By Patrick Downes | Hawaii Catholic Herald

An overall drop in enrollment of 422 this fall has caused the number of Catholic school students in Hawaii to be under 11,000 for the first time since 1946.

Superintendent of Catholic Schools Carmen Himenes attributed the nearly 4 percent slide mostly to the present U.S. economic crisis. She called the situation “very serious” and probably long-term.

This year’s drop, combined with a decline of 194 the year before, adds up to a more than 5 percent drop in enrollment over the past two years.

This year’s total fall enrollment for Hawaii’s 10 preschools, 26 elementary schools, and seven high schools is 10,827. Last year’s was 11,249. For the year 2006-07, it was 11,443. Enrollment had been hovering around the 11,400 mark since 1999.

The figures come from the Hawaii Catholic Schools office and are for the enrollment reported by each school at the opening of the school year.

Catholic school enrollment in Hawaii in 1946-47 was 10,987, up more than 1,000 from the year before, the first year after World War II.

The highest enrollment on record was 17,150 in 1965-66, when the post war baby-boom was peaking. The numbers declined to the 14,000-level in the 1970s, rose again to 15,298 in 1980, and has been dropping steadily ever since.

This year’s decline seems to have hit across the board. All seven Catholic high schools reported fewer students. Eighteen out of 26 elementary schools saw a drop.

Hawaii’s 10 Catholic early learning centers fared better, with a small total increase of 29 students and only two schools reporting lower numbers.

While the 422 drop is an overall total, there are no overall solutions, warned Himenes.

“The schools are autonomous; they have been able to manage and provide their own resources,” she said.

“The independence of each school has been the strength of the system for a long time,” Himenes said, “but in this economic crisis, the larger view from a diocesan perspective needs to be pursued.”

The superintendent and the diocesan school board can offer advice and promote teamwork “as we continue to plan for strong, accessible and affordable schools,” she said.

“You can’t fix this overnight,” she said. “We need collaboration and study so that we do the right thing at the right time for the right reasons.”

Extended families are more than willing to give their children a Catholic education “at great sacrifice,” Himenes said, but the economics have made it impossible for many.

“I know these are not easy decisions,” she said.

The Augustine Educational Foundation which provides Catholic school scholarships to low income Hawaii families, “is preparing for a record high this year,” according to executive director Sue Ferandin.

And that’s coming off a tough year.

Last year the foundation took in 1,162 applications, up from 982 the year before.

“I have never seen rates of income hit as hard as they were last year,” Ferandin said. “We have an abundance of new applicants that have an all-time high level of need.”

And the need is always greater than what the foundation can offer. Last year it awarded 486 scholarships.

‘We can’t afford it’

St. John Vianney School in Kailua is down about 20 students from the 2007-08 starting enrollment of 297, a more than 6 percent drop. Principal Jane Ann Quinn points the blame at the economy.

“There were a lot of kindergarten applications,” she said. “But when it came time for acceptance, they [parents] said ‘we can’t afford it.’”

“They were not ready to make the commitment,” she said. “They just were afraid they were not going to be able to pay the tuition every month.”

The kindergarten, which usually has 35 students, is down this year to 25. That has never happened before, said Quinn.

Some of the upper grades lost students because their families moved to the mainland, Quinn said.

These are local families, the principal said. She assumes most are relocating for economic reasons.

A few others students have been accepted in Kamehameha and other private schools.

“I’m assuming this is not temporary,” Quinn said of the economic slowdown and the lower student numbers.

“If this is going to be the enrollment, then we need to look where we can cut expenses,” she said, rather than raise tuition.

Bucking the trend

But not all schools are losing students. Two have held even from last year, and six have actually gained students.

Tiny St. Theresa School in Kekaha, Kauai, the western-most school in the 50 states, is bucking the trend. This year it went from 147 students to 167, an increase of 20 students, more than any other Catholic school in the state. The year before its enrollment increased by 16. The two years count for a jump of 27 percent.

The principal Mary Jane Buza-Sims attributes the increases to a number of factors. For one, the west side Kauai community is growing. Four new corn seed companies have brought a new industry and jobs to this former plantation town, she said.

A few students also come from The Pacific Missile Range Facility nearby at Barking Sands.

Some kindergarten and preschool students have scholarships through the Pauahi Keiki Scholar program, a new Kamehameha Schools program that shares its educational funds with students in Hawaii private schools.

“We have so many keiki, we opened a second preschool this year for the first time,” Buza-Sims said. One class has 20, the other 15.

“St. Theresa also does quite a bit of community outreach,” she said. “I do make myself visible in the community. You have to be actively engaged in the community.”

“I encourage ‘mouth-to-mouth’ recruitment,” the principal said, asking parents and teachers to “go out and recruit” new students among their friends.

The school also tries to keep the tuition increases modest.

“Our parents are working class people; they don’t have tons of money,” she said.

But they are good and hardworking fundraisers, she said.

Last year the school organized major field trips for the upper level grades. Seventh and eighth graders went to Washington, D.C., New York and Philadelphia. The sixth grade took a science excursion to the Big Island, and the fifth graders visited Pearl Harbor.

“The kids have been able to raise all of the money,” Buza-Sims said. “The people are really generous.”