Catholic schools in urban areas have been hit especially hard by a combination of changing demographics, rising tuition, and increased competition from free, public charter schools, but there are groups experimenting with ways to reverse those trends, such as the charter school-like network of Catholic schools in New York City called The Partnership for Inner City Education.
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National Catholic Schools Week is an annual celebration of Catholic education, and the theme for this year’s event is “Catholic Schools: Communities of Faith, Knowledge and Service”.
Principal Jo Rhoten, the faculty, staff, students and families opened the school doors for a couple hours to celebrate the start of Catholic Schools week in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.
Through different events schools focused on the value that Catholic education provides to young people, and its contributions to the local Church and communities. Also, parents ate lunch with their kids at the schools, among other activities. Students dressed as their favorite saint on Tuesday and will dress in red, white and blue to celebrate the nation on Wednesday. A special treat was served after Mass in honor of the week. Several mini service projects were completed during the week, including: assembling blessing bags, making cards for the sick, food shelf donations, making scarves, and more.
Catholic leaders hope that people agree, helping their schools grow in the years to come as well.
Students from all four Broome County Catholic schools were present.
That school has 164 students, 40 of whom are in one of its largest pre-kindergarten classes in some time, Martin said.
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“We do a bunch of fun activities but we still learn about God”.
