Statement on Catholic Academy of Sunnyvale:
It is with great regret that the Diocese of San Jose announces that Catholic Academy of Sunnyvale (CAS) will no longer be operating as an elementary school, K-8, due to insufficient students enrolled. We are deeply sorry for the disruption to our community of families and staff, and most particularly our students.
The preschool is still open
It is now accepting applications for the 2017-18 school year. If you are interested, or know someone who is interested, please contact Michelle Placencia at 408-738-3444.
Full story at Diocese of San Jose.
There is backstory that people outside the diocese probably don’t know.
The academy was formed by merging two underperforming parish elementary schools: St. Cyprian and St. Martin. To cover for the real reason why the two schools were merging, the diocese brought the academy into its new, experimental “Drexel Initiative”, which selected a few schools to try blended learning techniques; that just means a lot of computer use and small group work.
Not much success ensued despite frequent changes in administration and teachers. Parents had no confidence in the experimental education being offered, and they voted with their feet and pocketbooks. End result, the academy could not be sustained.
What was there enrollment last year?
Interesting, thank you.
Another success story for the Dexel Initiative.
Sawyer, thanks for the “rest of the story.”
My SJ priest contacts didn’t know much about the closure other than low enrollment.
..er, ‘Drexel’..
In baseball a 300 batting average is pretty good. That means a batter doesn’t hit seven out of ten times. Not all experiments go as planned. But if we don’t experiment nothing will improve. So let’s give some credit for trying and hoping the next experiment goes better, or the next, or the next. It took over fifty years to develop a rocket that could go to outer space and return standing up, and then be reused. Many rockets before that simply fell into the ocean. Good Try!
Bob One, Your analogy is ridiculous. By your logic, every effort which succeeds 30% of the time is a “Good Try!” Tell that to airline pilots, or brain surgeons, or even people driving their cars. Good grief man, give it a rest. Your comments are becoming more and more embarrassing.
GRAVEY, just trying to put a positive spin on a site loaded with negatives. :) There are a lot of areas where we want zero defects, and you list some. But perfection comes, usually, from correcting previous failures. Experience is a collection of failures, is it not? At least give them credit for trying. Demographics and economics determine enrollment today, more than in the past. The good old middle class is going away, and people are on the move. As parishes ebb, especially in the city cores, new parishes and schools are built int he burbs, sometimes. But people need to be able to afford the schools, which are very expensive.
Everything is fine in the Church, Bob One, everything is fine. Everything is fine.
Parents are responsible for children’s education. If they view the Diocese’s offering as sub-par, at some point the parents should vote with their pocketbooks and feet. One of the fastest ways to get a Bishop’s attention is to reduce or stop the incoming cash flow. In an area like San Jose, with many highly educated professionals, I would speculate the tolerance level might be even lower.
Despite the reduced revenue that same bishop purchased a home in Willow Glen. Thankfully, the community called him out. The Diocese is destroying it’s school by not listening to its teachers and paying them a fair salary. There was zero data that supported the move to Drexel. The Diocese has a bad habit of implementing new policies without understanding the long term impact.
Just like when they closed St. Lawrence and announced the closure during Catholic Schools Week. Bravo. Such a class act.
This post on the academy’s website tells you all you need to know about the non-Catholic education it used to offer: No loss to the Church that it closed.
Q. Our family is not Catholic- will this be a challenge at Catholic Academy of Sunnyvale?
A. Families of all faiths are welcome at CAS, where diversity is seen as a major asset of our globally-minded perspective and program. While all students will be asked to participate in religious instruction and major religious celebrations, CAS is as comfortable an environment for students of all faiths. In fact, many students who are not Catholic find religion to be a favorite class as the topics of Social Justice and the economics of compassion and native sensitivity translate across all…
Yep, another phony-baloney Catholic school in the Diocese of San Jose.
Sawyer, interesting quote. No wonder Catholic parents stayed away. My San Jose friends tell me that the parish is next to Mountain View, aka “Google Town.” It is not a dilapidated neighborhood in the least. If a parochial school couldn’t make it in that area of wealth, the internal dynamics of the school must have been seriously problematic.
There is a lot of home schooling going on in the diocese, and the SSPX has schools in Santa Clara Valley too. Some of the diocesan schools had non Catholics students, including Muslims. Contrary to what people might think, all the “inclusiveness” does not do well, neither in the private nor the public schools. It is just a constant battle over what to teach.
I went to school here and transferred out in 2010 or 2011. I was a second grader at the time and had come from the St. Martin merge. I know nobody is probably looking at this anymore that knows anything about what happened, but I’m just a bored senior looking back at the school, also wondering why my parents transferred me out anyways. Would love for someone to respond