St. Ann School’s Early Learning Center is seen off to the right in this photo of part of the school campus. (HCH Photo: Anna Weaver)
St. Ann School in Kaneohe will close on June 4 at the end of this academic year
By Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald
The annual school carnival, luaus, first Communions and graduations. The Maryknoll sisters, who could be stern and rigorous teachers but also kind and supportive. Shortbread cookies from the cafeteria and neighborhood carpools. The arrival of Windward Mall across the street.
These are some of the memories that alumni of St. Ann School in Kaneohe have shared in their alumni Facebook group, reminiscing about school days gone by. And with the closure announcement of St. Ann’s, the oldest Catholic school in the islands, those same alumni expressed surprise and sadness at the end of a cherished part of the Kaneohe community.
“I guess we’re kind of shocked because you never thought that something that was around for so long could close up,” said Tammy Kubo to the Hawaii Catholic Herald. Kubo went to St. Ann’s in the mid-1970s and is one of the administrators for the “St. Ann School Alumni (Kaneohe, Hawaii)” Facebook group. Her brother also went to the school, and her mother taught there.
Photograph of “Heeia convent as seen from the school yard, 1932.” In front of the convent, four groups of two students each sit on large exposed tree roots reading books. (USC Digital Library)
Multi-generational families with a large number of kids in each family all going to St. Ann used to be the norm, Kubo said, adding, “It was more of a community-based school. We all knew each other.”
St. Ann Church’s pastor, Sacred Hearts Father Richard McNally, and school principal, Mandy Thronas Brown, said the decision to close “was not made lightly but only after much discussion and consideration,” in letters sent out to the parish and school community on Jan. 22. The official closure date will be June 4, at the end of this academic year’s calendar.
The reason? Declining enrollment and financial issues worsened by COVID-19, factors that also closed St. John the Baptist School in Kalihi and Our Lady of Perpetual Help School in Ewa Beach in 2020. Saint Francis School in Manoa closed in 2019 and St. Anthony School in Kalihi in 2018, both also due to enrollment and financial issues
Efforts to save the school
Kubo said she knew St. Ann School was in serious financial need after it launched a “Save St. Ann School Campaign” in November that aimed to raise $500,000. Principal Thronas Brown reached out to a group of alumni to ask them to get others involved in the campaign. But Kubo didn’t realize St. Ann was so close to being shuttered or that attendance had dropped so much.
The Windward-side school had seen a steady decline in enrollment in the last decade. While the administration had tried different measures to bring in more students, including a half-off tuition deal in 2019, rising costs continued.
Eleven years ago, there were about 400 students enrolled. This year there were 80 students in kindergarten to eighth grade and 37 students in the Early Learning Center. There were just six members of the eighth grade graduating class in 2020.
“Sister Maria Cordis and Father Timothy with First Communion group, Heeia, 1944.” (USC Digital Library)
St. Ann school board president Lila Marantz posted on the alumni Facebook page on Jan. 16 that COVID-19 led many parents to keep their preschoolers out of the early learning center, which was a big chunk of the student body enrollment. Pandemic safety precautions and cleaning requirements added to the school’s operational cost.
With next year’s projected enrollment even lower than this year, Father McNally said in his announcement letter that “the challenge of providing a quality education, employing a qualified staff and paying just wages, steadily decreasing enrollment especially given the demographics of the Kaneohe area and the financial reality made us conclude that our school would not be able to thrive in service to our students and families.”
While the “Save St. Ann School” campaign was able to raise $73,899, that still left the school at a deficit of about $400,000 to stay open next year.
“Despite the grand efforts and good will of school administration, staff and faculty, the school board, supportive parishioners and the many volunteers that worked in marketing and fundraising for the school, the money raised was just not enough to allow St. Ann School to keep operating,” wrote Father McNally in his Jan. 22 letter to St. Ann parishioners.
Front of St. Ann school (HCH Photo: Anna Weaver)
“I will say that we are all saddened by the announcement of this closure, and we support Fr. Rich’s difficult decision based on the unfortunate projections for the upcoming years,” said Hawaii Catholic Schools superintendent Llewellyn Young in an email to the Herald.
“When looking at the financial and enrollment data, it is clear that the school is not sustainable going forward. It did not benefit in the same way as other schools during this pandemic primarily because of the demographics and population of the surrounding community.”
Young said the Hawaii Catholic Schools office is working with St. Ann to help with the school closure and assist its teachers in finding employment at other Catholic schools. The school itself has pledged to help its students transfer to other Oahu Catholic schools.
There are two Catholic schools in neighboring Kailua, St. John Vianney School and St. Anthony School, both of which are pre-K to eighth grade. Other Catholic schools on the island have also reached out to offer expedited admission to St. Ann students.
Father McNally said the school hopes to arrange a virtual or in-person open house for St. Ann parents to meet with St. Anthony and St. John Vianney school representatives.
Kubo wants to see if alumni can gather up old uniforms and memorabilia to store in an archives somewhere. She also said that St. Ann alumni are hoping to have some sort of goodbye gathering for their school as COVID-19 restrictions allow to celebrate many happy memories and a legacy that will continue on “in all of us.”
“We can’t forget the rich history of the school and the thousands of children who have passed through its doors,” Thronas Brown and Father McNally wrote in their letter to the school community. “Each student has a unique story to share about their time here at St. Ann School and just how grateful they are for the education, life skills and love they’ve received.”
This photo posted to the St. Ann Alumni (Kaneohe, Hawaii) Facebook group is captioned: “St. Ann’s School around 1912. This building contained two classrooms, was erected in the early 1870s and torn down in 1930. Photo: John Grote collection”
A brief history of St. Ann School
After Catholic persecution in Hawaii in the mid-1800s, some native Hawaiian Catholics headed to the Windward side of Oahu to find a safer place to live, according to the St. Ann Church website’s history.
The origins of St. Ann Parish and School began when the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary sent Sacred Hearts Father Robert Walsh to the Windward side to serve those native Hawaiian Catholics in the area. In 1841, Sacred Hearts Father Robert Martial Janvier took over from Father Walsh and set up a mission in Heeia/Kaneohe. He and other church missionaries began teaching children in the area and built the first St. Ann Church. A boarding school started in 1871 and a day school began the next year. The Maryknoll Sisters arrived at the parish in 1927 and taught at the school for many years.
Both the original St. Ann Church and school are no longer standing. The present-day elementary wing went up in the mid-1960s. An all-girls high school lasted from 1960-1969, and an Early Learning Center opened in the renovated high school building in 1989. A new St. Ann Church was dedicated in 2001, replacing the previous structure, which was actually the second church on the site. The first was a coral block church.
