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Schenectady's two Catholic elementary schools have experienced significant increases in enrollment this year, in part because former students of St. John the Evangelist School, which closed last June, transferred there.

Enrollment at St. Madeleine Sophie School is up by 30 percent; at St. Kateri Tekakwitha School, there's been a 16-percent increase. (St. Kateri Tekakwitha is the new name for St. Helen's School.)

St. Madeleine Sophie's staff credit much of the school's success to staff visits to Catholic parishes without schools last year; open houses, private tours and media ads have also helped.

Both schools have also taken in a large number of students from public districts; St. Kateri got three such students just last week.

Adding more students is far from problematic.

"We know how to handle that," noted Jennifer Chatain, principal at St. Kateri. "Here in Catholic schools, I think there's so much ebb and flow."

Come on in
The school welcomed 100 new students this year, bringing enrollment up to 332 students. About 15 of them were former St. John the Evangelist students.

"They've blended in so well, no one would know," Ms. Chatain said. "I don't think the kids have felt anything different. I'm sure that they miss the teachers and the other kids they went to school with, but kids are resilient. I think that we're familiar enough that there's still prayer and all those things that were so important to them" in their former school.

St. Madeleine Sophie took in 22 children from St. John's, according to Teresa Kovarovic, principal. She says the school's role is to "make them as much at home as we possibly can."

Teacher's move
Brian Cummings taught fifth- and sixth-graders at St. John the Evangelist for 12 years. He's now teaching English, language arts and literature for sixth- through eighth-graders at St. Ambrose School in Latham.

He counts himself lucky to have found a job. Leaving St. John's was "difficult," the teacher said. "It had a nice family atmosphere. It's kind of hard to put into words."

Though St. Ambrose is bigger, it reminds him of St. John's in the days before it struggled with enrollment. He says it's difficult to get the word out about Catholic education.

"I don't think people really know the benefits," he said, naming small class sizes, faith-based education and caring teachers. "I hope that I can have the same experience here."[[In-content Ad]]

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