HCH Photo Anna Weaver
By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
The last decade has not been a good one for Hawaii Catholic school enrollment.
According to figures from the Hawaii Catholic Schools office, the number of students in preschool through grade 12 has dropped 2,279 since 2008. That’s a more than 20 percent decrease, an average of 228 students a year.
Only one year, 2014, showed an increase from the previous year.
Besides the decline in enrollment, the past 10 years have seen two elementary schools downsized to become preschools and three schools closed altogether.
In 2010, St. Joseph School in Makawao, Maui, closed its grade school to become an early learning center. Christ the King School in Kahului, Maui, did the same in 2011.
Holy Trinity School in Kuliouou shut its doors in 2010. Cathedral Catholic Academy closed in 2016, its 80th anniversary year, and St. Anthony, Kalihi, closed this year, after 90 years.
Hawaii has 10 Catholic stand-alone preschools, 16 Catholic elementary schools, and seven schools with both elementary and secondary grades.
Here are the total Hawaii Catholic school enrollment figures — preschool through grade 12 — for the past 10 years, tabulated on the start of each school year.
- 2008 . . . . . . . . 10,827
- 2009 . . . . . . . . 10,328
- 2010 . . . . . . . . 10,110
- 2011 . . . . . . . . 9,794
- 2012 . . . . . . . . 9,342
- 2013 . . . . . . . . 9,110
- 2014 . . . . . . . . 9,163
- 2015 . . . . . . . . 8,923
- 2016 . . . . . . . . 8,911
- 2017 . . . . . . . . 8,548
The declining numbers are pretty much spread across most of the schools, though a few schools have seen increases, in particular those high schools that have added lower grades, like St. Francis, St. Louis and Damien Memorial.
Today’s enrollment is less than half its peak of 50 years ago.
The highest Hawaii Catholic school enrollment on record was 17,150 in 1965-66, when the post war baby-boom was cresting. 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.