WARREN – Last year St. Anne Grade School managed to reverse a decade of declining enrollment and post a modest increase. School leaders are now looking forward to a significant increase when classes begin on Sept. 7.

As of Aug. 18, 583 students were signed up for the 2010-11 school year, up from 525 the previous year, and enrollment is projected to grow to about 600 by the time classes actually begin.

How has St. Anne managed such a turnaround despite being in a community hard hit by the economic decline? Principal Anthony Sahadi explained the school’s success as a result of a multi-year program to strengthen the school’s Catholic identity and nature, and to reach out to other area Catholics whose parishes do not have their own school.

“Everything here is related to the Catholic faith. We’re a Catholic school, and we’re proud to be a Catholic school,” he said.
Sahadi said the school not only teaches Christian virtues, but also the importance of practicing them for students, faculty and staff. “We believe our Catholic faith should be reflected not only in how our teachers teach, but in how helpful the clerical staff is when a parent calls with a question,” he explained. “We tell our students that, wherever they go, they are representing the Catholic Church and St. Anne School.”

Besides making a difference in how the children treat each other in school, he said students are having good effects on their families.

“Parents come to me all the time, telling me, ‘Before we sent our child to St. Anne’s, we did not go to church regularly, but now we’re going to church every week and we’re praying before meals.’ It’s just the example that St. Anne’s sets,” Sahadi said.

And Sahadi said the rebuilding effort has been made possible “first and foremost, because in Fr. Alberto Bondy, we have a very supportive pastor, who supports Catholic education.”

He explained that Fr. Bondy has worked with other area pastors to promote the school, especially among some of the Eastern Catholic parishes, such as the Chaldeans and Maronites, that have no schools of their own.

Also, there has been an outreach effort among other ethnicities than those historically represented in the student body, such as Filipino and African-American Catholics.

Fr. Bondy, who was once a St. Anne student himself, not only works for the school’s success, but also teaches religion to eighth-graders. “I’ve been teaching for 45 years,” including serving on the faculty of Notre Dame University, he said.

Referring to St. Anne’s curriculum, Fr. Bondy remarked, “We offer the basic skills – with frills,” noting that the school offers computers, music, art, athletics and Spanish.

He said the school has “very dedicated” teachers, and “a good, solid spiritual program grounded in the Catholic tradition.”
Students attend Mass every week, benediction every two weeks, and go to confession quarterly. During Lent, they participate in the Stations of the Cross once a week.

The parish’s associate pastor, Fr. Koshy Chirakkarottu, is in charge of religious education in both the school and the parish.
Frank and Diana Petruzzello, members of St. Ephrem Parish, Sterling Heights, are among the enthusiastic parents of St. Anne students, with Tommy in second grade, Dylan in first grade, and Biana in pre-school.

“It’s an excellent school, a very nice, clean school, with good teachers and an excellent principal who care about the kids,” Diana Petruzzello said.

“Even the pre-school kids go to Mass once a week, and my 4-year-old daughter knows what to do and how to behave in church,” she continued.

While Diana said she likes the idea of her children going to a school where prayers are said several times a day, she is also impressed with its academic program – such as teaching geometry to first graders.

“The teachers are always encouraging them and pushing them, offering them words of encouragement. You can’t do better than that,” she said.

Frank Petruzzello said he likes the school’s family orientation. “It’s a really wonderful environment, a family environment,” he said.