Saint Paul's Academy Hoping to Increase High School Enrollment

Saint Paul’s Academy in Bellingham is holding a series of open houses in hope of increasing the enrollment of the high school.  Currently, the enrollment for grades 9-12 stands at 10.  According to Robin Frank, Associate Head of School, at this time there are 6 freshmen, 3 sophomores and 1 junior.  The junior is an exchange student from China.  The school graduated 3 seniors last spring.  Even though St. Paul’s student population is small, Frank says that the freshman class is the biggest the school has had.

Saint Paul’s Academy opened its newly constructed Upper School, located at 1509 Victor Street in the Columbia Neighborhood, last September.  The Upper School, which currently houses the 5^th-12^th grades, has a capacity of 300 students.  Presently, there are 100 students enrolled in grades 5-12.  According to Frank, the 2011 enrollment numbers for the high school are “not what we hoped for, but what we expected”.  Frank believes that the economy is one factor that has had a negative effect on enrollment in the high school.  Another factor is that “it is hard to sell an un-built school”, stated Frank.

Construction costs for the new Upper School totaled $13 million dollars.  The new Upper School was in the planning stage for years, but became a reality with a successful fund raising campaign, construction loans and a loan by the Bellingham based investment firm, Saturna Capital Corporation, whose president, Nick Kaiser, is on the Saint Paul’s Academy school board.  The school received a loan from Saturna totaling over $1.5 million dollars.  As of July 2011, Saturna forgave $500,000 of the principal on this loan and wrote it off as a donation.  Last year’s school auction was also very successful, bringing in well over $400.00 dollars.

The new school boasts four high-tech science classrooms, a multiple use gymnasium with a retractable wall opening to bleacher seating, adjacent locker rooms, and a stage that can be opened or closed off to the gymnasium space.  The classrooms are housed on three floors.  The chapel, office and lunch rooms are located on the first floor.  Students are required to attend chapel twice each week, but have a choice as to whether or not they want to participate in communion. 

Saint Paul’s Academy is Christian based, but is no longer endorsed or associated with the Episcopal Church.  The Episcopal Diocese of Olympia removed the affiliation on February 19, 2010 due to a conflict of interest between the school’s board of trustees and board members who were also chief financial supporters of the school.  Ten out of 17 board members resigned over the situation.  Saint Paul’s is now nondenominational and admits students from all religious affiliations.

According to Saint Paul’s Academy website (www.sp-academy.org), the mission of the school is to “provide academically capable and willing students a rigorous course of instruction, emphasizing leadership, achievement and moral and spiritual development in the Christian tradition.”  Small class size is also a philosophy of the school.  High school classes are capped at 22 students per class.

With such a small number of high school students, Saint Paul’s teachers and administrators have had to be creative in configuring high school classes.  Currently, all of the high school students in grades 9-12 are taking World History together.  The students are split into two groups for English and for Math they are taught at different levels ( Algebra, Geometry, Algebra II and Calculus) in the same classroom. 

Extra-curricular opportunities include tennis, track, cross-country running and golf.   There is also a knitting club, which is a service project, which meets on Fridays.  Students are knitting hats to donate to Warmth for Washington and the Hope House.  Additionally, all high school students are loaned a Macbook Air computer, which they can transport back and forth from school to home.  There is also a publication room where interested students work on the school newsletter and yearbook.

Students are also given the opportunity to study an elective as an individual or in small groups through the on-line school IQ-Academy.  Currently, some students are studying psychology through IQ Academy. Foreign languages other than Spanish can also be taken via IQ-Academy.  Also, according to Spanish teacher Korenna Rawls, Spanish has replaced French as the language taught throughout all the grade levels at Saint Paul’s. 

Saint Paul high school students have the opportunity to participate in a yearly travel trip.  This year they will travel to Washington D.C. for 5-10 days in the spring.  Past trips have included travel to Paris and Quebec.

According to Karenna Rawls, the high school Spanish teacher, several days each week Little Caesars Pizza or Subway sandwiches is brought in for lunch.  The high school students have been given the privilege of using an unoccupied room on the 3^rd floor for their personal lunch room.  It resembles a board room rather than a high school cafeteria.

There are currently 24 8^th graders enrolled at Saint Paul’s Academy.  It is unknown at this time how many of the current eighth-graders will continue on to Saint Paul’s high school.  Tuition for the 2011-2012 school year for the high school is $6800.00, which may be paid in full or on a monthly basis over 10 months.  Financial aide is available for those who qualify.  It is unknown at this time if there will be an increase in tuition for the 2012-2013 school year.

Upcoming open houses are scheduled for Feb 7 and Feb. 22 from 5:30-6:30.  E-mail Robin Frank at rfrank@sp-academy.org for a reservation or call 360-733-1750 extension 1509.

         

         

         

         

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