Saint Francis alumni ask if school can be saved

By Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald

The impending closure of the middle and high school at Saint Francis in Manoa took many school graduates by shock.

At a Jan. 10 alumni meeting on campus, Saint Francis graduates asked the school’s board of directors when they knew the upper school would need to close. Several graduates said they had no idea the school was in this dire of a situation and would have tried to help sooner if they’d known.

“We are a larger board,” said one alumna of her fellow Saint Francis graduates. “We can keep the school open!”

The board announced on Jan. 7 its decision to close grades 7-12 after this school year. The closure of the remaining lower grades is also possible if not enough financial support and enrollment can be generated.

Despite the negative topic of the meeting, its tone turned positive as many of the alumni wanted to know how they could save the school. How much money was needed? Where could they donate? They weren’t giving up on their 94-year-old alma mater.

When asked if the alumni and others could raise enough money to keep the school open, whether the Saint Francis’ board would do it, chairman Randall Yee responded “most likely yes.”

“None of the board wants to see Saint Francis close,” he said. But he pointed out that the high costs of running upper grades compared to lower grades and not meeting enrollment quotas had led to the closure decision.

“We understand the shock and the disappointment by many of the parents and the students,” Yee told the Herald prior to the meeting, saying the decision to shut the upper school was “purely economic.”

Yee fielded most of the questions from the 50-or-so alumni who turned out for the meeting, though head of school Casey Asato and other board members also chimed in.

Saint Francis School has one of the lowest private high school tuitions in the state, and 60 percent of its student body are on scholarship. That led to not enough tuition income, Yee said. The Sisters of Saint Francis of the Neumann Communities, which founded the school and filled many of its teaching and leadership positions over the years, can no longer financially support Saint Francis, he said.

Total school closure possible

Yee emphasized that the pre-K to grade 6 remaining open is not guaranteed. Re-enrollment starts in mid-January and the school needs to meet an enrollment quota to stay open. The school is seeking donations, re-enrollment commitments and new students for grades pre-K to 6.

“If enrollment targets are not met and we are forced to permanently cease operations for all grade levels, an announcement will be made by March 31, 2019,” Yee wrote in the Jan. 7 closure letter. “We are working to avoid this if at all possible.”

Saint Francis would need a significant influx of donations to keep the entire pre-K to 12 grades operating both in the short-term and the long-term. Yee estimated off the top of his head at the gathering that at least $2 million would be needed for the school’s immediate needs and close to $1 million each year after that.

On Jan. 17, Yee reported via school spokesperson Pat Bigold that $4-5 million would be needed to keep the entire school operating next year.

Yee said the board’s long-term goal had been to gradually build up the school’s endowment, but it is currently at just $168,000.

Alumni response

In the aftermath of its closure announcement, Saint Francis held question-and-answer sessions on Jan. 8 for school students and Jan. 9 for parents. The third session for alumni on Jan. 10 had perhaps the most emotionally invested crowd, graduates who don’t want to see their Manoa alma mater shut down.

Saint Francis alumni association president, Rita Chun, was surprised by the school closure news. She and other association board members met with several school board of director members on Jan. 15.

Chun told the Herald that the board promised a letter to alumni reporting the total school deficit that would need to be raised. Another meeting or meetings for alumni was promised for the near future.

“Sometimes prayers work miracles,” Chun said on Jan. 17.

Sister William Marie Eleniki, regional minister of the Sisters of Saint Francis, said that she and her fellow sisters “all feel bad about the closure” and that whatever is done with the school, “the power of prayer is so important.”

“Saint Francis needs their support and prayers so we can do the best moving forward,” Sister William Marie said.

Want to donate?

Alumni at the meeting asked how they could give money to help stop the closure. One 1973 alumna, Valerie Balthazar Santiago, who works at the Sisters of Saint Francis of the Neumann Communities convent, said she’d been getting many calls since the closure announcement from people asking how they can help.

There is a link on Saint Francis’ website to its PayPal account, under the Support, Donate Now section.

Founded by the Franciscan Sisters as an all-girls school in 1924, Saint Francis originally had just high school grades. It later added lower grades and started accepting boys in 2006 in order to make the school more competitive among Oahu’s private schools. (One boy graduated in 2002 after transferring from the closing, co-ed satellite Saint Francis campus on Kauai.) It graduated its first co-ed high school class in 2013.

Helping students

Juniors at Saint Francis School, just one year away from graduating, are perhaps in the stickiest situation with the announcement of their high school’s closure at the end of the academic year.

Alumni association president Chun says her oldest son went through a similar experience, having to transfer from Star of the Sea High School to Damien Memorial School after Star of the Sea closed.

“They lose that essence of that continuity,” she said.

But there have been many offers of help to Saint Francis students.

Saint Francis School organized an academic fair at the school gym on Jan. 19 where representatives from more than 20 schools, including several Catholic middle and high schools, were set to be in attendance.

Head of school Casey Asato noted at the Jan. 10 alumni meeting that several schools have pledged to match Saint Francis’ tuition, are offering discounted tuition, or have waived application fees and SSAT test requirements for Saint Francis students transferring to their institution.

Among those offers:

Damien Memorial School announced on Jan. 15 that it would match Saint Francis tuition for all transferring Saint Francis Class of 2020 students. In addition, Damien pledged that incoming seniors from Saint Francis would be eligible to receive financial aid and would graduate with a joint Damien-Saint Francis diploma.

La Pietra School for Girls, which costs $19,700 a year compared to $13,000 at Saint Francis high school, also announced it would match tuition for the next two years for any Saint Francis students from all grade-levels transferring to La Pietra. They’ll also be eligible for financial aid and won’t have to complete the SSAT.

The Saint Francis School closure announcement came after the Jan. 11 edition of the Hawaii Catholic Herald went to press. Go to hawaiicatholicherald.com to read our online story posted shortly after the alumni meeting.