Trailblazing principal excited about starting local Catholic high school from the ground up
The Catholic Diocese last fall hired Kristie Wolfe to be the principal of the Fr. Tolton Regional Catholic High School, which is under construction in the southeast corner of Columbia and scheduled to open in August with grades nine and 10.
Tuition will be $5,900 a year for active Catholic students and $7,900 per year for local non-Catholic students, according to the school’s website, www.frtoltonhs.com. There also will be athletic and technology fees, along with some financial aid. The school will have a gymnasium, sports fields and a competitive sports program. Grade 11 will be added in 2012 and grade 12 the following year.
The school is named after Father Augustine Tolton, the nation’s first black priest. In her blog, Wolfe said the mascot and nickname chosen from submissions to the website, the Trailblazers, is appropriate because its namesake and the students will be trailblazers.
Wolfe, who has 17 years of experience in Catholic education, came to Columbia from a small town in Pennsylvania where she was principal of Bishop Carroll Catholic High School for four years. She and her husband, Tom, a self-employed business consultant, have six children ranging in age from 5 to 20.
CBT: You left the principal’s position at a Catholic high school that’s been around for more than 50 years and has about 250 students to take the job at a new school that’s still under construction and still trying to reach its fundraising goal. On top of that, the numbers of Catholic schools and students have been steadily declining for the past decade. Is the challenge of starting a school from scratch the main appeal?
Wolfe: I definitely love a challenge, and starting a new school from the ground up was certainly very appealing to me. More than that, though, I have a true passion for Catholic education. I believe so strongly in ensuring that parents have the option of a faith-based education for their children. My entire career has been in Catholic education, so this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me.
Elsewhere, the numbers of Catholic schools are declining in areas where there is a surplus of schools and a shortage of students. In some of those areas, Catholic schools were built in every neighborhood, for every parish, for every nationality. It makes sense to decrease the numbers of schools in those areas. Columbia, on the other hand, has a thriving Catholic grade school without a high school and a wider community that truly values education and educational opportunities. This is the right time and place for this school.
CBT: What is your enrollment target and teacher-to-pupil ratio for the first school year, and how are your recruitment efforts, for both students and teachers, coming along?
Wolfe: Our enrollment target is 100 students for the first year. We are striving for a 10:1 student-to-teacher ratio, so we are looking for approximately 10 teachers to start. We’ll grow each year from there, but we will maintain that ratio. Recruitment, overall, is the primary focus of my days right now. I’ve been meeting with many parents, both individually and in small and large group settings. It takes a leap of faith to enroll your child in a school that isn’t quite built yet and has never existed before. Once we have a chance to talk, though, and I can share my vision of the school as well as all the plans we have in place, parents are responding positively, and enrollment continues at a steady pace.
CBT: What’s the status of construction? Has the heavy snow cover caused problems in keeping on schedule?
Wolfe: Construction is moving along well. The cold and the snow cover do interfere with some of the work, but quite a bit of other work goes on every day, regardless. The gymnasium and lower-level rooms are completely closed in, which allows interior work to progress right on track. At this point, we remain on schedule. We will open in the fall of 2011. By spring and early summer, we will know if we need to look at contingency plans or alternate locations for the opening days of school. Right now, though, the crews continue to work, and I continue to plan for the opening in the fall.
CBT: You wrote in a blog on the school website that the high school will use electronic texts to a large extent and indicated each student will have a laptop that he or she takes from class to class. Could you provide more details on those plans, and have you chosen providers and technology partners?
Wolfe: We have not selected our providers or partners yet, though very productive conversations and negotiations are near completion. I anticipate the students will lease a Lenovo ThinkPad from the school, though the exact model has not yet been determined.
I’ve visited with laptops schools in St. Louis and was thrilled to see the interaction that the teachers and the students have through the use of technology. It dramatically changes the dynamic of a classroom. Some content is still taught the old-fashioned way, with teachers explaining and leading students through skills and concepts they need to master. Of course, the way students experience and demonstrate those skills and the way they master those concepts is completely new. Students have the chance to explore content at a pace and in a style that is most suitable to them. Work is produced, collected, reviewed, returned and recorded electronically. It’s amazing and very exciting.
CBT: What feedback did you and leaders of the Diocese find the most interesting and/or useful from your public survey last September? Did the comments cause any significant alterations in plans?
Wolfe: The survey was very helpful in providing insight to various committees as the plans were developed for the school’s programs and activities. Because the plans themselves were developed using those survey results, they should meet the needs and expectations of the larger Columbia community. I personally used the survey results to give me an awareness of some unique concerns, such as student leadership development. The survey respondents indicated a strong interest in having opportunities for students to learn and grow in their leadership abilities, so I’ve been sure to incorporate that in my own planning.