East side school survives to help kids thrive
EDUCATION | Patrick Yeagle
On a giant alphabet rug in Rosemarie Bates’ classroom, a gaggle of first- and second-grade children giggle as they clap and over-pronounce words in order to count the syllables.
A short walk down the hall, in Barbara Moore’s kindergarten classroom, seven rambunctious children recite the days of the week in unison. Every time their teacher’s back is turned, mischievous grins appear on their faces as their youthful energy turns toward tomfoolery.
It’s a typical day at St. Patrick Catholic School, located at 1800 South Grand Ave. East. Everyone in the 101-year-old school – from the principal to the part-time volunteers – is confident about the school’s continued role as a fixture on Springfield’s east side. But it wasn’t always that way.
In February 2010, the school’s board voted to shut the school down when they determined there wasn’t enough money to even make payroll for the rest of the year, much less to oper ate the school itself. School administrators say the school’s finances are stable once more, and they’re taking steps to make sure St. Patrick stays open another 100 years.
The school holds kindergarten through fifth grade, with 47 students total. The firstand second-grade classes are combined, as are the fourth- and fifth-grade classes. The students need not be Catholic, principal Kim Marsaglia says, adding that only two current students actually are Catholic.
No class at St. Patrick has more than 15 students, and that’s by design.
“Because we have such small class sizes, we are able to take the time to analyze test scores and see where the gaps in instruction are,” she said.
St. Patrick’s executive director, Gary Sullivan, said some classrooms have fewer than 15 children, but the school will eventually have 85 students total once a pre-kindergarten class is created and the already-full lower grades move up.
“It’s difficult to go out and find 15 fifthgraders, 15 fourth-graders and so on,” He said.
“We’re building from the base, and eventually each grade level will have 15 students.”
Meanwhile, the small size of the school allows teachers to know each student, Sullivan said.
“The students here are never at a loss for who they can go to or who they can talk to (about problems),” he said. “And at the same time, the teachers are aware of who the students are, so they can’t get away with anything. It’s a great atmosphere. I learned a long time ago that if you can call a student by his or her first name, you have the situation under control.”
Originally affiliated with the former St. Patrick Parish of Springfield, the school became an independent nonprofit organization in 2001, when St. Patrick Parish and the former Sacred Heart Parish merged to become St. Katharine Drexel Parish, but the school has always relied on donations. Sullivan said the large white house next to Boyd’s New Generation restaurant, which sits just across the street from St. Patrick Catholic School, used to house the nuns who taught at the school long ago.
Sullivan says St. Patrick school strives to remain affordable with tuition of $735 per year, which can be paid in installments of just $73.50 per month over the 10-month school year.
“We have teachers here who see this as a mission,” Sullivan said. “They work for less than they could make at other places.”
Formerly a teacher for about 30 years in Springfield School District 186, Sullivan took on the role of executive director at St. Patrick about two years ago. He says he originally intended to stay only three months.
“There’s a mission here to be fulfilled,” Sullivan said. “Once you get caught up in it, it’s a little bit difficult to walk away from it.”
Principal Kim Marsaglia says she came from a family of educators, and being involved in education was her childhood dream.
