And the blue ribbon goes to … RSHC

LOU BALDWIN
Special to The CS&T

Rosemont School of the Holy Child (RSHC) has just been inducted into a fairly exclusive club. It is one of only 298 elementary and high schools nationally to receive the U.S. Department of Education’s Blue Ribbon Award of Excellence for 2005.

If you don’t think this is a big deal, consider: there are about 120,000 (give or take) public and private elementary and high schools in the U.S. Of the 298 awards given, only 10 went to Pennsylvania schools and RSHC was the sole non-public school recipient in the state. For that matter, it was the only school — public or private — within the territory of the five-county Archdiocese of Philadelphia to be singled out for the honor this year.

RSHC, an independent Catholic coeducational elementary school in Rosemont, founded by the Sisters of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus in 1949, has 305 students, nursery through grade eight.

The awards, which have been presented annually since 1982, generally honor schools which are academically superior in their states or have shown dramatic gains in student achievement.

Filling out the application is the first big step. After that, the schools are scrutinized at length by state committees with recommendations passed along to the Department of Education (DOE).

To receive the award, Rosemont met multiple criteria. Among other things, students have had superior math and reading scores over the last three years, the school has two foreign languages (Spanish and Latin) as part of its core curriculum, and the DOE judged the school to have effective communication and instructional methods.

In addition, the DOE measured how well the school meets the needs of its students and how it contributes, particularly through service, to the community at large.

“We know the children as individuals,” said Head of School, Sister Mary Broderick of the Society of the Holy Child, Jesus. “That lets us work with the families to help them support their children as they work to achieve their fullest potential.”

Other key assets of RSHC include an effective board of trustees, and students who are judged to have graduated with the strong skills they will need to serve in their schools, community and parishes.

“We have a strong relationship with the parishes in the area,” Sister Mary said. “We are grateful to the many priests in the surrounding communities who come to our school to celebrate liturgies.”

Social justice concerns are just as much a part of RSHC as academics. The school partners with the Gesu School in North Philadelphia to give Gesu students technology instruction; gives gifts to Presbyterian Children’s Village residents on their birthdays; and offers seasonal Christmas and Thanksgiving outreach programs along with a winter service day and a spring environment day.

As an example of this service aspect, eighth graders Conor Devlin and John Arena, answering a parish bulletin request for computers, built a computer which they then donated to Mercy Neighborhood Ministries.

“Our school gives us knowledge and shows us how we can use it in creative ways like John and I did,” Conor said. “The award was impressive. It reflects the hard work the school puts toward students.”

Kate Megargee, also in the eighth grade sees the award as a reflection of the hard work of the faculty and staff.

“They are so dedicated,” she said. A star player for the field hockey team, she finds RSHC’s sports program the real highlight for herself. ‘We work in team-building and team bonding,” she said.

In spite of a strong program as exemplified by the Blue Ribbon Award, the school isn’t resting on its laurels.

It is currently working on plans which will expand academic and athletic facilities, and which will also allow RSCH to enroll an additional 60-80 children, according to Sister Mary.

While the award is nice, and reaffirms her faith in the academic system, that’s not the most important thing about RSHC as far as Jane Mensack is concerned. When she and her husband John were looking for a school for their son Nicholas, they went to an open house at Rosemont because 12 children in the neighborhood were attending, and the families were satisfied with it. After they walked in and looked around, “My husband said, ‘This is it.’” Mensack recalls.

For her, RSHC reflects the spirit of Mother Cornelia Connelly, foundress of the Holy Child Sisters, and the school motto, “Action, not words.”

“I love the whole Holy Child spirit and beautiful job they do preparing the children for their sacraments” she said. “I don’t think you will find anywhere else the individual attention the children receive [here].”

Robert Manning has two children, Lauren and Bob, who graduated from RSHC and two children in the school: Andy, grade 7 and Kelly, grade 4.

“We’ve been with the school for 14 years and what attracted us was its reputation,” he said. For them, the most attractive features are the consistency of the education and the ability of the teachers to get to know each child and give education based on ability.

Manning said that one important facet of RSHC is its “terrific religious training; that’s very important to my wife, Lauren, and to me.”

But for Manning, most important of all is this fact: “The children go into school smiling and come out smiling. I don’t remember that when I was in school.”

For further information concerning Rosemont School of the Holy Child, call (610) 922-1010 or log onto www.rosemontschool.org.

Lou Baldwin is a member of St. Leo Parish and a freelance writer.

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