Latino Students and a Prize-Winning Principal Share Messages of Hospitality and Hope
Written by William Schmitt on Monday, 12 December 2011.
Yvonne Schwab, who recently was named among this year's 61 National Distinguished Principals by the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP), says many people and many forces have come together to transform Saint James the Less School, the Catholic school she leads in Columbus, Ohio.
Progressing toward the October 2011 NAESP ceremony and an earlier competition in which the National Catholic Education Association honored her as a Distinguished Principal, Yvonne wrote various essays describing accomplishments at St. James the Less. One of those accomplishments has been a surge in Latino enrollment during the eight years of her leadership—from two students to 260 out of a current student population totaling 497.
Progressing toward the October 2011 NAESP ceremony and an earlier competition in which the National Catholic Education Association honored her as a Distinguished Principal, Yvonne wrote various essays describing accomplishments at St. James the Less. One of those accomplishments has been a surge in Latino enrollment during the eight years of her leadership—from two students to 260 out of a current student population totaling 497.
The school's rise from a risk of shutdown to a premier role in a network of learning and service cannot be attributed to her, Yvonne says.
"Really nothing here is done by me," she insists. "It is always a community." She's referring to her faculty and staff, but her story of this transformation makes it clear that she's also thanking Saint James the Less Parish, its pastor, the kids of the school and their parents, and a welcoming spirit of generosity that she experienced when she first came to this "diamond in the rough" neighborhood about 22 years ago. (Yvonne has worked at the school some 15 years, teaching physical education prior to becoming principal.)
The faculty and staff deserve credit for their wholehearted embrace of professional development, says Yvonne. "I trust and rely on the people that I have hired at St. James and know their efforts make a difference," she wrote in an essay for the National Catholic Education Association. "They are not afraid to take risks and explore new approaches."
From the early days when Latinos started joining the school's rolls of African-American, Asian, and Caucasian students, Yvonne and the teachers signed up for Spanish language and culture lessons. They traveled to a university course called "Transforming Urban Schools: Sharing Multiple Voices." They sought counsel from a St. James parishioner with an expertise in curriculum development, and their book-study group discussed such works as Teaching with Poverty in Mind.
No fewer than 17 of her colleagues signed on in 2010 when she asked who might want to go to the University of Notre Dame in July for the ACE Summer Forum, a conference on welcoming Latino children into one's school more effectively. "We learned to be intentional about creating our culture," Yvonne says of the conference. Their initially Italian immigrant parish "has always been a welcoming environment," but the conference—embodying the principles of the "Catholic School Advantage" campaign spearheaded by Notre Dame's Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE)—suggested new possibilities for helping all the students, and all parishioners, learn about each other's cultures.
The school bought a Lady of Guadalupe statue to be an evocative part of the annual prayer service on her Dec. 12 feast day. A play about St. Juan Diego, who saw and talked with Our Lady, helps the other children understand this core story for those of Mexican heritage. An annual school cultural fair features joyful dances from different lands, and the annual parish festival features tamales among the varied cuisines. "Everyone's learning about everyone else's food," Yvonne says.
But the learning and the sharing go far deeper, and these instincts far predate the faculty's attendance at the Notre Dame conference. Yvonne remembers how the pastor at that time, Rev. Pat Patterson, embraced the demographic shifts that were changing the face of the neighborhood around St. James the Less more than a decade ago. "Father Pat started a Latino Mass, and 50 people came." Now, two Masses every Sunday are in Spanish, and Latinos constitute half of the parish's total Mass attendance. Father Pat realized that, at first, the otherwise active Latinos were not sending their children to Catholic school, so he started recruiting.
The school had stayed alive, even when its enrollment slipped toward 200, because deeply rooted Italian parishioners expressed with financial support their loyalty to a school that had served their kids and grandkids. Today, one of the teachers has written a children's book about "God's Silent Soldier," a tall pine tree that has stood in front of the school for decades, welcoming all children who come there even though their appearance or language may be different from the past.
One key factor in the enrollment surge is the spirit of hospitality that transcends mere symbolism and recruitment, says Yvonne. About 75% of the students qualify for reduced or free school lunch, showing that poverty is an issue. A school choice policy in Ohio provides many disadvantaged families with scholarships allowing alternatives to failing public schools, and St. James the Less has the highest percentage of scholarship recipients of any school in the state.
The parish and school have responded to the needs with programs that provide food, clothing, and other supplies to families. Many students have come to think of the school as "a second home," Yvonne says—something that builds up the sense of security for a child whose family may be facing economic or emotional turmoil.
Because a sense of family ties is so important in the Latino culture, she has built up a network of madrinas—literally, godmothers—who are well-connected, caring parents or grandparents, ready to "come and help with everything" requiring outreach with a personal touch. "Word of mouth" from supportive, influential madrinas and padrinos is also "the biggest draw for people" to a school, Yvonne adds. The value of this personal influence, for the children, the parents, and the whole school, was another lesson learned from the Notre Dame "Catholic School Advantage" campaign's summer conference on Latino enrollment.
Meetings for parents have been switched to Sunday afternoons because so many parents have job schedules precluding other times. The parish offers adult classes in English as a New Language, held on Sunday mornings for those attending Mass. Yvonne remembers speaking at Sunday Masses where her message, spelled out phonetically to improve her Spanish, dealt only partially with registration for school: "We will do our best to help you with whatever you need," she told the parishioners. "That's what our faith teaches us to do."
The Christian spirit of compassion and service to neighbor easily extends from the local to the global. "Service learning is a very, very big part of our school," says Yvonne. Every year, projects responding to disasters and special needs in the world are integrated in the curriculum for all grades. The student body has learned about international health crises, natural disasters, and extreme poverty, always pulling together to help address those problems with their own hands. This year, the focus chosen by the students is El Salvador, and the whole school is raising funds to help St. Vincent Orphanage in San Salvador build homes.
These students show a great deal of generosity, Yvonne adds. "Our kids don't know they're not rich."
They do know they're a diverse bunch, but this gives them reason for joy, not fear. Yvonne speaks of one Caucasian eighth grader who recently said this when asked how she liked St. James the Less School: "We have so many different people and so many different cultures that I have learned so much about the world and life. I feel much enriched by this."
Enrichment of the students' daily lives includes strong, consistent academic achievement, as measured by standardized tests. The school has demonstrated yearly progress at every grade level.
Just as students have become better able to envision their own future, the culture of hospitality and hope in which Yvonne and her colleagues are immersed helps them to envision the future for Catholic education and for St. James the Less. "The future of many of our Catholic schools is Latino," says Yvonne.
Experiences like the Notre Dame conference on Latino enrollment have helped her to build upon the inherent strengths of her school and parish while also better understanding—and leveraging—insights about the cultures of her students and fellow parishioners. The conference captured another truth about St. James the Less. Aside from culture, concrete policies and strategies can increase hope for kids and survivability for schools—policies such as governmental mechanisms to encourage parental choice and pastoral approaches to make enrollment comfortable and affordable.
"The Summer Forum gave us much-needed insight into where to go next, how to plan ahead," Yvonne recalls. "The Catholic School Advantage is so important for all children to receive a quality, faith-filled education. But we feel that for our children, it is more than education. Here we can feed their spirit and create a place where they do not feel like an outsider, a place where truly all are welcome."
She offers this advice to schools that are new in their outreach to our Latino brothers and sisters: "Don't let the language get in the way of your going out to them. People can read a welcoming environment," and such an environment is established as much by open attitudes and kind actions as it is by words.
Much like the NAESP in its awards process for principals, Yvonne sees a lot of factors coming together to yield success for her school. Under her leadership, St. James the Less is not just accepting these forces, but promoting them and shaping them in light of a long-term strategy to better serve kids, the community, the Church, and the world.
It's an ambitious approach, in line with the messages of ACE's Catholic School Advantage campaign, but it must be tried, she says. "Our kids are worth whatever it takes."
Accompanying photo from homepage: At a closing assembly, the students stretch out their hands to give a blessing to Father Joe Corpora, CSC, who visited their school recently to talk about the Catholic School Advantage. They blessed him for a safe journey and asked that God continue to guide him in his work for children.
Accompanying photo at top: Father Joe Corpora and Principal Yvonne Schwab (on right) pose with several members of the St. James the Less student body. Front row: Khaleb Fambro, Michaela Juarez, Tatiana Martinez, Gonzolo Vazquez. Second row: Emma Doone. Third row: Fr. Joe Corpora, Bianca Long, Yvonne Schwab. Teacher in background is Elana Hohl.
"Really nothing here is done by me," she insists. "It is always a community." She's referring to her faculty and staff, but her story of this transformation makes it clear that she's also thanking Saint James the Less Parish, its pastor, the kids of the school and their parents, and a welcoming spirit of generosity that she experienced when she first came to this "diamond in the rough" neighborhood about 22 years ago. (Yvonne has worked at the school some 15 years, teaching physical education prior to becoming principal.)
The faculty and staff deserve credit for their wholehearted embrace of professional development, says Yvonne. "I trust and rely on the people that I have hired at St. James and know their efforts make a difference," she wrote in an essay for the National Catholic Education Association. "They are not afraid to take risks and explore new approaches."
From the early days when Latinos started joining the school's rolls of African-American, Asian, and Caucasian students, Yvonne and the teachers signed up for Spanish language and culture lessons. They traveled to a university course called "Transforming Urban Schools: Sharing Multiple Voices." They sought counsel from a St. James parishioner with an expertise in curriculum development, and their book-study group discussed such works as Teaching with Poverty in Mind.
No fewer than 17 of her colleagues signed on in 2010 when she asked who might want to go to the University of Notre Dame in July for the ACE Summer Forum, a conference on welcoming Latino children into one's school more effectively. "We learned to be intentional about creating our culture," Yvonne says of the conference. Their initially Italian immigrant parish "has always been a welcoming environment," but the conference—embodying the principles of the "Catholic School Advantage" campaign spearheaded by Notre Dame's Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE)—suggested new possibilities for helping all the students, and all parishioners, learn about each other's cultures.
The school bought a Lady of Guadalupe statue to be an evocative part of the annual prayer service on her Dec. 12 feast day. A play about St. Juan Diego, who saw and talked with Our Lady, helps the other children understand this core story for those of Mexican heritage. An annual school cultural fair features joyful dances from different lands, and the annual parish festival features tamales among the varied cuisines. "Everyone's learning about everyone else's food," Yvonne says.
But the learning and the sharing go far deeper, and these instincts far predate the faculty's attendance at the Notre Dame conference. Yvonne remembers how the pastor at that time, Rev. Pat Patterson, embraced the demographic shifts that were changing the face of the neighborhood around St. James the Less more than a decade ago. "Father Pat started a Latino Mass, and 50 people came." Now, two Masses every Sunday are in Spanish, and Latinos constitute half of the parish's total Mass attendance. Father Pat realized that, at first, the otherwise active Latinos were not sending their children to Catholic school, so he started recruiting.
The school had stayed alive, even when its enrollment slipped toward 200, because deeply rooted Italian parishioners expressed with financial support their loyalty to a school that had served their kids and grandkids. Today, one of the teachers has written a children's book about "God's Silent Soldier," a tall pine tree that has stood in front of the school for decades, welcoming all children who come there even though their appearance or language may be different from the past.
One key factor in the enrollment surge is the spirit of hospitality that transcends mere symbolism and recruitment, says Yvonne. About 75% of the students qualify for reduced or free school lunch, showing that poverty is an issue. A school choice policy in Ohio provides many disadvantaged families with scholarships allowing alternatives to failing public schools, and St. James the Less has the highest percentage of scholarship recipients of any school in the state.
The parish and school have responded to the needs with programs that provide food, clothing, and other supplies to families. Many students have come to think of the school as "a second home," Yvonne says—something that builds up the sense of security for a child whose family may be facing economic or emotional turmoil.
Because a sense of family ties is so important in the Latino culture, she has built up a network of madrinas—literally, godmothers—who are well-connected, caring parents or grandparents, ready to "come and help with everything" requiring outreach with a personal touch. "Word of mouth" from supportive, influential madrinas and padrinos is also "the biggest draw for people" to a school, Yvonne adds. The value of this personal influence, for the children, the parents, and the whole school, was another lesson learned from the Notre Dame "Catholic School Advantage" campaign's summer conference on Latino enrollment.
Meetings for parents have been switched to Sunday afternoons because so many parents have job schedules precluding other times. The parish offers adult classes in English as a New Language, held on Sunday mornings for those attending Mass. Yvonne remembers speaking at Sunday Masses where her message, spelled out phonetically to improve her Spanish, dealt only partially with registration for school: "We will do our best to help you with whatever you need," she told the parishioners. "That's what our faith teaches us to do."
The Christian spirit of compassion and service to neighbor easily extends from the local to the global. "Service learning is a very, very big part of our school," says Yvonne. Every year, projects responding to disasters and special needs in the world are integrated in the curriculum for all grades. The student body has learned about international health crises, natural disasters, and extreme poverty, always pulling together to help address those problems with their own hands. This year, the focus chosen by the students is El Salvador, and the whole school is raising funds to help St. Vincent Orphanage in San Salvador build homes.
These students show a great deal of generosity, Yvonne adds. "Our kids don't know they're not rich."
They do know they're a diverse bunch, but this gives them reason for joy, not fear. Yvonne speaks of one Caucasian eighth grader who recently said this when asked how she liked St. James the Less School: "We have so many different people and so many different cultures that I have learned so much about the world and life. I feel much enriched by this."
Enrichment of the students' daily lives includes strong, consistent academic achievement, as measured by standardized tests. The school has demonstrated yearly progress at every grade level.
Just as students have become better able to envision their own future, the culture of hospitality and hope in which Yvonne and her colleagues are immersed helps them to envision the future for Catholic education and for St. James the Less. "The future of many of our Catholic schools is Latino," says Yvonne.
Experiences like the Notre Dame conference on Latino enrollment have helped her to build upon the inherent strengths of her school and parish while also better understanding—and leveraging—insights about the cultures of her students and fellow parishioners. The conference captured another truth about St. James the Less. Aside from culture, concrete policies and strategies can increase hope for kids and survivability for schools—policies such as governmental mechanisms to encourage parental choice and pastoral approaches to make enrollment comfortable and affordable.
"The Summer Forum gave us much-needed insight into where to go next, how to plan ahead," Yvonne recalls. "The Catholic School Advantage is so important for all children to receive a quality, faith-filled education. But we feel that for our children, it is more than education. Here we can feed their spirit and create a place where they do not feel like an outsider, a place where truly all are welcome."
She offers this advice to schools that are new in their outreach to our Latino brothers and sisters: "Don't let the language get in the way of your going out to them. People can read a welcoming environment," and such an environment is established as much by open attitudes and kind actions as it is by words.
Much like the NAESP in its awards process for principals, Yvonne sees a lot of factors coming together to yield success for her school. Under her leadership, St. James the Less is not just accepting these forces, but promoting them and shaping them in light of a long-term strategy to better serve kids, the community, the Church, and the world.
It's an ambitious approach, in line with the messages of ACE's Catholic School Advantage campaign, but it must be tried, she says. "Our kids are worth whatever it takes."
Accompanying photo from homepage: At a closing assembly, the students stretch out their hands to give a blessing to Father Joe Corpora, CSC, who visited their school recently to talk about the Catholic School Advantage. They blessed him for a safe journey and asked that God continue to guide him in his work for children.
Accompanying photo at top: Father Joe Corpora and Principal Yvonne Schwab (on right) pose with several members of the St. James the Less student body. Front row: Khaleb Fambro, Michaela Juarez, Tatiana Martinez, Gonzolo Vazquez. Second row: Emma Doone. Third row: Fr. Joe Corpora, Bianca Long, Yvonne Schwab. Teacher in background is Elana Hohl.