Catholic high school in the works

Tontitown to be site of academy; school, parish finalizing lease

Leaders seeking to establish a Catholic high school in Northwest Arkansas plan to open for the 2018-19 academic year at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Tontitown.

The school will be in the church’s Father Pietro Bandini Parish Education Center, according to the Ozark Catholic Academy website.

The school and parish are finalizing a lease, said John Rocha Sr., the academy’s head of school.

“We are right at one benchmark, moving to the next benchmark,” Rocha said.

The lease would provide a temporary location for Ozark Catholic Academy to potentially open with about 40 freshmen and 10 sophomores in the fall of 2018, he said. Students would meet for class inside parish’s 7-year-old religious education building. The parish hall would provide space for a drama class and would accommodate students at lunch.

The next benchmark involves raising more than $500,000 over the next four months, Rocha said. The money would allow Rocha to hire an office manager to assist with human resources and operations and an assistant head of school to focus on further development of

curriculum, as well as on the admission process and the recruitment of families.

Rocha said he hopes to begin the admissions and enrollment process in October and start accepting students in late fall.

Tontitown Mayor Paul Colvin said the city hasn’t received any notification for a school to open in the church, but he’s aware an elementary school had once been at St. Joseph in Tontitown.

“I think it would be great,” he said.

Ozark Catholic Academy will be governed by a board independent of the Diocese of Little Rock, but the board received permission from the bishop to be a Catholic school, said Vernell Bowen, superintendent of schools for the diocese. The diocese has 27 schools across the state.

Bowen said she has met Rocha and offered to consult with him and his staff and has invited them to participate in training activities.

Bowen has records dating to the 1990s about interest for the school in the region. She’s aware many families who move to Northwest Arkansas have lived in cities with Catholic high schools.

“It’s a great opportunity for parents who want that Catholic education,” Bowen said. “We’ll see if the people will want to support that.”

The most recent push to establish the school began when the nonprofit Northwest Arkansas Catholic High School formed in 2014. The group did an informal survey through area churches asking if families would send their children to the school.

The group sought to buy land in January 2016 in Springdale for a possible opening in August 2017, but those plans didn’t work out. Instead, the planning board decided to hire a leader to take over the project. The board asked the community to give money to support the hiring of a head of school, a pitch that resulted in pledges of $275,000.

The board selected Rocha after a national search, making the announcement in August 2016. Rocha began working full-time for Ozark Catholic Academy in January.

“It’s a great opportunity for parents who want that Catholic education. We’ll see if the people will want to support that.”

— Vernell Bowen, superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Little Rock