Catholic High School Update

Many of you have asked about the status of a potential Catholic high school for our area. As some of you know, there has been extensive planning regarding what that might look like. About a year and a half ago, we started exploring this idea by surveying the school and parish communities. We found during the year-long exploratory process that there is a considerable amount of interest in offering students in the Brainerd Lakes area the opportunity to attend a Catholic high school. 

Another bit of good news is that the preschool through 8th grade classrooms at St. Francis of the Lakes Catholic School are bursting at the seams. We’re at near full enrollment in the middle school and offer two classes for pre-school and second grade students. Considering the high enrollment and the fact that there is no additional space at the school campus at St. Francis, we realized that we can’t just “bolt on” a high school before we make sure we have the processes in place to manage the considerable growth we have already experienced.

Last year, Principal Jennifer Nagel, Fr. Gabriel and I put together a Principal’s Leadership Team. This team is working to create a shared vision and integrated plan to ultimately provide Catholic education from early childhood through 12th grade for students in the Brainerd Lakes area. The Leadership Team is also focused on developing operational plans to meet specific one-year and three-year growth goals for our Catholic school. We have also started to build out functional teams, inviting staff and volunteers to help identify and implement key steps to help realize this ambitious goal. 

There is much more work to do, and with your prayers and further engagement from our community, we are hopeful that we will make this dream a reality. St. Francis of Assisi, Pray for us!