Cristo Rey: A High School Determined to Work

An exclusive, college preparatory high-school is being built on East Lake Street and 4th Avenue in South Minneapolis. It is so exclusive, that the only students who are qualified to enroll are those who eligible for free or reduced-price school lunch.

“The mission of the school is to serve the most in need,” said Rev. David Haschka, a Jesuit priest and president of the Cristo Rey High School in the Phillips neighborhood, “This is one answer to inner-city education problems.”

Haschka belongs to the Catholic order of the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits. The Jesuits have a long tradition of being rigorous educators. Until the mid-1990s, most Jesuit high schools were filled with students from families that could afford an expensive private education.

To provide the same quality of education to low-income families, the Jesuits came up with a plan now working in 12 schools in other U.S. cities. The Cristo Rey Network philosophy is summed up in the slogan on the sign above the door of its temporary East Lake Street office: A School That Works.

Haschka is now recruiting students for a class of 125 ninth graders who will start next fall. The school will add a grade each year until it reaches 500 students by 2011. Currently there are 52 students in the admissions process, recruited from church groups, youth groups and even from the public schools. Because the school hasn't opened, recruiting is a struggle, Haschka said.

When school opens, each student’s parents will pay $2,400 of the proposed $10,000 tuition. To help pay the rest, the students will work in participating businesses and corporations one day a week plus one Friday a month, signing over all their earnings over to the school to help cover the cost of their education. They may keep any money earned when they work over holidays and summer vacations. Four students will share one entry-level job.

“At first, I wasn’t sure about kids working like that at such an early age,” said Naty de Luna, whose oldest daughter, soon-to-be-14-year-old Gabriella, will attend Cristo Rey next fall. “But when the kids need money for something at home, they have to work for it.”

The students not only learn responsibility this way, Haschka said, but will graduate with a diploma, good employer contacts, a respectable resume, and a sense of pride in their achievements.

“These kids come out of threatening environments,” he said, “but they get a different sense of themselves here. In August, before classes begin, we train them in business skills. Among other things, they learn how to act in a professional manner, how to answer phones, and what to wear.”

Cristo Rey’s calendar will match the business calendar with far fewer days off than other high schools, a longer school day and a longer school year. There will be no varsity sports.

Instead of uniforms, there will ebe a strict dress code. Boys must wear button-up shirts and ties, dress pants with a belt at the waist, and short, well-groomed hair. Girls may not wear clothing that have deep neck-lines or reveal the midriff.

“The point is to have the students present themselves –at all times- in a manner that is acceptable in the majority of professional work places,” Haschka said.

“Oh, I love that dress code! It drives me crazy to see kids with the shirts un-tucked and the pants below the butt,” de Luna said, “Some parents I talked to won’t send their kids to Cristo Rey because of the rules. They say it’s like Fidel Castro. I am very glad about the strict rules. We are really big on rules at home and I like it that I have someone to help us with rules in other areas of life.”

To be accepted at Cristo Rey, students must not have any serious behavioral or learning disabilities requiring an Individual Education Plan. They must also be a documented US citizen with a birth certificate and Social Security number. “It’s part of being employable,” Haschka said.

“We’re not going to have special-ed, we don’t have the federal funding,” said Dr. Kristine Melloy, principal of Cristo Rey, “It wouldn’t be fair to that student if we took them on.”

Melloy has 30 years of teaching experience, including 18 in special education. She brings an expertise in behavior management and social competence to her job. “Living in poverty puts children at a great risk for developmental
health issues,” she said.

At Cristo Rey, the school day will begin at 7:45 and end at 3:30, but students must stay at school until their homework is completed. Tutors will be there every day after school to help. Each student’s curriculum will be tailored to meet his or her learning style and needs and to integrate the classroom learning with the work experience.

“We should be able to help a kid who is two or three years behind academically,”
Melloy said.

Many children living in low-income areas are required to help their families in the evening by baby-sitting, helping younger siblings with their homework or even by cooking the family meal. This leaves little, if any, time available for the student’s own school work. Melloy and Haschka make sure that parents understand the level of commitment that they and their children are undertaking and that their children might not be home until 6 p.m. because they are taking time to get their school work done.

Seven more Cristo Rey Network schools serving poor urban communities are scheduled to open this year. The trail-blazer school is in Chicago. “It’s in a neighborhood with a high school graduation rate of 40 percent,” Haschka said. “Cristo Rey has a graduation rate of 90 percent there.”

Rising out of the dirt and snow on 4th Avenue at 29th Street is the sleek glass front of the Colin Powell Leadership Center. Cristo Rey High School and Urban Ventures, a faith-based community foundation serving the Twin-Cities, will share the new 160,000 square-foot structure. What Cristo Rey lacks, such as sports and other after-school activities, Urban Ventures will provide as their portion of the partnership.

Ryan Construction is building the structure and may hire Cristo Rey students, said Dave Burrill, Ryan Companies Director of Management.

So far, 15 local businesses and corporations have committed to hire Cristo Rey students. Best Buy, General Mills, Ryan Companies, Opus Corporation, US Bank, M&I Bank, Wells Fargo, Target and Super Valu have pledged financial support of $100,000 to $1 million..

In addition to Gabriella, de Luna and his wife Maria have two younger daughters whom they hope will go to Cristo Rey some day. De Luna came to the United States from Mexico in 1981 looking for a better life. “I have a sixth-grade education,” de Luna said. “This school has the potential to give great opportunities to my kids.”