St. Ann School
St. Ann School is the only Catholic elementary school on Cape Ann, a fishing community on the North Shore of Boston. Founded by the Sisters of Mercy in 1885, St. Ann's first students came from various cultures (including Italy and Portugal) seeking to make a better life for themselves and a quality faith-based education.
St. Ann's has been committed to the mission of the Church by providing a learning environment that is rooted in academic excellence and the Catholic tradition for over six generations of Cape Ann families.
Despite its rich past, the school was in danger of closing due to many systemic challenges, primarily the declining enrollment and increasing tuition. Additional challenges include needed facility upgrades, curriculum improvement, faculty training and a strategic marketing/development plan.
In collaboration with the 2010 Strategic Planning Committee and the Catholic Schools Office for the Archdiocese, the school and parish communities have developed a proposed plan that will implement a new vision for the 123-year-old school.
The proposed plan for St. Ann School includes:
- Complete renovation to include a chapel, science and technology labs, and a fine arts space for the purpose of teaching art, drama and music
- A broader management model, including a new board of trustees
- Attracting additional talented students and more investment to ensure that the school remains a center for the best and the brightest (St. Ann is an already academically strong school where students score above the national median Terra Nova scores and the average class size numbers 16)
- A new partnership with Merrimack College, established to update and enhance ongoing faculty training and to make ongoing recommendations that will ensure a curriculum that is challenging and current in its methodologies
- In addition to a rigorous academic curriculum, a daily teaching of the sacraments, traditions, devotions, doctrines and liturgical practices of the Catholic Church. It is this aspect of the curriculum that drives a spiritually rich education that imparts the social teachings of peace and justice.
To help fund this effort, a $4.5 million capital campaign has begun. Plans are also under way to build an endowment to support the school in future years.
In addition, an aggressive marketing program has been created to increase enrollment. A website and a full calendar of school and parish-based events supports this initiative.
