Planned Catholic school draws mixed reactions

Reactions to a Catholic high school planned for Tucson's South Side ranged from grateful to insulted during a community meeting Thursday night.

But one message was clear: The school, which targets families who could not otherwise afford Catholic tuition, is no longer an idea.

"We're going to be starting a school in the fall of 2003," Diocese of Tucson coadjutor Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas confirmed in an interview before the community meeting, which drew about 130 people and was held at the Quincie Douglas Neighborhood Center.

"We're starting to form a board of trustees to oversee it," Kicanas said.

A $700,000 grant from the West Coast Cassin Educational Initiative Foundation will help with start-up costs. After the school opens its doors, it is expected to largely support itself.

Not all details about the school have been worked out, but it would be closely modeled after the Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, which has been operating in Chicago's largely Hispanic, low-income Pilsen neighborhood for six years.

Families at Cristo Rey pay a reduced tuition rate of $2,200 per year because students at the school are required to work one day a week. The money they earn at work offsets tuition.

A religious order called the DeLaSalle Christian Brothers, Western Province, has agreed to co-sponsor the Tucson school. The order sponsored a similar school that opened in 2001 in Portland, Ore.

DeLaSalle North Catholic in Portland has 71 students who were selected through standardized tests, family interviews and interviews with the children's eighth-grade principal and teacher.

"I'm grateful. It's something low-income children should come in and take advantage of," said Barbie Urias, a 38-year-old South Side single mother of seven, who hopes some of her children will attend the new school. "I think the working part is great experience for them."

But Bertha Valenzuela, 45, said she won't be sending her son there. Valenzuela, who also lives on the South Side, said she is offended by the concept.

"I think these kids are doing grunt, slave work and not using their minds," she said.

The Diocese of Tucson operates four secondary schools, two of them in Tucson. The Tucson schools are Salpointe Catholic High School in Midtown and Immaculate Heart High School on the Northwest Side. The diocese also has a high school in Yuma and another in Nogales.

Tuition at Immaculate Heart is $4,300 a year per student. At Salpointe, tuition is $4,200 a year. Tuition at the new South Side school is expected to be less than $2,000 a year.

*Contact Stephanie Innes at 573-4134 or at sinnes@azstarnet.com.

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