Praying for a Catholic high school

Parents scramble to replace closed Saint Francis.

After the surprise announcement last week of the closing of the island’s only Catholic high school, parents met Monday night to see if they have enough time to establish a school in time for the upcoming school year.

The session, at Immaculate Conception Church in Kapaia, also served as a forum for parents to vent their frustration about the closing of Saint Francis School, announced last week after the school’s board of directors voted to close it due to sagging enrollment and continued financial losses.

The school had 82 students enrolled for the upcoming school year, and the board was looking for at least 90 in order to keep it open.

“While understandable on Saint Francis Manoa’s part, it’s been devastating, at this late date, to have to consider what we’re going to be doing for high school for a bunch of kids,” said Michael Piano, a parent of two children at Saint Francis in Lihu’e.

The school on Kaua’i had operated for the past four years under the auspices of the Manoa (O’ahu) school of the same name.

The Kaua’i school’s 82 students, since being informed of their school’s closing, have experienced feelings ranging from anger to depression, according to Piano.

He said his daughter, a senior, was looking forward to graduating with her classmates. “It’s been a terrible emotional impact on those young kids,” he said.

Orlando Luna, 15, staying with his sister in Kapa’a because his mother wanted him to attend the Catholic high school on Kaua’i, faces the prospect of returning home to Kansas and attending public school there.

He is not happy about that prospect.

“I am here staying with my sister and her family because my mom wanted me to attend a Catholic high school instead of attending the messed-up public school systems,” he said.

There is no Catholic high school near his home in Kansas.

“My sister and her family are sad and somewhat upset because they just can’t understand why they would want to shut down a school, when everyone was looking forward to attending school there,” he said.

“If there is no Catholic high school here, I will probably return home to my mom and go back into public school there,” Luna said.

The Kansas public schools are a bit better than the Hawai’i public schools, he said. He was looking forward to entering 10th grade at Saint Francis, and attending school with his 13-year-old nephew, Angelo Luna, an eighth grader.

Angelo Luna still has the option of finishing up his Catholic education at St. Catherine School in Kapa’a, but wanted to transfer to Saint Francis because many of his St. Catherine School classmates were planning to move to the Lihu’e campus as well.

Michelle Luna, 30, Angelo’s mother and Orlando’s sister, said she was sad when she learned Saint Francis School would close, because the boys were looking forward to going there together.

Kaua’i public schools aren’t an option for her son, she said. For Angelo Luna, it’s either back to St. Catherine, off to O’ahu to another Catholic school, or home-schooling with his mother as teacher, Michelle Luna said.

Having a Catholic education for her son is important enough for her that she’s willing to send him off-island for that education if she needs to, she added.

Justine Chmielewski, 15, of Lihu’e, would have been a sophomore at Saint Francis next month. Instead, yesterday, she sadly helped school administrators pack for shipment to Saint Francis School on O’ahu computers, books and other supplies from the Lihu’e school’s library.

Her options now include Kaua’i High School or a Catholic high school on O’ahu. “I was really shocked, and I was sad, too,” she said, when she first found out her school was closing.

Around three-fourths of the parents of the students enrolled for 2001-02 were at the Monday meeting, Piano reported. Another was scheduled for today or Friday. He suggested calling the school (246-3802) for details on the next meeting.

Monday’s meeting had drama, anger, resolution and formulation of action plans by the parents.

“We discussed that it wasn’t going to be easy. We know that,” he said of establishing a Catholic high school on the island in time to salvage the 2001-02 school year for the Saint Francis Kaua’i students.

“We also discussed that one of the first efforts that we should make is to reach out to the bishop, because if we’re going to make this fly, it’s certainly not going to be without his blessing,” Piano said of Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo, head of the Diocese of Honolulu.

“So we’re all going to be faxing and writing letters to the bishop, expressing our concerns and expressing our needs. We feel it’s important to have a Catholic high school on this island.”

With tuition around $4,000 a year, many parents made great personal sacrifices to send their children to the school, he noted. Michelle Luna agreed that the cost of a Catholic education represents a great financial burden for her family.

“It only points out the seriousness of the nature of the need,” Piano continued. “We feel that with 82 students committed to go to the school, there is enough serious money there ($328,000) that we might have the makings of putting this together.”

The teachers, including Catholic nuns, are willing to continue working with the students, he said.

All the feelings aren’t bad about the end of the sponsorship by St. Francis School at Manoa, he said.

“We’re very grateful for all that they’ve done for the past four years. Had it not been for them, there wouldn’t have been a Catholic high school on this island for the past four years,” he said.

Piano said he and other parents feel that if people knew the Catholic high school was in jeopardy, and a strong effort to save it is underway, they’d come forward with financial help.

Other private schools on the island, with tuitions from around $5,500 to $7,500, aren’t really options for most of the Saint Francis School parents, said Piano, who doesn’t know what his children will do yet for schooling. Other parents are considering public schools, home-schooling or sending their children to O’ahu or the mainland.

“I really heard a cry for an alternative school that is cost-effective for high school,” said Robert “Lopaka” Bodnar, who attended the Monday meeting and is the last principal of Saint Francis School’s Kaua’i campus. “They want a Catholic high school.”

After a lot of anger was diffused, parents were told to enroll their children in other schools, just in case a Catholic high school on Kaua’i isn’t an option for the 2001-02 school year, he said.

At the meeting, some parents were assigned to contact other established Catholic schools on O’ahu to see if one will lend its name to the new school.

“They wouldn’t pay any money. We would just use their name for this year while we’re doing our accreditation, pay our own insurance, everything,” Bodnar said.

Other parents formed a committee to explore grants for a new school. Saint Francis School last school year received some $50,000 in grants, and Piano thinks there may be even more available.

Further, Piano said if money is raised and spent on Kaua’i instead of being funneled through the O’ahu parent school, it can be managed more efficiently.

The Kaua’i campus owes its Manoa Valley parent nearly $500,000, though Bodnar said that through fund-raising and other means there was very little red ink last school year. He had a plan to begin paying back a few thousand dollars a month during the 2001-02 school year, he said.

But that plan wasn’t enough, and now the parents are developing strategies to move forward without Saint Francis School’s Kaua’i campus in their lives.

“They did come up with the attitude of ‘Let’s get on with life. Forget about Saint Francis. We appreciate what they’ve done. Let’s move on, keep our energies focused as to what we can develop,'” Bodnar said of the parents at the Monday meeting.

One parent, who asked not to be identified, will send his daughter to Kaua’i High School.

“Many parents don’t have options right now,” he said.

Another parent, Tom Contrades, said the notice of the school closure came so late that it didn’t leave him or other parents many options. His daughter may attend public school this year, or may be home-schooled.

Saint Francis School operated out of the former Immaculate Conception School in Isenberg Tract subdivision. It is owned by Immaculate Conception Church.

Tuesday, a container was staged outside the school, being loaded with the school van and other equipment belonging to the Manoa parent school.

Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224)