A new Catholic high school will open in Sacramento next fall with an innovative master plan to serve low-income students who will combine a job with their studies to meet tuition costs.

The Cristo Rey Network announced its approval Sept. 29 for its first Northern California campus on the site of the former St. Peter School, located at 6200 McMahon Drive, in the south Sacramento neighborhood of Fruitridge Manor.

Sister Kathryn Camacho, a Sacramento native and a member of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, will return to her hometown to serve as principal of Cristo Rey High School.

Her religious order will be a sponsor of the school, along with the Sisters of Mercy of the Auburn regional community and the California Province of the Jesuits. The three religious orders, along with the Diocese of Sacramento, will share oversight of the mission of the school.

Sister Camacho said the school’s student body will be comprised of students who would not otherwise have the opportunity to afford a Catholic education.

“The concept of attending Catholic school has never been part of their reality,” said Sister Camacho, who has served as an administrator for last 12 years in inner-city Catholic schools.

A graduate of the former All Hallows School and St. Francis Catholic High School, she sees this model of providing Catholic education as an exciting opportunity for students and their families “to jump in with a pioneer spirit and create a school where learning is done in a different way.”

She said the new school will enroll a freshman class of 100 students in the fall of 2006, adding another class each year until reaching full enrollment of 420 in 2010. It will be coeducational and both non-Catholics and Catholics will be accepted.

Following the pattern of its first college preparatory high school program started in Chicago in 1996 by Jesuit Father John Foley, 11 Cristo Rey schools nationwide provide programs in which a quality college preparatory curriculum is supplemented by students working one day a week at local businesses which partner with the school.

Bishop William K. Weigand, in a statement, said it has been his “hope and dream” for many years to have a Cristo Rey school in Sacramento. He had shared his vision a few years ago with Jesuit Father Thomas Smolich, provincial of the Jesuits in California.

“The opening of a Cristo Rey school is also another indication of our efforts to implement the Diocesan Synod on the importance of Catholic education and our outreach to those who need assistance,” the bishop stated. “The diocese played a key role in promoting this idea over the years, in its feasibility study, and in the selection of a site and school facility.”

Sacramento attorney Chris Bakes, who served as co-chairman of the feasibility study committee for the school, is executive director of the Cristo Rey project.

Bakes, a graduate of All Hallows School and a 1974 alumnus of Jesuit High School in Carmichael, said the school promises to fulfill the early mission of Catholic schools.

“They were reaching out to the poor and the immigrants,” he said. “This school provides an opportunity for young people to learn ways and methods that will enable them to enter professional life on a foundation of a Catholic college prep education.”

Maureen Coor, also a member of the committee, said members worked for nine months collecting evidence of the need for a Cristo Rey school in Sacramento. “We found people wanting to give input because they are so hungry for this,” she said.

The feasibility study effort collected some 1,200 questionnaires from poor families that detailed the need for the school. The committee also polled local businesses to examine their interest in hiring students and supporting the school.

Impressed with the input from businesses and low-income families, the Cristo Rey Network approved Sacramento’s proposal for the school and provided $930,000 in grant money, Bakes said. He said the Jesuits and the Sisters of Mercy will also contribute financially.

Jeff Thielman, vice president for development and new initiatives for the Cristo Rey Network, said business, civic and diocesan communities had done “an extraordinary job of highlighting the need” for a school in Sacramento.

Father Rodolfo Llamas, pastor of St. Peter and All Hallows parishes, was among business leaders, diocesan school, parish, and religious order representatives at a Sept. 8 meeting that followed a tour of the new school’s future site.

The priest said the merger last spring of St. Peter and All Hallows Schools was not due to a lack of families wanting to enroll their children in a Catholic school.

“With a program like Cristo Rey to help some families reach a Catholic education, we would have needed three schools,” Father Llamas said.

Loretta Kitch, service director at Loretto High School in Sacramento, also expressed support for Cristo Rey at the meeting.

“For many families there is not just desperation for an alternative to public education, but to have an opportunity to live their faith and have their kids in schools that share the same values they do,” she said.

Rosy Hong Tran, a member of St. Rose Parish in Sacramento, is among a group of local parents who have actively supported bringing Cristo Rey to Sacramento.

Unable to manage tuition, Tran had seen no option but to send her six children to public schools.

“We need this school because it is teaching morals and we are free to learn our faith,” said Tran, who hopes to enroll her two oldest children at Cristo Rey next fall.

Dom Puglisi, superintendent of Catholic schools for the diocese and a member of the study committee, said he’s seen many students over the past few decades who have missed out on a Catholic education.

“There are many students we would have loved to have accepted, but their families didn’t have the means,” he said. “Now we’re going to have a great opportunity to pursue that goal.”

Until the new school can accept phone calls, those interested in Cristo Rey High School can leave a message at the All Hallows Parish office at (916) 456-7206.

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