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Parents, kids tour new Catholic school
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Taylor Simpson, 9, a soon-to-be- 4th grader at Immaculate Heart School in Austintown, gets help with her school supplies from her dad, Anthony Simpson, during a Monday open house at the school.
AUSTINTOWN — Two Youngstown diocese schools are now one, opening in a refurbished Norquest Boulevard building next week to provide 265 children a Catholic education.
Many of their parents were on hand Monday night for an open house at the new St. Joseph and Immaculate Heart of Mary School. They were treated to a tour of the upgraded facility and had the opportunity to meet their children’s teachers before classes begin.
The school was created when the St. Joseph and Immaculate Heart of Mary schools merged earlier this year. The new school is housed in the former Immaculate Heart of Mary building. It has undergone upgrades to accommodate the 265 kindergarten through eighth-grade students who will call it home.
Classes start Monday.
“I think it’s going to be one big, happy family,” said Hannah Fabian of Youngstown. “The more the merrier.”
Fabian had two children, Aunnahsti, 7, and Zaire, 8, enrolled at St. Joseph last year. She and others said being able to have their children attend Catholic schools is a priority, despite tough financial times.
“They get the religions part along with the academics,” she said. “It kind of backs up my values as a parent, so it’s like the school is reinforcing what I’m teaching at home to my kids.”
Anthony Simpson of Austintown agreed.
“When you pay for something like this, you get more in return,” he said.
Simpson moved his daughter, Taylor, from public school a few years ago and has no regrets.
“There is stricter learning, I believe, and the religion alone is something we definitely wanted her to get into,” he said. “I believe the teachers teach them in a more one-on-one way. I think they learn more when you get them into private schools because the teachers give them more attention.”
School Principal John Rozzo said movers spent two days moving desks, tables, filing cabinets, textbooks and other materials from the St. Joseph building.
The entire building also has been painted and has received upgraded technology such as a new public-address system, 50 laptop computers and an additional 30 desktop computers for a lab, Rozzo said.
But more important than the structure or the technology brought into the building is what the children will take out of it, Rozzo said.
“I’ve said it more than once that the building is not as important as what we are doing inside,” he said. “And if I didn’t mean it, I wouldn’t say it.”
jmoffett@vindy.com