A SAFETY NET IN UNCERTAIN TIMES
Holy Family School in North Lawndale is a success story — and it stems from the word ‘family’
When other schools were still discussing concerns about in-person learning, Holy Family Ministries’ Holy Family School was getting ready to open on schedule.
The North Lawndale school has been conducting in-person classes since August, according to school CEO Cheryl Collins. Teachers’ nervousness and parental concerns were taken into consideration, but when it came down to it, the children needed to be in school, Collins said.
“We know that our children are West Side children. They hear the gunshots. They see the aftermath of someone getting shot,” Collins said. “For our children, they needed to be in school. Our teachers know that; they understand how much safer our children feel when they are in our building with their peers and teachers.”
Holy Family School has been teaching students in pre-K through eighth grade since 1985. The school moved around, then found its permanent home adjacent to Nichols Tower in Homan Square in 2008. The private, Christian school has a student population that is 98% Black and 2% Latinx, and all of its students need financial assistance to attend, Collins said.
Eighty-three percent of its preschoolers meet or exceed kindergarten readiness standards, and 100% of students are accepted into selective college-prep high schools. Students demonstrate improved outcomes on social emotional behaviors, and gains in MAP testing were seen at every grade level between fall and spring in reading and math (during the 2018-19 school year).
After-school and summer programs anchor the work, as do peace programs for preschoolers, first-graders, and fifth- through eighth-graders. (The peace work falls under the The Peace Exchange, a pair of outreach programs led by program director Henry Cervantes.) Holy Family School is the Peace Exchange’s home base.
“There’s no program that I know of in the country that is making peace education a priority, conflict resolution as a priority,” Cervantes said. “I’m very blessed to be able to do this for Holy Family because if you look at communities like ours — Black communities, brown communities — there’s more than just food deserts. There’s also deserts of knowledge. And we need to provide young people with knowledge and skills that will help them in the long run.”
Ira Childs is a first-grade teacher’s aide at Holy Family School. He brought his now-13-year-old son, Emanuel Latim, to Holy Family as a preschooler after his cousin recommended it. Childs liked what he saw so much that he took a job at the school. When asked about the secret to the school’s success, he said the quality of the education and the religion-based approach drew him in.
“Just start with the word ‘family’ in the name,” Childs said. “It’s a good quality school, and what parent doesn’t want that? ... You get a good education, religious-based, which I think is not in too many schools nowadays.”
He said his son is considering Providence St. Mel School or Chicago Bulls College Prep when he graduates from Holy Family.
Holy Family School has had 10 cases of COVID19 since August (six staff members and four students), but all recovered, Collins said. While some degree of hybrid learning remains in place and clubs and after-school and summer programs have been put on hold due to the pandemic, Childs said he is looking forward to the return of clubs that center on science, technology, engineering and math, as well as robotics.
Zarrhea Johnson, 12, also is looking to the future and a return to normalcy. A fan of anime and dance, she said her favorite subjects are math, social studies and her Wednesday chapel class, where she reflects, meditates and prays. Chapel sets the school apart from others, she said.
The seventh-grader opted to transfer in fifth grade from Legacy Charter School to Holy Family. She’d seen what the school had to offer when she dropped her cousin off at Holy Family.
The Bronzeville resident said that with so many distractions at home — video games, phone, Netflix and Hulu — she wanted to come back into the classroom. “I was a little nervous going back, but I was going to go back anyway because I don’t like staying at home. I like to be out. I like to be productive.”
Alumna Destiny Rogers has a similar story about becoming a Holy Family student. Her younger brother attended preschool at the institution, and after hearing her mother talk about how good it was, Rogers, 21, transferred during fourth grade. Rogers was Holy Family School’s 2013 valedictorian, and she is now a senior at DePaul University focusing on management and entrepreneurship.
“It was something about it,” Rogers recalled. “My brother would come home and be like, ‘I just had fun, and I learned this and I learned that.’ And I’m like, ‘I want to go here. Let me see what’s going on.’ I’m glad that I was able to find that out. It was one-on-one with teachers, and it was hands-on.”
Rogers said she could connect more with the material because of that approach and because of teachers “who made sure you understand everything.” She believes she was able to be more successful at Holy Family School because of the support system there.
Collins said the school’s success stems from its mission: “Providing educational opportunities for children, youth, and families in Chicago’s underresourced neighborhoods to excel academically, grow spiritually, expand life experiences, and become exceptional leaders through a faith-based approach.”
“You have folks who attach themselves to that mission because it speaks to them,” she said. “Because the mission is compelling and you have staff that’s attracted to it, you end up with donors and board members who really understand the importance and the necessity of educating children who need a different opportunity than what Chicago Public Schools has provided for them.”
Collins said Holy Family School’s annual budget is about $4.7 million. To accommodate COVID-19 precautions, that went up to $5 million this past year. The cost per pupil is about $10,000, but Collins said parents pay about a fourth of that, or $2,550 per year, thanks to fundraising and financial assistance from the school.
“They’re not rich, they’re not wealthy, they’re West Siders from West Garfield Park and Lawndale, but they sacrifice because they understand that this is what it’s going to take. A quality education is what it’s going to take for my child to do better and have a better life,” she said.
When CPS said it wasn’t going to open in the fall because of COVID-19, she said, an influx of calls came in from parents. This year, the school has 275 students, 95% of whom are back in class — class size ranges from 17 to 24 students (pandemic size is 12 to 15).
About 60% of staff members have been vaccinated, and Collins is hoping that number moves up to 90% by fall. Until then, parents will continue to bond with one another and talk with the school’s social worker one night a week over Zoom. Collins refers to it as “let’s just talk” parent time, vital in keeping the lines of communication open.
Collins said the school continues to reach out to parents whose children have not returned — especially preschoolers. “Some of them have just stopped answering our calls now,” she said. But she’ll continue calling because the staff at Holy Family values children and making a difference.
“That’s why they work at Holy Family,” she said.