Union Leader article 10/05/06

Union Leader – October 5, 2006

Holy Family Academy named one of top 50 Catholic high schools

By JOHN WHITSON
Union Leader Staff

Manchester – What was an idea, a dream, 10 years ago -- to create an academically rigorous Catholic school that teaches in the Socratic method -- is now more than reality.

It's a celebrated success.

Holy Family Academy, the grades 7-12 school that opened its doors for the seventh year this fall, has been named one of the country's top 50 Catholic high schools.

"I was very happy. I was thrilled," said Lucille Fortin, Holy Family administrator.

This is the third edition of the Catholic High School Honor Roll, a project of the Acton Institute, a nonprofit educational organization which chooses honorees from surveys of nearly 1,300 schools across the country.

Schools are measured on their success in three categories: academic excellence, Catholic identity and civic education. Leading institutions are named in each area, and an overall top 50 list is compiled. Malden (Mass.) Catholic High, a 75-year-old school for 750 boys, is the only other New England school to make the list this year.

"We're stunned," said Mary Mosher, one of the school's co-founders. "Being so young and small, we didn't anticipate it would be ours."

Fortin, Mosher and a handful of other parents started talking about creating what has become Holy Family Academy about a decade ago. After three years of planning, the group bought the former Chandler School on Ashland Street from the city for $1 in 1999.

Then they got to work.

The three-story red brick building, most recently home to city pre-schoolers, had been sitting empty for two years. The roof leaked. The windows were Plexiglas and emitted no light. Paint was peeling and ceilings sagged.

"It looked like a bomb had hit it in here," said Karl Cooper, dean of academics and faculty.

"This really was an act of faith to do this," said Mosher.

Most of Holy Family's supplies: desks, chairs, pews for its second-floor chapel, have been donated, and volunteer labor continues to show up most weekends to keep pace with never-ending work.

The school relies on fundraisers and benefactors to keep its tuition relatively low while still paying the bills. Holy Family charges $5,300 for high school and $4,700 for junior high this year, and about 75 percent of families get some form of financial aid.

Finding money to meet its budget is an annual concern, but the most important aspects of the 10-year-old dream are now solidly grounded in reality.

Sixty-six students and eight faculty members begin each day in song, then spend hours in roundtable discussion, examining the text and debating the merits of original source material like Virgil, Homer, the Federalist Papers and Thomas Aquinas.

"We rarely use textbooks except in math and science," said Mosher, acknowledging that much is expected from a Holy Family student. "We really wanted the bar to be raised. We've found they can do more than I could ever imagine, and I think that has to do with expecting the best of them."

Each junior must present and defend a thesis, without notes, to the student body. Each senior must do the same before the board of trustees, administrators and faculty.

Earlier this week a dozen seniors -- boys in blue blazer and tie, girls in white shirt and blue sweater -- sat around a table discussing the meaning of "The Hound of Heaven," the work of 19th century British poet Frances Thompson.

After class ended in prayer, Justin Keena, 17, said he enjoys the dynamic of learning through the Socratic method of exchanging and challenging ideas with his teachers and classmates.

"It's quite different," he said. "You don't get as much lecture."

Keena and his family actually moved to Manchester from Tampa, Fla., two years ago so that he and his younger sister could attend Holy Family.

The curriculum requires a minimum of two, and sometimes four, hours of homework each night. Keena, who plans to study philosophy and theology in college, said he doesn't mind.

"It would be different if I didn't already want to be here," he said.

Rosemary McAvoy is in her fifth year teaching at Holy Family, her only job since graduating from St. Anselm College. Public sector work would pay significantly more, but she said money's never been her driving force. Teaching in an atmosphere of earnest learning is more important, she said.

"I do very little disciplining," said McAvoy. "I've learned so much myself from examining texts with students."

Cooper said the school will continue to grow, but only so much. It opened to 20 students and plans to cap enrollment at 90, keeping each class at about 15 and preserving the intimacy required of the Socratic method.

Gerard Bradley, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame, said the Catholic High School Honor Roll serves an important purpose.

"High schools that are fulfilling well their mission to form students morally and intellectually deserve to be recognized," he said. "The Honor Roll brings recognition to these outstanding schools."

HolyFamilyAcademy will host an open house for the community Nov. 4 to celebrate 100 years of education in the ChandlerSchool building.