San Francisco Catholic School Scores

Church-related schools in flux

Kurt Mueller has four grades represented in his multi-age classroom at Mt. Calvary Lutheran School.

In that room are four students.

Local private schools like Mt. Calvary often have smaller class sizes than even the relatively small charter schools, and with all three of Flagstaff's private schools faith-based, they integrate a value that church-going families hold close. But they can also have a challenge in tuition and growing, free public options.

The local enrollment diagnosis is mixed. At Mt. Calvary, where tuition is between about $3,200 and $4,700 per year, one family withdrew this year over the expense. A few others transferred to the newly opened Basis charter school. Five students left in the two weeks before the school year started.

Mueller, who is also Mt. Calvary's principal, is a man of deep faith. But he also must be frankly practical when he asks himself when the school can no longer be sustainable, even with promotional discounts and tuition tax credits. He's an optimistic, proud teacher who believes strongly in sharing the gospel with children, but the fact that he only has 26 students in his school can keep him up at night. He prays on it.

Mt. Calvary has one classroom corridor, a gym, a tiny library and a small chapel, all under the same roof as the church on Fort Valley Road. It was never meant to be large -- its peak enrollment wasn't even that long ago, with about 50 children in 2009-10 -- but this year, that's been halved.

As a private school, Mt. Calvary is funded through tuition and the connected church. Its budget, covering everything from teacher pay to the electric bill, assumes at least 40 tuition-paying students.

Mt. Calvary's students are in grades K-7, and 10 of them are in the kindergarten. The school usually offers an eighth grade, but lost this year's "class" when the parents saw how much it had already shrunk, Mueller said.

Mueller is a longtime teacher in Lutheran schools, and has spent the last 14 years at Mt. Calvary.

Now we are being asked to vote on school assignments? in The ...

Prop H stinks to High Heaven. First of all, it's another issue elected officials are supposed to tackle, not the general public. Secondly, it looks like an attempt to keep poor, yet smart kids, from attending schools in richer neighborhoods. I don't normally feel comfortable siding with progressives. But on this one, I think I must.  I approach it from a different angle.  Though I agree it shouldn't be on the ballot.

For one, I bought a house in a neighborhood with a good school for a reason, so for sure it's selfish - I, like many parents, want my kids to walk to school (or run or bike) not be bussed all over creation, like that poor kid from Ingleside who got knifed on MUNI after coming home from school in the Marina. 

Second, I don't think parents take ownership or responsibility for a school as much if they're not neighbors - but (and Miraloma is a perfect example) when you do have involved neighbors, they pay attention to the school and it improves.  This is a city of unique neighborhoods, and the bussing formula based, I think, on the mother's level of education destroys much of that loyalty and sense of community.  Choosing a school based on test scores is a parental abdication of responsibility for their kids' education in this sense.  Sure it's understandable, who doesn't want the best education for their kid, but everyone can't go to the top testing school or live in Pac Heights, so better that neighbors work together to improve their neighborhood school.

Third, I don't think it's poor kids in the Bayview or Mission who are pushing to bus their kids out, it's white progressives without kids who are pushing their usual agenda, which has left the public with a poor impression (true or not, perception matters) of our public schools, so much so that here in the most liberal city in the state, we have the lowest percentage of kids and the highest percentage of kids in private schools (I think in the country).

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