Immaculate Conception

May reopen as public charter school

When alumni and friends of Immaculate Conception School in Sacramento gather for a Mass and reunion June 28, it will be a chance for graduates to share some of the many memories instilled in their hearts over the past seven decades.

“The school as we have known it is closing, but that does not detract at all from the education and Catholic formation thousands of children received during those 70 years,” said Deacon Gerald Pauly, parish steward of Immaculate Conception Parish.

Officials of the Diocese of Sacramento told parishioners and school parents last November that difficult economic times and declining enrollment meant it could no longer subsidize the 164-student school in the Oak Park area of the city.

The diocese subsidized the school with $400,000 this past year and more than $1.4 million over the last six years.

The two-story school with nine classrooms, a small gymnasium and a playground, will be leased by Aspire Public Schools, a Redwood City-based company that hopes to open a public charter school on the site as soon as this fall, with parishioners involved as volunteers in before and after school programs.

Aspire, a not-for-profit public charter school system, already operates nine schools in Northern California. All of the schools are small (fewer than 420 students), with small class sizes and a customized learning plan for every student.

Don Shalvey, co-founder of Aspire, who worked for more than 30 years as a teacher, principal and superintendent in public schools, said the school planned for the Immaculate Conception site will target underachieving students and English language learners.

Plans are for the school to enroll about 200 students in kindergarten through eighth grade and for a longer school day and longer school year than traditional public schools, Shalvey said. Students would remain with the same teacher for two years.

One of Aspire’s current charter schools is Monarch Academy, on the site of the former St. Louis Bertrand School in Oakland.

“I went to parochial schools and they shaped my life and the way I think about the importance of education,” Shalvey said. “I see Immaculate Conception as a wonderful opportunity to provide an extraordinary education for the children of the area. I’m saddened the school has to close, but it doesn’t mean the building can’t be used for another school.”

Shalvey said Aspire is currently applying for the charter school to be approved by the Sacramento City Unified School Distict, the authorizing agency.

Deacon Pauly said since the diocese announced the closure of the school, Immaculate Conception staff and Bishop William K. Weigand wanted the campus to remain a school.

“We wanted to keep a school here, if possible, to serve the children of the Oak Park area, and we think Aspire offers the best alternative,” Deacon Pauly said.

He said religious communities independent of the diocese were approached to take on the school but none were in a position to do so at the present time.

Deacon Pauly and two parishioners with backgrounds in education, Octavia Simien and Linda Contreras, visited Monarch Academy in Oakland were impressed with its program.

Simien, who has run a tutorial program at Immaculate Conception for the past 13 years, said she is pleased that the proposed charter school will have one-to-one tutors and advisors.

“Kids who were going to Immaculate Conception can choose to remain right here — they don’t have to leave,” she said, noting that she hopes to continue a tutoring program at the charter school.

While the charter school plan is moving forward, Deacon Pauly said that many students have been welcomed at other area Catholic schools for the coming school year.

He is working with parishioners to set up before and after school programs for the proposed charter school, where volunteers will offer religious education classes during the week in addition to those offered on Sundays at the parish.

At the June 28 event, parishioners, alumni, recent students and friends can celebrate the long and rich history of the school, Deacon Pauly said.

“My own children went to this school, so there has been a sentimental aspect for me in this whole process,” he said.

One Immaculate Conception graduate scheduled to speak at the gathering is parishioner Mary Ellen Ostoja, 78, who was in the first grade class when the school opened in 1933.

“It was a fantastic education — we learned everything,” she said.

“It’s too bad every child can’t have the advantages we had. Naturally I feel sad about the school closing, but it’s been coming for a number of years. It’s the end of an era.”

Alumni and friends are invited to celebrate 70 years of Immaculate Conception School on Sunday, June 28, beginning with Mass at 4:30 p.m., celebrated by Msgr. James Church, a 1946 alumnus of the school and pastor of St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Sacramento. Light refreshments and a brief sharing of memories by a limited number of alumni will follow the Mass.

For more information on the event, call Immaculate Conception Parish at (916) 452-6866. The church is located at 3263 1st Ave. in Sacramento.