PAROCHIAL AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS WILL CONTINUE ENROLLMENT BOOM

As more parents choose an education that includes moral development along with academics, parochial and private schools will continue to have growing enrollments in the 21st century.

Overcrowding in many public schools and increasing societal pressures are two reasons administrators list for enrollment increases over the last decade. As emerging school networks and more enticing packaging develop, these increases will continue.

"I believe that if public education continues in the general direction it's going, then of course parents are going to continue to look for other avenues to separate their children away from that," said Beverly Smart, principal of Cape Christian School. "Parents are looking for a place where their child will be allowed to pray in the classroom, and where they have low student-to-teacher ratios."

Smart said the problem for these schools in the future will be maintaining smaller classrooms so that students continue to receive individualized instruction. Most private schools have classroom limits, so parents know the maximum number of students a teacher will have at one time. Maximum classroom sizes will be a critical detail in the future of these schools.

"We have to be careful we don't make increasing enrollment a bad thing," said Janice Margrabe, administrator of Eagle Ridge Christian Schools. "The only difference between us and public schools is we have a choice. We can cut it off and say no, but public schools can't."

Increasing enrollments will mean larger facilities in the future. Notre Dame High School is currently raising funds to build a new high school to accommodate students, and Eagle Ridge Christian School will begin building a combined junior and senior high school in March. Both schools enroll students from throughout Southeast Missouri.

"We're obviously going to have to build facilities to accommodate those students," Smart said. "A lot of our future is going to depend on capital campaigns and community involvement."

Margrabe said a private education has many costs that parents have to consider. As private schools grow stronger and more extracurricular activities are made available, she said, more students will enter and remain in the programs until graduation.

"A private education is a big sacrifice for parents," said Margrabe. "You have to be truly committed to stick with it. Kids need something else, some extracurricular activities. The competition level is not as great yet as on the public level, but like any organization, it's got to be developed."