Public or private?

Catholic high school opening next year, CIS planning similar project

Columbia soon will have two private high schools and a third traditional public high school if building projects proceed as planned. Parents and school administrators, including the public school superintendent, say the wider range of choices is good for the people who matter the most: our kids.

Kate Mehle considers Hickman and Rock Bridge excellent high schools and says she believes that is why there are currently no private high schools in Columbia. But Mehle wants her three daughters, who are now attending the K-8 Columbia Catholic School, to have an opportunity to continue getting a parochial education.

Berkley Hudson, who teaches magazine journalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia and has two daughters attending Columbia Independent School, said he believes the best teaching takes place one-on-one, regardless of the setting.

“Education can take place with a teacher at one end of a log and a student at the other end,” he said. But he said close interaction is hard in large classrooms packed with students who have different needs, and he wants his daughters to be able to continue their private education in a local high school with small classes and rigorous academics.
Both may soon get their wishes.

After a lengthy planning process, mid-Missouri’s Catholic diocese, the Diocese of Jefferson City, recently revealed plans to build a Catholic high school on the southeastern edge of the city, adjacent to Bristol Lake.
Columbia Independent School, or CIS, has started raising money to build a high school and has picked out a site just south of Rock Bridge Elementary School near the southern end of Providence Road.

The public school district has long-range plans to build a new public high school, supplementing the growing Rock Bridge and Hickman high schools, which have current enrollment numbers of 1,707 and 2,109 students, respectively, and Douglass, an alternative and vocational high school supporting about 180 students.

Columbia’s population is close to 90,000, and Planning and Development Director Tim Teddy said the city’s steady growth likely will continue.
“Columbia’s population will probably be up around 98,000 in five years, if the recent estimates of our growth rate continue,” Teddy said.

Meeting the needs of a growing student population is crucial, said Phyllis Chase, superintendent of Columbia Public Schools. She said the proposed Catholic high school would help maintain an enrollment balance for an optimal high school learning environment.

“We think it assists with our plans in terms of meeting the student population needs. We feel the Catholic high school will be a benefit to our community,” Chase said.

Columbia Catholic School now enrolls about 550 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Groundbreaking for the new Catholic high school is planned for the spring of 2008. Bob Schmersahl, development consultant for the project, said a demographic study in 2004 showed support for a Catholic school. The closest Catholic high school is in Jefferson City, and about a dozen students commute there from Columbia now, Schmersahl said.

The Catholic diocese anticipates enrolling 250 students five to eight years out, with 20 students per class, or a student-teacher ratio 20 to 1. “When we get to 250 students total, there will be about 60 students per grade,” he said.

A feasibility study in 2006 showed financial support, as well as people interested in being part of the leadership. “More people are getting involved,” Schmersahl said. “And we hope to have 200 volunteers before we’re done.”

Mehle, who already volunteers in the school building project, said a Catholic high school can offer a lot of benefits. “Many people want to get back to the traditional. It’s not just Catholic; it’s Christian education.”
Because independent schools attract average and above-average students, Hudson said some behavioral problems, such as lack of motivation and “those types of problems that can cloud a classroom” are eliminated.

“Trouble can happen anywhere,” he said. “It’s less likely to happen in a small independent school. I think problematic kids don’t have much room to hide.”

“My kids are above-average. I think they’d be fine in the public schools, but we know what a difference being in a small classroom makes,” Hudson said. “They get the attention they need, although we pay for that attention.”

According to the CIS Web site, the school’s student-to-teacher ratio is 9 to 1. Some classes might have eight or nine students, or as many as 15, Hudson said.

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education shows Columbia Public Schools with a 13 to 1 student-to-teacher ratio for 2006.
Hudson and his wife, Milbre, were familiar with independent schools prior to moving to Columbia in 2003. Their daughters are now in the fifth and ninth grades at CIS.

Hudson said an independent school “is great for some kids but not all.”
Trent Amond, the head of CIS, said, “Basically, we’re in the position of supporting educational choices in Columbia schools. The schools here offer different orientations. The Catholic school is faith based, and we’re non-sectarian.” Currently, CIS students are divided by grades at two different campuses near Stephens College.

“We are hoping and working on plans for a unified campus of our own,” Amond said.

Hudson, president of the CIS Parent Association, said that negotiations are under way for a plot of land to bring the upper and lower schools together in one site. “I think it will be fantastic if it works out,” he said.

Hudson said the lifecycle of CIS is developing “from toddler to young child to tween. It’s about on target for a school this age. It’s making its identity in the community.”

Hudson said it’s important for an independent school not to be isolated.
“An independent school is obligated to be involved in the community, to give back to the community and to provide scholarships to students who want to attend, regardless of background,” Hudson said.