Newsweek article thrills San Miguel High

By Jeff Commings

ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Gifts welcomed

San Miguel High School has received more than $115,000 in year-end donations. Gifts came from a New York-based foundation, the Arizona Cardinals, local community leader Carol AuClair and the Catholic Foundation.

The school is still seeking financial assistance to complete two classroom buildings on its 8.8-acre campus that can handle a full enrollment of 400 students.

To Learn More

• To read the article, go to www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16242487/site/newsweek

• To check out San Miguel High School, go to sanmiguelhigh.az.campusgrid.net/home

• To read about the Cristo Rey Network, go to www.cristoreynetwork.org

A company that runs 12 private high schools nationwide, including one in Tucson, is getting national exposure for its work in drastically reducing the dropout rate of inner-city students and giving them incentive to succeed.

In the Dec. 25 edition of Newsweek, the Rev. John Foley is the focus of a story about the Cristo Rey Network, a group of high schools that cater to students in low-income neighborhoods. Tucson's San Miguel High School became the fifth school in the network in 2003.

The article centers on the founding school in Chicago. San Miguel, a school of 170 students in grades 9 through 11at 6601 S. San Fernando Road, is not mentioned, though students and staff members there are thrilled the company's founder is recognized.

"It's exciting to see (the Cristo Rey Network) get noticed," said Brother Nick Gonzalez, San Miguel's principal. "They're doing lots of great things."

Newsweek highlights the drastic changes at the schools since Foley and Richard Murray, a management consultant, founded the program in 1996.

"The four-year dropout rate for the network's graduation class this year was 6 percent, and 96 percent enrolled in a two- or four-year college this fall," the article states, adding that 99 percent of the graduates are accepted to college.

The article also mentions $15.9 million invested in the program by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The program also stands out because it puts students in a work-study program that nearly pays for their tuition. The companies — 106 nationwide, according to Newsweek — that hire the students for various jobs take on the teens for one day a week, paying about 70 percent of each student's tuition.

In Tucson, all 170 students at San Miguel work, Gonzalez said. This school year, students are working at 24 companies — both nonprofit and for-profit. Among those businesses are Carondelet Health Network, the University of Arizona, Advanced Ceramics Research and the Arizona Daily Star.

"We wanted to provide the opportunity for students to work in the business community," said Jacci Barreras, vice president of business management at Chestnut Construction, which built the school. Four students work at Chestnut this year, the first year in which Chestnut has taken part in the program.

Krystal Kovrig, a 14-year-old freshman at San Miguel, works at the Fleur de Lis Institute College of Landscape Design on Fridays. Besides the basic office work she's learning, Kovrig has found inspiration at the school that she said will help her in her quest to become a cartoonist.

"I love it a lot," she said. "It's real easygoing."

Gonzalez said the chief purpose of the work-study program goes beyond tuition help.

"They have to understand how to work with only adults," he said. "They learn about culture, the do's and don'ts of work, how to take initiative."

Gonzalez said San Miguel has a zero percent dropout rate. Those who leave the school always transfer elsewhere, he said.

"We actively work to help them find a better school that matches their needs," he said.

This is the second time in recent months a Tucson school has had a link to a Newsweek story. In May, BASIS Tucson was among the top three schools listed in the magazine's annual compilation of the top public high schools in the country.