Local Catholic Schools in the Area Keeping Enrollment Up

Despite the downturn in the economy, local Catholic schools have still been filling enrollment relatively well. Several in the area have stated that they have maxed out their enrollment, and are also filling up admissions waiting lists.

Director of Admissions Lynn Gale said the school’s enrollment is maxed out at over 1,000 students, with many on waiting lists for this Attleboro school.

“When the economy dropped a few years ago, we thought we were going to see a drop in admissions, but in fact it was quite the opposite,” she said. “We haven’t seen a decrease in [enrollment] numbers. We have people calling every day about admission.”

She attributes the success of the school to the level of excellence in the academic program, as well as the religious nature of the school.

“It’s not just that we’re a private school, it’s that we’re a private Catholic school,” she said. “We offer many beginning, intermediate college and accelerated-level classes as well. We also have many extracurricular activities as well.”

Feehan is also expanding its academic ability. The administration have been in the process of converting the convent that used to house the Sisters of Mercy Convent into a modern school building with a state of the art technology lab.

in Mansfield started only 10 years ago, but continues to grow and expand. It have a maximum enrollment of 225 students and are filling their waiting list as well.

This year, they graduated their first kindergarten class, which enrolled in 2001. The school offers classes for students in grades K-8.

The story is somewhat different in Rhode Island, however. The state was already experiencing financial difficulty before 2008, and was hit pretty hard. The state unemployment level is still hovering around 11 percent, and, according to the census bureau, has lost over 24,000 middle class families between 2000 and 2010.  In a state with population just over a million residents, that’s a large chunk of population.

Still, schools like in Woonsocket are putting out college graduates and offering many programs that public schools are cutting. School President Herve Richer said that these programs give students a wider range of study and allow for more academic opportunities.

“With the economy taxing public schools, and a lot of public schools tending to cut programs like athletics and music, most of the Catholic schools, at least in the diocese of Providence, are maintaining those programs,” he said.

While Richer did say that enrollment at Mount Saint Charles is down in the past few years, he believes that it has not affected the quality of the education.  He said he believes the most important part of their curriculum is their religious classes and activities.

 “We can do a lot of value-based teaching,” he said. “We talk about things and deal with things not only with regard to religion, but also with spiritual life and those kinds of things that you don’t have [in public schools].”

Mercymount Country Day School in Cumberland is increasing its enrollment this year. For the past two academic years since the 2008 economic downturn, they had stable enrollment, no decrease but no increase either.

Director of Development at Mercymount Lisa Lydon said that one of the contributing factors to the stability of their enrollment is the fact that they just built and finished a new middle school, which will feature state of the art computer and technology education.

“We’ve made changes to our science program and curriculum, that are consistent with the diocese curriculum as well; but also changes in the science program that is probably contributing to keeping kids here as well,” she said.

She added that as a Catholic school, their tradition is grounded in moral and ethical education as well as traditional academics. She said that students from Mercymount move on to the high school of their choice, usually a private or Catholic school, and are generally successful in college as well.

“It’s an all around education, but tailored to the individual based on what the student needs,” she said. “We’re small enough do individual education plans.”

One thing these schools all have in common is expense. Tuition has gone up steadily in each school, generally with a $300 to $400 increase a year.