The population of the multirace elementary population has increased 2.1 percent in the county and 3.2 percent in the Catholic elementary schools. The white elementary-age population has decreased 2.4 percent while the Catholic population decreased 1.1 percent.

Marin County 2006-07

2010-11 Filipino .7% Chinese .8% Hispanic 9.5%

Other 7.4%

Filipino .7% Chinese .7% Hispanic 8%

AfricanAmerican .3%

Other 5.9%

AfricanAmerican .4%

White 82.9%

White 83.4%

San Francisco County Other

Other

12.9%

17.4% White

White

30.4%

Filipino

13.4%

34.1%

Filipino

11.1%

16% Chinese

13.1% 22.4% AfricanAmerican

Hispanic

Chinese

15.4%

20.5% AfricanAmerican

Hispanic

15.4%

San Mateo County Other 14.9%

Other 17.8%

Filipino 15.1%

White 55.3%

Chinese 2% Hispanic 11.6%

Filipino 14.4% Chinese 2.1%

White 54.2%

Hispanic 10.9%

African-American 1.1%

African-American .7%

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CSW20

Catholic San Francisco

January 27, 2012

Around the archdiocese 1

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1) Students from St. Robert School lent their voices to a special Christmas choir at the White House Dec. 19. “We sang Christmas songs and traditional carols, including ‘Adeste Fideles’ and `Feliz Navidad,’” said school choir director Aura Baldomero Jose. “We sang in the grand foyer of the East Wing of the White House as military, White House staff, and their families toured the presidential mansion.” There were 22 students, two teachers and 21 additional family members on the music jaunt to the nation’s capital.

2) Congratulations to eighth grade students at St. Thomas the Apostle School, this year’s division champions in the San Francisco Fire Department’s Flame Basketball Tournament. Pictured with Coach Sean Finley are, top from left, Jerry Finley Alex Leung, Jason Louie, Nikko Kinnard and bottom from left, Kenny Nguyen, Danny Wong, Brian Ebisuzaki, Juius Williams, Christopher Chang. Not available for the picture was teammate Eric Pikovsky.

3) Students from Stuart Hall High School in San Francisco held a free-dress day to raise money for the Joanne Pang Foundation cord blood campaign. Pictured from left with the donation are Stuart Hall seniors Kyle Chew and Grant Kawahatsu with school community service coordinator Ray O’Connor.

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4) Father Kenneth Weare, pastor of St. Rita Parish in Fairfax, blesses “Carmel” and “Speckles,” two goats belonging to St. Rita third grade student Annabelle Sulprizio, left, at the “Blessing of the Animals” at the parish last October.

Looking on are fellow third grader Neva Jurkovich, center, eighth grader Jack Jenkins, far right, and parents.

5) Young actors at St. Cecilia School performed an improvisational show in November. “WHOOSH! An afternoon of Improv, Monologues and Scenes” involving 25 drama club members in grades five and up. The school’s spring musical is “Alice in Wonderland Jr.” 6) Chemistry teacher Sister Miriam Holzman was a pharmacist before discovering her vocation as a Dominican Sister of Mary Mother of the Eucharist. She is pictured here in the chemistry lab at Marin Catholic High School.

Latino enrollment . . .

■ Continued from page CSW18 has partnerships with the Archdioceses of New York, Los Angeles and Chicago and the dioceses of Oakland (in a nascent stage), San Antonio, Joliet, Peoria and Brooklyn.

Father Corpora and others work with school superintendents and bishops and train principals and pastors to make schools more culturally responsive to Latino families, and to develop marketing and other programs “in a way that is conducive to increasing enrollment and attracting Latino families,” said Christian Dallavis, one of the leaders at the Alliance for Catholic Education.

Dallavis and Father Corpora say that the cost of tuition is a significant hurdle, but cultural shifts are necessary in many schools – a kind of pendulum swing back to the mission of being a cultural institution, reflecting some of the attention to culture found in parish schools that generations

ago educated the children of Italian, Irish, German, Czech and other European immigrants.

Some of the things schools can do are very common-sense, said Father Corpora: Have Spanish-speakers in the school office, have bilingual applications, a recruiting system involving parents, a prominent portrait of Our Lady of Guadalupe, for example.

“We have all of the above,” said Vicki Butler, principal of St. Peter School in San Francisco, where 98 percent of students are Hispanic. She disagrees with a premise of the Notre Dame campaign, believing that cost that is prohibitive for poor Hispanic families is the singular reason their children are not enrolled.

Sixty-five percent of the families enrolled at St. Peter live below the poverty level, said Butler. “It is a constant struggle to get development” for the school at which enrollment has fallen from 540 to 355 in the past 10 years.

“These families are the lowest part of the totem pole, the first ones to lose their jobs, the first to be laid off, work three days, not five, so right there, there is no money to pay

Respect . . .

■ Continued from page CSW16 Leadership (Social Responsibility),” “Phase II: Dignity for All (Interpersonal skills),” and “Phase III: Pure of Heart (Intrapersonal Skills).”

At St. Gabriel, teachers Boland and Murphy said their students are genuinely intrigued by the idea of the course – it was not automatically dismissed as some ideas are – and almost immediately there was a topic for conversation: A survey of the school’s sixth graders before the course was launched found that about 15 percent believe there is no bullying at St. Gabriel. Boland asked the kids why that may be.

“They said, ‘Maybe they are the bullies and they are hiding and saying there is no bullying,’” said Boland. “We had a long discussion about that. They said, ‘Some people are disrespectful. They put other people down. And they don’t really know that they are doing that.’

Then they said that is something we need to work on and we need to tell people that they are being disrespectful, if they don’t really know that they are.”

“Peace Be With You” was off to a good start at St. Gabriel.

The principal, Mercy Sister M. Pauline Borghello, even before the course was being considered, had told faculty and parents that dealing with bullying would be a priority this school year. A Federal Bureau of Investigation agent has spoken to students about proper behavior online as has a San Francisco police officer. Rani Singh Mann, a prosecutor in the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, and a St. Gabriel parent, is speaking to the students this

St. Gabriel School teachers Geri Murphy, left, and Mary Boland are teaching the new anti-bullying curriculum to their sixth grade classes at the San Francisco parish school.

year about cyberbullying in particular – making the point that electronic records are made of communications so that nothing is anonymous. As Mann was driving home her point one day, Boland heard one 12-year-old girl say sotto voce, “I am never doing that again.”

Sister Pauline said, “I think the problem of bullying is more acute (due to the advent of cyberbullying) because the students don’t think that they are bullying someone. They are not seeing them when they text. They are not seeing

for it,” said Butler, in her 24th year at St. Peter.

Meantime, Catholicism is the biggest feature in the lives of St. Peter families, she said. “We want to keep our families so they have the opportunity for Catholic school, and you know what? If we can’t keep it open, those families – they would have nothing,” but a void in their lives, said Butler.

In other cities, Notre Dame reports, there have been successes: At St. James the Less School in Columbus, Ohio, the Latino enrollment rose from two to 260 in the past eight years after a concerted push; Latino enrollment increased from 135 to 151 students in the past few years at Our Lady of Guadalupe-Rose in Los Angeles, and in Indiana, where the legislature last year passed a school voucher program, some Catholic schools, particularly those serving immigrants in South Bend, have doubled in size.

It’s not enough, said Father Corpora. “I think the church is about to fail Latinos because we are not educating them.

Everybody else was educated.”

them when they go online. Before if you punched someone in the nose and they drew blood you saw the damage and then maybe you stepped back a bit. But now they are not seeing the hurt is inside. They do not see a bloody heart.

They don’t see the feelings that are hurt. It goes on and on.

You don’t go to bed and it goes away.”

Katy Miller, the director of policy for the district attorney’s office, is working with a nonprofit partner, Common Sense Media, on a bullying education program with the San Francisco Unified School District and hopes to expand on the work in Catholic and other private schools that Mann has been doing at St. Gabriel.

“A threat is a threat,” whether made by juveniles or adults,” she said, and there are sanctions.

“We are not seeing a lot of cases make it to our juvenile division involving this, but we know anecdotally from schools and from community organizations that kids talk about this happening,” said Miller. “Our role isn’t just to wait until cases happen and react to them, but to be out there proactively, getting information to parents, letting them know what the laws are and even more important that they need to be safe.”

The archdiocese’s Office of Child and Youth Protection is paying for the pilot project and is a co-sponsor with the schools department. Deacon John Norris, director of the Office of Child and Youth Protection, said the spiritual aspect of the course was its selling point. “As long as we can afford the time that it takes in the classroom and the cost of providing it, I think we ought to provide it, because the problem is still out there.” If it is duplicative of other course material, said Norris, “I might just say hallelujah.”

January 27, 2012

Catholic San Francisco

CSW21

A CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL

CAN MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE !

• Challenging college preparatory curriculum with over 98% continuing on to college • Education which provides ethical and moral foundation of Christian values • Education which addresses personal growth of the whole person • Education in a supportive family atmosphere • Education for service, justice and peace • Athletic programs affording a wide range of team and individual participation • Programs which foster leadership in community service • Dedicated faculty, staff and administrators committed to Catholic education • Variety of extra curricular activities provide opportunity for individual interests

All schools are committed to serving children who desire an excellent Catholic education. Substantial scholarship and financial aid programs for students and families who qualify are available.

ARCHBISHOP RIORDAN HIGH SCHOOL 175 Phelan Avenue San Francisco, CA 94112 (415) 586-1256 Web Site: www.riordanhs.org CONVENT OF THE SACRED HEART HIGH SCHOOL 2222 Broadway Street San Francisco, CA 94115 (415) 292-3125 Web Site: www.sacredsf.org IMMACULATE CONCEPTION ACADEMY 3625 - 24th Street San Francisco, CA 94110 (415) 824-2052 Web Site: www.icacademy.org JUNÍPERO SERRA HIGH SCHOOL 451 West 20th Avenue San Mateo, CA 94403 (650) 345-8207 Web Site: www.serrahs.com MARIN CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL 675 Sir Francis Drake Boulevard Kentfield, CA 94904 (415) 464-3800 Web Site: www.marincatholic.org MERCY HIGH SCHOOL – BURLINGAME 2750 Adeline Drive Burlingame, CA 94010 (650) 343-3631 Web Site: www.mercyhsb.com MERCY HIGH SCHOOL – SAN FRANCISCO 3250 – 19th Avenue San Francisco, CA 94132 (415) 334-0525 Web Site: www.mercyhs.org NOTRE DAME HIGH SCHOOL 1540 Ralston Avenue Belmont, CA 94002 (650) 595-1913 Web Site: www.ndhsb.org SACRED HEART CATHEDRAL PREPARATORY 1055 Ellis Street San Francisco, CA 94109-7795 (415) 775-6626 Web Site: www.shcp.edu SACRED HEART PREP HIGH SCHOOL 150 Valparaiso Avenue Atherton, CA 94027 (650) 322-1866 Web Site: www.shschools.org SAN DOMENICO SCHOOL 1500 Butterfield Road San Anselmo, CA 94960 (415) 258-1905 Web Site: www.sandomenico.org ST. IGNATIUS COLLEGE PREPARATORY 2001 - 37th Avenue San Francisco, CA 94116 (415) 731-7500 Web Site: www.siprep.org STUART HALL HIGH SCHOOL 1715 Octavia St. (at Pine) San Francisco, CA 94109 (415) 345-5812 Web Site: www.sacredsf.org WOODSIDE PRIORY SCHOOL 302 Portola Road Portola Valley, CA 94028 (650) 851-8221 Web Site: www.WoodsidePriory.com

A Catholic high school can make all the difference in your child’s teenage years and for the rest of their lives!

C ONGRATULATIONS TO ALL SCHOOLS CELEBRATING C ATHOLIC S CHOOLS W EEK !

CSW22

Catholic San Francisco

January 27, 2012

ARCHDIOCESE OF SAN FRANCISCO CATHOLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS DIRECTORY SAN FRANCISCO COUNTY

M ark et

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Phelan St.

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Guererro

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Church St.

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Holloway

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5 Notre Dame des Victoires Elementary School 659 Pine St. 94108 (415) 421-0069 Fax: (415) 421-1440 Web Site: www.ndvsf.org Grades: K-8, Extended Care

8 Ellis

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19th Ave.

4 Mission Dolores Academy 3371-16th St. 94114 (415) 346-9500 Fax: (415) 346-8001 Grades: K-8, Extended Care

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Pine

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37th Ave.

3 St. Anthony-Immaculate Conception Elementary School 299 Precita Ave. 94110 (415) 648-2008 Fax: (415) 648-1825 Web Site: www.saicsf.org Grades: K-8, Extended Care

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Mi ssi on

2 Holy Name of Jesus Elementary School 1560 40th Ave. 94122 (415) 731-4077 Fax: (415) 731-3328 Web Site: www.holynamesf.com Grades: K-8, Extended Care

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Broadway

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Octavia

1 Epiphany Elementary School 600 Italy Ave. 94112 (415) 337-4030 Fax: (415) 337-8583 Web Site: www.sfepiphany.org Grades: K-8, Extended Care

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6 Our Lady of the Visitacion Elementary School 785 Sunnydale Ave. 94134 (415) 239-7840 Fax: (415) 239-2559 Web Site: www.olvisitacion.com Grades: K-8, Extended Care

16 Saint Gabriel Elementary School 2550 41st. Ave. 94116 (415) 566-0314 Fax: (415) 566-3223 Web Site: www.stgabrielsf.com Grades: K-8, Extended Care

23 Saints Peter and Paul Elementary School 660 Filbert St. 94133 (415) 421-5219 Fax: (415) 421-1831 Web Site: www.sspeterpaulsf.org Grades: Pre-School-8, Extended Care

7 Convent of the Sacred Heart Elementary School 2222 Broadway St. 94115 (415) 563-2900 Fax: (415) 563-0438 Web Site: www.sacredsf.org Grades: K-8, Girls, Extended Care

17 Saint James Elementary School 321 Fair Oaks St. 94110 (415) 647-8972 Fax: (415) 647-0166 Web Site: www.saintjamessf.org Grades: K-8, Extended Care

24 Saint Philip Elementary School 665 Elizabeth St. 94114 (415) 824-8467 Fax: (415) 282-0121 Web Site: www.saintphilipschool.com Grades: Pre-School-8, Extended Care

8 DeMarillac Academy 175 Golden Gate Ave. 94102 (415) 552-5220 Fax: (415) 621-5632 Web Site: www.demarillac.org Grades: 4-8

18 Saint John Elementary School 925 Chenery St. 94131 (415) 584-8383 Fax: (415) 584-8359 Web Site: www.stjohnseagles.com Grades: K-8-D, Extended Care

25 Saint Vincent de Paul Elementary School 2350 Green St. 94123 (415) 346-5505 Fax: (415) 346-0970 Web Site: www.svdpsf.org Grades: K-8, Extended Care

9 Stuart Hall For Boys Elementary School 2222 Broadway St. 94115 (415) 563-2900 Fax: (415) 292-3165 Web Site: www.sacredsf.org Grades: K-8, boys, Extended Care

19 Saint Mary School 838 Kearney St. 94108 (415) 929-4690 Fax: (415) 929-4699 Web Site: www.stmaryschinese.org Grades: K-8, Extended Care, Mandarin and Cantonese classes

26 Saint Thomas the Apostle Elementary School 3801 Balboa St. 94121 (415) 221-2711 Fax: (415) 221-8611 Web Site: www.sfsta.org Grades: Pre-School-8, Extended Care

10 Saint Anne Elementary School 1320 – 14th Ave. 94122 (415) 664-7977 Fax: (415) 661-6904 Web Site: www.stanne.com Grades: PreK-8, Extended Care

20 Saint Monica Elementary School 5950 Geary Blvd. 94121 (415) 751-9564 Fax: (415) 751-0781 Web Site: www.stmonicasf.org Grades: K-8, Extended Care

27 Saint Thomas More Elementary School 50 Thomas More Way 94132 (415) 337-0100 Fax: (415) 333-2564 Web Site: www.StThomasMoreSchool.org Grades: Pre-School-8, Extended Care

11 Saint Brendan Elementary School 940 Laguna Honda Blvd. 94127 (415) 731-2665 Fax: (415) 731-7207 Web Site: www.stbrendansf.com Grades: K-8, Extended Care

21 Saint Paul Elementary School 1690 Church St. 94131 (415) 648-2055 Fax: (415) 648-1920 Web Site: www.stpaulsf.net Grades: Pre-School-8, Extended Care

28 Saint Stephen Elementary School 401 Eucalyptus Dr. 94132 (415) 664-8331 Fax: (415) 242-5608 Web Site: www.st-stephen.org Grades: K-8, Extended Care

12 Saint Brigid Elementary School 2250 Franklin St. 94109 (415) 673-4523 Fax: (415) 674-4187 Web Site: www.saintbrigidsf.org Grades: K-8, Extended Care

22 Saint Peter Elementary School 1266 Florida St. 94110 (415) 647-8662 Fax: (415) 647-4618 Web Site: www.sanpedro.org Grades: K-8-D, Extended Care

29 Star of the Sea Elementary School 360 9th Ave. 94118 (415) 221-8558 Fax: (415) 221-7118 Web Site: www.staroftheseasf.com Grades: Pre-School-8, Extended Care

13 Saint Cecilia Elementary School 660 Vicente St. 94116 (415) 731-8400 Fax: (415) 731-5686 Web Site: www.stceciliaschool.org Grades: K-8, Extended Care

Saint Charles Borromeo Elementary School

14 3250 18th St. 94110 (415) 861-7652 Fax: (415) 861-0221 Web Site: www.sfstcharlesschool.org Grades: K-8, Extended Care

Saint Finn Barr Elementary School

15 419 Hearst Ave. 94112 (415) 333-1800 Fax: (415) 452-0177 Web Site: www.stfinnbarr.org Grades: K-8, Extended Care

January 27, 2012

Catholic San Francisco

CSW23

ARCHDIOCESE OF SAN FRANCISCO CATHOLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS DIRECTORY MARIN COUNTY 1

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Saint Rita Elementary School 102 Marinda Dr., Fairfax 94930 (415) 456-1003 Fax: (415) 456-7946 Web Site: www.strita.edu Grades: Pre-School-8, Extended Care

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Saint Patrick Elementary School

Saint Anselm Elementary School 40 Belle Ave., San Anselmo 94960 (415) 454-8667 Fax: (415) 454-4730 Web Site: www.stanselmschool.com Grades: K-8, Extended Care

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Our Lady of Loretto Elementary School

120 King St., Larkspur 94939 (415) 924-0501 Fax: (415) 924-3544 Web Site: www.stpatricksmarin.com Grades: K-8, Extended Care

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1181 Virginia Ave., Novato 94945 (415) 892-8621 Fax: (415) 892-9631 Web Site: www.ollnovato.org Grades: K-8, Extended Care

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3 San Domenico School 1500 Butterfield Rd., San Anselmo 94960 (415) 258-1910 [Primary] (415) 258-1908 [Middle] Fax: (415) 258-1901 Web Site: www.sandomenico.org Grades: PreSchool-8

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Saint Raphael Elementary School

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1100 Fifth Ave., San Rafael 94901 (415) 454-4455 Fax: (415) 454-5927 Web Site: www.saintraphael.com Grades: PreK-8, Extended Care 7

Saint Isabella Elementary School 1 Trinity Way, PO Box 6188, San Rafael 94903 (415) 479-3727 Fax: (415) 479-9961 Web Site: www.stisabellaschool.org Grades: K-8, Extended Care

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Saint Hilary Elementary School 765 Hilary Dr., Tiburon 94920 (415) 435-2224 Fax: (415) 435-5895 Web Site: www.sainthilary-school.org Grades: Pre-K - 8, Extended Care

SAN MATEO COUNTY 3 Notre Dame Elementary School 1200 Notre Dame Ave., Belmont 94002 (650) 591-2209 Fax: (650) 591-4798 Web Site: www.nde.org Grades: 1-8, Extended Care

13 Nativity Elementary School 1250 Laurel St., Menlo Park 94025 (650) 325-7304 Fax: (650) 325-3841 Web Site: www.nativityschool.com Grades: K-8, Extended Care

4 Our Lady of Angels Elementary School 1328 Cabrillo Ave., Burlingame 94010 (650) 343-9200 Fax: (650) 343-5620 Web Site: www.olaparish.org Grades: PreK-8, Extended Care

14 Good Shepherd Elementary School 909 Oceana Blvd., Pacifica 94044 (650) 359-4544 Fax: (650) 359-4558 Web Site: www.goodshepherdschool.us Grades: K-8, Extended Care

5 Our Lady of Perpetual Help Elementary School 80 Wellington Ave., Daly City 94014 (650) 755-4438 Fax: (650) 755-7366 Web Site: www.olphdc.org Grades: K-8, Extended Care

15 Woodside Priory School 302 Portola Rd., Portola Valley 94028 (650) 851-8221 Fax: (650) 851-2839 Web Site: www.woodsidepriory.com Grades: 6-8

6 Immaculate Heart of Mary Elementary School 1000 Alameda de las Pulgas, Belmont 94002 (650) 593-4265 Fax: (650) 593-4342 Web Site: www.ihmschoolbelmont.com Grades: Pre-School-8, Extended Care

16 Our Lady of Mount Carmel Elementary School 301 Grant St., Redwood City 94062 (650) 366-6127 Fax: (650) 366-0902 Web Site: www.mountcarmel.org Grades: Pre-School-8, Extended Care

7 Saint Catherine of Siena Elementary School 1300 Bayswater Ave., Burlingame 94010 (650) 344-7176 Fax: (650) 344-7426 Web Site: www.stcos.com Grades: K-8, Extended Care

17 Saint Pius Elementary School 1100 Woodside Rd., Redwood City 94061 (650) 368-8327 Fax: (650) 368-7031 Web Site: www.stpiusschool.com Grades: K-8, Extended Care

8 Holy Angels Elementary School 20 Reiner St., Colma 94014 (650) 755-0220 Fax: (650) 755-0258 Web Site: www.holyangelscolma.com Grades: K-8, Extended Care

18 Saint Charles Elementary School 850 Tamarack Ave., San Carlos 94070 (650) 593-1629 Fax: (650) 593-9723 Web Site: www.scharlesschoolsc.org Grades: K-8, Extended Care

9 Our Lady of Mercy Elementary School 7 Elmwood Dr., Daly City 94015 (650) 756-3395 Fax: (650) 756-5872 Web Site: www.olmbulldogs.org Grades: K-8, Extended Care

19 Saint Gregory Elementary School 2701 Hacienda St., San Mateo 94403 (650) 573-0111 Fax: (650) 573-6548 Web Site: www.stgregs-sanmateo.org Grades: K-8, Extended Care

1 All Souls Elementary School 479 Miller Ave., So. San Francisco 94080 (650) 583-3562 Fax: (650) 952-1167 Web Site: www.ssfallsoulsschool.org Grades: K-8, Extended Care

10 Sacred Heart Schools Lower and Middle 150 Valparaiso Ave., Atherton 94027 (650) 322-9931 (MAIN #) Fax: (650) 322-7656 Web Site: www.shschools.org Grades: PreK-8, Extended Care

20 Saint Matthew Elementary School 910 South El Camino Real, San Mateo 94402 (650) 343-1373 Fax: (650) 343-2046 Web Site: www.stmatthewcath.org Grades: K-8, Extended Care

2 Saint Veronica Elementary School 434 Alida Way, So. San Francisco 94080 (650) 589-3909 Fax: (650) 589-2826 Web Site: www.stveronicacatholicschool.org Grades: K-8

11 Saint Raymond Elementary School 1211 Arbor Rd., Menlo Park 94025 (650) 322-2312 Fax: (650) 322-2910 Web Site: www.straymond.org Grades: Junior K-8, Extended Care

21 Saint Timothy Elementary School 1515 Dolan Ave., San Mateo 94401 (650) 342-6567 Fax: (650) 342-5913 Web Site: www.sttimothyschool.org Grades: K-8, Extended Care

12 Saint Dunstan Elementary School 1150 Magnolia Ave., Millbrae 94030 (650) 697-8119 Fax: (650) 697-9295 Web Site: www.st-dunstan.org Grades: K-8, Extended Care

22 Saint Robert Elementary School 345 Oak Ave., San Bruno 94066 (650) 583-5065 Fax: (650) 583-1418 Web Site: www.saintroberts.org Grades: K-8, Extended Care

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CSW24

Catholic San Francisco

January 27, 2012

Marin Catholic We support our Catholic Elementary Schools in celebrating

Catholic Schools Week Sunday, January 29 through Sunday, February 5

Our Lady of Loretto Graduate

San Domenico Graduate

St. Hilary Graduate

St. Anselm Graduate

Joseph Redmond ‘12

Victoria Pereira ‘13

J-von Lewis ‘12

Emily DeSurville ‘12

Dean’s List Captain, Baseball Team Volunteer, St. Vincent de Paul Dining Room

President, National Honors Society Marin Education Fund Summer AP Scholar Jazz Vocalist, Choir Member Institute Participant Captain, Water Polo Team President, St. Vincent de Paul Society Captain, Football and Basketball Teams Volunteer, Meals of Marin Volunteer, Meals of Marin

St. Patrick Graduate

St. Isabella Graduate

St. Rita Graduate

St. Raphael Graduate

Kathryn Khalvati ‘13

David Ahern ‘12

Anna Marie Smith ‘12

Jose Alvarez ‘12

Dean’s List/General Excellence Award Dean’s List/General Excellence Award National Merit Scholar Editor, The Print MVP, Bambauer Basketball Commended Student Volunteer, Bay Area Community Tournament 2012 Meave Poetry Award Winner Resources Eucharistic Minister for the Ill Volunteer, Parkside Preschool

National Honors Society, Dean’s List Kairos Retreat Leader Volunteer, St. Raphael Parish Youth Group

Visit www.marincatholic.org for more information on: Our Lady of Loretto — Novato

O utstanding students are admitted every year to

St. Anselm — San Anselmo

Marin Catholic from each of our Catholic elementary schools.

Open House - January 29 from 10 AM to 11:30 AM

Open House - January 29 from 12 PM to 1:30 PM

St. Hilary— Tiburon Private Tours Available

St. Isabella — San Rafael

Open House - January 29 from 10 AM to 12:00 PM

These students are well-rounded, faith-filled, and service-oriented.

They excel in academics, arts, music, athletics, and more.

St. Patrick — Larkspur

Open House - March 11 from 11 AM to 1 PM

St. Raphael — San Rafael Private Tours Available

St. Rita — Fairfax

Open House - February 5 from 10 AM to 1 PM

It is on the solid foundation established in our parochial schools that we build our legacy at Marin Catholic— a legacy of faith, knowledge, and service.

San Domenico — San Anselmo Private Tours Available

Experience Catholic Education. Dividends for Life