When the two Boards of St. Francis School and St. Francis High School decided to merge (two years ago last week!), they did so because they believed that the Missions of the two schools were in sync, and that merging would prove beneficial to all campuses.  However, no one imagined the kind of growth that we have experienced in the last two years.  We now find ourselves in the position we could only dream of before - we are actually full in a number of classes, which means we will be having to turn away applicants and/or create waitlists. 

 

Before I give you the specifics of what next year is looking like in terms of enrollment, I want to say a word about growth.  St. Francis is still a small school, and we will always be a small school relative to other schools in the market - public, parochial, and even some of our fellow Independent.  Our student:teacher ratio has not changed at 8:1 overall, and our maximum class sizes (which are among the smallest in town, even compared to other Independent Schools) are not increasing - we are just reaching our maximum in more grades.  While it was and still is our goal to grow some, we never want to be a huge school.  This is because our size is a part of delivering our Mission - we could not be the intimate community we are if we had 1,000 students.  Some growth, however, is essential not only to the health of the school, but also to enhance the experience of our students.  A moderate student body increase allows more options for students in terms of extracurricular activities (as well as strengthens the activities we have), the potential for additional areas of study, and a more diverse and simply more numerous social group.  Over the last three years, we've added a net of about 80 students, primarily on the Goshen and High School campuses, while the Preschool has increased a bit as well.  This is pretty astounding, and this growth has made a wonderful, positive impact on all our campuses.

 

With regard to class size (by which we mean instructional group size, not total grade size), we do have preferred maximums, which we have been in place for many years and which we use as guidelines.  These preferred maximums are set by grade level: JK: 8, K-1st: 12, 2nd-4th: 14, 5th-6th: 16, 7th-12th: 18.  These are the guidelines for travel group sizes in Goshen and classes at the high school, and they help us determine when we need to open another section, and/or hire additional teachers.  They are guidelines, not "never exceed numbers," but the reality is that we haven't had to really think about this in a few years at Goshen or the High School because we were under-enrolled in most grades and at Goshen, in particular, we were not getting many transfers during the year.  In most grades this year, we are still well under these guidelines, but due to transfers this winter, a couple travel groups (in 3rd and 6th grades) are now, for part of the year, one student over the guidelines.  The high school's average class size is 11, which it has been for years, but there are a couple of classes that are slightly over 18 students, either due to their overwhelming popularity or to a during-the-year transfer.  When a school is at or near full enrollment, this is normal -- we always want to be able to admit a great transfer applicant during the year, and therefore we would go over the guideline by one or two students for part of the year in order to do that.  

 

Now for the specifics in each of our Divisions:  As everyone is aware, the Preschool is moving to Goshen next year, and of necessity, we are shrinking it to a maximum of 50 students.  While many were concerned that a move to Goshen would greatly reduce the PS numbers and that we would not reach our goal, we actually expect to reach 50 very soon!  We have three spots left in the 4s (and five applicants), one spot in the 3s (and four applicants), and six spots in the 2s.  We are also planning to open afternoon Preschool classes, which will allow us to accommodate more students, but we definitely will not go over 50 Preschoolers at one time. 

 

We have been experiencing tremendous growth on the Goshen Campus for the last two years.  In fact, this year, we have just broken last year's record of 12 transfers during the school year with 13 so far this year, as our newest student, a 6th grader, began last week. We may have still another one or two transfers in different grades before the year's out. Enrollment now stands at 257 at Goshen (vs. 225 two years ago). 

 

The really amazing news is that we are at or very near these maximums in six grades - 2nd through 7th - on the Goshen Campus for next year, based on our current students and the applicants we already have.  We have at least one applicant in every single grade at the Goshen Campus!  It has been a very long time since that was the case here.  In addition, because we currently have applicants to all of these grades, we may have a wait-list or be completely full in most or all of these grades. (Again, with the caveat that a given grade/travel group might grow by one or two for a desirable, during-the-year transfer applicant.)  It may also mean that we will be adding sections (travel groups) in some of these grades, so the travel groups would then likely be well below the preferred maximum and allow plenty of room for additional students. In addition, we expect our Kindergarten to be at or near capacity with three sections - we have 20 Kindergarteners enrolled currently with another 13 possible.  Of course, we normally enroll Kindergarteners up through August, so we may pick up more by then - 36 will be our maximum.  

 

On the Downtown Campus, we should be maintaining our record enrollment next year, if not increasing it.   We currently have 150 students, with a senior class of 35; our smallest class, the junior class, at 31 (one is an exchange student); and our two largest classes being the 10th at 45 (one is and exchange student) and 9th at 39.  For 14-15, we already have 30 enrolled in the 12th grade (with two more possible), 44 enrolled in the 11th grade (with a possible 52 total), 41 enrolled in the 10th grade (with 44 possible), and 26 freshmen enrolled today, with 23 more in the application process right now.  We expect the freshman class to be about 40-45.  14-17 of those freshmen are coming from our Goshen Campus.  The interesting thing is that we normally pick up the bulk of our transfers, as well as a number of 9th graders, from April-August, but that just isn't going to be possible this year.  At this point, we have a few more spots in the 10th grade, but for all intents and purposes, the rest of the classes are full with the applicants we have today.  (We could take more seniors, but we prefer not to take more than one or two senior transfers.)

 

One note with regard to the status of our enrollment for our current parents:  please do turn in your contracts as soon as possible, if you have not already, as space is truly limited at this point in most classes.  We need to know who is returning, so that we can see if we do have space for any of the transfer applicants or not. 

 

Again, all this is very exciting and bodes well for the future of St. Francis.  Stay tuned as things shape up for 2014-15.  I would like to thank all of our current parents, because there is no doubt that your testimonials have a played a huge role in our growth.  We so appreciate your support and partnership, and together, we are a stronger school.  Please feel free to contact me with questions about any of the above. 

 

Savannah Cornett '15 and Eilieh Stokes '17 competed recently in a tae kwon do competition in Chicago.  Eilieh finished in 2nd place in Forms and 2nd place in Weapons and Savannah took 1st place in both Breaking and Weapons and 3rd place in Forms. They were also part of a group 3rd place in Forms.   

In January, all of our Preschoolers enjoyed a morning at our Goshen Campus for "Kindergarten Try-On Day." 

 

This month, we hosted many dads and grandpas, and even a few uncles, at our annual Doughnuts with Dad!   

Happenings at the 

Goshen Campus

  

 

Happenings at the 

Downtown Campus