Catholic school: good, bad news

A proposed new Catholic college prep school, designed for low-income students from Tucson's South Side, appears to have a chance.

That's good news for the South Side, which is often overshadowed by bad news.

A number of hurdles, however, remain before the innovative school can open its doors in the fall of 2003.

The school, modeled after a Chicago Catholic high school, needs a home. And it needs community support in providing jobs to students to help pay their tuition - a key component.

While the Wildcats were getting pounded Thursday night, a group of educators, priests, parents, business owners and others met to talk about creating a school where dreams would come true.

What they saw and heard about the 5-year-old Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in one of Chicago's poorest neighborhoods excited the group.

But I came away from the meeting, as several others did, bothered by something we also repeatedly heard.

"The school is not for everyone."

The school is not for students with low grades but who possess high possibilities.

The school is not for students with special needs, whether they're gifted or disabled.

The school is not for students, who - because of their deep poverty - have to work to help support their family.

"It's a God-given opportunity for our children but don't sell it as a school which will serve the South Side," said Ernestina Fuentes, director of stewardship for St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, at West Ajo Way and South 12th Avenue.

Fuentes, a Harvard-trained educator, believes that the high school is a great idea - for the students who will benefit from it.

The high school will likely end up serving students who are already motivated to do well academically and whose families can afford the tuition, said Fuentes.

"There's nothing wrong with that. Just say it," said Fuentes, who works in the largely Latino South Side parish and in its grade school - which would feed students to the proposed high school.

Since May, the Catholic Diocese of Tucson has studied the possibility of establishing the high school. It is using a grant from the Massachusetts-based Cassin Educational Initiative Foundation, which is sponsoring similar schools in Portland, Los Angeles, Austin and Denver.

The new school would be the third secondary Catholic school after Salpointe, in Midtown, and Immaculate Heart, near Casas Adobes.

But the existing Catholic high schools are costly, putting them out of reach of many students - especially those on the South Side and on the Tohono O'odham Reservation at San Xavier.

The new school would support itself with start-up money from the foundation and from the students' salaries.

Their salaries provide Cristo Rey with 75 percent of its operating funds. Tuition covers the remainder.

"It's a no-brainer," said Rev. John P. Foley, president of Cristo Rey, in a videotape presented by proponents of the Tucson school .

There's no argument there. The school will be a boost for some students.

But what about those who have a greater need for a Catholic high school?

They'll have to wait.

*Contact Ernesto Portillo Jr. at 573-4242 or e-mail netopjr@azstarnet.com. He appears on "Arizona Illustrated" on KUAT-TV, Channel 6 at 6:30 p.m. & 11:30 p.m. Fridays.

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