God is good. Enrollment is up!

Anyone who reads this little article is likely aware that Catholic schools in the United States, in spite of the multitude of things that they offer for students and families, are declining in enrollment.  Since the mid 1960s, Catholic schools across the country have seen a fairly steady decline in enrollment, which is certainly a loss for our country.  Flying in the fact of these grim trends, and even in spite of population trends in the Cedar Rapids area, Holy Family School System is growing!  

Holy Family School System offers preschool through eighth grade, and like many Catholic schools, has struggled to maintain enrollment.  There are a lot of difficult realities that a Catholic school has to address in order to maintain enrollment.  Last year, LaSalle middle school said goodbye to 49 students, a relatively large 8th grade class, but was able to increase enrollment in their K-8 by welcoming 10 transfer students during the school year as well as a kindergarten class of 37 students.  Add to that an assortment of fall transfer students in almost every grade, and the result is an enrollment increase of 3%.

Maintaining this level of success will be difficult next year, as the school will part with its largest class, an eighth grade of 53 students.  Even with that pressing challenge, Holy Family leadership remains hopeful.  With waiting lists in multiple preschool classrooms, and with 16 new families that have already expressed interest in transferring starting at Holy Family.  

This, of course, a testament to the great work of the faculty and staff whose strong reputation is being spread throughout the community.  The faculty and administration have renewed the focus on the mission: to provide all students with a Christ-centered education that if future oriented, grounded in educational excellence, and that fosters a sense of community true to the teachings and traditions of the Catholic Church.  With this as the focus, the faculty have worked a great deal on strong student discipline, dynamic engaging classrooms, and positive social-emotional development.  The result of this work is students who are very well prepared for high school but also who are, in the words of chief administrator Zach Zeckser, "good at life".  

Most classrooms in the school do have room for transfers, and Holy Family would love another 40 students in kindergarten next fall.  Families who would like their children to be among this group can contact Zeckser for a tour at 319-396-7792 or  zzeckser@holyfamilycr.org.