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Numbers of Mahoning Valley students enrolled in Catholic schools decline
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
Despite a 68 percent enrollment drop in the last 10 years among Mahoning County Catholic schools, Diocese of Youngstown officials believe Catholic education still fills a need in the Mahoning Valley.
Enrollment in the county’s Catholic schools is 2,255 this year, compared with 3,279 in 2006. Trumbull County’s Catholic school enrollment is 937 this year compared with 1,574 in 2006.
Elementary-school tuition in Catholic schools in the two counties ranges between $2,900 and $4,650 for parishioners and between $4,550 and $5,750 for nonparishioners.
At the three high schools, tuition ranges between $7,425 and $7,500 for parishioners and between $8,050 and $8,550 for nonparishioners.
Parents ask Bishop George V. Murry of the Diocese of Youngstown why they should send their children to a Catholic school instead of a public school like Canfield and Poland, where the student can enroll with no tuition.
“I ask them, ‘What kind of son or daughter do you want?’” the bishop said. “‘If you want them to have a clear sense of the faith, a love of learning and the self-discipline to succeed, then put them in a Catholic school.’”
The schools maintain endowments to offer scholarships for students whose families can’t afford the cost.
Diocesan schools offer strong academic programs and diversity within the school family, the bishop said. The student populations boast not only racial and ethnic diversity but socioeconomic diversity, too.
Mary Fiala, schools superintendent of the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown, said Diocesan schools also emphasizes social justice. The high schools offer service-learning courses where students perform community service.
Enrollment is up at Cardinal Mooney High School this year – 504 students – compared with last year when 465 students attended the school.
Still, at the end of the 2015-16 school year, St. Patrick School in Hubbard closed its doors, the latest to call it quits. School officials cited declining enrollment, an aging and shrinking parish and a reliance on donations.
“Any time we close a school, it’s a sad day for all of us,” Fiala said.
About 70 percent of former St. Patrick students, though, enrolled in other Diocesan schools this year, she said.
Bishop Murry said Catholic education has changed over the course of several years. Years ago, the majority of classes for example, were taught by nuns.
“Those nuns didn’t get a salary,” he said.
Teachers who mostly are lay people teach the bulk of Mahoning Valley Catholic school classes now. They are paid a salary which increases costs.
Fewer students also is a product of shifting demographics, the bishop said. Many people who attended Catholic schools in the Valley and have school-age children have moved away. A lower birth rate in recent years also contributes to fewer students enrolling.
In 2013, the Diocese developed Lumen Christi, a system of six elementary schools and three early-childhood learning centers. At the time, officials said the change would strengthen academics and use resources more effectively and efficiently.
Both St. Patrick in Hubbard and St. Joseph-Immaculate Heart of Mary in Austintown have closed since then. That leaves St. Nicholas in Struthers, St. Christine in Youngstown, St. Charles in Boardman, Holy Family in Poland, and early-childhood learning centers at St. Luke in Boardman, Holy Family and St. Christine.
St. Rose in Girard and St. Joseph the Provider on Youngstown’s North Side aren’t part of the Lumen Christi system.
Bishop Murry said at the time the system was created, St. Rose asked to remain on its own, and St. Joseph wasn’t included because its students come from an underserved population with particular needs.
Shortly after the system’s formation, two of the schools, Holy Family and St. Charles, asked to be removed from it. At the time, families at those schools believed they were subsidizing some of the other schools. Bishop Murry turned down the withdrawal requests.
Fiala said changes have been made and tuition paid by families of a school remain at that school.
The Diocese operates three Catholic high schools in the Valley: Mooney and Ursuline in Youngstown and John F. Kennedy in Warren. JFK also houses younger students at its lower campus.
At Ursuline, 476 students are enrolled and at JFK, 197.
There are 1,275 students in the Catholic elementary schools in Mahoning County and 740 in Trumbull.
Because of the Youngstown Plan, students who attend any Youngstown City School are eligible for an EdChoice scholarship. EdChoice allows students from underperforming schools to attend private schools.
The Youngstown Plan, also called House Bill 70, is legislation that created a new Youngstown City Schools Academic Distress Commission. That commission appointed Krish Mohip the district’s first chief executive officer.