Catholics Hail Growth of Their School System

Orange County’s celebration of Catholic Schools Week, which began Sunday, has something special to cheer about: The system is going to build its first new high school in the county since 1965.

“It will be our first new high school since Rosary High School (in Fullerton) was built,” said Sister Celine Leydon, superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Orange, which includes all of Orange County.

Leydon said the new school “right now is being called South County Catholic High School, but we’ll pick an official title later on.” The high school, scheduled to be under construction in March, will be in the new Rancho Santa Margarita development in the Trabuco Canyon area. It is scheduled to open in September, 1987.

The $20-million facility will become the sixth Catholic high school in Orange County. The other five are Rosary, Mater Dei in Santa Ana, Servite and Cornelia Connelly, both in Anaheim, and St. Michael’s School (grades 7-12) in El Toro.

“We think the people in south Orange County deserve the new high school,” said Honey Jenkins of Fullerton, president of the school board of the Diocese of Orange. “For years they’ve had to have their children drive an hour or an hour and a half to the nearest Catholic (high) school.”

Leydon said the new Catholic high school also will help the heavily impacted public schools of south Orange County.

“We also hope the new school will help the overcrowding at Mater Dei,” Leydon said, noting that many south county Catholic students now attend that high school in Santa Ana.

In addition to the five existing high schools, Orange County has 36 elementary Catholic schools. All of the institutions are celebrating Catholic Schools Week.

“It’s our chance to let the communities know of our contribution,” Jenkins said.

Saving for Taxpayers

Leydon said that one direct benefit of Catholic schools is that they save tax dollars. “Our schools in Orange County are saving the taxpayers $50 million (a year),” Leydon said, noting that the cost of the Catholic school buildings, their upkeep, the teachers’ salaries and all school equipment, including textbooks, are financed without tax support.

“Our money comes from the parents and from our fund raising,” she said. “We have good support and backing by our parents.” She said that all parents of Catholic schoolchildren continue to pay regular state, federal and local taxes--the same as parents who choose to send their children to public schools. “So these parents (of Catholic schoolchildren) are paying on the double,” she said.

Leydon said Orange County has 18,000 students attending Catholic schools--a total that exceeds enrollment figures for many of the 28 public school districts in the county.

Thirty years ago, priests, nuns and brothers made up most of the teaching staff of Catholic schools. Today, however, with fewer religious vocations, there are predominantly lay teachers in Orange County Catholic schools. “We have 800 teachers in our schools in Orange County, and the ratio is four to one (lay teachers to religious-order teachers),” Leydon said.

Leydon said Catholic school teachers in Orange County earn about 21% less than the average public school teacher. A shortage of money also makes it necessary for the Catholic school system to rely more on volunteer work, she noted. The result is that the yearly cost of educating a Catholic child is cheaper than in the public schools. “It costs us about $1,200 a year per child, and it’s about $2,200 a year per child in the public schools,” Leydon said.

Prayer in school, which is forbidden in public schools, is a regular function of the Catholic schools. “I think religious education is a big reason parents send their children to our schools,” Leydon said. “Religious education is integrated into our total curriculum.”