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New catholic school to be dedicated
By MONIQUE FIELDS
© St. Petersburg Times, SAFETY HARBOR -- For four years, Maureen Mendizabal drove her children from her Safety Harbor home to St. Cecelia Interparochial Catholic School in Clearwater. At other times, her children caught a bus and endured rides for as long as an hour. Not any more. On Sunday, Espiritu Santo Catholic School will be dedicated just a quarter of a mile from her home and will officially open its doors to students on Aug. 22. Mendizabal's two youngest children will be among 302 students enrolled during the school's inaugural year. "What a wonderful thing," she said, "not only because of the driving but because our church community now has a place for our children." The new school received its start three years ago after administrators watched more than 200 students trek to Clearwater and realized it didn't have enough space for some church functions, said the Rev. Gregg Tottle, pastor at Espiritu Santo Catholic Church. In January, Bonnie Solinsky, a 16-year public and private school veteran, came onboard as the school's principal and quickly recruited staff, many of them parishioners at Espiritu Santo. "We're here to make sure we nurture kids and also give them the opportunity to grow spiritually as well as academically," Solinsky said. The $9-million, two-story structure sits on about 10 acres of land near Enterprise Road and Philippe Parkway and mirrors the Spanish mission-style design of Espiritu Santo Catholic Church. The 80,000-square-foot building serves students in prekindergarten to sixth grade. It houses 30 classrooms, including rooms set aside for art and music, and can accommodate up to 650 students through eighth grade. For now, though, the school will be half full because administrators wanted to open it in two phases. Next year, another 300 students will enroll at the school when it accepts youngsters in grades 7 and 8, and adds one class each in grades 1, 3, 4 and 6. The school has had not trouble attracting students because many Catholic parents grew up in Catholic schools, Tottle said. About 150 families are on a waiting list at the school, where tuition starts at $3,500 a year. "They want to give those advantages to their children," Tottle said. "I think the idea of having your church and school together was a plus." When school starts next week, the older children will attend classes upstairs, while the younger students will take up residence on the lower level. A spiral staircase leads to quiet space in the media center, and those in need of a computer may spend time in the technology center to complete several tasks from school assignments to looking up verses in an online Bible. Each of the classrooms has a television and a VCR, and classrooms for students in pre-kindergarten through the third grade have a restroom. The building also houses a chapel, gymnasium, cafeteria. Children from private and public schools will descend on the new school. Some parishioners have taken their children out of public school and enrolled them at Espiritu Santo because they feel their children will thrive at a school that has a religious foundation and smaller classrooms. "It's a spiritual thing for us," said Mark Reed, whose sons had attended Safety Harbor Elementary School. "I'm glad to see it finished. I can't wait until Sunday to go look." In some cases, parents chose a private school, in part, because there will be less emphasis on standardized tests, such as the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. "I had concerns about the curriculum of public school focusing on the FCAT," said Terry Ness, whose daughter attended Leila G. Davis Elementary School in Clearwater last year. "I can see them building the curriculum around it, and I want a very well-rounded curriculum for the year."
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