By Patrick Anderson
The new names, new voices and new faces filling the hallways yesterday on the first day of school at St. Ann's School were a welcome sight for the school's principal, Sister Judith O'Brien, who had gotten used to a slowly shrinking student population in recent years.
"It is our best year in a long time," O'Brien said yesterday. "We have increased our enrollment and everything has gone smoothly. We had a very good opening."
Cape Ann's only parochial school, St. Ann's has been hailed by parish and church leaders for a 76 percent increase in its enrollment from last year, a boost likely due to a combination of new financial assistance, a marketing campaign and reorganization of the city's public elementary schools.
This year 180 students are enrolled in St. Ann's in preschool through grade eight, up from 102 at the end of last year. The school has an enrollment target of 225 students.
Despite having more students to manage, O'Brien said the sudden influx of students had not overstressed the faculty.
A planned renovation of the school's 125-year-old building expected to make the school even more attractive to prospective students and handle further growth is scheduled to begin next summer.
In February, the Archdiocese of Boston announced that St. Ann's would receive $4.5 million in financial assistance from Catholic business leaders and private donors as part of the 2010 Initiative, a regional campaign to revive Catholic education.
The money has gone to reducing tuition at St. Ann's, producing television advertisements and creating an endowment.
Tuition this year is $3,500 per student, down from $4,250 last year. That drop in tuition reverses steady increases in the cost of a St. Ann's education, which had gone up 158 percent since 2000.
Before the archdiocese announced the package of financial assistance, O'Brien said St. Ann's was in the middle of a downward spiral of dropping enrollment and rising tuition that was threatening the school's future.
To pay for the renovations, which will involve mostly interior and infrastructure work, O'Brien said the school plans to raise $5.1 million.
St. Ann's is run by Holy Family Parish, which was created in the consolidation of St. Ann, St. Peter and Sacred Heart parishes.
St. Ann's enrollment push has come during a period of instability in the public elementary schools, which closed Fuller School this year and redistributed its students to neighborhood schools. In June, Gloucester school officials said 30 students had left the city's schools to go to St. Ann's that had previously attended Beeman and Plum Cove elementary schools.
While the biggest change at St. Ann's has been the increase in students, the opening of the academic year has also seen a new math program and textbooks, new pre-kindergarten class and three new teachers.
O'Brien said she hoped the turnaround at the school would continue, with more students and more improvements in the near future.
"I want to welcome the 65 new families and want to thank those that stuck by us through the years," O'Brien said.
Patrick Anderson can be reached at panderson@gloucestertimes.com
