Changes coming to St. Luke School

Staff report

BOARDMAN

Under a plan aimed at heading off more Catholic-school closings, St. Luke School will change next school year to an early childhood learning center.

The existing preschool and kindergarten through eighth-grade school will be changing to the new center, serving area students from age 2 through fourth grade.

Fifth- through eighth-grade students at St. Luke will move to other Catholic schools in the area.

“We’ve been a part of a collaborative for six years now with other Catholic schools in this area of the Diocese,” said Father Joseph Fata of St. Luke.

That collaborative includes St. Nicholas in Struthers, Holy Family in Poland and St. Charles in Boardman. It has recently pulled in schools from the West Side including St. Christine in Youngstown, Immaculate Heart of Mary-St. Joseph in Austintown and St. Patrick in Hubbard.

“The goal is to be a little more proactive,” Father Fata said. “Many Catholic schools have closed in the last few years.”

St. Luke School has 105 students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

Father Fata said the idea behind the changes is to offer different programs and ideas to ensure stability in terms of what the school is able to offer children.

The ECLC at St. Luke will combine early childhood Catholic education with state-of-the-art technology and an advanced curriculum. Launching in the 2011-12 school year, the ECLC will provide 2-to-3-year-old toddler time, 3-to-4-year-old preschool, 4-to-5-year-old pre-kindergarten, transitional kindergarten, kindergarten through fourth grade, before- and after-school care, after-school tutoring and summer enrichment programs and camps.

There will be a variety of other offerings that will be phased in over the next two years.

Working toward 2012-13, there are plans to add an infant and toddler day-care program, parenting classes, support groups and social activities for mothers in the area.

There will be an open house March 15. All are invited and welcome to attend; details will be announced later.

Father Fata said plans for some type of change have been under way for awhile, and initially, there was talk of concentrating on preschool and kindergarten at St. Luke.

Because surrounding public-school districts operate on a kindergarten through fourth-grade model, though, the school opted to extend to fourth grade.

“We don’t know what the response will be to that for next year,” he said.

By offering the preschool, the school hopes to attract more people who, though committed to a public-school education for their children, want to offer Catholic education in earlier years.

The school will continue to accept through fourth grade, non-Catholic and nonparishioners as well as students who attend St. Luke on a voucher.

“St. Luke was chosen for this because it’s centrally located,” Father Fata said. “That’s important for folks who are choosing a preschool.”

Children who now attend St. Luke in the higher grades will be able to attend school anywhere in the collaborative and will be able to do so at the parishioner’s tuition rate.

“The goal is to provide more and better programs to folks,” he said. “We didn’t want to just sit by and watch more Catholic school closings.”