Catholic Schools aim: Recruit more Hispanic families

Less than 10 percent of Catholic school students are from Mexico or Central America

Published: August 18, 2014

By Dwain Hebda
Associate Editor

Dwain Hebda

Faith Ochoa (left) and her younger sister Kathy greet the dawning of a new academic year at St. Edward School in Little Rock. St. Edward School has one of the highest Hispanic enrollments in the Diocese of Little Rock.

Dwain Hebda

Leonicio Ochoa’s two daughters attend St. Edward School in Little Rock. As co-chair of the parish’s Hispanic Outreach Ministry, the school couldn’t ask for a better advocate.

“St. Edward, it’s a beautiful place,” he said. “I am happy to always recommend it to other people.”

Ochoa’s enthusiasm hasn’t happened overnight. Friends told him he was a fool for paying tuition when public school was free. In fact, his girls started in public school; he still has the letter from the district office tagging his eldest as gifted.

“I didn’t understand the difference before, I had bad information,” he said. “I was working two jobs to save money and pay for things for my family. That is why we came to America, to work hard and earn money and make a better life.”

But Ochoa’s thinking turned a corner the day he witnessed a school security guard beat another adult to the ground with his bare hands. A kindergarten class stood watching nearby, but no principal ever appeared to break it up. From that moment on, he knew there had to be something better and he was convinced it was to be found in a Catholic classroom.

“I don’t care about money now, it can be $200 a month, $300, $1,000 a month I don’t care,” he said. “I care about my daughters. They are the best investment there is.”

The pressures Ochoa faced are common, but the outcome is not. Despite being heavily invested in Catholic parishes, only a fraction of Hispanics send their children to Catholic school. According to statistics provided by the diocesan Catholic Schools office, there were 628 Hispanic students among a total enrollment of 6,405 last year. Since the 2006-2007 term, the percentage
of Catholic school students identified as Hispanic has nearly doubled, from 5.3 to 9.1 percent.

St. Theresa School in Little Rock and St. Edward School had the most Hispanic students (61 each) and highest percentage of the student body at 41 percent and 36 percent, respectively. Immaculate Conception School in Fort Smith was third with 59 Hispanic students comprising 29 percent of enrollment and boasts the largest increase in percent of enrollment since 2006, at just over 20 percent.

But, as those associated with these schools will attest, such increases aren’t tracking alongside the rising number of Hispanic families in the pews. Were that the case, many parochial schools’ enrollment would double or triple overnight. Most of them stay away for reasons of cost and prioritizing work ahead of education. Those facing documentation issues may feel more hidden in larger public schools, or, seeing fewer fellow Hispanics in the Catholic student body, feel the outsider all the more intently.

Still, there are schools incrementally increasing Hispanic enrollment and these have three things in common: They have adopted marketing and outreach tactics that carry weight in the Hispanic community, they address the issue of cost and consistently create an atmosphere that stresses inclusiveness.

RELATIONSHIPS RULE

Any Catholic school successfully attracting Hispanics does so one on one, ideally by employing a handful of respected influencers within the community. St. Edward’s Hispanic Outreach Ministry, an eight-person group made up mostly of school parents, was formed last year for just this reason.

The group is in the process of forming a cadre of ambassadors to promote the school at various Hispanic events in the community, but its members are already active promoters of the school.

“The problem is bad information,” Ochoa said. “A lot of people in the Hispanic community, they say, ‘I’m poor,’ or they can’t read or speak the language and so they don’t think they are welcome. They are sometimes hard to talk to about it, but we have the right information and the right tools to talk to them now.”

All of this is not to say that non-Hispanic people can’t be an authoritative voice; Hispanics’ deep reverence means they hold clergy in particularly high esteem, something Father Mark Wood, St. Theresa Church pastor, leverages throughout the year. In addition to scheduling school families to address the congregation during Mass, he also doesn’t miss an opportunity to plug the school when invited to various events, such as blessing the family home. It’s not a process that works overnight.

“You have to understand your audience,” Father Wood said. “Relationships are very important in the Hispanic community so things spread by word of mouth. People who send their children here typically know another family who is already here. That’s how they have confidence they are making a good decision.”

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF COST

To understand the role paying tuition plays in the decision to attend Catholic school or not, schools must take into account that for many Hispanic immigrants, the very concept doesn’t square with long-held cultural weighing of costs and benefits.

“A number of our Hispanic parents don’t have a high level of education themselves and so Catholic school isn’t a priority worth investing in,” said Susi Blanco, co-chair of St. Edward’s Hispanic outreach. “They put ‘public’ and ‘free’ together and they aren’t aware of the difference in the quality of education. That’s why many students come to us only after something goes wrong in the public school.”

Value messages are often a difficult sell. Back home, many immigrants know Catholic education only as something for the rich, particularly in Mexico. U.S. Catholic schools are often dismissed out of hand, said Father Mauricio Carrasco, associate pastor of St. Theresa Church.

“To an immigrant’s eyes, a classroom that has a computer and government resources is very, very good compared to what they’re used to,” he said. “Parents who are trying to provide next week’s meal don’t spend a lot of time thinking, ‘I don’t really like the academic pedagogy at the public school.’ If their kids are safe, they have to be able to have a compelling reason to consider Catholic schools.”

Hispanic parents also generally have a harder time paying for something that deals in the abstract. Father Carrasco, who immigrated to Arkansas from Mexico when he was 11, said in his own home, every educational decision was based on what financial benefit the move would bring.

“It’s really hard for some of these families to think of education in the truest sense,” he said. “In a lot of cases, they’re sending their children to school to learn how not to be poor. Education is very utilitarian. But to us in the Catholic schools, that’s not the true meaning of education. We say, ‘Come to Catholic school and we’ll make you a better, more self-aware person,’ to which your typical immigrant parent says, ‘And then what?’”

Cultural dissonance aside, many immigrant families are in what Father Carrasco called, “survival first, education second,” mode, thus facing the same economic realities as people of every other background within their income bracket.

“The adults want their children to come here very badly; we’d have a school full if more of them could afford it,” said Denise Troutman, principal of North Little Rock Catholic Academy.

To help meet this need, Troutman has crafted partnerships with students’ home parishes to help subsidize students’ education.

The largest ongoing effort is at North Little Rock’s tiny St. Anne Church, at which the bulk of the school’s Hispanic students are members. Last year, 20 students received assistance of about $450 per child, money raised all or in part through parish fundraisers. St. Anne parents are also eager to complete odd jobs or volunteer other services at the academy to help keep costs down.

Troutman is tireless in this effort; she’s been known to cold-call parishioners she knows to solicit individual sponsorships.

“I might not get a whole year’s worth, but it might cover a semester,” she said. “People don’t always understand how much difference even a partial sponsorship can make.”

A WELCOMING ENVIRONMENT

Sharon Blentlinger of Immaculate Conception School in Fort Smith dug into Hispanic student recruitment six years ago the only way the non-Spanish-speaking principal knew how.

“The first thing I did was start going to Spanish Mass,” she said.

Besides connecting with influencers, she leveraged the few Hispanic parents already attending the school as interpreters and addressed the wider congregation to further break down barriers. From there, bulletin inserts and open houses followed some of which, she is quick to note, bombed. But the effort didn’t go unnoticed.

“It helped for the people to get to know her,” said Liliana Infante, whose three children attended Immaculate Conception School. “She was always really warm and she let people know that she really wanted the kids to come to school there.”

As little by little Blentlinger and parish leadership started to gain traction in the community, she made sure the people she was reaching would daily experience a welcoming environment. The centerpiece of this is a monthly meeting she started not only to keep Hispanic parents in the loop on homework and school events, but also to give them a forum to voice questions or suggestions.

Blentlinger followed the blueprint in launching homework labs as an extension of the school’s after-care program. The labs, which are open to all students, play a vital role in helping immigrant children transition to American academics.

“It takes a personal and sincere commitment to want every culture to be included in a school,” Blentlinger said. “It takes putting yourself out there to deliver the important message that we want you to be a part of our school and then backing it up every day. You have to make people understand that everybody is accountable in this.”

Click for the Catholic Schools Herald -- August 2014 index