Where did the summer go? Hard to believe that August is already upon us and we will be back in full-time classes in a couple weeks. Speaking of time just flying by, this school year will mark the 20th anniversary of our school opening in 2004. In that year, six new Cristo Rey schools opened at the same time. Not something I would ever recommend repeating! There were already four schools in operation at that time, including the original school in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood. So, depending how you want to look at it, our school in Waukegan was either the 5th Cristo Rey school or the 10th or something in between.
We were going through some old photos of the opening day. The students gathered at the local Catholic Church for mass and then afterwards, paraded along the sidewalks and on the streets to the front of the building where classes were held those first two years. I was working at the Cristo Rey Network at that time and attended mass and walked to school with the students that day – never dreaming that, seven years later, I would come to lead this wonderful work and school community that is CRSM. An amazing and humbling privilege!
CRSM has been through so much – good times and tough ones. We will be celebrating our short history throughout this school year. Not very many businesses ever make it to twenty years old. What a blessing to have made it this far but we are just getting started! As we look forward to our next twenty years, it is with a faith born out of many trials and many more successes.
Speaking of successes, nothing warms the heart more than being able to check in with alumni. We have engineers, IT managers, nurses, accountants, teachers, school administrators, law enforcement, civil servants, and lawyers. I know at least one alum in medical school. What a gift to be able to see their dreams (and our dreams for them) coming true. Our oldest classes were also our smallest classes, but those first pioneers are now in their mid-thirties. Our first graduating class was only 17 seniors. Besides their budding careers, many have started families. Can you imagine how much fun it is to see them visit and walk the halls with strollers? The future is even brighter; this year’s senior class has 102 students!
Our incoming freshman class of 108 students are on campus as I write, finishing up their third week of job preparation training. Total CRSM enrollment is 429 – the largest number for CRSM ever. The reason for this increase is not that we are intentionally taking larger incoming classes but because so few students are leaving during their four years with us. Our running five-year average for retention from 9th grade through 12th grade and graduation is over 90%. No other Cristo Rey school can claim this feat and few other schools anywhere, regardless of student income, can compete. Not that it is a competition… but I think it speaks volumes about the culture our leadership, faculty, and staff work so hard to maintain – a place where students are known, valued, and can flourish.
As we look toward this school year, CRSM’s challenges are not with students and student performance. They are primarily financial. First, our Corporate Work Study Program is still experiencing a long-term COVID hangover as the five-day work week moves closer and closer toward extinction. I joked with a doctor the other day that the only organizations which appear to be open and in-person five days per week (or more) are schools and hospitals. A big part of our challenge is that, while many organizations are moving toward being in the office three days per week, the actual days they are in-person vary company-by-company and even department-by-department within some companies. Right now, only half our students are in paying jobs. The rest are spread among a large group of terrific non-profit organizations. Every student has a job but the vital income work-study brings to our school operations is down by over $1.2M annually compared to pre-COVID.
In addition, the Illinois Tax Credit scholarship program known as Invest In Kids was not renewed by our state legislature. On average, CRSM received $1M annually via scholarships for our students. Overall, our income is down more than $2.2M annually.
Thankfully, several people who gave through the program are now pledging to give the same donation amounts despite not receiving the generous state tax credits. God bless them! I am confident that we will be able to adjust to the changing workplace schedules and revive the Corporate Work Study Program. Also, we are truly blessed to have so many incredibly generous benefactors who understand our situation and value the life-changing success our students are finding at CRSM. These are challenges we will overcome.
In the meantime, I just received an email from our Admissions department. The CRSM applications portal for 9th graders starting in the fall of 2025 just opened-up yesterday. We received 30 applications on the first day! And there are only 108 seats available for that class. Our local community also clearly knows the value of a CRSM education.
Here’s looking forward to our next 20 years and beyond. Thank you for helping make it all possible. ¡Viva Cristo Rey!