Partnership to offer grant for independent Catholic elementary schools

The Philadelphia School Partnership will announce a $500,000 grant Friday to help a new network of independent Catholic elementary schools in low-income neighborhoods.

Aldo Cavalli, president of Independence Mission Schools, said the nonprofit would use the planning grant to help assemble a small central office staff to assist the 16 schools in raising money, handling tuition payments and helping families find financial aid.

"They are start-up dollars to get the central administration office up and running, and to get all the initiatives in place," Cavalli said Thursday.

He said the grant from the partnership's Great Schools Fund was critical. He said the money would be used with $100,000 in start-up funds the mission schools have received from the Maguire Foundation, a philanthropy in West Conshohocken that focuses on education.

Mark Gleason, executive director of the Philadelphia School Partnership, said mission schools, which are in some of the city's most impoverished neighborhoods, have been "educational havens" for low-income families.

"But the costs have been rising, and the economy has made it tougher for families to pay tuition, so that many of these schools are in trouble financially," Gleason said.

"The mission schools imitative is intended to bring these schools together in an organization that provides the support they need so they can operate more nimbly and put themselves back on a sustainable financial footing."

He said his group believes Catholic schools are an important component of the partnership's effort to increase the number of seats in high-performing schools for city children.

"This is a significant grant, in that Catholic schools are part of the solution," he said. "Not the solution, but they need to be part of the solution."

The partnership also has provided grants to help successful district schools and charter schools expand in the city.

A year ago, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia designated 16 elementary schools in Philadelphia - and St. Cyril of Alexandria in East Lansdowne - as mission schools. Although the mission schools will continue to work with the archdiocese, officials have said the schools are on track to become independent schools with their own boards by July 1.

Independence Mission Schools is the umbrella organization assisting them.

Annual tuition at the schools is less than $4,000. The schools now enroll 4,200 students from prekindergarten through eighth grade. Sixty-three percent of students are not Catholic.

The mission concept is based on the successful model of St. Martin de Porres School in North Philadelphia, which has increased enrollment, stabilized finances, and added programs.