November 21, 2009 |
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At St. Stephen: Finding alternativesPosted: 07.01.09 MIRAMAR | They posted a page on Facebook and sent e-mails to Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey. That’s how parents at St. Stephen School here were hoping to save their school, with $1 donations from alumni and the generosity of a millionaire. But time ran out. “Finally, people sort of faced the reality,” said St. Stephen’s pastor, Father Alejandro Roque of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, “and we sort of began to celebrate our heritage, our legacy – more than 53 years of a school and the Sisters of St. Joseph being here throughout all those years.” His pre-k through eighth-grade school was operating with a yearly deficit of $350,000. To survive, it needed to increase enrollment from 164 to 300 students and raise tuition to more than $5,000 a year. Father Roque decided it was time to face facts. The parochial school system begun in the 18th century in the United States may not be valid in the 21st century. “The big mission of our Church is evangelization. Catholic education falls in that category. But when you’re dealing with mostly poor people, you have to find alternatives,” Father Roque said. He decided that partnering with a charter school might be “an answer to that call.” So this fall, Somerset East Prep Academy will take over the building that once housed St. Stephen School. Not all of St. Stephen’s former students will attend the kindergarten through sixth-grade academy. “Many of them, because of the neighborhoods that they lived in, preferred to go to other schools in their area,” Father Roque said, among them St. Bartholomew, Annunciation in West Hollywood and St. Bernadette in Hollywood. He added that “once the (charter is) established, I’ll work in my religious education program into their format. We have use of the building after 4 p.m. every day and on the weekends.”
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