Two Catholic schools in the Diocese of Little Rock will celebrate anniversaries as the new school year begins. St. Michael in West Memphis is 70 years old while Christ the King in Little Rock is 20.
Though the two schools’ birthdays are separated by 50 years, they both hold a special place in the state’s Catholic history.
St. Michael was the first school opened in West Memphis, while Christ the King, after only 20 years, has the highest enrollment of any Catholic school in Arkansas with nearly 760 students.
According to old issues of The Guardian, now Arkansas Catholic, St. Michael School opened for registration on Oct. 14, 1936. The two-story brick veneer schoolhouse, built for $10,000 in just two months, had four large classrooms and five living rooms for the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine, who ran the school.
“The building of the grade school at West Memphis at this time is a kind and beneficial move since there is no public school located in this fast growing community,” according to a 1936 article in The Guardian.
The first year the school had only 15 students, according to a history book published by the diocese’s Catholic Schools Office. The Guardian reported the school’s first full term opened on Sept. 7, 1937, for grades one through eight.
In 1952 the Dominican sisters closed the school because of lack of enrollment and in September 1954 the Benedictine sisters of Holy Angels Convent in Jonesboro reopened the school with 77 students.
In 1964 a new, fully air-conditioned, school was built with four large classrooms, a large hall to serve as a cafeteria and auditorium, kitchen, library, office, clinic, teachers’ lounge and restrooms at a cost of $142,000. In 1972 a west wing was added to accommodate more students and a parish activity center with a gymnasium and kindergarten classrooms was built in 1978.
Today St. Michael has 110 students from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade with an average class size of 14 students. The enrollment has been consistent for the past 15 years, said Michael Beauregard, school principal.
The student body is half Catholic and half non-Catholic, he said. The Catholic population of all of Crittenden County is less than 5 percent.
Beauregard taught sixth grade for five years at St. Michael before becoming principal this year. He also attended St. Michael from kindergarten through sixth grade in the 1980s.
“The school has not changed much. The philosophy and mission have remained the same … to offer a quality education in the Catholic tradition,” he said. “We offer a choice academically to parents who are non-Catholic and also we provide a solid Catholic education for Catholic students as well.”
The school will celebrate its birthday Sept. 29 on the feast of St. Michael with an all-school Mass with adoration and Benediction. Prayers will be offered for all former and current students, faculty and benefactors of the school, he said.
Sister Mary Christopher Flowers, OSB, of Holy Angels Convent in Jonesboro taught at St. Michael for many years before she retired in 2003. She was a student at the school in the 1940s. Now she is a library assistant and tutor for the school.
Reflecting on the 70th anniversary, Sister Mary Christopher said she is “delighted, excited and so very thankful to God, and for the intercession of St. Michael,” and for the “faith, courage, generosity (and) genuine love” that so many have shown to the school through the years.
When Christ the King Church opened a Catholic grade school in August 1986, it was pretty “bare bones,” principal Kathy House said.
Although there were two sections of kindergarten, first, second and third grades, there was only one class of fourth graders, and the fifth and sixth grades were together in one room. There were 10 teachers, a librarian, secretary/ bookkeeper and a principal for the school’s 200 students.
Now 20 years later, the school is celebrating how far it has come. For the 2006-2007 school year, 756 students are enrolled in the school.
These days, not only is the school operating at capacity, with three sections of grades one to eight, and four for kindergarten, it also has a waiting list, even for its pre-kindergarten program that opened in 2004.
The four years olds’ program will reach capacity for the first time when school begins Aug. 21 with a total of 60 students in four sections.
“We’ve had a full enrollment now for 12 years,” House said. This will be her 13th year as principal, a position she assumed after the school’s first principal, Shirley Holzknecht, retired. House is among five staff members who have been with the school all 20 years.
Christ the King started celebrating its 20th anniversary during Catholic Schools’ Week in January when students participated in a contest to design an anniversary logo.
The winning logo was unveiled at the “Art from the Heart” auction Feb. 4. Students created additional artwork for the school-sponsored event and the proceeds went to the school’s endowment fund.
Last spring the school instituted monthly “anniversary days” for students to wear their anniversary T-shirts with jeans to school. These days will continue through the school year.
Aug. 24 marks the anniversary of the first day of school. To celebrate, the school will have Mass and host a birthday party with the help of a group of Boy Scouts who are also seventh graders at the school.
In addition the school is organizing an alumni database. Graduates of Christ the King are asked to visit the school’s Web site: www.ctklr.org and complete the questionnaire on the alumni page. School records show 1,250 students have graduated from the school since 1989.
Three other Catholic schools in Arkansas are planning to celebrate major anniversaries this school year and will do so during Catholic Schools Week in January. These include Blessed Sacrament in Jonesboro, St. John in Russellville and St. Joseph High School in Conway.
