By Lisa Dahm
Hawaii Catholic Herald
The high school division of St. Anthony School in Wailuku, which has provided Catholic education on Maui for more than 175 years, will close its doors at the end of this academic year.
The announcement was made by Msgr. Terry Watanabe, pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Church and a member of the school’s board of directors, in a Feb. 6 news release.
The school’s faculty and staff will focus on serving students from preschool through eighth grade using a new multi-age classroom model, according to the release.
“We are a people of hope,” said Mary Jean Bega, principal of St. Anthony School. “We know that it’s in God’s time that it will happen again.
“This is his ministry,” she continued. “That is the hope that we as Catholics always have, and that’s what separates us from others.”
The closure of St. Anthony’s high school division was not a surprise to the community. It currently has 13 students, and four are seniors.
The St. Anthony School board of directors — which includes Bega; Msgr. Watanabe; Llewellyn Young, superintendent of Hawaii Catholic Schools; and various leaders in the Maui community — had been considering the move for more than two years as enrollment dwindled after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition to St. Anthony School, Sacred Hearts School in Lahaina (now temporarily in Kaanapali) also offers high school courses on Maui. There are four Catholic high schools on Oahu — Maryknoll School, Saint Louis School, Sacred Heart Academy and Damien Memorial School — and one on Hawaii island, St. Joseph School.
The last Catholic high school to close was Saint Francis School in Manoa, which comprised grades prekindergarten to 12. It ceased operations at the end of the 2018-19 academic year.
Focus on strengths
St. Anthony School is accredited by numerous agencies, from preschool (National Association for the Education of Young Children) to grade school (Western Catholic Education Association and the Western Association of Schools) to high school (Western Association of Schools and Colleges, the National Catholic Educational Association and the Hawaii Association of Independent Schools).
Young said St. Anthony has a “very robust program” in the preschool and an exceptional kindergarten through eighth-grade program.
“There are some really good things happening at that school,” Young said. “We have a new administration there who is looking at all these great opportunities and exciting new programs that they’re going to be offering. And they’re going to be switching things around to match best practices for Catholic schools to really anchor the school into our faith and the whole child education.”
According to the news release, St. Anthony will continue to develop its Sports Academy initiative and its new Hawaiian studies program that emphasizes olelo Hawaii (the Hawaiian language). Two-time Olympic weightlifter Vernon Patao and Nikki Musto, a former collegiate and international-level soccer player, lead the Sports Academy; the Hawaiian studies program, which will also teach hula, mele and the history of the islands, will be helmed by Kumu Sissy Lake.
Importance of values
Bega, who has been principal for seven months, said that a Catholic education is important because it is lived out every day in the lives of Christians.
“The values that we share are far more important than anything else that will take us through this life,” Bega said. “The kids who walk through these halls, they are just good people. It’s a very safe place, but that’s because our students understand that, because of our faith, we treat each other with dignity. It bothers them when they see someone being treated in a way that’s not Christlike.”
Young said he sees the high school reopening in the future, and he called the board of directors a group of “very passionate people in the local community.”
“They are very faith-filled people who come together weekly because they believe in the mission of that school and the purpose of that school, and they want that school to continue — to thrive and not just survive,” Young said. “There are a lot of champions there that are trying to help the school.”
Msgr. Watanabe said the parish has a strong youth and young adult ministry to keep the Catholic faith alive for high schoolers, but that faith must begin in the family.
“It’s really dependent a lot on their parents living their faith and putting their faith into action, making sure that that’s a value in the household, in the domestic church,” he said. “So that their children might grow up knowing the Lord because the parents have taken that seriously as well.”
He said people can assist by praying for the school and supporting Catholic education.
A gathering place
Father Ese’ese “Ace” Tui was the parochial vicar of St. Anthony of Padua Church for four years and taught religion classes to juniors and seniors during that time. In a recent reflection he wrote that, though the closure is a personal loss for him, the grief he and others feel is not about the building but about the loss of the friendships, experiences and sense of belonging they found while at the high school.
Father Tui said he sees the school as a gathering point, just as God met with people in the temple in the Old Testament, though he did not live in that space. St. Anthony School faculty, staff, students, parents and the parish community found a spirit that remains in them wherever they go.
“And perhaps this moment, painful as it is, invites us to trust that what was formed there was never meant to stay put,” Father Tui wrote. “The meeting place may change, but the mission continues. The walls may close in one way, but the community does not disappear — it disperses, carrying with it the same heart, the same spirit, the same God who was never contained by walls in the first place.”
Bega agreed, saying that St. Anthony High School students will retain their values and carry them through life, whether they’re leaders in the community, in their homes or in their churches.
“That is our hope,” Bega said. “(I tell them) no matter where you go, you’re always going to have St. Anthony (School) there.”
Above: St. Anthony School has provided Catholic education on Maui since 1848. (Courtesy St. Anthony School)